How LCMS churches practice open Communion

Father Hollywood (Pastor Larry Beane) has come into possession of an LCMS church bulletin with the now ubiquitous Communion Statement. In one part of the statement the bulletin explains the congregation’s policy of offering grape juice as an optional alternative to wine in the individual cups at the Communion rail. It reads: "A wine that has been chemically treated to remove all alcohol and sulfites is offered in clear glasses in the individual trays."

Pastor Beane has a few thoughts on those “weasel words”…

A wine that has been "chemically treated" to remove one of the component parts that makes it wine is, by definition, not wine. In fact, it is "grape juice." Notice how the writer goes to great pains to circumvent the ontologically correct (and more concise and precise) term to instead use a sort of hocus-pocus to transubstantiate the innovation of grape juice into dominically mandated "wine."

To take the reverse, most parents would have no problem giving their young children a big glass of grape juice. But what if we gave Junior a big glass of "grape juice" that was "chemically treated" with a process of fermentation to "add alcohol and sulfites" - would it still be "grape juice"? Of course not. It would be wine, and the same parents would not serve it. It's simply not the same thing.

Click here to enjoy the entire article.