LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2026, Page 253

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

253

Proper Administration of the Lord’s Supper

There is no reason to question the Synod’s time-honored position on this matter.
The elements referred to in Scripture are without question bread and wine. The
Synod therefore rightly opposes the substitution of pasteurized grape juice for
wine in the Sacrament. Rather, the Commission echoes Concordia Theological

THE USE OF PRE-PACKAGED
ELEMENTS
IN THE LORD’S SUPPER

Seminary’s “Opinion of the Department of Systematic Theology”:

We strongly urge, therefore, lest confusion be multiplied,
offense be given, consciences and peace within the church
be disturbed, that Lutheran pastors and people continue a
consistent practice in support of the Scripturally designated
elements in Holy Communion, especially as regards the use
of wine, “the fruit of the vine,” which Christ instituted when
He gave to His church this new testament in His blood.11

Historical Background
Of the three practices that are named in 2023 Res. 5-15, the most recent—at least

In conclusion, we commend once more the Synod’s long-standing teaching that

in the LCMS—is the introduction of pre-packaged bread and wine (or grape juice).

only bread and wine should be used in the Lord’s Supper, since “the use of an

COVID-19 led to skyrocketing use of the packets in many Protestant and Evangel-

element other than wine is an alien practice in the churches of the Augsburg Con-

ical churches,12 and also to some use in the LCMS. The recent rise of pre-packaged

fession and brings about doubt whether the Sacrament is offered or not” (2001

elements resulted from the mystery of how COVID-19 was spreading. The use of

Res. 3-16).

packets was linked to other changes in church life, from widespread temporary
suspension of worship in many churches, to parking lot services, to physical separation of individuals and families in sanctuaries, and so forth. For one vendor of
the pre-packaged elements, sales rose by 1,000 percent in the year after COVID-19
hit the US.13
Over the centuries, various ways of providing the communion elements have been
employed in the church catholic. With regard to the bread, practice has varied
through church history. The earliest evidence indicates that ordinary table bread
was used. The Roman Catholic tradition now is to use only unleavened wheat
bread; churches of the East generally use leavened bread. For many years a larger

11

“Opinion of the Department of Systematic Theology,” 80. Earlier in its opinion, the Systematic department offers this strong caution: “Those who simply ‘prefer’ to receive grape juice instead of wine
should be led to see that their ‘preference’ is in violation of Scripture’s own clear teaching and that
they are thereby making the Sacrament an uncertain matter, if in fact not invalid. Moreover, it is to
be feared that such tampering with the Sacrament may in the final analysis involve a deeper error,
the relegating of the Lord’s Supper to a mere memorial meal instead of the blessed means of grace
that Christ has constituted it to be for our spiritual well-being, for the forgiveness of sins” (80). See
Appendix B for the full text of this opinion.

13
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

12

Lutheranism can arguably be placed under the Protestant and the Evangelical umbrella as a church
body that stems from the sixteenth-century Reformation. However, within this document our general
practice will be to distinguish confessional Lutheranism from other Protestants and Evangelicalism.

13

Parija Kavilanz, “Easter Is Here, and So Are Disposable, Pre-filled Communion Cups,” CNN Business,
April 7, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/business/prefilled-communion-cups/index.html.

14
Proper Administration of the Lord’s Supper

loaf was employed—sometimes leavened and sometimes not. Both unleavened

when the Sacrament was taken to the sick and in the practice mentioned by certain

and leavened bread have been used, usually made from wheat flour, although there

church fathers of laity taking home the host for communing privately and in the

is evidence that in some places other grains were acceptable to make the flour for

communion of young children.18 In the East the Sacrament “is always given in both

the bread. Usually the unleavened bread for the Sacrament is made with only flour

forms—bread and wine.”19 Thus, the Roman practice of communing in only one

and water, but in some places oil is added, and in others wine or salt may also be in

kind is a novelty in the catholic tradition that, unfortunately, became the standard

the dough.14 The creation of the individual host dates to the seventh or eighth cen-

in the medieval Roman Catholic Church. Protests against the practice of with-

tury, and by the ninth century the practice of individually made unleavened hosts

holding the cup preceded the Reformation, but with the Reformers the chalice was

was nearly uniform in the West (almost always baked in monasteries with prayer

returned to the laity in virtually every strand of the Reformation.

