To suggest that the tradition of sharing the peace needs to change?

[Ironoaks]

Anglican church. New vicar who has reintroduced the tradition of sharing the peace by shaking hands. I've attended this church for nearly ten years and we hadn't observed this tradition before.

For those unfamiliar with the practice, this involves shaking hands with a couple of dozen different people.

I have two issues with this:

1. Infection control. It's cold & flu season. Our congregation includes the elderly and frail. In times past, people tended to mostly stay within their own parish, but our congregation on Christmas day included people who had recently travelled from Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Immediately after sharing the peace, the service moves into communion, which involves eating bread from your hand. I've started nipping out to wash my hands between the peace and communion, but it's not feasible for everyone to do this. I've seen a couple of people discreetly using hand sanitiser, but that's a lot less effective that hand washing, especially for viruses.

2. Some people don't feel comfortable having physical contact with people they don't know. I know of two young people who now avoid attending church because the sharing of the peace makes them feel so uncomfortable.

Should the sharing of the peace by shaking hands be re-evaluated?

I’ve never been a touchy-feely person and avoid hugs etc generally but I honestly cannot get worked up about this. These days I am usually stopping my toddler climbing into the pulpit by this point in the service anyway

Should the sharing of the peace by shaking hands be re-evaluated?

OP you may have mysophobia.

You can get treatment on the NHS through your GP or by referring yourself directly to a psychological therapies service.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/symptoms/

We’ve been known to hug at our Church during the peace but we also have those who remain seated to signify they don’t want to take part. Each to their own.

We hug at my church.

How very sad you feel like this OP.

I’m very aware that it may be the only physical touch some people get from one week to the next.

If you can’t face it a nod / hand on shoulder with a smile and eye contact at least please

Maybe wear gloves, then remove them before communion?

Either way, it would be better to pray for wisdom and then speak to a church leader than to potentially involve unbelievers in a church matter.

I hate it and wish they didn't enforce it to be honest.

Wear leather gloves you keep specifically for the purpose. The sign of peace is important before communion as a sign that you are putting any disputes aside for the communion so can't be done after. Sit in a corner / at the front so you limit the people around you.

I don’t think you could actually stop it even if you wanted to. I suspect most people would just end up shaking hands anyway in most churches.

I don’t like it very much. It makes me feel awkward- the words AND the gesture. I think your infection control worries sound a bit OTT, but I get the thing about people not being comfortable with physical contact.

I think it's far worse to drink from the same cup though?

Would Jesus use hand-sanitizer?

I am a really germ-phobic person and even I don't care about shaking hands for this reason. I find the whole thing a bit artificial but I wouldn't care.

What about sharing a Communion cup?! Lots of places do plastic tiny wine glasses now which isn't quite the same.

We hug at my church.

I really dislike the shaking hands with strangers - hugging them would be a step too far.

Just wear gloves for goodness sake.

There's going to be a million germs in your immediate surroundings anyway, including all over the pews/hymn sheets and anything else you touch.

If you don't want contact, put your hands together in a prayer position and give a small bow and smile? It's any sign of peace.

Catholic here. I often wave to people, rather than shaking hands. It helps that I normally sit at the back of church, a bit further away from the rest of the congregation. No one seems to mind. People with colds etc often do the same.

pop a hand sanitiser spray in your handbag

It's very sad that you feel that way. You will get more exposure to germs from shop doors, products on the shelves and so on.

I think it's far worse to drink from the same cup though?

You should be pretty safe if you are drinking fortified wine from a silver chalice.

I'd rather drink wine from a communal cup than Ribena from a prepacked plastic individual shot glass.

I've never considered that. It's the shared communion cup that gets me- all the backwash .

Would Jesus use hand-sanitizer?

Would Jesus use hand-sanitizer?

Jesus doesn't need it. Illness and death have no power over him.

A couple of dozen different people? Really? At my church it's the person on either side of you, the 1 or 2 people in front of you, and the 1 or 2 people behind you. Max 6 people. I'm Catholic though, do Anglicans really spend 3 or 4 times (or more) longer on this part of the service?

We do 'peace be with you' shaking hands in Catholic mass and I've always thought it was lovely. It's not a couple of dozen people though it's the few folk standing next to you and it's not exactly 'enforced' some people do a little sort of wave or pat on the arm and they've not been forcibly ejected.

I’m a server at my local church. That means I often get to finish off what’s left in the chalice. Drinking the dregs after sometimes literally hundreds of people have sipped from it or, worse, dipped their wafers (and their dirty fingers) in it. So far I’ve survived.

I’ve never been in a church where shaking hands or any other form of sharing the peace was ‘enforced’. If you don’t want to do it make that clear by your body language, and just nod and smile at people. Personally I find it a powerful symbol of Christian togetherness. It’s at that point in the Eucharist because the Eucharist is supposed to bring us together in peace. Thinking ewww germs about one another, especially when it’s just impossible to avoid germs in daily life (door handles, being in close proximity to others...) is the opposite to this way of thinking. We are supposed to think of ourselves as a whole body, the Body of Christ, not as atomised and super-clean individuals.

The kiss of peace at the Eucharist goes back to the very earliest liturgies of Christianity. They actually used to kiss. A handshake is mild by comparison. It’s always been in the Roman rite but was missing from the Church of England liturgy from the Reformation until the liturgical reforms of the 1980s. But has been a firm part of worship since then.