Ask the Elder: When did we start using grape juice for Communion?

Photo: Gerald Farinas.

When I served at my student chapel in college, one of my roles was to prepare the elements for the Sacrament.

I remember the care that went into the process, specifically with the home-baked unleavened bread we used. It had a wonderfully crumbly but chewy texture and was incredibly fragrant.

To go with it, we used a hearty, bold dark red wine, chosen specifically because its deep color and body most closely matched the traditional idea of blood.

This experience of preparing the table by hand always made the start of the service feel more grounded in the physical reality of the Gospel. It still feels that way as I prepare the elements, not too far away, at Edgewater Presbyterian Church.

For many of us in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) today, that experience of using fermented wine might feel a bit different than what we see in our own Sunday services.

For centuries following the Reformation, wine was the unquestioned standard for the Lord’s Table. It was rooted in the biblical tradition of the Passover and the historical understanding of the fruit of the vine.

The shift toward using grape juice [technically, we should be calling it unfermented wine] in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is actually a relatively modern change that grew out of a major social and moral movement in the 19th century. The primary driver for this transition was the temperance movement.

During the 1800s, many Christians in the United States became deeply concerned about the social and domestic problems caused by alcohol. As this movement gained strength, much of it centered in nearby Methodist-bastion Evanston, Illinois, it began to change how the Church viewed the presence of alcohol in worship.

Many church leaders felt it was a contradiction to preach about the dangers of drink while serving fermented wine during the Sacrament. They wanted a way to honor the tradition without the alcohol, but fresh grape juice turns into wine very quickly on its own.

The solution came in 1869 from a dentist and Methodist church steward named Thomas Bramwell Welch.

[Yes. That Welch.]

He used the new process of pasteurization to stop grape juice from fermenting, creating what he called unfermented wine.

This allowed congregations to align their practice at the Lord’s Table with their social convictions. While this became the norm for many American Presbyterians by the early 20th century, the shift was not universal.

Even now, some congregations within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) still use fermented wine to maintain a direct connection to the practices of the Reformation and the historical Church.

Often, these churches provide both wine and grape juice to be inclusive of everyone in the community.

Regardless of whether a church uses juice, or rather unfermented wine, or a bold red fermented wine, the belief remains that the Sacrament is more than a symbol. We believe that in the bread and the cup, we truly encounter the presence of Christ and receive God's grace in a real and nourishing way.