As someone notes above the Roman church decided at some stage to withhold the cup from the laity. I suppose this had something to do with cost and availability. The English church returned the cup to the people- as (I assume other Protestant groups did as well) but only celebrated the eucharist on special occasions- which meant they weren't getting through great quantities of wine.
In my day most churches got their wines from ecclesiastical suppliers. It was nasty, sugary stuff; you wouldn't want to drink it socially. I did however have a colleague with a drink problem who used to "cream" small amounts off the top of all the bottles in the hope that nobody would notice.
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Date: 2015-07-07 06:14 pm (UTC)In my day most churches got their wines from ecclesiastical suppliers. It was nasty, sugary stuff; you wouldn't want to drink it socially. I did however have a colleague with a drink problem who used to "cream" small amounts off the top of all the bottles in the hope that nobody would notice.