Methodists Debate Use of Wine in Rites After Railing Against It

Should a church that has historically railed against the evils of alcohol allow its congregations to use wine in communion services?

That is a question that at least one church official believes is likely to come up when a United Methodist Church committee begins preparing a new book of worship next year.

Work on the worship manual, which outlines church liturgical practices, is scheduled to begin in February. A completed draft is to be forwarded to the General Conference, the denomination’s top governing body, when it meets next in 1992.

The Rev. Andy Langford of the church’s General Board of Discipleship worship section believes that the wine issue will probably be raised during deliberations on the worship manual, just as it was earlier this year during debate on the church’s controversial new hymnal at the United Methodist General Convention in St. Louis.

In that debate, the Rev. Richard L. Wright of Buckhannon, W. Va., made two unsuccessful attempts during discussion of the hymnal to restore an old church rule that required use of the “pure, unfermented juice of the grape” for communion. That rule had been contained in the church’s 1966 Book of Hymns.

As quoted in a church statement, Langford said the vast majority of United Methodist churches now use grape juice in rituals. The rule requiring grape juice was dropped, according to Langford, to avoid restricting churches that use wine.

Langford pointed to two other issues that he believes are likely to be major topics of discussion when the new worship book is written: Use of gender-free language in references to humans and to God, and which translation of the Bible to use.

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible, published in 1946, is currently used in church school curriculum and worship resources. But the National Council of Churches expects a new translation to be available sometime in 1990.