I have been a Christain all of the 43 years of my life and have been very happily married to Peter for 23 of them. We have raised our 2 children within the Church of England and are very proud of them both, now aged 17 and 14.

One question I do have is about the Holy Sacrament. In the Church of England the giving and receiving of the bread and wine is the culmination of the Service of Worship. It is a very Spiritual moment as we remember that Jesus gave his body and blood for us. The bread is signified by a thin wafer of wheat origin and the wine is a rich sherry. Do members of the LDS take the Holy Sacrament, and if so, in what form do you take the wine? I know that members of the LDS do not take stimulants/drugs such as caffeine and alcohol, but do you make an exception at this moment in your Worship?

As an addition to this - On many occasuons in the Bible, Jesus has been known to take wine with his Disciples. Why is the Church of LDS so against their members enjoying something that was so obviosuly a part of Jesus's life?

May God bless You and Your Family.

It is my understanding that "new wine" was pure grape juice (see Matthew 9:17) and only when it fermented was it called "strong drink". I believe that Jesus drank new wine, not intoxicating wine. I feel that the problems that can come from the use of alcoholic beverages have accumulated to serious proportions in the world. The tens of thousands of vehicle deaths each year caused by drinking and driving, the abuse and break up of families and the millions of addicted alcoholics are some of these problems that are commonly known. The financial costs of these problems are huge let alone the cost in human suffering.

We do have in our weekly worship, the Holy Sacrament. We use regular bread and break it as was done in the scriptures. We used fresh grape juice (new wine) in the early days of the church, but because enemies of the church were threatening to poison the source of the grape juice the Lord gave the instructions to Joseph Smith, the prophet to use water as a symbol in remembrance of the blood of the Savior which was shed for us.

Thanks again for the question.

Sincerely,

Donny Osmond


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