In early Victorian England there was intense interest in understanding the early Church as an inspiration for contemporary sanctity. This was manifested in a surge in archaeological inquiry and also in the construction of new churches using medieval models. Some Anglicans began to use a much more complicated form of ritual involving vestments, candles, and incense. This "Anglo-Catholic" movement was vehemently opposed by evangelicals and dissenters, who saw this as the vanguard of full-blown "popery." The disputed buildings, objects, and art works were regarded by one side as idolatrous and by the other as sacred and beautiful expressions of devotion. Dominic Janes seeks to understand the fierce passions that were unleashed by the contended practices and artifacts - passions that found expression in litigation, in rowdy demonstrations, and even in physical violence. During this period, Janes observes, the wider culture was preoccupied with the idea of pollution caused by improper sexuality. The Anglo-Catholics had formulated a spiritual ethic that linked goodness and beauty. Their opponents saw this visual worship as dangerously sensual. In effect, this sacred material culture was seen as a sexual fetish. The origins of this understanding, Janes shows, lay in radical circles, often in the context of the production of anti-Catholic pornography which titillated with the contemplation of images of licentious priests, nuns, and monks.

The first two archbishops of Canterbury after the Norman Conquest, Lanfranc and Anselm, were towering figures in the medieval church and the sixth archbishop, the martyred Thomas Becket, is perhaps the most famous figure ever to hold the office. In between these giants of the ecclesiastical world came three less noteworthy men: Ralph d'Escures, William of Corbeil, and Theobald of Bec. Jean Truax's volume in the Ashgate Archbishops of Canterbury Series uniquely examines the pontificates of these three minor archbishops. Presenting their biographies, careers, thought and works as a unified period, Truax highlights crucial developments in the English church during the period of the pontificates of these three archbishops, from the death of Anselm to Becket. The resurgent power of the papacy, a changed relationship between church and state and the expansion of archiepiscopal scope and power ensured that in 1162 Becket faced a very different world from the one that Anselm had left in 1109. Selected correspondence, newly translated chronicle accounts and the text and a discussion of the Canterbury forgeries complete the volume.

The first two archbishops of Canterbury after the Norman Conquest, Lanfranc and Anselm, were towering figures in the medieval church and the sixth archbishop, the martyred Thomas Becket, is perhaps the most famous figure ever to hold the office. In between these giants of the ecclesiastical world came three less noteworthy men: Ralph d'Escures, William of Corbeil, and Theobald of Bec. Jean Truax's volume in the Ashgate Archbishops of Canterbury Series uniquely examines the pontificates of these three minor archbishops. Presenting their biographies, careers, thought and works as a unified period, Truax highlights crucial developments in the English church during the period of the pontificates of these three archbishops, from the death of Anselm to Becket. The resurgent power of the papacy, a changed relationship between church and state and the expansion of archiepiscopal scope and power ensured that in 1162 Becket faced a very different world from the one that Anselm had left in 1109. Selected correspondence, newly translated chronicle accounts and the text and a discussion of the Canterbury forgeries complete the volume.

What Roger Ferlo did for the Bible in Opening the Bible, volume 2 of The New Church s Teaching Series, Jeffrey Lee now does for the prayer book in volume 7 of the series. Opening the Prayer Book introduces us to the history and liturgies of The Book of Common Prayer, and helps us understand why the prayer book is such an important aspect of Anglican self-understanding. Lee begins with the fundamental question, What is common prayer? He explores some of the ways in which our worship according to The Book of Common Prayer affects who we are as a church, and the way it shapes our lives of faith. In chapter 2 Lee turns to the development of patterns of liturgy from the time of Jesus to the Reformation, tracing changes in the primary liturgies of baptism, eucharist, and daily prayer. The American prayer book is the focus of chapter 3, from the earliest revisions in the new nation through the liturgical scholarship that led to the substantial theological and liturgical changes in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Chapter 4 begins a survey of the pages of the prayer book itself. Lee examines in particular the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter, baptism and eucharist, and the daily office, with a view to understanding the way the parts of the services are rooted in the historical prayers of the church and at the same time reflect the living tradition of Christians today. This theme is further developed in chapter 5, which focuses on the prayer book and our common life. Here Lee discusses questions of how a common prayer book can be responsive to a growing variety of pastoral situations and diverse cultures in a fast-changing world. The final chapter addresses the future of the prayer book within the Anglican Communion, in light of demands for further revision and for greater freedom to adapt the prayer book to local needs and beliefs. As with each book in The New Church s Teaching Series, recommended resources for further reading and questions for discussion are included.

