Anglican theology has been a hotbed of debate about the issue of authority since the Reformation. What do we really appeal to when attempting to decide matters of doctrine, worship, ministry or ethics? The debate is very much alive today, between Evangelical, Liberal and Catholic Anglicans around the world. This proposed book focuses on the understanding of authority in Anglican theology. It looks at the way that Anglican theologians, in the past and today, have developed their theories of authority in relation to burning issues. Avis critiques them in a continuous dialogue or running commentary and set them in an ecumenical context, comparing Anglican positions with Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant ones. In each area - Bible, tradition, reason, experience -he sets out a new understanding of authority in a constructive and persuasive way, moving to a series of overall conclusions and recommendations. The sharp critiques of various positions will help to make it the subject of discussion and debate.

The 125 years since the Diocese of Wakefield was formed have seen immense changes both within the Church and within society, including two world wars, a proliferation of faiths (in particular, in the area covered by the diocese, of Islam), a radical change in the status of women inside and outside the church, and a much greater involvement of lay people in the life of the church. The church has moved from being relatively inward looking to a position where community involvement of many kinds has become an imperative. Yet from the beginning, Wakefield has been renowned for its emphasis on mission. As part of it 125th anniversary celebrations, and as the diocese contemplates a changing future, this book by a well-known local historian charts an important aspect of West Yorkshire life. Here is an illustrated story of the diocese, its people and its initiatives in worship and mission from its foundation in 1888 to the present day.

Peter Toon was a Yorkshireman, an Anglican clergyman, theologian, and church historian. Former librarian of Latimer House in Oxford, curate of St Ebbe's, and later a tutor at Oak Hill, after a brief spell in County Durham he moved to America and served churches in the United States until almost the end of his life. He was President of the Prayer Book Society in the United States, but eventually returned to England to serve as Priest-in-Charge of a Staffordshire village church. He was widely in demand as a speaker throughout the Commonwealth, Europe, and Asia. The inaugural Peter Toon Lecture, established in his memory, was delivered by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali on the subject of what the Thirty-nine Articles call the "most wholesome doctrine" of justification by faith. His thoughtful presentation ranges widely from Genesis 15 and Galatians 3, to Augustine, the Reformers, the Council of Trent, Tom Wright, John Piper, and Benedict XVI. 'In a tour-de-force, Bishop Michael tackles the vital subject of being right with God exegetically, historically, theologically, and pastorally. It is stretching, though intelligible for the ordinary lay Christian, and demonstrates good evidence of keeping up with contemporary scholarship on this subject, which is of course vast.' (Lee Gatiss, Director of Church Society) Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali was formerly bishop of Rochester. A personal friend of Peter and Vita Toon, Dr. Nazir-Ali's latest book Triple Jeopardy for the West examines the very hot topics of aggressive secularism, radical Islam, and multiculturalism. He is currently the President of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy, and Dialogue.

The introduction of Common Worship services in the Church of England has gone remarkably smoothly, considering the immensity of the task. But despite its overall success, the sheer variety of material, coupled with the complex rules about what is and is not allowed, have left some parishes, clergy and Readers wondering if this is really the best way to produce good worship. A question such as, 'How do we use Common Worship for a Messy Church service of Holy Communion?' focuses the issue - but it is a question being asked in different ways in lots of different places. In this book, Mark Earey turns to the future, asking whether the framework of canon law, notes and rubrics within which Common Worship operates is any longer fit for purpose. In a mixed economy Church in which fresh expressions of church, alt.worship and new monasticism all sit alongside traditional parish churches, he asks whether it is time for the current rules-based approach to Church of England liturgy to make way for an approach based on trust and accountability. Such an approach would allow for more local flexibility and creativity, but raises big questions about how such worship can be truly indigenous yet authentically Anglican.

Thirty Nine New Articles offers a vision of a fresh, generous, contemporary Anglican faith and life. Inspired by the original Thirty Nine Articles of Religion, the Church of England's historic statement of belief, it explores thirty-nine beliefs and practices that characterize Anglicanism today and the issues it grapples with. Recognizing difference and urging generosity of spirit , author Martin Percy focuses on Anglican understanding of key Christian doctrines; personal faith; our shared life with each other, with other churches and with society around us. He also celebrates some of Anglicanism's guiding spirits, from St Columba to George Herbert. Warm, engaging and inspiring, Thirty Nine New Articles offers crucial and critical insights, proclaiming the Christian faith today and offering an apologia for the Anglican Church. It is essential reading for all seeking fresh and relevant ways of articulating their faith.

This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic, timeless works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.

