Sometimes presumed to be a mere relic of British colonialism, the Anglican Church in Burma (Myanmar) has its own complex identity, intricately interwoven with beliefs and traditions that predate the arrival of Christianity. In this essential volume, Edward Jarvis succinctly reconstructs this history and demonstrates how Burma's unique voice adds vital context to the study of Anglicanism's predicament and the future of worldwide Christianity. Over the past two hundred years, the Anglican Church in Burma has seen empires rise and fall. Anglican Christians survived the brutal Japanese occupation, experienced rampant poverty and environmental disaster, and began a tortuous and frustrating quest for peace and freedom under a lawless dictatorship. Using a range of sources, including archival documents and the firsthand accounts of Anglicans from a variety of backgrounds, Jarvis tells the story of the church's life beyond empire, exploring how Christians of non-Western heritage remade the church after a significant part of its liturgical documents and literature was destroyed in World War Two and how, more recently, the church has gained attention for its alignment with influential conservative and orthodox movements within Anglicanism. Comprehensive and concise, this fascinating history will appeal to scholars and students of religious studies, World Christianity, church history, and the history of missions and theology as well as to clergy, seminarians, and those interested in the current crises and future direction of Anglicanism.

What do we need to learn and receive from the other to help us address challenges or wounds in our own tradition? That is the key question asked in what has come to be known as 'receptive ecumenism'. And nowhere is this question more pressing and pertinent than in women's experiences within the church. Based on qualitative research from five focus groups, 'For the Good of the Church' expose the difficulties women face when they work in a church - sexism, unfulfilled vocation, and abuse of power and privilege, as well as the wide range of gifts and skills which women bring in light of these. The second part of the book continues to draw on the particular wounds and gifts, which arise in the focus groups. Specific case studies are used to identify gifts of theology, practice, experience, vocation and power. Against negative prognoses of an 'ecumenical winter', Gabrielle Thomas reveals how radically different theological and ecclesiological perspectives can be a space for learning and receiving gifts for the well-being of the whole Church.

Includes general hymns; hymns for feasts, seasons and saints' days; office hymns for the liturgical year; an enlarged eucharistic section; responsorial psalms, and a new English folk mass setting.