The book explores the twenty-first novel from the perspective that it is more concerned with theological debate than we might like to think. It reads five twentieth-century writers who have written the equivalent of sermons, from the perspective of a man who was denied access to the Anglican clergy because of his homosexuality, and finds a parallel tradition of exasperation at the church's obduracy against homosexuals and determination that the church must recognize its homosexual ministers.

Henry Francis Lyte moved to All-Saints Church in Brixham, Devon in 1824, where he became chairman of the schools committee, established the first Sunday school in the Torbay area and created a Sailors' Sunday School. The primary object of both schools was to provide education for children and seamen for whom other schooling was almost impossible. He organised an Annual Treat for the 800-1000 Sunday school children, which included a short religious service followed by tea and sports in the field. Shortly after Lyte's arrival in Brixham, he attracted such large crowds that the church had to be enlarged. Lyte was an expert flute player, spoke Latin, Greek, and French; enjoyed discussing literature; and was knowledgeable about wild flowers. At his Brixham home, Berry Head House, a former military hospital, Lyte created a magnificent library largely of theology and old English poetry, described in his obituary as one of the most extensive and valuable in the West of England. Nevertheless, Lyte was also able to identify with his parish of fishermen, visiting their homes and their ships in harbour, supplying every vessel with a Bible, and compiling songs and a manual of devotions for use at sea. A friend of Samuel Wilberforce, he also opposed slavery, organising an 1833 petition to Parliament requesting it be abolished in Great Britain. In poor health throughout his life, Lyte suffered various respiratory illnesses including asthma and bronchitis, and by the 1840s, he was spending much of his time in the warmer climates of France and Italy. Lyte spent the summer of 1847 at Berry Head, writing his best known hymn, Abide With Me. After one final sermon to his congregation he left again for Italy, and died at Nice on 20 November 1847. Other well-known hymns include Praise, my Soul, the King of Heaven and Pleasant are Thy Courts Above.

Sydney Anglicans, always ultra-conservative in terms of liturgy, theology and personal morality, have increasingly modelled themselves on sixteenth century English Puritanism. Over the past few decades, they have added radical congregationalism to the mix. They have altered church services, challenged church order, and relentlessly opposed all attempts to ordain women as priests, let alone bishops. Muriel Porter unpacks how Australia's largest and, until recently, richest diocese developed its ideological fervour, and explores the impact it is having both in Australia and the Anglican Communion.

Sydney Anglicans, always ultra-conservative in terms of liturgy, theology and personal morality, have increasingly modelled themselves on sixteenth century English Puritanism. Over the past few decades, they have added radical congregationalism to the mix. They have altered church services, challenged church order, and relentlessly opposed all attempts to ordain women as priests, let alone bishops. Muriel Porter unpacks how Australia's largest and, until recently, richest diocese developed its ideological fervour, and explores the impact it is having both in Australia and the Anglican Communion.

The nine criteria the Church of England uses to discern potential vocations to the priesthood are explored, and linked with personal qualities that are necessary for new, but also existing, leaders in a church and culture which has changed much over the last 50 years.

In Anglicanism Reimagined Andrew Shanks challenges all who are tempted to erect boundaries around their faith. Far more important than dogma and metaphysics, he argues, is the need to be open to all, and to engage with people who hold views at odds with our own. He shows how a commitment to this ideal can create fresh energy and new ways forward for the Church.

The role of bishops in the process of Reformation in the 16th century, studied from their surviving writings and contemporary discussion. The English bishops played a crucial role in the process of Reformation in the sixteenth century, from the first arrival of continental Reformed thought to the virtual extinction of the office in 1559. This work has at its core the bishops' own understanding of the episcopate, drawn from their surviving writings and other contemporary discussions; such a study is key to understanding what became of the English Church of the middle ages and what it was to become under Elizabeth. Carleton examines the interplay between bishop and king, the episcopate in the context of other orders, and the social context of the office; he studies episcopal activity in key areas such as preaching, ordaining, and opposing heresy; and he notes the influence of the models which the bishops themselves set up as ideals, most notably Christ himself as the ideal bishop. The backgrounds of the bishops are set out in the appendix.

