Churches in Croydon have cancelled communion wine over swine flu fears.

The Catholic and Anglican dioceses have issued advice to their churches on the action they should take if they were worried about the virus.

In an open letter Anglican archbishops wrote: “The Department of Health have recently advised us that ‘it makes good sense to limit the spread of disease by not sharing common vessels for food and drink’.

They recommended “the suspension of the administration of the chalice”.

The Catholic Church advised priests to consider not having the sign of peace done by a handshake at mass, giving communion only on the hand.

Parish Priest Joseph Collins, from St Mary’s Catholic Church said one of his parishioners and a few children had swine flu which prompted the decision to stop giving communion wine.

He said: “We have not been using the communion wine for the last two months.

“We have only received one letter of complaint and they asked that we bring back the holy water.”

He added most people understood why the church had made the decision.

Father Barry Hughes from St Columba Roman Catholic Church in Selsdon said from this weekend they will abstain from the handshake and the use of holy water and communion wine would be stopped until the epidemic was over.

The measures come as Croydon prepares itself for mass immunisation against swine flu.

The council and NHS Croydon are beginning the immunisations this week, starting with those who are most at risk of catching the disease, frontline medical staff and those working in care.

The borough has enough vaccine for 50,000 “at risk” people which include those at risk who already receive the seasonal flu vaccine, all pregnant women, those living with people who have weakened immune systems and those in regular contact with cancer patients.

At-risk patients will be contacted by their GPs if they need the vaccine. Anyone who is not registered with a GP who is one of the groups is urged to do so at once.

Maggie Ioannou, flu director for NHS Croydon, has stressed that it is not compulsory to be vaccinated but said: “I urge everyone in the priority groups to have the vaccine - it will help prevent people in clinical at-risk groups from getting swine flu and the complications that may arise from it.”

Once the at-risk groups have been vaccinated, immunisations will be rolled out to the rest of the population as and when the vaccine arrives in Croydon.

• See our swine flu section for the latest updates