If not wine, what do Mormons use for communion?

A recent business trip to California included a social visit to a winery. One of my colleagues asked me – knowing that as a Mormon I have always abstained from all alcohol – whether we practice communion in our church, and whether we use wine for it. A worthy question.

We do not use wine, but we do practice communion, called ‘sacrament’ in the Mormon church, weekly during our Sunday services. At one point in our history, water was authorized as a substitute because enemies of the church would attempt to harm members by poisoning the sacramental wine. We are told we can use wine for the sacrament as long as it is of our own making, but I have never seen it done in my lifetime. The practice of the Sacrament has the function of renewing our commitment to the gospel through remembrance – and we are instructed that what we eat or drink is not as important as the meaning of it, and that it is administered by those who are worthy and authorized to do so.

There is scriptural symbolism in wine. The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ is referred to in biblical prophecy as ‘treading the winepress’, and crushing olives for oil or grapes for wine is compared to the crushing weight that Jesus felt as he bled from his pores in the Garden of Gethsemane. In some instances, the term for wine in the bible actually comes from a term that refers to the physical crushing of the fruit.

It also implies then, in my opinion, a fresh grape juice – not one whose fermenting process has been advanced through yeast and time. That is not to say that some of the wine used may have had an alcoholic content at some point in the history – I do not know for certain. But the modern warning against alcoholic beverages given to members of the church is very specifically to protect us, and I think anyone with a practical view of religion can look around at the world today and the consequences of alcohol and understand that this was, in fact, very wise counsel.