Why Bishops? What's so special about Bishops? What are Bishops called to and how best can they do it? This book is the single resource of answers to all the questions one could conceivably have about what a Bishop is and their function and purpose in the Church. Paul Avis offers a fascinating account of the ministerial identity of the bishop, and in particular the tasks and roles of episcopal ministry. Placing the Bishop within his wider ecclesiological framework, Avis illuminates the role of the individual in episcopal ministry. The book sets the vital work of a Bishop within an ecclesiological framework: the Bishop in the Anglican Communion, within the Church of Christ, within the purposes of God.

Leading spiritual teacher John Philip Newell reveals how Celtic spirituality, listening to the sacred around us and inside of us, can help to heal the earth, overcome our conflicts and reconnect with ourselves. Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul offers a new spiritual foundation for our lives, once centered on encouragement,guidance and hope for creating a better world. Sharing the long hidden tradition of Celtic Christianity, explaining how this earth-based spirituality can help us rediscover the natural rhythms of life and deepen our spiritual connection with God, with each other and with the earth. Newell introduces some of Celtic Christianity's leading practitioners, both saints and pioneers of faith, whose timeless wisdom is more necessary than ever, including: Pelagius, who shows us how to look beyond sin to affirm our sacredness as part of all God's creation and courageously stands up for our principles in the face of oppression. Brigid of Kildare, who illuminates the interrelationship of all things and reminds us of the power of the sacred feminine to overcome those seeking to control us. John Muir, who encourages us to see the holiness and beauty of wilderness and what we must do to protect these gifts. Teilhard de Chardin, who inspires us to see how science, faith, and our future tell one universal story that beings with sacredness.

As we enter a new millennium, there is a growing vacuum of leadership among the younger generation. The need is great for young men and women who will rise to the challenge--in the face of great opportunities and great obstacles--to be obedient to the call of leadership. This is the rallying call Paul Borthwick puts forth inLeading The Way. He asserts that leadership is not just reserved for those with the right education, abilities, status or background. Rather, God is calling all young Christians who have the vision and responsibility to persevere, to fill this growing leadership vacuum.

The author examines the Christian literature of the first three centuries for evidence of the development both of the special priesthood of the ordained and the general priesthood of all believers. He demonstrates that the development of the special priesthood was closely linked to the emerging division between the clergy and the laity, and that these developments harmed the expression of the general priesthood. 'The Priesthood of Some Believers' is the only detailed and comprehensive study of the way the development of the special priesthood affected that of the general priesthood.

In Britain and the West Christians have watched helplessly while teachers, politicians and the media have prised apart sacred and secular, consigning the sacred to the realm of the private and unimportant. After a careful analysis of the state of Western churches, Robinson and Smith challenge conventional leadership styles. They reject fix-it programmes, which rarely transplant well, and urge ministers to focus on what really matters: to help people to experience intimacy with God, to encounter the grace of God and speak about it to others. From a Christian viewpoint there can never be two worlds, only God's world, but Christians have retreated into sacred space, rather than reaching out. This book cuts across contemporary leadership thinking.

How can growing churches develop a financial framework that will enhance their mission? The declining trends in religious belief and practice in twenty-first-century America are well documented, but they mask the vitality and growth experienced by many individual congregations. Unfortunately, leaders of these growing churches sometimes lack a firm grasp on what's required for their church to maintain financial equilibrium. This is true for newly formed congregations as well as established churches. This book, which does not assume readers' familiarity with principles of accounting or finance, will help facilitate constructive conversations between clergy and lay leaders on money matters. By describing in everyday language some of the practical issues that promote (or erode) financial sustainability, this book will remove the mystery and frustration faith communities often experience when discussing their financial challenges. What activities within the organization's control promote long-term financial sustainability? The answers create a framework that is a prerequisite for meeting any church's missional objectives over the long run.

The Mission of God is a basic book for every Christian who is serious about his part in the mission of God to the world. It reflects responsible Biblical understanding and current changes in missionary thinking. Already widely known in German as Missio Dei, this English edition will extend its influence.

Holiness and Ministry: A Biblical Theological of Ordination is a response to the call of the World Council of Churches for renewed theological reflection on the biblical roots of ordination to strengthen the vocational identity of the ordained and to provide a framework for ecumenical dialogue. The volume is grounded in the assumption that the vocation of ordination requires an understanding of holiness and how it functions in human religious experience. The goal is to construct a biblical theology of ordination, which is embedded in broad reflection on the nature of holiness. The study of holiness and ministry interweaves three methodologies. First, the History of Religions describes two theories of holiness in the study of religion, as a dynamic force and as a ritual resource, which play a central role in biblical literature and establish the paradigm of ordination to Word and Sacrament in Christian tradition. Second, the study of the Moses in the Pentateuch and the formation of the Mosaic Office illustrate the ways in which the two views of holiness model ordination to the prophetic word and to the priestly ritual. And, third, Canonical Criticism provides the lens to explore the ongoing influence of the Mosaic Office in the New Testament literature. Holiness and Ministry is a resource for candidates of ordination to discern their call-experience and to establish professional identity within individual traditions of Christianity, while also providing a resource for ecumenical dialogue on the nature and purpose of Christian ordination.

BARONESS COX OF QUEENSBURY was appointed a Life Peer in 1982. A former deputy speaker of the House of Lords, she is a tireless advocate for international human rights. She visits the most forgotten people in the world - often in highly dangerous conditions - to carry their stories of abuse and persecution back to the West. She has risked her life many times while taking aid to war victims in Armenia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and South Sudan, and Syria. Honorary Vice President of the Royal College of Nursing, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, recipient of the Wilberforce Award and of the Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, she has also received honorary degrees from universities on three continents. Her motivation is profoundly Christian: "Faith without deeds is dead; love without action is dead." This new edition has been revised throughout to bring Baroness Cox's remarkable story up to date.