This book is a collection of related stories by members of the Adrian Dominican congregation that reflects the creative movement that has taken place in religious life as women have responded to the inspiration of Vatican Council II as well as to the impact of contemporary culture. While the impetus to renewal came directly from the Church authority, adaptation and change far exceeded what was originally envisioned by those who authorized the process, particularly when the institutes responded to the directive to "consult all the members."The contributors to this book trace the most critical influences that moved religious congregations toward a renewed religious life. They embraced a God who does not remain static but who moves in human history, a loving God who relates to us in care and compassion, a Holy Spirit who dwells within and inspires through discernment the decisions and directions that are to be taken, a sense of personal worth and empowerment as women baptized into gospel mission and ministry, a response to Church teaching that action on behalf of justice is constitutive of Gospel mission. In renewing their religious life, women have an important experience to offer the Church for ongoing renewal in the future, as reflection upon these essays and continuing dialogue will reveal.>

For at least the past two decades, international Anglicanism has been gripped by a crisis of identity: what is to be the dynamic between autonomy and interdependence? Where is authority to be located? How might the local relate to the international? How are the variously diverse national churches to be held together 'in communion'? "A Still More Excellent Way" presents a comprehensive account of the development and nature of metropolitical authority and the place of the 'province' within Anglican polity, with an emphasis on the contemporary question of how international Anglicanism is to be imagined and take shape. The first comprehensive historical examination of the development of metropolitical authority and provincial polity within international Anglicanism, the book offers hope to those wearied by the deadlock and frustration around questions of authority which have dogged Anglicanism.