An illustrative anecdote:
"Archbishop John of Chicago (OCA) of blessed memory, was celebrating the Divine Liturgy for the first time at a certain parish, probably in the late '60s. He was a small and humble man in stature, not at all imposing, but shining with the love of Christ. During the Liturgy he kept hearing a strange noise as the altar boys prepared for Holy Communion. Finally his curiousity got the better of him and he asked: "vat is this click, click?!"
He was told: "Vladika, that is the box of plastic spoons, we are getting them ready for communion. The people are afraid of infection." They, evidently, were using individually wrapped plastic spoons instead of a common spoon. As I understand it, Archbishop John was livid. He stopped the Divine Liturgy, grabbed the box of spoons, dumped them on the floor and proceeded to stomp on them right there in front of the congregation. The frail old man, with his long white beard and golden vestments, stomping up and down must have been quite a sight! He then said in a very grave voice, his index finger raised, "Bring me spoon!" The deacons and altar boys rushed to obey. They gathered up and disposed of the offending, no longer sterile plastic utensils and searched the altar and sacristy for a more suitable and appropriate one, as the congregation no doubt stood in no small shock and consternation at the whole proceedings.
Well, it turns out that the only spoon they could come up with was an old (probably former communion) spoon that they were using to put incense in the censer. He patiently waited and paused the service until they could clean up the spoon as best they could of the built-up accretions of charcoal, powder and incense. He then calmly proceeded with the Divine Liturgy and the Eucharist, using this old, battered, still somewhat encrusted spoon. I don't know how many people actually partook, but I am relatively sure that plastic spoons were not used again in that parish."
Source:
http://www.monachos.net/forum/showthread.php?6474-Changing-the-method-of-communion-on-account-of-swine-flu&highlight=Archbishop+John