The wife of an Anglican bishop could expect a life of peace and comfort. But Benjamin Kwashi is the bishop of Jos in Nigeria, a place that is torn by Muslim-Christian violence. Gloria Kwashi has had her home burnt down and has endured rape and beatings. One of the beatings left her blinded, until surgery was able to restore her sight. Despite this, she continues to reach out to widows and orphans and supports her husband in his remarkable ministry in Northern Nigeria. This book is a record of love and endurance that should stimulate us to examine our own lives and how we respond to adversity.

Generous Ecclesiology seeks to present a positive theological response to the issues raised by Mission-Shaped Church and For the Parish. The former reminds us that the church is to engage in creative and imaginative ways with our missionary calling. The latter affirms the place of inherited patterns and structures which cannot simply be discarded. Alert to the danger that discussion about tradition and innovation can become polarized; the editors recognize that living in relation to a generous God shapes our ecclesiology. This vocation is formed by a double constitution of worship and mission. This vocation is for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Generous Ecclesiology takes as its basis the uniqueness of the church's calling in God's world, a world embraced by the generosity of his love. This collection is a contribution to an ongoing conversation; to this end, it engages with a rich range of dialogue partners, historically, ecumenically and culturally as well as theologically. It seeks to offer a rigorous theological resource - inspiring us to drink deeply of the wells of our tradition and inherited patterns. Whether implicitly or explicitly, these essays reflect on or are shaped by the ordinary concerns, challenges and opportunities of ministry.

Elements of Grace explores the journey of Christian faith through the essential "elements" by which we encounter God's grace: Earth, Water, Spirit, Light, Darkness, Discipleship, and Word. By combining the story of Scripture and the stories of everyday life, Barkley Thompson offers a series of profound meditations that communicate the heart of the gospel. Readers will find themselves both comforted and challenged at the way Elements of Grace brings a new understanding to the depth of Christian discipleship.

Title: America and the American church.Author: Henry CaswallPublisher: Gale, Sabin Americana Description: Based on Joseph Sabin's famed bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana, Sabin Americana, 1500--1926 contains a collection of books, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, from the time of their discovery to the early 1900s. Sabin Americana is rich in original accounts of discovery and exploration, pioneering and westward expansion, the U.S. Civil War and other military actions, Native Americans, slavery and abolition, religious history and more.Sabin Americana offers an up-close perspective on life in the western hemisphere, encompassing the arrival of the Europeans on the shores of North America in the late 15th century to the first decades of the 20th century. Covering a span of over 400 years in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, this collection highlights the society, politics, religious beliefs, culture, contemporary opinions and momentous events of the time. It provides access to documents from an assortment of genres, sermons, political tracts, newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps, legislation, literature and more.Now for the first time, these high-quality digital scans of original works are available via print-on-demand, making them readily accessible to libraries, students, independent scholars, and readers of all ages.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++SourceLibrary: Huntington LibraryDocumentID: SABCP04106400CollectionID: CTRG02-B865PublicationDate: 18390101SourceBibCitation: Selected Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of books relating to AmericaNotes: Collation: xviii, 368 p., 5] leaves of plates (1 fold.): ill., map

For many people today, the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday raise more questions than solutions. Likewise, people are often unmoved or confused by 'atonement theories' seeking to explain the purpose of Christ's death. In this thoughtful and heartfelt book, Alison Goodlad turns from abstract argument to poetic imagination for illumination, finding fresh inspiration in the poems of R. S. Thomas. With a Foreword by Lord Harries of Pentregarth, the former Bishop of Oxford, Leaving the Reason Torn offers a compelling exploration of the foundational mysteries of the Christian faith, made real again through the searching words of one of Britain's (specifically Wales') greatest poets. The author brings poetry and theology into synthesis, showing how the depths of the biblical witness can be rediscovered through human questioning and experience. Alison Goodlad is a new voice in the overlapping areas of poetry and religious exploration, but one whose work has already been commended by Archbishop Rowan Williams and by biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, among others. She lives in Exeter.

Since Christianity is an ethical as well as a mystical religion and since individuals live in communities, the church is bound to be involved in politics and other social action that determines the quality of human life. So argues Trevor Beeson in this study of how the Church of England's leaders responded to the radical social changes that transformed life in Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their response was never prompt and rarely enthusiastic,and all too often the bishops resisted change in society as well as in the church. Nonetheless there were always a few prophets who recognised the need for reform and sometimes led the way to its realisation. Trevor Beeson traces the course of a fascinating period of history, starting from the time when church and state were bonded in an all-embracing unity, then moving through turbulent and and sometimes violent times in which the church struggled to discover a new vocation. Trevor Beeson analyses 18 key issues of the period in his usual robust style together with pen-portraits of the leading figures involved.. He ends with a critical evalualtion of the performances of some recent church leaders and outlines what he believes to be the appropriate basis for the intervention of bishops and other clergy in an increasingly secularised society that no longer recognises their authority. The duty to make pronouncements of Christian principle remains but these must normally point decision-makers in constructive directions rather than offering directives for the solutions of complex social and economic problems.

