COMMUNION CUP

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 75, 26 September 1922, Page 7

COMMUNION CUP

DANGER OF DISEASE.

(PEOJf OUn OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, 20fch September.

The danger of disease in connection With the lise of the**idmm6n Communion: cup has been emphasised during the past week, Which has bSeii a period of propaganda, to draw public attention to health matters generally. ■ After dealing with the number of diseases known to be communicated thrdiigh the lips and mouths; Di'. Bead poiritbd-out that it was art extraordinary anomaly that -people in churches, when they used a common Cdftimuhion cup, did what was forbidden in bars and refreshment rdorns. It Was possibly true that; n6 case of infection had ever been traced to a Obinhtunioh cup, but this did not mean that such had never been the cisei He had not made a bacteriological cxi amination of a Communion cup, but the "cleansing cloth" had been examinee!, and had been found to be swarming; with bacteria.

Many of; the clergymen said that no harm could come to an}'one taking part in such a holy service. That was all very well for those who held that view, but what of the others? It was admitted that faith was necessary, but why 'put obstacles in the way of its exercise? It was quite time that our well-mean-ing clergy were educated in vital qtieations. They had yet to learn that the investigator who used his brain for .humanity was the Almighty's only agent ■ in. disease prevention, and that, it must -be wrong to disregard his warnings. Quite apart from the risk of infection., many people disliked the us© of the common cup from a sense of cleanliness. Giving the arguments on the other side, tho Lambeth Conference of 1903. spid the' doctor, had obtained an opinion from "a high medical authority," who stated that ho case of infectious disease bad been traded to the aommon Cdniiiiumoii cup. and that the danger of its u£e wa& negligible.

Many of the v clergy, however, knew that persons we?e prevented from taking Communion by the fear of infection, and for this reason they were opposed to the use of a common cud.

Dr. Read urged that tho Church authorities Should be approached to devisti some alternative method more in acdbril with the'dictates of modern' hygiene.