Abstract
The Holy Communion originated in the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, nearly 2,000 years ago. According to the Bible, the night before his crucifixion, Jesus Christ shared with his 12 apostles a meal of bread and wine. During the meal, Christ instructed his disciplines to eat and drink in his memory, saying that bread is his body and wine is his blood. Today, faithful people worldwide share the consecrated bread and wine retracted from a chalice with a Holy Communion spoon.The novel coronavirus that emerged in December 2019 recorded a rapid exponential spread across space and time. The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease has affected people from all cultures and religions. In Greece, the pandemic concurred with the Easter celebration.Measures of social distancing have been implemented. Among others, churches have closed their doors to the public in order to avoid religious mass gatherings. The issue of the novel coronavirus transmission by partaking Holy Communion has received much criticism. In this review, we aimed to retrieve articles that summarize the current knowledge on the selected topic. In order to offer a balanced analysis of the subject, we have also assessed the theological framework of the Holy mystery.
Highlights
BackgroundEucharist or Holy Communion is a Christian ritual through which a member of the Church offers to the worshipers the Holy gifts, the consecrated bread and wine [1]
A study performed among 681 worshippers partaking Holy Communion disclosed that they did not exert a higher risk of infection compared to those with less or no religious service attendance [13]
From the part of the science, the common communion cup may serve as a potential vehicle for transmission
Summary
Eucharist or Holy Communion is a Christian ritual through which a member of the Church (bishop or presbyter) offers to the worshipers the Holy gifts, the consecrated bread and wine [1]. Despite the considerable debate on this issue, in 1998, the Centre of Disease and Control Prevention attempted to achieve a balance between scientific principles and respect for religious beliefs [13] In this route, a study performed among 681 worshippers partaking Holy Communion disclosed that they did not exert a higher risk of infection compared to those with less or no religious service attendance [13]. Fiedler et al remarked the high risk that poses immunodeficient patients during Holy Communion and suggested the use of individual chalices for all the participants They reported that intinction would be a more favorable method to avoid infections [15]. Spiritual health is strongly associated with somatic health, alcohol and smoking avoidance, physical activity [20,21]
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