Swine Flu and Communion

I am receiving interesting reflections from folks about what to do at communion with regard to swine flu. Presently, our Diocesan is suggesting that sharing the peace is more problematic than sharing the cup. The wisdom of the Church of England does not reference the Peace. Maybe Church House thinks that the Peace is symbolic out in the provinces? On the other hand it is somewhat twitchy about a shared cup. Rather fascinatingly, the missive from HQ suggests that the pastoral option of just offering bread has its roots in fear of the plague - which sort of suggests that early medical science had something going for it.

The laissez faire option is to give people the option - cup or no cup. The great fear, I suspect, from those above, is that by suggesting that we should only administer bread is that a] it ups the ante regarding the fear of swine flu and b] in these days when those with influence as the future of the old C of E are celebrating 500 years of Calvin (God help us) any suggestion of communion in one kind could be seen as a rejection of the Reformation. Card carrying Calvinist Anglicans would not want to be the first to jump here.

Which means that given the choice between opting for a cautious approach (just breads) and the possibility of infection being spread but ones theological purity maintained, it looks rather as if the advice from the centre ends up being unsullied by Romanist tendencies.

May be we should go back to the days when receiving communion was done on a limited basis, post confession, though, with a post-Enlightenment spin on that, communion could be administered after a flu test and a good dose of tamiflu