Is there life after death? This question is raised by many people, both believers and non-believers alike. Surveys in the Netherlands have shown that 57% of church members (Roman-Catholic and Protestant) and 55% of the unchurched believe in a life after death.1 It is remarkable that so few members and so many non-members believe this. Even more remarkable is that in both categories more people believe in life after death than in God (40% among church members and 7% of non-members). Consider that church attenA--ders, whenever they recite the Nicene Creed, affirm in the first line their belief in 'God, the Father, the Almighty' and in the last line their belief in 'the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come'. All this appears to indicate a considerable degree of 'wishful thinking' among the unchurched on the one hand and a rather confused belief among many church members on the other. This seems to me sufficient reason to reconsider the question of life after death extensively and critically. The biblical grounds for the belief in life after death will be discussed. Other religions are also considered. In this context, I also discuss reincarnation belief that has come to us from eastern religions and that is accepted by 25% of church members in the Netherlands. Special attention is paid to the interim period between death and resurrection, a subject about which the Bible tells us little and on which most theologians remain silent. I consider therefore what we can learn from the so-called 'near-death experiences' about which there has been much discussion lately due to the work of scientists such as Pim van Lommel, whose recent book, Consciousness Beyond life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience, has received much attention. It appears to provide information about the interim period between death and resurrection, a subject about which the Bible tells us little and on which most theologians remain silent. It is also to consider our scientific knowledge of life and its inescapable limitation. This further requires a discussion of the images that bible and science present of the human person. In this way I arrive at a novel answer to the question: "Is there life after death?"

The book explores those aspects of Donald MacKinnon's theological writings which challenge the claim of the liberal Catholic tradition in the Church of England to have forged an ecclesiological consensus, namely that the Church is the extension of the incarnation. MacKinnon destabilized this claim by exposing the wide gulf between theory and practice in that church, especially in his own Anglo-Catholic tradition within it. For him the collapse of Christendom is the occasion for a dialectical reconstruction of the relation of the Church to Jesus Christ and to the world on the basis of the gospel. His basic claim is that authentic ecclesial existence must correspond with what was revealed and effected by Jesus along his way from Galilee to Jerusalem to Galilee. Reflection on the Church thus takes the form of a lived response shaped by a Christocentric grammar of faith: the submission of the church to Jesus' contemporaneous interrogation, a sustained attentiveness to him and the willing embrace of his 'hour'.

About the Contributor(s): George Hobson is an Episcopal priest and Canon to the Bishop for Theological Education in the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe. He has taught theology in seminaries and theological colleges in many developing countries, including Rwanda, Burundi, Haiti, Armenia, and Pakistan. He is author of a volume of poems and photographs, Rumours of Hope (2005), and contributor to a collective book of poetry, Forgotten Genocides of the Twentieth Century (2005).

James Joseph Walsh, M.D., LL.D., Litt.D., Sc.D. (1865-1942) was an American physician and author, born in New York City. He graduated from Fordham College in 1884 and from the University of Pennsylvania (M.D.) in 1895. After postgraduate work in Paris, Vienna and Berlin he settled in New York.

J. C. Ryle, the first Anglican bishop of Liverpool, is renowned to this day for his simple and powerful preaching. His words carry a strength and boldness, yet they are filled with love and pastoral care. His writing has not only endured, but remains popular, showing him as a master of practical Christianity. This volume, The Upper Room, is a collection of his writings, and each stands alone in its power and usefulness. In fact, several of the entries within, such as Duties of Parents, and Thoughts for Young Men, have been published independently as separate booklets, in order to more widely distribute their usefulness. The quality and poignancy of Ryle's writings keep him relevant and desirable even today. For the Christian who desires to grow, no better voice could be heard than the old bishop of Liverpool.

This handbook is a summary version of the longer "A Time to Heal" report. It provides a guide on the report from the Church of England on the ministry of healing. The report offers an overview of the current state of this ministry, a look at how the ministry takes shape at local level, and a framework for the development of the healing ministry in the 21st century. There are answers to key questions, guidelines for good practice, and radical recommendations for improved effectiveness.