[Magdalen] physically distanced communion

[Grace Cangialosi]

I hope you didn’t hear any implied criticism of you in my comments about home communion. I know you’ve been missing it terribly, and I’m glad your priest is recognizing that and providing it for you. 

> On Dec 23, 2020, at 8:10 PM, Ginga Wilder <gingawilder at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> '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.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>