It sounds like a good idea. I've known a few European women who would greet me with a kiss, and one European man, but have not seen this practiced in church.
The pandemic completely changed this, not just in my circles, but basically lots of other intermediate and ultra conservative circles as well.
A similar shift has happened to places that used to share a cup but now have individual cups.
Interestingly, this shift against the holy kiss happened amongst people who were quite into right wing politics and who ignored government / health authorities pandemic mandates or advice in every other other of their life, like travel, business, going to restaurants, wearing masks in public, having large family gatherings, and so forth.
Josh wrote: ↑Thu Apr 21, 2022 9:39 am
The pandemic completely changed this, not just in my circles, but basically lots of other intermediate and ultra conservative circles as well.
A similar shift has happened to places that used to share a cup but now have individual cups.
Interestingly, this shift against the holy kiss happened amongst people who were quite into right wing politics and who ignored government / health authorities pandemic mandates or advice in every other other of their life, like travel, business, going to restaurants, wearing masks in public, having large family gatherings, and so forth.
My experience has been just the opposite. The only ones avoiding the holy kiss in our church have been those with immune compromised health. The holy kiss continued to be observed by most in our church regardless of whether they followed civil government mandates and advice or not. Our church is back to using the common cup.
Josh wrote: ↑Thu Apr 21, 2022 9:39 am
The pandemic completely changed this, not just in my circles, but basically lots of other intermediate and ultra conservative circles as well.
A similar shift has happened to places that used to share a cup but now have individual cups.
Interestingly, this shift against the holy kiss happened amongst people who were quite into right wing politics and who ignored government / health authorities pandemic mandates or advice in every other other of their life, like travel, business, going to restaurants, wearing masks in public, having large family gatherings, and so forth.
My experience has been just the opposite. The only ones avoiding the holy kiss in our church have been those with immune compromised health. The holy kiss continued to be observed by most in our church regardless of whether they followed civil government mandates and advice or not. Our church is back to using the common cup.
Perhaps you are not in an intermediate or ultra conservative setting. In my brother’s moderate conservative setting it is also near extinct - basically practiced during Communion only.
Josh wrote: ↑Thu Apr 21, 2022 9:39 am
A similar shift has happened to places that used to share a cup but now have individual cups.
This happened in the Dunkard Brethren circles about ten years ago. We used a common cup for Lovefeast but they did away with that when the Swine Flu was an issue.
Josh wrote: ↑Thu Apr 21, 2022 9:39 am
A similar shift has happened to places that used to share a cup but now have individual cups.
This happened in the Dunkard Brethren circles about ten years ago. We used a common cup for Lovefeast but they did away with that when the Swine Flu was an issue.
Interesting how the practice conveniently doesn’t come back.
I have walked out of churches that use 1 cup... and anyway the Mennonites cannot legitimately claim to be 1 cuppers while they continue with one for women and one for men. I was granted my own cup when we did communion.
As for the greeting, I see it regularly on Sunday. They stopped for a while due to covid but partly due to some arguments I had with the ministry, they brought it back sooner. Generally its not for visitors unless they know your common background.
Soloist wrote: ↑Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:39 am
I have walked out of churches that use 1 cup... and anyway the Mennonites cannot legitimately claim to be 1 cuppers while they continue with one for women and one for men. I was granted my own cup when we did communion.
As for the greeting, I see it regularly on Sunday. They stopped for a while due to covid but partly due to some arguments I had with the ministry, they brought it back sooner. Generally its not for visitors unless they know your common background.
1 cup (or rather several cups) is not a doctrine, but more conservative or traditional groups haven’t used individual cups.
I do not see a reason why they should start now. There is zero evidence that it saves lives to not share the communion cup once or twice a year. It simply boils down to that many people don’t actually want to commune with their brethren, in my opinion. The holy kiss fading away is rooted in the same problem.
Soloist wrote: ↑Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:39 am
I have walked out of churches that use 1 cup... and anyway the Mennonites cannot legitimately claim to be 1 cuppers while they continue with one for women and one for men. I was granted my own cup when we did communion.
As for the greeting, I see it regularly on Sunday. They stopped for a while due to covid but partly due to some arguments I had with the ministry, they brought it back sooner. Generally its not for visitors unless they know your common background.
1 cup (or rather several cups) is not a doctrine, but more conservative or traditional groups haven’t used individual cups.
I do not see a reason why they should start now. There is zero evidence that it saves lives to not share the communion cup once or twice a year. It simply boils down to that many people don’t actually want to commune with their brethren, in my opinion. The holy kiss fading away is rooted in the same problem.
Alcohol is an effective disinfectant against both viral and bacterial-born diseases. That is what makes it a good preservative. During the early part the pandemic, a lot of distilleries switched from producing liquor (since bars were shut down) to producing alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Do these conservative groups who insist on a shared communion cup use actual wine? Or do they substitute non-alcoholic juice?
Last edited by Ken on Thu Apr 21, 2022 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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