[Vision2020] Church Will Serve Communal Wine at UI

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (July 28, 2005) Moscow-Pullman Daily News -

I am satisfied with the outcome of this issue, as I am certain that
everybody else is.

Wine will be served for communion as permitted by UI President White, in
accordance with established UI policy.  However, minors will be provided
grape juice.  Service of alcohol to be monitored by Sodexho, the food
service provider.

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Church will serve communal wine at UI

By Megan Doyle, Daily News staff writer

Christ Church in Moscow has been given approval to serve communal wine at a
Sunday worship at the University of Idaho Kibbie Dome. The service will be
in conjunction with the church's history conference and Trinity Festival
that begins Aug. 7. 
UI President Tim White signed the permit Wednesday. It includes an addendum
that grape juice instead of wine will be available for minors. 

Sodexho, the food service provider at the Kibbie Dome, will monitor the
service of alcohol "in a manner that assures minors do not have access to
alcohol," it states in the permit. 

Christ Church is responsible for meeting insurance requirements. 

Two Moscow women have raised concerns with the university that Christ Church
should not be allowed to give alcohol to minors on state property. 

Though Moscow residents Saundra Lund and Rosemary Huskey did not file an
official complaint regarding the serving of alcohol for the event, they have
sent correspondence to the university expressing their views on allowing the
permit. 

"Quantity doesn't matter," Lund said. 

On private property during the regular Sunday worship, alcohol requirements
are different, they said. 

"The prohibition of alcohol consumption by minors is a method that least
burdens religious practices while protecting the state's compelling
interest," the women wrote in a June 10 e-mail to the university. 

Mike Lawyer, administrative assistant to Christ Church Pastor Douglas
Wilson, said he was unaware of the requirement that Sodexho monitor the
event and did not want to comment on it. 

"It's purely worship, it has nothing to do with recreation or selling,"
Lawyer said. 

"The whole thing is about whether we can worship or not," he said. UI just
happened to get stuck in the middle of the debate. 

The wine used has an alcohol content of 13.5 percent. 

"We put the wine in little tiny cups. They hold 1.5 teaspoons," Lawyer said.


"We always have grape juice available. Every Sunday we have a ring of cups
on the trays with grape juice," he said, adding that children are not
limited to grape juice. 

Huskey said she and Lund are not trying to deny children the opportunity to
participate in communion, but grape juice would serve the same purpose. 

"For me it's a significant issue because - what does the research show?"
Lund said, citing negative impacts of alcohol. 

About 1,500 people are expected to attend the worship service at the Kibbie
Dome. The regular Sunday service for Christ Church's 700 members is at Logos
School. 

"(Doug Wilson's) hoping that some publicity of him being persecuted will be
a rallying point," Lund said. 

The featured speakers at the event are J. Steven Wilkins, Doug Wilson and
Peter Lillback. 

Wilson is the pastor of Christ Church in Moscow and co-author of a
controversial pamphlet with Wilkins titled "Southern Slavery, As It Was,"
which discusses pre-Civil War slave life. 

Wilkins has attended previous Christ Church conferences. 

Lillback is an author of theology and history books and is the executive
director of the Providence Forum, an organization dedicated to educating
Americans on faith and values of the nation's founding fathers. 

The deadline to register for the conference is Monday. For more information
on the Trinity Festival, visit the Christ Church Web site at
www.christkirk.com.

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they
are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say
about their cause, but what they say about their opponents."

-- Robert F. Kennedy