What does your church serve with the Lord's Supper?

BTW, I am using the word 'wine' as it is used in the Bible. A drink that is made of grapes that has the potential for intoxication.

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http://www.villagecommunitychurch.org/

Both. I drink wine.

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Rev. Daniel Kok
Pastor of Grace Reformed Church (URCNA)
Leduc, Alberta CANADA
Church Blog

"there is no creature, either in heaven or on earth, who loves us more than Jesus Christ"
Belgic Confession, Article 26

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Both. Fermented Wine and Grape Juice for those whose conscious will not allow Fermented Wine (also for those with Alcoholic issues).

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Benjamin P. Glaser
Pittsburgh, PA
Fairmount ARP Church, Sewickley, PA
Student of Theology Pittsburgh Theological Seminary & Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary

“If the Church could be aroused to a deeper sense of the glory that awaits her, she would enter with a warmer spirit into the struggles that are before her.”-- J.H. Thornwell

We serve both: grape-juice for reasons of conscience or substance abuse issues and wine.

Wine in the middle of the tray- also a little different color...

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Gage Browning (Layman)
Grace Community Presbyterian Church
PCA Fort Worth, Texas
www.posttenebraslux.squarespace.com

My view would be, and this is the view of many Reformed leaning Anglicans, the Lord's supper with grape juice rather then wine would be valid but irregular.

Likewise theLord's supper with leavened bread rather then unleavened would be valid but irregular.

It would also be interesting to know how many congregations use a common cup and how many use individual cups.

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Thomas Yeutter,
Mason, MI
Member St. Patrick's Anglican Church, Comstock, MI

Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach its statues in Isreal.

On the first Lord's Day morning of the month, we have both (wine and juice) in little cups and stay in our pews.

On the third Lord's Day evening of the month, we have one cup (wine) seated around a table.

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Casey Bessette
Westminster OPC • West Suburbs of Chicago • My Blog: Paradise Regained

"It is part of the calling of the ekklesia to learn to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge and also to make known within the world of science 'the manifold wisdom of God' in order that the final end of theology, as of all things, may be that the name of the Lord is glorified. Theology and dogmatics, too, exist for the Lord's sake." — Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 1, p. 46

We use a common cup: another reason for me to abstain (per previous threads, which I've no desire at all to revisit). With pre-1992, transfusion-related hepatitis C and a moderate viral load that's gone into cirrhosis, I would be absolutely horrified if I passed this miserable malady along to anyone else. Could happen.

The estimation now is that one out of every 70-80 people in this country now has hep. C. Something to think about.

Margaret

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Margaret
Free Church of Scotland [Continuing]
Michigan

"He must increase, but I must decrease." - John 3:30

Interesting. What is your reasoning for this alternation?

I think the evening method is the biblical one, but our church does not have the wherewithall to do it.

We also serve both wine and white grape juice, with the grape juice cups set in the interior of the server ring plate. Thus wine cups outnumber grape juice cups about 10 to 1.

The wine we use is a sweet wine that we have imported from Israel. I cannot think of the name of it, but it is a very good wine, not dry and palatable for pretty much everyone.

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Randy Harris
Heritage Church (Independent)
Oklahoma City, OK

Unfortunately, the evening service has less people that attend, so practically, we are able to have the Supper with a single table. It really wouldn't be possible in the morning (it is a small chapel with little room for tables). A year or so ago the 3rd Lord's Day evening Supper was added while retaining the original practice for the 1st Lord's Day morning. It is a bit irregular to have two different practices, but at the moment I think it's the wisest choice for the congregation -- and it allows anyone who would like to partake in the Supper twice a month to do so.

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Casey Bessette
Westminster OPC • West Suburbs of Chicago • My Blog: Paradise Regained

"It is part of the calling of the ekklesia to learn to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge and also to make known within the world of science 'the manifold wisdom of God' in order that the final end of theology, as of all things, may be that the name of the Lord is glorified. Theology and dogmatics, too, exist for the Lord's sake." — Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 1, p. 46

Are there any records of what the old Reformed Churches may have done in case of those with sensitive conscience or possible physical malady restrictions?

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Daddy
Member of TRBC, Attending CCRPC. My Blog
The Puritan Pub (Team Blog)
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Was there such a thing as a 'sensitive conscience' before prohibition?

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http://www.villagecommunitychurch.org/

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Seth Stark
Member, Communion Presbyterian Church (ARP), Irvine, CA
Biola University, Graduate Student, M.A. - Science and Religion
Seth's Blog

That was one reason for my asking.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Daddy
Member of TRBC, Attending CCRPC. My Blog
The Puritan Pub (Team Blog)
Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

we use wine.

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Richard
CofE
UK

I'm not so sure that the sensitive conscience thing can be so easily settled. After all, drunkenness most certainly did exist before Prohibition. And someone's conscience might be very tender on a topic like that even before Prohibition. That is demonstrated by my own church. We are long after Prohibition, and most people in my church don't even know about it. It simply isn't a factor, except through some kind of remembered consciousness that is inter-generational. Nevertheless, one of the churches I serve is militantly against wine in communion because of drunkenness problems in the church. In fact, they are not even open to talking about the biblical position, and what Jesus did. Prohibition is not the main reason for it. The reason is that they want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Sometimes it is amazing to me how closed to the truth of the Word some people can be.

But, as AA itself says, if an alcoholic is strongly tempted to go back to alcoholism because of one thimble-full of wine, they were going to fall anyway.

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Rev. Lane Keister
Teaching Elder, PCA, North Dakota (working out of bounds in a CRC and an RCA church)
http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com
http://brahmsgreenglove.blogspot.com
http://accenttranslation.blogspot.com
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Wine only, in individual cups

As an interesting aside, in addition to common bread, we provide gluten free bread for the ones with celiacs disease amongst us...

So the similar accommodation argument could be used for an alternate to wine, it just has not come up, to my knowledge...

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Bert Mulder
Elder of the First Protestant Reformed Church of Edmonton
Edmonton Alberta Canada

Wine and grape juice. Two separate goblets, one loaf, by intinction.

Until a couple of months ago, it was wine only. A few people approached us (the elders) with the "what if the wine causes an alcoholic to struggle" question and our answer was that when someone approached us with more than just a hypothetical "what if", then we'd introduce grape juice. Well, that finally happened, and the next week, the grape juice was there. It's funny, because after it was introduced, the split between those that partake in the wine and those that partake in the grape juice is unexpectedly about 50/50.

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Rae W. | Elder @ Grace Central Presbyterian Church | Columbus, OH
not another blog, v2.0

We use grape juice only. I would like to switch to wine but it's a matter of incremental change in our church.

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Bill Brown
Elder
Grace Baptist Church
Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Intinction? Really?

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Benjamin P. Glaser
Pittsburgh, PA
Fairmount ARP Church, Sewickley, PA
Student of Theology Pittsburgh Theological Seminary & Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary

“If the Church could be aroused to a deeper sense of the glory that awaits her, she would enter with a warmer spirit into the struggles that are before her.”-- J.H. Thornwell

The temperance movement brought us Dr. Welch. Dr. Welch brought us grape juice. If there had been no temperance movement there would be no grape juice. In that regard, the only reason people would insist on grape juice is because of the temperance movement. I don't think anyone began to object with 'sensitive consciences' until the existence of grape juice. I could be wrong, however.

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