I'm really on a roll with this communion thing. On Sunday ML gets up for announcements and not mentionaing any names, mentioned that I had nearly died last week from the communion wine, and therefore this week we were having a 2002 Merlot. Well I don't know how to break this to you, but uuummmm, well, .... Merlot's (unless they are really expensive) don't really improve with aging. They are generally designed to be drunk not too long after being bought, and if kept too long will deteriorate. So...I think maybe a port is the way to go - being a fortified wine they are supposed to last a long time, so you can open the bottle and come back to it a few months later. Unless of course you buy what EF calls hobo port which is rotten to start with.
So anyway I was thinking, "Why have alcoholic anyway?" Just because I like wine is not a good enough reason to serve alcoholic wine for communion. It's not about enjoying a good nip. It's about what it represents. But it has been a long standing tradition (the Jews used wine) and the grapejuice thing is only quite modern. You only have a mouthful anyway, so it's not like you are going to get tanked.
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3 comments:
you're either a good Anglican, a wine officianado or a wino!
But I like and agree with what you have to say (not that I know much about wine ... I only know I like Port).
As for the grape juice thing, there's not much room for grace from when you buy the juice till when you use it... I think Port is safer (fully fermented under controlled conditions is much better than half-fermented in the back of a cupboard!)
Amen! And what better varietal to have communion with than merlot? :)
I thought the thing with grape juice was so that actual alcoholics wouldn't be excluded from communion as apparently just one drop can set things in motion so to speak (but really I'm not sure - it could be that somebody decided alcohol is evil). I say don't mess with the classics: use a good quality port. If alcoholism is the issue, the priest can offer a blessing for those who can't have the wine.
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