Last week, I wrote a piece about the Holy Eucharist, and I mentioned that we will be going back to the sole use of the Common Cup at St. John’s rather than using the personal communion cups that has been our practice since the time of covid.  A fellow diocesan priest was helping her congregation make sense of the same decision and wrote a fine piece on the matter.  Drawing from her thoughts, I offer the following…

As you know, the Covid-19 pandemic changed life. It changed the way we think and interact. We put on masks and moved to safe distances from each other.  Here at St. John’s, we began the practice of meeting primarily online. Covid changed the way we worship as well, including the practice of using personal communion cups.  I remain so proud of the way all of you adapted to the new circumstances and embraced new ways of doing things.

Back in 2022, Bishop Loya wrote, “Congregations are strongly encouraged to return to the fullness of our church’s sacramental life and practice without restrictions. This includes reintroducing the common cup at Eucharist, which is an important part of our theology and practice”. I have been slow to return our parish to the use of the common cup because so many of you took great risk and manifested such loving flexibility when we first introduced using the personal communion cups.  I have felt that it wasn’t really fair to ask you to switch back so quickly. Indeed, not everything can or should go back to the way it used to be. Livestreaming our services of worship and using Google Meet for many of our meetings, for example, are here to stay. Through our shared pandemic experience, we discovered resilience and flexibility that had not been previously tested. I don’t want us to lose that.

The Episcopal church is sometimes described as a 3 legged stool – a church balanced on the equally important legs of scripture, tradition and reason. During the pandemic, particularly before we fully understood how COVID spread, reason (and compassion) demanded that we adjust our traditions, first away from having physical communion at all, and then avoiding the common cup. Reason, however, no longer justifies that decision.

A large literature review on Eucharistic practices published by the National Institute of Health in 2020 concludes that in the long history of communities sharing the Common Cup – a worldwide practice – “the transmission of any infectious disease has never been documented.”  No community viral outbreaks, including COVID, have ever been traced back to the sharing of the Common Cup, nor have researchers ever found enough infectious material in the Chalice (at the end of a service) to allow for infectious transmission. Intinction (dipping the bread in the wine) is actually more likely to cause disease transmission than drinking from the common cup. 

According to the Rt. Rev. John Baycroft, former Bishop of Ottawa described the central role of the Common Cup to our heritage: “The cup is also important. Jesus took one cup and gave it to all of his disciples to drink. Perhaps it was the cup of Elijah from the Passover ritual as some people say, but it was certainly a single cup. He did not merely pour wine into the disciples’ individual cups and tell them to take a drink. There is a powerful challenge in this one. We are reminded of the agonizing decision that faced Jesus when he was praying before the crucifixion: ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39). …. We are also reminded by the one cup that we cannot drink it alone. We drink from a common cup as a strong symbol of unity and our willingness to accept each other. We share our love and lives as we share the cup. The implications for this for fellowship and support in the local church, for relationships between rich and poor in communities and nations, and for justice between North and South and first world and [third] world countries are enormous. The cup of love and unity is unavoidably a cup of sacrifice.” 

Theologically, symbolically and scripturally, returning to the traditional use of the common cup has profound positive meaning. Practically, the use of the common cup does not raise risk beyond that which we already accept in gathering, singing, praying and talking with each other. Additionally, some parishioners have a hard time handling the small cups properly. 

Beginning the First Sunday in Advent, December 1, we will return to the use of the common cup. Here are some things to keep in mind as we do so:

● The Church has long held that a person taking only one form of Communion (either the bread or the wine) has fully communed. No one should feel pressured to sip from the Common Cup.

● Every member of the altar party will wash/clean their hands before distributing bread or wine.

● Those who distribute the wine will “wipe and turn” the chalice after each sip (there is

evidence that this further reduces trace amounts of “germs”).

● Following best practice recommendations to ensure the safety of all, intinction (dipping the bread in the wine) will no longer be allowed.

When we first began using personal communion cups, we produced a short video to help people prepare for the new way of receiving the sacrament.  And now, as we begin the new (old) practice of receiving wine by using the common cup, we will produce another video that we hope will be helpful as well.

I am fully aware that most parishioners at St. John’s receive the wine by using personal communion cups.  I realize that this decision to return to the common cup will not be heartily embraced by many. I do hope, however, that you will give it a go. I remain so grateful for your understanding andpatience as we move back to the common cup. May God bless us all as we travel together in the Way of Christ Jesus.

~Father Art

“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

When the apostle Paul writes to the Christian believers in Corinth, he recounts the last supper that Jesus had with his disciples before he was arrested, unjustly tried, and then brutally executed. At that last meal with his friends, he did a curious thing.  He took bread, broke it, and then gave pieces of the loaf to the disciples. And then, after the meal, Jesus took a cup of wine and passed it to them encouraging them to drink from it. His teaching on that night must have been equally confusing to the disciples.  Jesus exhorted them to remember him whenever they ate and drank in this manner.

Since that time, countless followers of Jesus have been doing that very thing. We have been offering bread and wine in remembrance of Jesus. We call it Holy Communion or Holy Eucharist, and Episcopalians understand that not only do we engage in this practice in memory of Jesus and that last supper, but also we believe that Jesus is actually present with us as we receive the bread and wine.  That’s some powerful stuff!

It should be noted that part of the power of Holy Communion is that it binds individuals together into a special community of love.  It is not by happenstance that Jesus uses a common loaf of bread and a common cup of wine. He wants his friends (and all of us as well) to understand that we are inextricably bound to Jesus and to each other as we allow God’s love to flow through us. We partake from a common loaf; we drink from a common cup; we share a common life of love.

Here at St. John’s, faithful followers of Jesus have been sharing this same common meal of love for over 125 years. During the most rampant days of covid when vaccines were unavailable and we were still discovering the ways that the disease spread, we made the decision to distribute the wine using personal communion cups rather than by using the common cup. This transition went relatively smoothly, but it was still a difficult one for many.  About a year ago, we reintroduced the option of receiving the wine by drinking from a common cup, and some of us have taken the opportunity to return to this traditional manner of receiving the sacrament. Most of us, however, have continued to receive the wine using the small personal communion cups.

Beginning on the First Sunday of Advent (December 1), we will be returning to offering the wine only by partaking from the common cup. Most Episcopal churches have already returned to this practice, and our bishop is strongly encouraging us at St. John’s to do the same.  While this may be an adjustment for many of you, I am hopeful that you will embrace the change, recognizing that through the one loaf and the one cup, we are bound together in a common life and strengthened to bring the powerful love of God to this beautiful yet broken world. One loaf, one cup, one life, one love. Again, that is some powerful stuff!

~Father Art