"The water in stoups can easily become a source of infection and a means of rapidly spreading the virus," said The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Right Reverend John Gladwin.
In a directive to priests in Essex, he added: "It is not our intention at this stage to cause panic."
He said priests should also advise members of their congregation who have flu-like symptoms to stay at home.
The Bishop also issued advice about taking holy communion warning if anyone had flu-like symptoms not to "drink wine from the chalice".
He assured congregations that they could receive full holy communion by just taking the wafer of bread. "
Note: According to the most recent episode of This Week in Virology flu virus can be transferred by water.
