Touch is innately humanizing. Jesus healed with his touch. Thomas believed through touching. Many doctors know about touch. The routine of using the stethoscope and pressing the patient’s belly may be less about diagnostic benefits and more because it’s expected and also because it makes a connection and offers comfort. At coffee hour you’ll see people hugging, patting a back, reaching across a table to grasp a hand.

Physical touch is a common element of liturgy. In the Eucharist we exchange the peace. At our baptism we are anointed and crossed with oil. On Ash Wednesday the cross is made on us with ashes. On Maundy Thursday there is foot washing. When we’re ill there is the laying on of hands with anointing. All this touching is an expression of our communion with one another and God.

We also touch things—we eat bread and drink wine, we touch the water in the baptismal font.

Touching, as with most spiritual practices, requires us to exercise our emotional and social intelligence. Even though touching is normative in the church, there are those who, for various reasons, are unable to be touched even if the intention is to encourage, connect, or support. We are called to be aware and respectful.

Being in close proximity with others, and engaging in activities such as the Peace, involves risk. We exchange germs, we may feel uncomfortable, or inadvertently cause someone else to feel uncomfortable. There is always some risk that comes with taking part in the liturgy. There is no way for to live in a germ-free, risk- free society. In fact we need one another’s germs to establish an adequate immune system.

In healthy parishes we touch and are sensitive about how we do that.