Preaching Goes Viral

A Note from the Bishop on the Coronavirus

Communion, when COVID-adapted

If a communicant wishes the wine, then take a small sip from the common cup. In the Episcopal Church, this is the most typical and generally preferred means of taking the Sacrament of Holy Communion. I am increasingly concerned that receiving the Sacrament by intinction when the communicant dips the bread themselves into the cup of wine is the least sanitary means of receiving Holy Communion. It is therefore recommended that congregations stop practicing self-intinction for sanitary reasons. Our hands are often very unclean and many hands dipping into a common cup is less sanitary than a simple sip from a common cup. Let’s keep many fingers out of the common cup. If intinction is maintained, then please consider moving to having the Eucharistic Minister administering the Sacrament: “It should be noted that some congregations practice a form of intinction in which the communicant holds the host in the palm of the hand and the Eucharistic Minister takes the host, dips it slightly in the wine and then places it on the person's tongue.” In this case the Eucharistic Ministers should sanitize their hands before and after administering the Sacrament to God’s people.  If concerned, it is recommended that the communicant just receive the bread when taking the Sacrament and forego the cup altogether. The Sacrament’s validity and efficacy is total. While the normative practice in the Episcopal Church is to consume the bread and then to share the wine from a common cup, a person may receive the Sacrament in one kind (just the bread) when necessary for reasons of personal health or well-being, or because of personal piety and practice. Typically, this is practiced by taking the bread into the hand alone and then crossing one's arms over the chest when the wine is offered.

2022-12-16

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Robert L. Fitzpatrick