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Swine Flu and Communion
Received this today by email from ANS (ASSIST News Service)
Swine Flu Prompts Calls for Use of Communion Trays
By Jeremy Reynalds
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
LONDON (ANS) -- One businessman believes swine flu is just another reason why churches should abandon the common chalice and adopt communion trays.
John Payne, director of church suppliers Frank Wright Mundy, said in a news release from Christian Resources Exhibitions (CRE), "We have always believed that drinking from a chalice shared by a number of communicants is not a healthy option - however careful celebrants may be."
His comments come just a day after Roman Catholic Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin, Texas, asked priests not to offer communion wine at Mass "until more is known about the virus." The news release said more than 20 cases of swine flu infection have been confirmed in Austin.
"It seems that having the public drink from the chalice is an unnecessary risk," Aymond wrote in a recent public letter.
"Communion trays with small, disposable plastic cups are far more hygienic," said Payne, who will promote the trays at this month's CRE in Surrey, England.
He added, "The cups are distributed individually and disposed of at the end of the service. Many churches adopted communion trays with the threat of AIDS in the 1980's. The health benefit is there for all to see, and we definitely expect even greater interest in our product at CRE."
Payne's views are shared by Professor Paul Goddard, former section president of the Royal Society of Medicine, who said in the news release, "Until there is a rigorous epidemiological study on health risks associated with taking communion - and I have yet to see such a report - no one can definitively say it is safe to drink from the same chalice."
Goddard, 59, whose mother died after contracting MRSA (a specific kind of staph infection) in hospital, is author of a controversial book, "The History of Medicine, Money and Politics" (Clinical Press) which calls on the government to improve hygiene in hospitals.
"Church ministers use a cloth to wipe the chalice but that would need to be steeped in 100 per cent alcohol to be effective," he said. "I would always recommend using individual cups - a system preferred in some, but not enough churches."
CRE, often dubbed the "ideal church show" runs from May 12-15 at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey.
About 13,000 visitors are expected for the event, and more than 360 exhibitors will spread out over all three floors of the venue. Numerous organizations will showcase everything from leadership training and clergy clothing to musical instruments, sound systems and financial services.
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