ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the myth of the primarily rural setting of Extended Communion. Extended Communion policy is formulated on a national level, which makes change a more complex process. In the case of Extended Communion, the root narrative is the decline in stipendiary clergy and pastoral reorganization. One of the implications of a deductive top-down view of practical theology and liturgical studies is that such an approach does not allow for practice to be the crucible of theory. In his seminal work on congregational studies, Hopewell classifies congregational narratives as comic, romantic, tragic, and ironic tales. Stroup also emphasizes the importance of narrative: The community's common narrative is the glue that binds its members together. If the research was on a different scale and integrated into the organizational structure, it might have been possible to begin to change policy and thus this inquiry would then be an exercise in action research.
