Jesus Juice?

Recently I have been exposed to different traditions of the Lord's Supper - of which there seem to be an endless variety. One thing that puzzled me is the predominance of the cup (or cups) of Welch's grape juice in place of red wine. Since unfermented grape juice is a fairly modern-day convenience I wondered where and why this tradition began.

In a nutshell, the "grape juice" tradition originated with the Welch's Grape Juice company against the socio-religious backdrop of the late 1800's prohibition movement. The father of the communion grape juice is Thomas Branwell Welch, a physician and Methodist lay-communion steward from New Jersey. Like many Methodists of the day, Mr. Welch was opposed to the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages and an advoccate of the temperance movement.

Since grapes have naturally occuring yeast it is impossible to prevent stored grape juice from fermenting and turning into wine. Thus wine was the staple of the Lord's supper table for nineteen centuries until a way was discovered to preserve the juice of grapes in an unfermented state. This came when Louis Pasteur invented his namesake preservation process in 1882. After the pasteurization process was successfully applied to milk in 1886, Welch wondered if the same process could be used on grape juice. In 1869 Welch successfully pasteurized grape juice and began marketing it to the local Church's as "Dr. Welch's Unfermented Wine". His son Charles would later join him in the juice venture, leaving behind a dentistry practice.

Their product was successful and caught on in both the secular and religious world. It was renamed, "Welch's Grape Juice" and the "Welch's Grape Juice" company formed. The Methodist church ruled that grape juice would officially replace wine in communion services. Other denominations followed in this regard. For instance Pastor Charles Russell, founder of the Watchtower Society, was also opposed to alcohol and argued for the appropriateness of having grape juice at the Lord's Supper instead of the traditional wine; though, he ultimately left it to the decision of the local groups.

So the tradition of the grape juice is fairly modern and grew out of the political, prohibition movement that was spearheaded by religious denominations, particularly the Methodists. Schools out.

Next up the secret origin of the waffle.