back back to Pastimes previous previous story  |  next story next

Out of the question: Risk from the chalice

Write, if you have any answers to the questions listed at the end of this section, or would like to add to the answers below.

Your answers

Is there a risk of cross-infection from herpes and other nasties from the communion cup? Does the Church have a position on this?

Strictly, yes. But, as I used to tell my students when asked similar questions, for this to be so you have to be doing something rather kinky or at least unusual.

Most potentially pathogenic organisms (organisms that can cause disease) can survive outside the human body (host) for only a very short time, usually three minutes at most. To survive for as long as that, they have to be kept moist and warm.

For there to be a risk of cross-infection, there must be a sufferer who is excreting the organism. In the case of herpes, the lesion would probably be visible. The greater danger is from those who do not have a visible marker. Then the next host (the one who may catch the disease) has to have a lesion, a break in skin or mucous membrane, as a source of entry for the micro-organisms, and come into direct contact with those micro-organisms within the three minutes.

If the cup is of metal and without blemishes, organisms of any type are unable to adhere to it. If it has any blemishes, such as pitting or cracks, they should be professionally repaired. With one chalice that I saw regularly used, you stood a good chance of getting metal poisoning from the deep and longstanding crack in the rim, and the contents thereof.

From a professional point of view, I am more concerned about ablutions. How clean are the hands of those handling the communion cup? When did they last wash their hands (properly)? I write this as the wife of a rector, and also as a retired nurse-teacher with long experience of teaching nurses and coping with their more imaginative questions.

Audrey Wormald
Lowestoft, Suffolk

At communion, the use of alcoholic wine, clean purificators, and metal chalices are very important to minimise any very tiny risk of infection being transmitted. My concern is rather with the bread, and especially where celebrants shake hands with all and sundry during the Peace, and then prepare the bread at the holy table without a proper washing of hands, only a merely ceremonial Lavabo.

In our hospitals, an increasing incidence of potentially dangerous infections is being noted. Everywhere, signs remind medical and nursing staff and visitors of the importance of thorough washing and thorough drying of hands. The Health Department lists various things, from herpes to MRSA and the common cold, that can be transmitted by hand.

(The Revd Dr) John Bunyan (Hon.Chaplain, Bankstown Hospital)
Sydney,
NSW,
Australia

If the risk were high, one would expect a consistent record of illness among the clergy, who consume the remains of the sacrament and cleanse the chalice after everyone has received. Statistics have never shown any sign of this, which may give a sense of perspective.

Undoubtedly, ways of receiving holy communion in both kinds have been increasingly influenced by the fear underlying this ques-tion. It seems that the Book of Common Prayer of PECUSA (1979) was a trail-blazer in permitting holy communion to be “received in both kinds simultaneously, in a manner approved by the bishop”. This practice of intinction, of dipping the consecrated bread into the chalice, once restricted to sick communions, has since become a recognised concession at the altar.

This mode of reception is also noted by the Roman Catholic Church in the “General Instruction on the Roman Missal”, but with the important proviso that intinction shall never be self-administered by the lay communicant: it is stipulated that “the priest takes the host and dips it partly into the chalice” (para. 287).

The custom of wiping the chalice with a purificator after every communicant reassures many. The RC regulations stipulate that “the minister wipes the rim of the chalice with the purificator” (para 286).

It is with these principles thatthe contemporary Church addres-ses this sensitive question of hy-giene.

(Canon) Terry Palmer
Magor. Mon

Your questions

What is the biblical basis for confining sex to monogamous heterosexual marriage when polygamy seems generally acceptable in scripture, and Adam and Eve were not married? J. G.

I went into a church where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, and was surprised to find that instead of the usual white candle in a clear glass lamp, there was a candle burning in a lamp of red glass. The incumbent told me that red had been chosen in preference to white, and in fact blue could also have been chosen. But I was assured that the Blessed Sacrament was still reserved. Is it OK to have coloured lamps signifying reservation? E. D.

Address for answers and more questions: Out of the Question, Church Times, 13-17 Long Lane, London EC1A 9PN.

questions@churchtimes.co.uk

We ask readers not to send us letters for forwarding.



back back to Pastimes up back to top previous previous story  |  next story next


© Church Times 2006 - All rights reserved

Website by Baigent