I'm confused....

I am often somewhat confused by all the advice coming from CofE these days. In particular I am confused by the latest advice about swine flu as it is inconsistent with earlier advice from former Archbishops.

Like me, in the 1980’s, many clergy and lay-workers may well have received a letter from the then Archbishops’ stressing that the sharing of the “Common Cup” would not lead to the spread of HIV and AIDS. We were assured that the combination of precious metals and alcohol provided a pretty good guarantee of safety (N.B. I have amended this sentence in the light of receiving a friendly email correcting my memory of the then Archbishops Letter). Having said that I realise that precious metals and fermented juice of the grape are not universal in CofE Parishes anymore!

Have the present Archbishops’ chosen to ignore that advice? Surely they cannot have forgotten it? Were the then Archbishops’ wrong?

In the latest advice there is a recommendation regarding Intinction. As many of the readers of this blog will understand I do not approve of the practice of Intinction as it is a messy business and leads to all manner of problems with spills and stains. Even if I did approve I would be there all day doing it with the numbers of Communicants we have at St Mary & St Giles.

So I have adopted a simple practice. I have assured folk here that, while the Precious Blood will still be available to those who wish to receive it, they are quite welcome to only receive the Host if they are concerned. On Sunday only one person to my knowledge decided on that course of action.

Regarding the priests own hygiene it might be worth noting that the rubrics, observed by many, that pertain to the priest and his hands at the Offertory do say “the priest washes his hands” it says nothing about simply washing the tips of thumb and forefinger!

Of course it is very important to get the balance right between necessary hygiene and causing panic, and this is something that I think we have to be acutely aware of and there does appear to be an element of jumping on the bandwagon in some quarters. But, as one of my folk said this week: “We have got to have a little faith.”