Common-Sense Measures
This week, as concerns about the spread of COVID-19 have themselves spread, several people have reached out to me to ask what our church is doing about it. What steps are we taking to limit the potential transmission of the coronavirus? What plans are in place if there is a widespread outbreak in our community? Our staff has discussed it, and I want to share our plans with you.
Currently, there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our community. The nearest confirmed cases are in Omaha and Houston. By comparison, there have been over 27,500 cases of the flu reported in Arkansas this season, which have resulted in 65 deaths. Much remains unknown about COVID-19, which increases our anxiety about it, but our efforts to prevent the spread of influenza merit as much attention as our planned response to the coronavirus. Although I suspect that COVID-19 eventually will turn up in our community, the efforts we take as a parish and as individuals also bear fruit in other ways.
In congregations like ours, which share Communion from a common cup every week, the focus of disease-prevention efforts usually centers on the chalice, but a far more likely source of contagion is your hands. In something he wrote last week, my friend and colleague Frank Logue cited studies from the American Journal of Infection Control and the Journal of Infection that show "no documented transmission of any infectious disease has ever been traced to the use of a common communion cup." We use a non-porous silver chalice to administer fortified wine, and our chalice-bearers pinch the rim of the chalice in order to wipe both the inside and outside of the rim after every individual drinks from it. Our clergy and eucharistic ministers wash their hands before church and use hand sanitizer before administering Communion.
Part of our identity as Anglicans is always to offer both the bread and the wine to everyone in the congregation—in fact the rubrics of the prayer book require it—but you are never required to receive Communion in both kinds. We believe that Christ's nature is indivisible and that Christ is fully present in both the bread and the wine. If you prefer not to receive the wine out of an abundance of caution, your Communion is complete and efficacious if you only receive the bread.
Many people imagine that sipping from the common cup is less safe than intinction (dipping), but that is not true. Think about where your hands have been by the time you get to the communion rail. How many surfaces have you touched? How many hands have you grasped? Taking the bread from your hand and dipping it into the wine is, if anything, a more likely way to get germs into the cup. Accordingly, our bishop is asking all of us to stop that particular practice. At this point, we are not prohibiting it outright, but we ask everyone to consider making that change and, more importantly, to take appropriate measures to promote good hand-hygiene. In other words, please wash your hands!
So what is changing at St. Paul's? We have reminded the clergy and eucharistic ministers of the importance of handwashing and careful practices when administering Communion. We have taken the water out of the baptismal font because, unlike high-alcohol communion wine, even holy water is a potential source of disease transmission. We will no longer use pottery chalices for Ancient Roots or the Wednesday-morning service. And we have plans in place if there is a local outbreak of COVID-19.
What can you do? Stay home if you are sick and watch our services online or use the prayer book to say your own prayers. Cover your coughs with your arm instead of your hands. Wash your hands—before church, after church, and even in the middle of church if you forget and cough into them. Avoid touching your face. Respect other people's need for caution by not sharing the peace with someone who is seated. Start using fist-bumps, elbow-bumps, or polite bows instead of handshakes, hugs, and kisses when greeting other people. And don't forget to wash your hands!
At this point, I am not at all anxious about the coronavirus, but I am aware that many of you are. Some of our parishioners have compromised immune systems. Some do not have good support networks to take care of them if they get sick. All of us must do our part to help care for the vulnerable among us. The staff and I will continue to watch what develops with COVID-19 and will take whatever steps are needed and reasonable to keep us safe. As always, hold those in need in your prayers.
Yours Faithfully,
Evan