Most Sundays at St. Mary's, one or two parishioners request Communion at home or in the hospital. If you're scheduled to serve as LEM II on a particular Sunday, check with the rector before the service. He can tell you where you are scheduled to visit. Virtually all of the appointments will be in or around Chappaqua, and the total amount of time required to complete all the visits usually varies between twenty minutes and one hour.

The LEM II uses a traveling communion kit that includes a small cruet (wine flask), pyx (box of wafers), paten (plate), chalice, corporal (linen "tablecloth"), purificator ("napkin"), and intinction spoon (to serve a drop of wine to those incapable of drinking from a cup). Before you undertake your duties, ask the rector or any of the other LEM II's for a lesson in using, cleaning, and storing these items. It's not complicated.

On the Sunday when you are scheduled to serve, step up to the altar after the congregation has received Communion (usually after the post-Communion hymn). The celebrant will give you the traveling kit and send you off with a special prayer. You may leave immediately to make your visit(s).

A LEM II uses the service "Communion under Special Circumstances" on pages 396-399 of the Book of Common Prayer. It's a short, simple version of the Communion service specially designed for either a priest or lay person using bread and wine that have previously been consecrated.

Besides the traveling kit, all you'll need is a prayer book and a small table on which to arrange the elements. Any family member or friend who is present may join the Communion service if they wish. You should receive, too. You can ask one of the participants to read the gospel appointed for the day (bring the service sheet with you from church).

When you've completed your visits, bring the traveling kit back to the church, clean the used items as instructed, and store the kit in the sacristy. Finally, enter the data for the service(s) you conducted in the parish registry, a large cloth-bound book also kept in the sacristy.

The work of the LEM II helps to bring the spirit of St. Mary's and the fellowship of the entire Christian family out into our community. By bringing Communion to those who can't join us in church, you help them maintain and deepen their ties to faith and so strengthen the bonds that unite the whole Body of Christ.