Years ago, I asked a neighborhood minister – Father Taylor – if I could receive Holy Communion at his church.
I was not a member
of the church’s denomination and knew some churches have “closed” communion.
Closed communion is when churches serve communion only to their members, or members of their denomination. We practice “open” communion, where anyone who feels led by Christ can come forward to receive the elements.
Father Taylor welcomed me to receive communion at this church. I was grateful and would have respected his decision either way.
It was a beautiful and moving worship service. When I came forward to receive the elements, I took the bread and ate; I took the cup and drank. Right away, I realized I had forgotten Father Taylor’s church used real wine for communion.
Most of the Christians in the world use wine for the sacred elements. In ages past, it was tradition for a member of the church to make the sacramental wine for worship. Grapes were not always in season and without some way to preserve the juice, it could turn sour fast. Without refrigeration, this was the only way to have the fruit of the vine, wine to use for communion.
In some churches, it is still an honor to make the wine or bake the bread for Holy Communion. How did we move from using wine to grape juice?
In 1868, the Vineland Methodist Church in New Jersey asked the Rev. Dr. Thomas Welch to be their Communion Steward, the one who prepared the elements of communion for worship. Dr. Welch had been a Methodist minister, but throat troubles created difficulties for him to speak, so he returned to school and became a dentist and practiced in Vineland. He agreed to be Communion Steward under one condition: he be allowed to use unfermented wine.
It was agreed and Welch set about working to use the new practice of pasteurization to made the unfermented wine. In 1869 he had perfected, “Dr. Welch’s Unfermented Wine” and began to market it to churches. When his invention did not take off, he dropped the idea to concentrate on his successful dental practice.
Then two things happened. One was the rise of the Temperance movement in the U.S. and the struggle some churches had over whether to serve wine or not for communion.
The second was his
son, Charles – also a dentist – wanted to try the grape juice business. This time, Charles offered samples to churches and Dr. Welch printed a pamphlet to give to churches promoting why churches should use his unfermented wine for communion. This time, it took off and after it was introduced at the Chicago’s World Fair of 1893, Welch’s Grape Juice became a national drink.
There is nothing wrong with a Church using wine for communion, like they did back in the days of the Bible.
But if you use Welch’s grape juice, you have
a Methodist dentist to thank!
Eric Reece is the faith columnist for The Graham Star. He is the pastor of Robbinsville United Methodist Church.