Now, I am not trying to be mean, nor am I flaming. I have a very straightforward question here. Is it true that the congregation shares the cup, by sipping from it one person at a time?
If so, then…well. Trenchmouth, Herpes virus, common cold, uncommon cold, influenza, pneumoccocus, and the almost impossible but still slightly possible exposure to active Hepatitis A, B or C virus through an open sore or blood in the mouth of the last drinker, and so on. Has this always been common practice? Is it still common practice? How does one prevent from catching the disease of the person whose saliva touched the edge of the cup ten seconds before?
Serious question. Anyone know if this is still done, and what is done to protect the congregation?
Question: outside a lab with an autoclave, how do you sterilize medical implements that will be used to treat multiple patients, one at a time, between patients? The same chemical normally used in such circumstances is present in the chalice.
It’s also customary to wipe the chalice with a linen cloth, the purificator, and to rotate it 90º between communicants, so that every fourth person drinks from the same spot, which has been disinfected with alcohol, then wiped clean with a clean cloth.
Yes, it’s true. That’s the standard practice in Australian Catholic churches where communion from the chalice is offered - which is by no means in every church. It’s not actually common at any church I attend. When it is offered, the communion minister wipes the rim of the chalice after each communicant has drunk from it.
It’s not compulsory to drink from the chalice. If a communicant has any concerns about possible health issues, then he restricts himself to receiving the Host alone.
It’s worth noting that different dioceses and rites approach this in different ways. In some areas the minister dips the Host into the consecrated wine before distributing it to the communicant (known as intinction). That’s not generally the practice in Australia.
In the Episcopalian church (that I belong to), people taking communion can either dip the wafer in the cup or drink a sip of wine directly. Most people just dip but some people drink it. I never minded it. It is either people’s mouths or fingers touching the cup so I am not sure which is more preferable. The symbolism of the ritual pretty much blocks out too many thoughts of earthly germs. Unlike the Catholic church, Episcopalians allow any visiting Christian to take communion so I suppose it would be possible for a neighboring church to conduct a minor act of terrorism by sending sick members on over to us but I would guess that is unlikely.
The Methodist church that I grew up in gave out tiny individual servings of grape juice so it wasn’t an issue there.
In our United Methodist Church congregation, we receive the elements by intinction (I think that’s what it’s called)- that is, the pastor tears a piece of bread and hands it to you (“The body of Christ given for you”), then you dip your piece into the cup of grape juice* being held by whoever is assisting the pastor (“The blood of Christ shed for you”).
Methodists also welcome everyone to the table of the Lord- no denominational requirement. Anyone who earnestly seeks Him can grab a small snack!
grape juice is used because Methodists don’t allow any alcohol on church premises (at least we don’t). Convenient for us alcoholics!
In the Lutheran church I grew up in, they had what amounted to shot glasses with about an ounce of wine in each. There was a large brass trays with holes for each glass, and a basket to toss the used glasses. I think they were plastic. I don’t know if they were cleaned for future use.
In my church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), the common cup was used a while back. Now, what we do is pass a tray with pieces of bread. The communicant picks up one piece and eats it. Then a tray is passed with little cups of water, not wine or grape juice. The communicant then picks up one cup for himself, drinks the water, and discards the cup through the little slot in the middle of the tray.
At non-denominational services in military chapels, I’ve seen big trays passed that have little plastic cups in them. The cups in the top tier of the trays have wine and the cups in the lower tiers have grape juice. Usually, the wine is of a much lighter hue than the grape juice.
The church (LCMS) that I attend uses both a shared chalice and a tray of individual cups. I assume that this is to give the parishoners a choice between tradition and a sense of sanitation, though one may contain wine and the other contain grape juice.
I’ve received communion via common cup, intinction, and individual serving glasses of wine (glass and plastic). I’m a Lutheran, and the individual glasses are probably the most common way I’ve seen in Lutheran churches. And in most of them, whatever method is being used there has been a choice between wine or grape juice for the past 10 or 15 years, I’d say. When there isn’t a choice, it’s only grape juice these days, whereas before it was only wine. Whenever the common cup is the sole medium for distributing the wine/juice, intinction is always an option. I generally drink from the chalice in those situations; for some reason, dunking the Host reminds me a little too much of eating an Oreo.
And now I’m thinking of a commerical jingle from a contest from about 1987 where a package of Oreos would have a trip to Disneyland. “Who’s your friend behind the Host wafer? C-H-R-I-S-T J-E-S-U-S.”
Raised ELCA Lutheran. There was the common cup as well as empty trays of little plastic glasses that could be filled up near the altar (there were a few prefilled with grape juice.) Don’t think I’ve ever seen intinction done.
Been taking communion from a common cup for 50 years. Never got sick from it. I assume the alcohol in the wine does disinfect somewhat, and the priest does wipe the container rim. And probably most people do not carry horrible diseases.
Really -----------people can worry about the silliest things.
As a Catholic, I’ve taken Communion from a common cup for years. It’s not compulsory if you find it distasteful. It is alcohol, after all. I would imagine it kills the germs. I suppose in part it helps foster that spirit of community or family that hopefully you have is a parish.
In the Byzantine rite, the Body is placed in the chalice with the Blood and some warm water, and a piece is given to each person with a spoon. Unless you’re the first person in the congregation to take communion (the clergy do not use a spoon, but consume the Body and Blood separately), there’s no way to avoid having your mouth touch an implement that other people’s mouths have touched.
It’s unheard of for disease to be passed this way, though; the devout would say that the idea of catching a disease by consuming the Eucharist is absurd, while the skeptical would say that the spoon only touches each person’s mouth for a moment, and is immediately plunged back into the wine and warm water, so there’s little chance for any significant amount of microbes to remain on the spoon. Either way, nobody worries about catching an infectious disease from communion.
I once had the privledge of taking communion by intinction from a newly ordained (I can’t remember which comes first, Deacon or Elder. At any rate, this was her second ordination) woman in the United Methodist Church at Annual Conference. It was a great relief to me that she had been given the loaf of bread, since she hugged anyone she knew that came to her for communion. At Annual Conference, they set up at least 10 stations for communion scattered throughout the Chapel.
No cites (I’m not a microbiologist), but I find it VERY difficult to believe that the amount of alcohol in wine would be sufficient to keep the chalice sterile. Now if communion used vodka (interesting thought ), I would find it more believable.
