Religion: Common Cup & Intinction

And the Minister who delivereth the Cup shall say, The Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and sold unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ's Blood was shed for thee, and be thankful. On this passage in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer is based a rule, observed in 95% of the Church's 8,222 parishes and missions, that at Holy Communion all who wish to partake shall go to the altar rail and take a sip of sherry from a common chalice. The cup may be wiped from time to time with a "purificator napkin. Last week The Churchman, liberal fortnightly, which has crusaded against Cinema Tsar Will Hays, "Buchmanism" and various Episcopal bishops,* was battling vigorously against the common cup. Its chief exhibits appeared on its letter page: "I wish here to record the revolting experience of a friend of mine at the communion rail. It occurred many years ago, but she has never forgotten it. 'I was kneeling next to an elderly man,' she says. 'When the cup was passed to me there was a discharge on the rim nearest, so obvious and unmistakable that I fainted. I was told afterwards that the clergyman and the person on my left caught the cup before it reached the floor.' . . ."—Harold F. James, Rochester, N. Y. "I myself 'caught' typhoid fever from a sick parishioner, although I carefully washed my hands immediately after administering to them the Holy Communion."—Rev. John Munday, Temple City, Calif. "Every priest knows that many people, particularly the elderly, have very active salivary glands and that they always drool into the cup; furthermore some men have long moustaches which dip into the wine— truly disgusting facts."—Rev. Dr. Clifton Macon, New Rochelle, N. Y. This week The Churchman quoted a layman who was shocked to find the common cup in use at a church school during a diphtheria epidemic. In the same publication a "distinguished physician" declared: "Suppose a person kneeling at the communion rail has syphilis. Suppose four other persons who have cracked lips drink from the same cup immediately following that contact. Nothing short of a miracle will save those other four people from contracting the disease. . . . The alcohol, providing the wine is strong enough, might offer some protection, but that is a gamble." Added The Churchman: "And we Episcopalians like to think we represent intelligence and common sense!" The common cup was discussed last week at a convocation in the National Cathedral in Washington. Cried Canon A. B. Rudd of Rockville, Md.: "Nobody will be infected by the blood of Our Lord!" Such a belief, though held by many pious folk, has no basis in church law or theology. In the Middle Ages communion was rarely received by Catholic laymen. Since 1414 it has been given "in one specie" only (the consecrated wafer), not for reasons of hygiene but because there was danger of sacrilegiously spilling the blessed wine, or of delaying the rite in presenting it to large numbers of people. The celebrant of the mass alone drinks from the chalice, save for the Pope in Rome. When he receives communion at a Papal High Mass he drinks the wine through a golden pipe. Lutherans receive communion in the two species, from a common cup or from individual ones as the pastor may decide.