Anglican wine bars set to take over Birmingham
If you’ve wanted to work for the Church of England but have felt constrained by the whole clergy thing, Birmingham Cathedral in England may have just the position for you: sommelier.
According to this article, the Cathedral has hired a new “director of hospitality and welcome” away from a department store. He plans to open a chain of wine bars in the downtown area as well as implementing “loyalty cards” for regular parishioners (on the tenth worship you get a tall glass of forgiveness?).
Mark Hope-Urwin, the new director, said: “We’re not trying to encourage drinking, but the cathedral has to engage more with the city and find ways of meeting people on their territory.”
Perhaps educating parishioners about wine will lead to an upgrading of the Communion wine? Wouldn’t want them to spit that, after all.
Hit the comments with your thoughts on what’s on the wine list at an Anglican wine bar!
One of the "seven best wine blogs." 
One of the three best wine blogs
On September 1st, 2008 at 6:20 pm ,Dylan wrote:
I read about this over at vinography as well. I think this is a fantastic idea. The Church like anything else is a marketable product/service. Poor marketing has led to a lack of community interaction and a disenchanted opinion towards coming in every Sunday. If you meet your audience on a common ground with something as social as wine, I don’t see why it couldn’t work wonders.
For his first trick he’ll turn water to wine, for his second, wine into new religious followers. Brilliant, I think.
On September 2nd, 2008 at 7:58 am ,Ben wrote:
If only the Mormons and Baptists would follow suit.
On September 2nd, 2008 at 11:06 am ,Good news, Ye of Faith! | Wine Tasting & Reviews at the Wine School | Wine Glasses wrote:
[...] in episcopal purple. (There’s an episcopal purple? I’ve got to find me a swatch). Dr. Vino ponders whether communion wines will be upgraded. I wonder how many days of sinning a flight of [...]
On September 2nd, 2008 at 12:05 pm ,Rich wrote:
In the past year, our church started taking a donation of wine for services each month and publicizing the donor in their bulletin. Since then, the quality of the wine served has improved a great deal. Would Anglicans avoid Italian wines? Would they order a lot of splits? Hmmm.
On September 2nd, 2008 at 12:22 pm ,Count Mourvedre wrote:
White Zin….Greek wines (except Retsina)…anything French…especially with a religious looking label (i.e. Ch.Carbonnieux)
On September 2nd, 2008 at 8:22 pm ,Good news, Ye of Faith! | Food and Wine Blog wrote:
[...] swathed in episcopal purple. (There’s an episcopal purple? I’ve got to find me a swatch). Dr. Vino ponders whether communion wines will be upgraded. I wonder how many days of sinning a flight of [...]
On September 4th, 2008 at 7:39 am ,Michael wrote:
As a born and raised Catholic, I wish that the Mother Church would follow their similar-minded brethren and up the wine in content and quality. I think Italian would be a great idea. Interestingly, where I went to church as a child, they served white, which was sort of interestingly incongruous with the idea of transubstantiation, something the Anglicans, if I am not mistaken, will not be similarly hamstrung by.
On November 27th, 2008 at 4:17 pm ,Jodi wrote:
I love the great insight!,
On February 11th, 2009 at 8:58 am ,Brian wrote:
While on the subject of communion wine, many suppliers say that their wine complies with Canon Law. Does this mean that we should not use Marks and Spencer table wine at our communion?