The Church of England’s long and widespread experience of sharing the common Eucharistic Cup is worth noting (as is its long experience and Orthodoxy’s of married priests). In a relatively very small number of cases, a person at times may choose for good reason not to receive the Cup (“Cleaning the chalice”, Letters, 8 November)
The use of individual cups, now common in neo-Puritan Sydney – and the use of individual wafers – both run rather counter to St Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 10.
Intinction, however, is banned in some of our Australian Anglican dioceses precisely because a person’s fingers may touch inside the chalice. The New South Wales Health Department emphasises that the common cold is just one of the many infections that can be conveyed by hand, hence, for example, the strong encouragement to hospital staff and visitors to wash their hands frequently. This fact is one reason also for my aversion to the hand-shaking scrum at the so-called Peace in which too often the celebrant today also shares in Anglican churches. Roman Catholic masses usually demonstrate much more decorum at that point and indeed more reverence in general.
The Revd Dr John Bunyan, Hon. Church of England Chaplain, Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, Sydney, NSW
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