In this book a veteran country parson emerges from obscurity to focus upon the root causes and a possible long term solution of the most intractable problem facing today's Christianity, and especially his own Anglican Communion - its crippling and deep-seated disunity in the face of relentless secularist attack. John Fitch's "eirenicon," defined as "a proposal tending to make peace," while explicitly disclaiming the slick or superficial, offers a distinctive long-term approach to this issue with a touch of originality. His intriguing diagram on the front cover hints at the line taken - a no-holds-barred analysis of the uniquely Anglican concept of "churchmanship." The book, though deadly serious, is by no means devoid of humour; at the very least it deserves a patient reading from all who share the author's concerns. Born in June 1922, John Fitch read History and Theology at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. After preparing for ordination at Wells Theological College in Somerset, he served for forty years in various Suffolk parishes, retiring in 1987. He was appointed an Honorary Canon of St Edmundsbury in 1975 and was a co-founder of the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust. Now living in Essex, he has one son, two daughters, and seven grandchildren. His previous areas of publication have been antiquarian and genealogical.

The prestigious Prideaux Lectures were given in 1990 by Adrian Hastings, published here in volume form. With a distinctive and fresh approach, he surveys the vast range of interactions between the Christian church and the English state both historically and theologically. The central theme is the tension between the intrinsic dualism within the Christian approach to church and state and the pressure towards monism inherent in the Reformation establishment. While contrasting Roman Catholic and Free Church with Anglican past experience, the concluding chapter assesses recent developments in which the established church has effectively recovered a dualist stance. At a time when the appointment of the next Archbishop of Canterbury has heightened discussion about the role of the church in contemporary society, Professor Hastings makes a significant contribution to the subject. Church and State provides a frame of reference at once historical and theological, for a subject which is too frequently discussed merely descriptively or moralistically. It is in fact the frame of reference underlying the author's recent and much acclaimed works Robert Runcie and A History of English Christianity 1920-1985.

In Anglicans in Australia, bishop and theological commentator Tom Frame identifies the faultlines and tensions that exist within the contemporary Anglican Church, describes continuing debates over doctrine and their effect on the Australian Churchs relationship with the global Anglican Communion, and outlines problems, prospects and possibilities over the next twenty-five years. This thoroughly researched and carefully constructed book, written by a perceptive and judicious insider, will help Anglicans understand their own complex religious institution and illuminate it for outsiders as well.

The changing relationship between the church and its supporters is key to understanding changing religious and social attitudes in Victorian Britain. Using the records of the Anglican Church's home-missionary organizations, Flew charts the decline in Christian philanthropy and its connection to the growing secularization of society.

'Children are equal members of the Church by virtue of their baptism', writes Stephen Lake 'and therefore should have full access to the sacraments, the signs of God's love, and most especially to the bread and wine of the Eucharist.' This valuable resource book will assist all parishes in welcoming children to communion now that the Church of England has approved new Regulations. Let the Children Come to Communion: encourages the admission of baptized children to communion; summarizes in one place relevant practice, information and theology; shares the experience of those who have already taken this step; aims to help move the debate on, encouraging the Church into full participation. The author's fervent hope is to stir the Church into action on an important issue and to stimulate decision-making about introducing and developing this ministry with children. There are extended interviews with leading practitioners including: David Stancliffe, Stephen Venner, Diana Murrie, Margaret Withers and Mark Russell. Stephen Lake is Sub Dean and Canon Residentiary of St. Albans Cathedral. Stephen served his curacy at Sherborne Abbey before becoming Vicar of Branksome St. Aldhelm, an urban parish in Poole. He was also Rural Dean. After nine years in Branksome he moved to St. Albans in 2001. He is married to Carol and they have three children, all of whom receive Holy Communion. He is the author of the hugely successful Confirmation Prayer Book (SPCK), and also of Using Common Worship: Marriage (Church House Publishing). "Stephen Lake has written a fine, timely guide to the current discussion. I hope his vision will invite and persuade, and that we shall as a Church continue to discover the riches that await us as we listen more thoughtfully and generously to Christ's youngest friends" Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

Anglicanism arguably originated in 1534 when Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, which transferred papal power over the Church of England to the king. Today, approximately 550 dioceses are located around the world, not only in England, but also everywhere that the British Empire's area of influence extended. With an estimated total membership of about 75 million, Anglicanism is one of the largest and most varied Christian denominations. With such a long history and widespread flock, it is not easy to keep track of the variations of a religious community that has not ceased adapting since its inception. Hundreds of entries on significant persons and events, concepts and institutions, rituals and liturgy, and national communities, make this an invaluable reference for religious historians, theologians, and researchers. Also included are an introduction, a chronology that traces the church's evolution over time, and a bibliography.

First published in 1999, This book is a wide-ranging and authoritative review of the reception in England and other countries of Foxe's Acts and Monuments of the English Martyrs from the time of its original publication between 1563 and 1583, up to the nineteenth century. Essays by leading scholars deal with the development of the text, the illustrations and the uses to which the work was put by protagonists in subsequent religious controversies. This volume is derived from the second John Foxe Colloquium held at Jesus College, Oxford in 1997. It is one of a number of research publications designed to support the British Academy Project for the publication of a new edition of Foxe's hugely influential text.

