Nearly 2,000 years after the Last Supper, Christians are still divided over what exactly Jesus meant for them to drink "in remembrance of me."
Definitely wine, say Catholics, Episcopalians and some Lutherans. Grape juice, say Methodists. It depends, say Presbyterians. It doesn't matter, says The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which uses water.
The Bible simply speaks of "the cup," as in First Corinthians 11:25: "After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." In other passages, Jesus mentions "this fruit of the vine."
That fruit would be grapes, most Christians have decided. But whether the grapes were fermented is still a matter of contention. Apostolic Christians debated the topic on their Internet bulletin board for six months last year.
Among Protestants, the move to grape juice was strongly influenced by the temperance movement in England and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During the Civil War, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church recommended "pure juice of the grape" for Holy Communion. In 1916 grape juice became mandatory for their church communion — a stance made easier because a Methodist dentist from New Jersey began making pasteurized grape juice.
Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, who was also a communion steward in his church, wanted a non-alcoholic sacramental drink for his fellow parishioners. His grape juice, now known simply as Welch's, soon became a staple in other Protestant communion services.
During World War I, the Archbishop of Canterbury invited a committee to look into the wine/grape issue. Their report, "Unfermented Wine," concluded that only fermented wine was used in pre-Christian Jewish religious observances, such as the Last Supper Seder. But groups such as the Gospel Total Abstainers continued to disagree.
Today, Methodists and Congregationalists use grape juice for communion. Presbyterian churches sometimes serve only grape juice and sometimes serve both juice and wine. "Presbyterians recognize that for an alcoholic, even a small amount of alcohol will send them off the wagon," explains Marvin Groote, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Utah.
The early Roman Catholic Church used wine for the Eucharist, but by the 12th century the practice was to receive only consecrated bread and no liquid at all. The use of wine was restored by the Vatican in 1984.
Lutherans, who have traditionally "fallen somewhere between Protestantism and Catholicism," says Pastor Kristian Erickson of Christ Lutheran in Murray, sometimes serve wine only, sometimes serve both wine and juice, sometimes diluted wine.
His church serves grape juice for those parishioners who might be allergic to wine or are recovering alcoholics, he says. But at Prince of Peace Evangelical Lutheran in Murray, the Rev. Mike Quandt prefers to use a drop of wine in water for people who can't drink wine. Wine, he says, was on the table at the Last Supper, "and we don't feel comfortable monkeying with that." He usually asks recovering alcoholics to study with him, the Rev. Quandt says. "I don't want them to sin against their conscience."
The LDS Church uses water for the sacrament, taking their cue from LDS scriptures admonishing members not to drink "impure wine." "Pure wine" — defined as the pure juice of the grape "before it has been adulterated by the process of fermentation" — is permitted. The LDS Church chooses instead to use water "as though it were wine," as Brigham Young explained in his Journal of Discourses in 1877.
"It's just a tradition begun in the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith because of the problem of procuring fresh natural juices," explains Edward J. Brandt of the church's Department of Correlation.
It's not important to God whether it's water or grape juice, Brigham Young wrote: "But the Lord has said to us it mattereth not what we partake of when we administer the cup to the people, inasmuch as we do it with an eye single to the glory of God."
In some Christian churches the wine or grape juice or water is served in thimble-sized cups, passed up and down the pews. In other churches, the congregation walks in a procession toward the pulpit, drinking from the same chalice or dipping the communion bread in a communal chalice, a process known as intinction. In the Christian Orthodox Church, parishioners receive wine from a spoon which has been dipped in the chalice.
During Prohibition in the 1920s and early '30s, churches and synagogues were allowed to serve wine. Today, religious institutions in Utah are still exempt from laws that restrict the consumption of alcohol by minors — as long as the alcohol is served during a religious service (and not, say, at a congregational dinner).
For Jews, says Rabbi Joshua Aaronson of Temple Bar Shalom in Park City, "every Jewish holiday involves wine," and blessings are offered over the wine at most Jewish services — including the Seder that was the occasion for the Last Supper. "Wine is a unique product," Rabbi Aaronson explains. "According to our tradition, both God and humans are involved in the production of wine. It symbolizes the relationship between God and humans in the complex way it's made."
With a nod to ecumenicalism, the 270-page liquor law adopted by the Utah Legislature this year changed the words "sacramental wine permit" to "religious wine use permit." The permit allows "a church or religious organization" to buy religious wine at cost from the state, thus saving them the 64.5 percent markup charged to secular customers.
The bill defines church as "a building set apart for the purpose of worship in which religious services are held, with which clergy is associated, and which is tax-exempt under the laws of this state." There are 88 religious wine use permit holders in Utah, including Summum, a Utah-based religion founded in 1975 that now claims 200,000 members worldwide.
Summum, whose doctrines "come from ancient times, before the Bible was written," uses wine as the Egyptians did, according to Summum founder Corky Ra. The wine, he says, is believed to be "liquid meditation."
"We say we imbue within the wine an essence or whatever you would like to call it, a state of consciousness, that assists in meditation," Ra explains. Summum makes its own wine and must buy a yearly manufacturing permit from the state. "Our issue is that they're indirectly taxing our sacramental wine," Ra complains.
E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com