Third Thursday after the Epiphany
In 1869 a Methodist minister named Thomas Welch perfected a process for pasteurizing grape juice in order to produce a non-alcohol substitute for communion wine. Frances Willard, head of the Women's Christian Temperance Union promoted its use in Protestant churches. Soon almost all Protestant denominations other than Episcopal and Lutheran were using it. It was so successful that in 1893 Reverend Welch started producing it commercially and founded the Welch's Grapejuice Company .
High church uses wine. Low church uses grape juice. On this issue I'm low church. It's not because I'm a teetotaler. To the contrary I'm a wine lover. Back at the beginning of this century I organized and led for four years a Wine and Classical Music Group. We met once a month, did a wine tasting with hors d'oeuvres, and I gave a very brief lecture on the composer of the month and played a short selection of that composer's work.
I know that unfermented grape is not what Jesus used, but for two particular reasons I'm on the low church side of this issue. The lesser reason is that for some people who are recovering from alcohol addiction, the sip of wine in communion could start them back to drinking. I am told that this very rarely happens. The greater reason is that children can drink grape juice and can thus participate in Holy Communion.
Catholics delay children from receiving communion until they reach the age of 7 or 8. It is then something of a special occasion. A pastor friend once commented to me on the irony that Baptists give communion to small children but don't baptize them till they're older; Catholics baptize small children, infants even, but don't give them communion until they're older. Methodists do both at youngest age.
Some non-Methodists object that the infant or small child should not partake of a sacrament until they are old enough to understand the meaning of it. My own Methodist rejoinder is that the sacraments are Holy Mysteries. No one understands the full meaning of them. Only God fully understands. I believe that God is doing something with us in the sacraments--whether we understand it or not, whether we feel it or not.
The next several High Church--Low Church blogs will deal with Holy Communion, not the theology of it so much, more the practice of it. There are so many little things in the practice, all of which convey meaning. The next High Church-Low Church blog will be entitled, "Sit, Kneel, Stand." I have some very definite opinions on this.
Faithfully,
Christian
2 comments:
I continue to very much enjoy this series. A favorite family story of ours is about our daughter one of the first times partaking in communion (she’s now 25). She must have been somewhere between 6-8 years old, as children at our church went to Children’s church until this age. When we returned to our pew after kneeling at the rail and receiving the elements she proclaimed “That was really good juice. Can I have some more?” We still get a chuckle out of that story to this day.
That's hilarious Jennifer! I LOVE this one!!! I am grape juice on this one because a) children can partake b) while it's largely a myth that a sip of alcohol can cause someone with an alcohol problem to drink again, in the Alcoholics Anonymous belief system one is not considered "continuously sober" if one has even a sip, and c) I like grape juice.
One solution many churches have come up with is to serve both wine and grape juice, usually in different colors. You get to choose. I hate this. As a person in recovery, I choose grape juice. Picking the little white grape juice instead of the red wine cup makes me feel singled out and stigmatized. Also, what if I didn't drink for medical reasons, or because I despise wine, or for any other reason that is no one's business? Picking the grape juice implies to all who observe that I am an "alcoholic," which may have many negative implications to them. Do I really need that at church?
Now here's one I hope you address Dad: the rise of gluten free communion bread. Since so many people now identify as gluten free, many churches, including mine in Philly, offer gluten free communion bread. There are two lines and one has regular and one has gluten free. But often you just go to the line that is shortest. The gluten free bread, in my opinion, tastes awful. Now perhaps I should not be thinking of the taste of the Body of Christ, but I did always angle for the regular line.
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