It must be served in a way that each denomination believes is biblical. So, it’s a matter for each denomination to decide.
At my Methodist church, we do it ourselves. We watch the service over Youtube and I take communion using bread and Israeli wine-such as Barkan pinot noir.
There are prepackaged, individual communion plastic communion cups that are double-sealed at the top. Between the sealed layers is a communion wafer. They have been available for many years. Some churches have them available for pickup as you enter the sanctuary, and then sometime during the service people will partake of the communion. The nice thing about this is that nothing has to be touched by anyone other than the person who grabs the cup/wafer.
Our Church (FSSP) is distributing Communion in the traditional manner, on the tongue, communicants kneeling. Only difference is more space between communicants at the altar rail.
“The Age of Corona”
Good grief.
It is denominstional. They sell those wafer/juice all-in-one cups. We had just purchased some as the Covid was ramping up.
Does not work for all churches as some use wine. There is no reason people could not pick up a cup pack on the way in to the sanctuary.
It depends on whether they understand “communion” to be the true Absolution found in Christ’s Sacrifice or if it is just a church pot-luck with a few pretty words and a “jesus” or 2 thrown in.
Oh, and some schmaltzy, repetitive songs made up by the local kiddies in their “garage band”.
Tick season is upon us: it’s Corona and Lyme now.
I attend an Eastern Orthodox church and they have the body and blood in the same cup served with a spoon. The usual practice is for everyone to receive from the same spoon; but now those who receive grab a small paper towel, receive communion, wipe their lips and dispose of the paper towel in a receptacle close by. The priest or deacon alternates using spoons that are in a container of alcohol.
Many apparently don’t realize communion is not about Jesus...It’s about US...It doesn’t even have to be bread and wine/juice...It could be a fork full of spaghetti and a sip of iced tea...Communion is the opportunity for self reflection to cleanse OUR heart and for US to remember Jesus’ death on the Cross and all it stands for...
Long before the Corona virus I bristled at the use of a common cup for communion wine. I suppose tongs could be used to hand the communion wafers to the individuals. I have also seen some churches use disposable cups for the communion wine.
On one hand, Communion is supposed to an act of faith, but on the other hand the parishioners are afraid to do it.
Each minister washes and disinfects their hands prior to distributing communion, and I suspect that giving communion wafers may be similarly performed in the future.
I suspect that distributing the wine will be eliminated, at least temporarily. Traditionally, the same cup is shared with all receiving communion, and wiped with a simple cloth after each drink. I can't imagine that practice continuing, but the diocese has not yet provided its guidance.
I’m an Orthodox Christian. We always took Communion directly from the chalice. We will be using individual disposable wooden spoons. Afterwards, the spoons will be placed into a separate basket, and the spoons will be burned.
At a Communion Rail.
It’s alcohol, and it’s people who are your church family, are you really thinking that they are all infected and will come to church sick and kill you all?
We are intelligent beings. We know how to wear masks, how to stay home when sick, how to take our temperatures, how to not cough on people.
We don’t need a bunch of arbitrary rules to wash our hands.
Government has taken this opportunity to treat all of us like 5-year-olds, and it is time we showed them that we were adults and they serve us.