ABSTRACT
The new service book Methodist Worship includes a service of Extended Communion. This service is new to British Methodist liturgy. However, some Methodists are interpreting this in a wider matrix. A further feature of Methodism relevant to Extended Communion is the tradition of the love-feast. The love-feast has also been an integral part of American Methodism. As in Britain, the love-feast declined with the denominalization of Methodism. In 1965, a service was included as an appendix of services in the United Methodist the tradition, giving this an air of the unused, a ritual memory. In America, there was also consideration of the love-feast's theology. Spicer in 1838 distinguished between: the Lord's Supper a divinely instituted means of grace designed equally for all Christians of every Church, whereas the love-feast is a prudential means adopted by as and designed exclusively for us, and those of our friends whom we may chose to invite.
