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Sanitary procedures protect church in face of swine flu

ELKHORN — The Rev. Gerald Petersen is a man ahead of his time.

Nearly a year ago, he started asking his lectors at Sugar Creek Lutheran Church in Elkhorn to properly clean their hands and use sanitizer before distributing bread and wine during communion.

"It just seemed like the good thing to do," Petersen said.

Now, in a time when the number of reported cases of swine flu continues to increase across the nation, properly cleaning your hands before touching a shared cup and pieces of bread seems to be the proper thing to do.

While Walworth County has no reported cases of swine flu, which spreads mostly through surface contact and sneezing, some churches on Sunday started doing communion differently because of concerns over spreading the flu.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee advised its 211 parishes in southeastern Wisconsin to not use a shared cup as most Catholic churches do, said Julie Wolf, communications director.

"We asked them to refrain from that, or even the handshake of peace, shared prior to communion," Wolf added.

It was a recommendation and not a mandate, she said.

"I know that different pastors chose to do different things over the last weekend," Wolf said. "Some offered the cups but advised folks that they didn't have to take the drink from the cup."

Other area churches also have reported using individual plastic cups and not communal ones.

There have been two probable cases of swine flu in Rock County. Milton High School was shut down Monday and today after a student was found to have a probable case Sunday. County officials announced Friday that a man became sick after returning from a trip to Mexico.

Test results are pending in Walworth County for one person who is sick with flu-like symptoms and meets the travel criteria set by the Centers for Disease Control for swine flu testing, according to Health Officer Pat Grove.

But not all churches have changed their practices.

The Rev. Hong-Ling Park, pastor at First United Methodist Church in Elkhorn, told his congregation Sunday to "bring peace, not germs" and that he is praying for those with the flu. But he said he won't change or stop communion, which currently is distributed in single plastic cups and small pieces of bread.

The Rev. Kurt Grunewald of the First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Elkhorn, said he either offers a communal cup or individual cups during communion.

His members, he said, brought up no concerns and nothing was done differently this Sunday.

"I'm not worried about swine flu," Grunewald said.

"I think it's being overblown."