[Magdalen] physically distanced communion

[Grace Cangialosi]

As I may have mentioned, we have been told we (priests or LEV’s)may bring communion in one kind to official “shut-ins,” and visits are to last no longer than 15 minutes. Since I’m used to spending some time visiting when I do home communions, this feels a little too much like “hit and run” ministry, and I haven’t offered it. At the moment we only have one actual shut-in couple, and since she’s recently finished a round of chemo, she probably wouldn’t want a visit anyway.

> On Dec 23, 2020, at 6:53 PM, Ginga Wilder <gingawilder at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I was trained at two parishes in EDoSC.  First in the parish of my birth
> and upbringing...the one that joined the new 'Anglican denomination/ in
> 2012.  The second was the church in Charleston that John and I transferred
> to in 2007 when the handwriting on the walls was clear that the home parish
> would not remain in the Episcopal Church.  The training I received in the
> early 1990s in my home parish was far superior to that which I received at
> the big downtown Charleston parish.  In the first, we were instructed about
> how to have a short visit with the one to be communed and how to switch
> from visiting to presenting the Eucharist, for which we had a format to
> follow.  It was very pastoral, and an excellent way to serve for lay
> persons to were blessed with pastoral gifts.  In the larger church, I met
> one on one with a priest who instructed me to simply administer the
> sacrament and leave...no visits.  I think this different formats reflected
> the gifts of the priests doing the training.  Guess which was my
> preference...yep, and did I conform to the instruction to give and
> go....nope.  Father forgive me..
> Ginga
> 
>> On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 6:25 PM Roger Stokes via Magdalen <
>> magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Ginga,
>> 
>> I recognize from my own parish ministry that there are two, or possibly
>> three, distinct forms of ministry to those who are unable to join in the
>> regular worship. One is the ministry of friendship. I have long felt
>> that is best exercised by laypeople who have known the shut-in for a
>> number of years rather than by the parish priest. I ise the metaphor
>> that they will be entertained with a mug of tea round the kitchen table
>> rather than the parson getting a china cup in the best parlour.
>> 
>> An important adjunct to that came to me in one visit to someone who had
>> been a widow for sixty years and was housebound. She told me that she
>> had said to one of her friends that she was waiting for death and wanted
>> it to come soon. Her friend was horrified by that but she could say that
>> to me as her priest who did not have those decades of shared experience
>> and so could recognize and empathise with the constraints of her present
>> existence.
>> 
>> Finally there is the sacramental ministry. In my last parish there were
>> numerous nursing and residential homes and I gather that my predecessor
>> had regularly visited them to take them communion. My experience was
>> that most of the residents did not understand what was happening
>> (assuming they were awake). Prompted by a period of sick leave I
>> basically withdrew from being part of the entertainment programme and
>> said I was happy to visit residents who requested it. Individual church
>> members I would happily visit and I would celebrate a simplified
>> Eucharist with them. There were few enough for me to be able to do that.
>> 
>> Roger
>> 
>>> On 23/12/2020 22:58, Ginga Wilder wrote:
>>> Hi Roger,
>>> As I said, I have not asked why lay persons - all of whom are licensed
>> and
>>> trained properly - are no longer asked to serve as Eucharistic visitors.
>>> We were always 'sent out' from the altar to proceed directly to the
>>> person.  Perhaps I jumped to a conclusion, one of my favorite exercises!
>>> I've not asked, and it could be that because we are a small community, he
>>> wants to visit any homebound or sick parishioners.  I'm not upset by
>> that,
>>> but it was certainly an immediate change when he arrived.
>>> 
>>> Ginga
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 5:42 PM Roger Stokes via Magdalen <
>>> magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Ginga,
>>>> 
>>>> That surprises me. Given that our RC brothers and sisters have the
>>>> practice of laypeople taking communion to those unable to be in church,
>>>> and being officially sent out to perform that ministry towards the end
>>>> of the mass, the idea of duly authorised laypeople taking the elements
>>>> to the shut-in members of the congregation should not be anathema to
>>>> him. In this diocese the requirement is that those exercising this
>>>> ministry should be specifically authorised by the bishop to do so. It
>>>> may be that your new Priest in Charge was concerned that this ministry
>>>> was not being carried out with proper respect for the consecrated
>>>> elements. We may no longer expect that a vested server precede the
>>>> priest bearing the Blesses Sacrament but the Eucharistic Prayer does
>>>> include the suffrage that the elements may for us be the Body and Blood
>>>> of Christ and, as such, it needs to be treated with respect. In the
>>>> current situation this is more challenging than it was when I was in
>>>> parish ministry but I am glad that your proest is reaching out to you at
>>>> this time.
>>>> 
>>>> Roger
>>>> 
>>>> On 23/12/2020 19:17, Ginga Wilder wrote:
>>>>> My priest called this afternoon to ask if I would like him to bring
>>>>> communion to me tomorrow between services.  Yes!  I have so missed
>>>>> receiving.
>>>>> 
>>>>> He quietly ended lay Eucharistic visitors when he became
>>>> priest-in-charge.
>>>>> I've never asked why, because I know it has to do with is
>>>> 'Anglo-Catholic'
>>>>> centering...he served for nearly 20 years at Holy Communion,
>> Charleston -
>>>>> the High Church in the Lowcountry - before coming to Good Shepherd.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Anyway, I am grateful that I will have Christmas communion.
>> 
>> 
>>