and fasting). However, a few, even in the West, preferred a single loaf of leavened

As noted above, however, some Protestants began the variation of using some-

bread for the Eucharist.15

thing other than wine in the cup. Then, beginning in the twentieth century and

With the Reformation came more change. The Reformed eventually insisted on

due to advances in knowledge about disease transmission, the common chalice

the use of ordinary loaves in the Supper, because of the symbolism inherent there-

gradually gave way to the use of individual metal cups or glasses and then indi-

in, while Lutherans generally retained the Roman practice of individual hosts.16

vidual plastic cups. The cups were almost always filled in advance of the service.

The wine of the Supper through history also exhibits significant variety. Only grape

The rationale for the practice is the assumption that communicants are thereby
protected from colds, flu, or other diseases. (It should be noted, however, that this

wine appears to have been used throughout the church, although some heretical

assumption cannot be firmly substantiated and that there is no verifiable evidence

groups used only water rather than wine. While water alone was condemned, wine

of any transmission of infections via the common cup.)20 Over time the use of indi-

was typically diluted with water in the ancient world, in Jewish practice, and so

vidual portions of wine became common also in the LCMS, and the Synod formally

also in the church. Augustine mentions the practice, and Cyprian of Carthage com-

approved the use of individual glasses in 1944.21

ments on this theologically, although the practice was more likely the result of
practicality and custom than theology.17 The grape varieties used for wine varied.
The practice of communing in one kind, or withholding the cup, is of course one of
the most significant variations that occurred in the practice of the Lord’s Supper.
The practice of the New Testament church, as we know from Corinth, or of the

18

See Patrick Toner, “Communion under Both Kinds,” II. History of Disciplinary Variations, 2, in
The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4 (Robert Appleton Company, 1908), https://www.newadvent.org/
cathen/04175a.htm (accessed February 22, 2026).

19

“Holy Eucharist,” Orthodox Church in America, https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/
worship/the-sacraments/holy-eucharist (accessed August 22, 2024).

20

In 1998 the US Center for Disease Control “reported that there had never been an outbreak of
infection related to the communion cup and that a theoretical risk of transmitting infectious diseases by using a common communion cup exists, but that the risk is so small that it is undetectable.” See “COVID-19 and Holy Communion” Public Health 187 (2020): 134–35, https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.puhe.2020.08.012. A later study published in light of COVID-19 came to this same conclusion that
“the common communion cup may serve as a potential vehicle for transmission. However, the risk is
considerably lower compared to other conditions of social gathering. Furthermore, the transmission
of any infectious disease has never been documented” (emphasis added); see Dimitrios Anyfantakis,
“Holy Communion and Infection Transmission: A Literature Review,” Cureus Journal of Medical Science, June 21, 2020, https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.8741.

21

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, 1944 Convention Proceedings, 254–55.

Western Church in general into the twelfth century was clearly Communion in
both kinds, although there were exceptions in isolated circumstances, for example,

14

See Henri Leclercq, “Host,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 7 (Robert Appleton Company, 1910),
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07489d.htm (accessed August 19, 2024).

15

Lucia Graziano, “Communion Wafers Instead of Loaves: A History,” Aleteia, February 7, 2023, https://
aleteia.org/2023/02/07/communion-wafers-instead-of-loaves-a-history (accessed August 19, 2024).

16

“Host,” Catholic Encyclopedia.

17

Augustine, “On Christian Doctrine,” in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2, ed. Philip Schaff (Hendrickson reprint, 1995), 590; Cyprian, “Epistle 62: Caecilius, on the Sacrament of the Cup of the Lord,”
in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5, ed. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson (Hendrickson reprint, 1995), 358–64.

15

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2026 Convention Workbook