Many clergy receive little training in the arts of preaching and it is assumed that they will learn by gaining experience. The renowned American preacher Herbert O'Driscoll suggests that congregations do not want to be given a map showing them how to get to the coast, they want to be drenched in the spray. Narrative preaching is a means of achieving such immediacy. By dramatic story-telling, it invites listeners into enter the text imaginatively and enables them to experience sermons as transformative events. This book aims to provide not just a theoretical introduction, but a resource that uses sermons in the narrative style to reflect on how to prepare and construct them and how to deliver them effectively in the context of worship.

"Living in the Gaze of God" offers an accessible exploration of the theme of ministerial accountability through the lens of one reflective tool - that of formal supervision of ministerial practice. Bold and far-reaching, the book addresses the key presenting issues around a need for a change of culture in the church as regards accountability for ministerial practice. It outlines a theological and practical model of 1-to-1 supervision, arguing that such an approach enables the development of greater attentiveness to God, the self and others and thus enhances accountability. Laying aside the need to offer a 'how-to' approach, Helen Cameron instead brings us a rigorous and dynamic consideration of the interface between supervision, accountability and ministerial practice, and offers a theological underpinning for the issues.

Alleluia is our Song draws together a collection of profound and beautiful seasonal reflections for the great fifty days from Easter Day to Pentecost, arguably the greatest season of the Church's year. Michael Mayne was one of Anglicanism's most compelling and attractive voices, a gifted preacher and writer whose works have remained popular. These unpublished writings come from a large archive and are offered as an inspirational resource for preaching at a time of the year when many preachers seek fresh ways of opening up familiar texts, and also for individual devotional reading.

Worldwide debates over issues of sexuality and gender have come to a head in recent years in mainline and evangelical churches, with the Anglican Communion-a worldwide network of churches that trace their practice to Canterbury and claim some 85 million members-among the most publicly visible sites of contestation. This thorough and compelling analysis of the conflicts within the Communion argues that they are symptoms of long-simmering issues that must be addressed when Anglican bishops and archbishops meet at the 2020 Lambeth Conference. To many, the disagreements over such issues as LGBTQ clergy, same-sex marriage, and women's ordination suggest an insurmountable crisis facing Anglicans, one that may ultimately end the Communion. Christopher Craig Brittain and Andrew McKinnon argue otherwise. Drawing on extensive empirical research and interviews with influential Anglican leaders, they show how these struggles stem from a complex interplay of factors, notably the forces and effects of globalization, new communications technology, and previous decisions made by the Communion. In clarifying both the theological arguments and social forces at play as the bishops and primates of the Anglican Communion prepare to set the Church's course for the next decade, Brittain and McKinnon combine sociological and theological methodologies to provide both a nuanced portrait of Anglicanism in a transnational age and a primer on the issues with which the Lambeth Conference will wrestle. Insightful, informative, and thought-provoking, The Anglican Communion at a Crossroads is an invaluable resource for understanding the debates taking place in this worldwide community. Those interested in Anglicanism, sexuality and the Christian tradition, the sociology of religion, and the evolving relationship between World Christianity and churches in the Global North will find it indispensable.

This unique volume collects together baptismal liturgies in use across five continents to reveal the breadth of theological understanding and diversity of practice in Anglicanism today. Liturgies from the Anglican Churches in over forty countries are translated and presented systematically to facilitate study and comparison. Christian initiation is more than just a rite. Its language and symbolism express varying theological understandings of what it means to belong to the family of God, and also of the sacraments. These are not settled questions, and this volume makes a significant contribution to the continuing debates around these questions within Anglicanism and the wider Church.

The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian denomination and claims a membership of some 80 million members in about 164 countries. Given that there are only around two hundred countries in the world, this makes the churches of the Anglican Communion the most geographically widespread denomination after Roman Catholicism. The 44 essays in this volume embrace a wide range of academic disciplines: theological; historical; demography and geography; and different aspects of culture and ethics. They are united in their discussion of what is effectively a new inter-disciplinary subject which we have termed 'Anglican Studies'. At the core of this volume is the phenomenon of 'Anglicanism' as this is expressed in different places and in a variety of ways across the world. This Handbook covers a far broader set of topics from a wider range of perspectives than has been hitherto attempted in Anglican Studies. At the same time, it doesn't impose a particular theological or historical agenda. The contributions are drawn from across the spectrum of theological views and opinions. It shows that the unsettled nature of the polity is part of its own rich history; and many will see this as a somewhat lustrous tradition. In its comprehensive coverage, this volume is a valuable contribution to Anglican Studies and helps formulate a discipline that might perhaps promote dialogue and discussion across the Anglican world.

Creating Missional Worship explores how contemporary context and Anglican liturgical tradition can be fused together to create engaging and transformative worship. It addresses a key issue that has arisen in the wake of Fresh Expressions: to what extent should worship be shaped by the culture of the day, and how far can it stray from core patterns of worship and still be recognisably Anglican? Tim Lomax offers imaginative ideas and resources for finding freedom within a framework. Using the basic patterns of Common Worship, he outlines a contextual approach to creating worship that is incarnational, sacramental, Trinitarian and revelatory in today's language and cultural forms. He offers many examples and illustrations of how liturgy and contemporary culture can meet in fresh and challenging ways.

Grasping the Heel of Heaven honours the immense legacy to the church of Michael Perham. A skilled and imaginative liturgist, a passionate advocate of women's ministry, an inspirational dean and bishop, a wise and patient administrator, he was above all a faithful priest who loved the Church as the body of Christ. In all his ministry he sought to nourish that body by encouraging its worship and prayer and shaping its governance in the light of gospel ideals. In this volume, friends and colleagues bring their own expertise to reflect on some of the topics and themes that were most important to him, including: * Being transported and transformed by liturgy * The making of Common Worship * The full inclusion of the ministry of women * How structures and decision-making express an understanding of God * Unity despite differences in and through God * The gospel as good news for all Together, the contributors reflect the numerous ways that Michael Perham saw heaven touching earth and earth glimpsing heaven.

How language works in the worship of the church has been vigorously debated during the period of liturgical revision in the twentieth century coming at the end of what is known as the Liturgical Movement. Focussing upon the Church of England and the Anglican tradition, this book traces the history of `liturgical language' as it begins in the Early Church, but with particular emphasis upon the English Reformation liturgies, their background in the Medieval Church and literature and their long and varied life in the Church of England after 1662. Inter-disciplinary in scope, yet rooted in a literary approach, the volume provides a rigorous study of the effect of liturgy upon the theological and devotional life of the Church.