I’m a lay eucharistic minister for my parish. Ive been in this ministry for more than 10 years, the last 5 in several Episcopal parishes.

This morning I was passing the chalice. The training in this parish is to always have at least 1 hand on the chalice no matter what.

A man dressed in plain clothes grabbed the chalice to take a sip. I could tell he was trying to get me to let go while taking a sip of the Precious Blood, but I didn’t. When he finished drinking he just said, “I’m a priest, I can hold the chalice.”

First off, I didn’t recognize him (it wasn’t my usual service time but I can recognize most regular members and hadn’t seen him before) and he wasn’t dressed in clerical clothing.

Second, you literally just received the Body and Blood of Christ and your first words are to be passive aggressive because I was following parish policy? All while trying to use your status as a priest?

At the end of the day it’s not a big deal, but the pettiness of it during what’s supposed to be a sacred time just threw me off.