SARS Affects Some Canadian Churches’ Easter Week Rituals

Some churches in Canada are changing the way worshippers take Communion during Easter week celebrations because of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Roman Catholic Church officials have instructed priests in Toronto to place Communion wafers in parishioners’ hands, rather than on their tongues, and to cancel the traditional serving of wine.

Worshippers on Good Friday were asked not to kiss the crucifix, which is traditional, but instead to bow or kneel and make the sign of the cross.

The hand-shaking that usually occurs during the exchange of peace should be replaced with a gesture such as bowing, Catholics were told.

“Their public-health duty is their religious duty,” said Catholic Bishop John Boissonneau, auxiliary bishop of Toronto, of Catholic clergy. “They’re responsible before their God and within their community to safeguard the common good.”

Canada has been harder hit by SARS than has the United States. The disease is blamed for the deaths of about a dozen people in the Toronto area

The restrictions were announced a day after public-health officials revealed that more than 500 members of a charismatic Catholic group in the Toronto region had been quarantined after some members contracted the virus.

SARS has also affected activities of churches in Asia, where the disease originated.

The Baptist World Alliance, for example, postponed a global youth conference scheduled for this July in Hong Kong.

And the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints suspended the sending of missionaries to Hong Kong until “further evaluations are made.”