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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Anglican & Episcopalian Churches > General
This study is a sequel to A History of the Episcopal Church in
Liberia 18211-1980 (1992). It is a narrative shaped by
contexts-context of the Episcopal Church and its Christian witness
through the episcopacies of Diocesan Bishops George Daniel Browne,
Edward Wea Neufville II, and Jonathan B. B. Hart; the context of a
modernizing Liberia plunged into unprecedented political violence
by a military coup d'etat in 1980 and a devastating civil war that
ensued and consumed the country for some 14 years; and the context
of shifting external ties with the American Church, the Liberian
Episcopal community in the United States, and the Church of the
Anglican Province of West Africa. D. Elwood Dunn examines what the
church's contemporary history uncovers about Liberia's social
history as it juxtaposes national identity issues with religious
syncretism (a mixture of African traditional religions, Islam, some
elements of Christianity, and basic human secularism) and suggests
challenges for the Episcopal Church's Christian witness going
forward. All of this is done in four concise chapters successively
addressing the episcopate of Bishop Browne, a critical interregnum
period between Browne and his successor, Bishop Neufville, the
episcopate of Neufville, and initiating the episcopate of incumbent
Bishop Hart. This is followed by a general conclusion and
assessment of the church's work. The study ends with an epilogue on
the Episcopal Church that was, the Church that is, and the Church
of the future.
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.
Andrew White is something of a legend: a man of great charm and
energy, whose personal suffering has not deflected him from his
important ministry of reconciliation. Andrew grew up in London, the
son of strongly religious parents: by the age of five he could
repeat the five points of Calvinism. As a child and young man he
was frequently ill, but his considerable intelligence meant that
his studies did not suffer. He set his heart on becoming an
anaesthetist, an ambition he achieved, only to be redirected by God
to Anglican ministry. Since ordination he has had a considerable
role in the work of reconciliation, both between Christian and Jew
and between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim. Often in danger, and always
in pain, he has nevertheless been able to mediate between opposing
extremes. A man of God, he is trusted by those who trust very few.
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