The battle lines are drawn in what some believe will be the final showdown between liberals and conservatives in the Anglican Church. If the two sides can't agree, the cracks which began to show over the ordination of women may well become an unbridgeable chasm and the church will split. The catalyst is the row over the consecration of a gay bishop in America, but Jonathan Clatworthy argues that it goes deeper than that, to the very roots of Anglicanism itself. Clatworthy believes that classical Anglican theology is by definition liberal. It affirms tradition but is open to new insights and humble enough to accept that our knowledge can never be complete or certain. The Church should be inclusive, welcoming, and open to debate, allowing differences of opinion to continue until consensus is reached. Conservative Christians see it differently; this book explains why the two views may well be irreconcilable.

The convocation records of the Churches of England and Ireland are the principal source of our information about the administration of those churches from middle ages until modern times. They contain the minutes of clergy synods, the legislation passed by them, tax assessments imposed by the king on the clergy, and accounts of the great debates about religious reformation; they also include records of heresy trials in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, many of them connected with the spread of Lollardy. However, they have never before been edited or published in full, and their publication as a complete set of documents provides a valuable resource for scholarship. This volume contains the acts of convocation during the pontificate of Henry Chichele. Much of the material was published in E. F. Jacob's edition of Chichele's register, but it has been completely re-ordered and supplemented by other material, to give a much fuller picture of how the institution worked at a time when it was deeply involved in English political life.

Integrity matters. We expect it of leaders in all walks of life. But why is integrity so rare? Jonathan Lamb looks at the example of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians and offers us a model of integrity in leadership that spans the centuries.

This book seeks to bring coherence to two of the most studied periods in British history, Caroline non-conformity (pre-1640) and the British revolution (post-1642). It does so by focusing on the pivotal years of 1638-44 where debates around non-conformity within the Church of England morphed into a revolution between Parliament and its king. Parliament, saddled with the responsibility of re-defining England's church, called its Westminster assembly of divines to debate and define the content and boundaries of that new church. Typically this period has been studied as either an ecclesiastical power struggle between Presbyterians and independents, or as the harbinger of modern religious toleration. This book challenges those assumptions and provides an entirely new framework for understanding one of the most important moments in British history. -- .

A compelling short biography of the 'Lord's horseman cantering towards eternity') John Wesley. Using the as yet unpublished Oxford diaries, the author, himself a Fellow of Wesley's Oxford College, reveals Wesley's extraordinarily complex and paradoxical personality. Originally published by Thomas Nelson in 1964.

First bibliography of all printed material concerned with Westminster Abbey, from parliamentary papers to guide books. Westminster Abbey is one of the most significant ecclesiastical institutions in Britain and occupies a unique position in the life of Church and Nation. Founded as a Benedictine monastery c.960, it is the coronation church and a royal mausoleum, a place of worship and an architectural masterpiece, a national shrine whose collection of monumental sculpture is of international renown. The Abbey's history is inextricably linked with that of both Westminster School [governed directly by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster until 1868] and of St Margaret's church [built by the Westminster monks for the local community, and closely associated with the Abbey ever since]. Thisfully-indexed bibliography is the first of its kind dedicated to a major church, and is a fundamental contribution to the historiography of Westminster Abbey. It provides full bibliographical details of more than 3300 printed works, including parliamentary papers, editions of archival sources, guide books, theses, historical monographs and journal articles. Covering a huge range of subjects from art and architecture to poetry, sermons and Westminster School grammars, it is an indispensable reference work for anyone seeking to know more about this remarkable institution.

Evidence of parish organisation in late medieval England, and the impact of the Henrician Reformation at parish level. The parish and the guild were the two poles round which social and religious life revolved in late medieval England. This study, drawing freely on East Anglian records, shows how influential they were in the lives of their communities in the years before the break with Rome - and provides an implicit commentary on the impact of the Henrician Reformation at parish level. The records of many of the guilds (or fraternities) of East Anglia in the years 1470-1550 are examined for evidence of their form, function and popularity; the spread of fraternities across East Anglia, the size of individual guilds, types of member, and the benefits of guild membership are all studied in detail. The social and religious functions of the fraternities are then compared with the parish, through a study of the records of two Norfolk market towns (Wymondham and Swaffham) and two Suffolk villages (Bardwell and Cratfield). A finalchapter studies the fortunes of the guilds during the early years of the Reformation, up to their dissolution in 1548.KEN FARNHILL is research associate at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York.