How do you feel about the Eucharist in the hands?

Quite so. It's not that we are not individually regenerated and sanctified, we are, but we are also corporately justified as a body, because Christ is the manna from heaven. John 6:58. Justification is a gracious act of God, not a result of anything we have done as an individual. This manna gives life to all who share in it, as a body. This is why one cannot be in Christ, without being in the church.

In the invisible church, that is.
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Indeed. Wee cuppies are illegal in the CofE anyway. A common cup must be used for distribution as per the Sacrament Act of 1547.

 

Quite so. And there are rules about this too. When the cup is administered it MUST be a metal container, preferbly silver. It must be clean. It must be wiped with a napkin after each person has received, and turned to a fresh part of the circumference of the lip of the chalice, so that the next person receiving gets a different part of the cup than the previous person had.

We usually have two acolytes administering cups, to alternate communicants. Not only is this a more efficient use of time, it offers more opportunity to wipe the rim clean after the previous communicant has received.

I feel that none of these precautions however detract from the traditional symbolism surrounding the ritual and I am wary of any 'new fangled' innovation which might.
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LOL, then we can also have a mechanical healing dispenser and a mechanical 'financial blessing' dispenser! Hoo boy. That gadget takes all the intimacy out of receiving; when the priest calls me by name and places the bread in my hand, that point of contact is meaningful.

When I was growing up in the RCC, receiving in the hand was almost unthinkable. It just wasn't done. But on the other hand, when Jesus broke the bread and passed it around to the apostles, there's no indication that He placed it on their tongues for them; what's good enough for the apostles is good enough for us. Not that I'd look down on reception by the tongue, for in truth I usually receive by intinction, mainly due to concerns about possible transmission of herpes cold sore virus.

 

Wow. When I was confirmed in 2005 in the RCC, it was totally acceptable. We had the choice of on the tongue or on the hand. How times have changed.

 

Yep, big change. My First Communion was in 1965 IIRC.