[Magdalen] physically distanced communion

[Ginga Wilder]

'Hit and run' is an apropo description, Grace.  The 'slam-bam' method seems
rude to me.  Perhaps there are people who need that quickness, but what
about shut-ins who would love a visit?  I guess the important thing is to
know your congregation.  Also, there's no rule against asking the person,
him/herself, rather than assuming.  IMNSHO, the difference seems to be
seeing a person as an object and a person.  (Putting on my brakes here,
because I can go on and on, when it comes to that issue.)

FYI, the reason I am receiving a Eucharistic visit is because my priest
knows how hard it has been for me not to receive Eucharist in this season
of isolating.  I am not homebound, of course, but because I have a long
list of medical issues, I am staying in.  I spoke with my physician about
this.  His response was that I am not more vulnerable to catching the virus
than anyone else, but if I contract it, I will have much more trouble with
recovery than healthier folks.

Ginga

On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 7:55 PM Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
> >>
> >>
> >>
>