St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, in Washington, DC is one of the most unique churches in the United States. A National Historic Landmark, located just north of Lafayette Square, and in clear view of the White House, it has witnessed the presence within its walls of more notable civilian and military leaders of the United States than any other church in the nation. Apart from the White House, St. John's Church is the oldest building adjacent to Lafayette Square. It was designed, and its construction supervised, by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, a leading architect of the early national period. From its opening in October 1816, every person, beginning with James Madison, who has held the office of President of the United States has attended St. John's at least once. Several Presidents have been members. Thus, St. John's is called "the Church of the Presidents." A significant number of members of St. John's, past and present, have played very prominent roles in the public life of the United States and the city of Washington, DC. This book tells the story of this historic church from its origins to the present, while chronicling notable services held at it, and key events in the lives of distinguished Americans who were personally connected with St. John's during their residence in Washington. REVIEWS The first thing to note about this marvelous history of St. John's Church is the research. From start to finish the facts are meticulously assembled and clearly laid out to the reader. This alone makes the book worth reading. But it is far more than a collection of facts. It is the story--or rather the stories-- of St. John's Church that makes this book stand out as a true gem with very few equals in the annals of Church History. --Harry S. Stout Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Religious History Yale University Sited importantly on its corner across from the White House, St. John's Episcopal Church has served both the famous and Everyman without interruption for nearly 200 years, its architectural evolution an index of the development of the capital itself. Historian Richard Grimmett tells the story of the "Church of the Presidents" in "St. John's Church: Lafayette Square" with the painstaking accuracy of an experienced researcher. Flavored with personalities and rich anecdotes, this book begins life as a Washington classic. --William Seale Editor, White House History author of "The President s House: A History." Because St. John s Church has been so closely associated with presidents, cabinet members, powerful insiders and Washington society anyone interested in the compelling historical details of a slice of Washington life would want to add the book to his or her library. --Mary O. Klein Archivist, Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

For publicity events and speaking engagements, see http: //www.paulgordonchandler.com/schedule.htm. Today's tensions between the 'Islamic' East and 'Christian' West run high. Here Paul-Gordon Chandler presents fresh thinking in the area of Christian-Muslim relations, showing how Christ_whom Islam reveres as a Prophet and Christianity worships as the divine Messiah_can close the gap between the two religions. Historically, Christians have taken a confrontational or missionary approach toward Islam, leading many Muslims to identify Christianity with the cultural prejudices and hegemonic ambitions of Westerners. On the individual level, Christ-followers within Islam have traditionally been encouraged by Christians to break away from their Muslim communities. Chandler boldly explores how these two major religions_which share much common heritage_can not only co-exist, but also enrich each other. He illustrates his perspective with examples from the life of Syrian novelist Mazhar Mallouhi, widely read in the Middle East. Mallouhi, a self-identified 'Sufi Muslim follower of Christ, ' seeks to bridge the chasm of misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians through his novels.

Colin Stephenson, who succeeded Alfred Hope Patten as Master of the Guardians and Priest Administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, was one of the most amusing and entertaining observers of the high Anglicanism to which he was devoted. In Walsingham Way, he gives full flight to his renowned wit and self-deprecating humour. He tells the remarkable story of the restoration of the mediaeval Shrine by his famous predecessor and paints a vivid portrait of this larger than life character whose determined vision recreated England's premier place of pilgrimage and renewal in the quiet Norfolk countryside. We meet in these pages an endless succession of fascinating characters who flocked to Walsingham in those heady years of the first half of the twentieth century. Colin Stephenson never set out to write an authoritative historical record and his perspective is at times distinctively personal, yet Watchigham Way remains one of the most warm, engaging and sought after accounts of one of Anglo-Catholicism's greatest triumphs and one of its most memorable characters.

The Book of Homilies contains the authorized sermons of the Church of England. Originally published in two volumes during the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I, the homilies were intended to provide for the Church a new model of simplified topical preaching, as well as to perpetuate the theology of the English Reformation.

Published early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, of England, only five years after the death of the Roman Catholic Queen Mary, the work is an affirmation of the Protestant Reformation in England during the ongoing period of religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Since the English monarchs also asserted control over the Church in England, a change in rulers could change the legal status of religious practices. As a consequence, adherents of one religion risked judicial execution by the State depending on the attitudes of the rulers. During Mary's reign, common people of Christian faith were publicly burned at the stake in an attempt to eliminate dissension from Catholic doctrines. Foxe's account of Mary's reign and the martyrdoms that took place during it contributed very significantly to the belief in a distinction from the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope as a central aspect of English national identity. By compiling his record, Foxe intended to demonstrate a historical justification for the foundation of the Church of England as a contemporary embodiment of the true and faithful church, rather than as a newly established Christian denomination.

Description: Theologian, poet, public intellectual, and clergyman, Rowan Williams is one of the leading lights of contemporary British theology. He has published over twenty books and one hundred scholarly essays in a distinguished career as an academic theologian that culminated in his appointment as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford University. Williams left this post to serve in the Anglican Church, first as Bishop of Monmouth, then Archbishop of Wales, before finally being enthroned in 2003 as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury. In this collection of essays, a talented younger generation of Australian theologians critically analyzes the themes that bind together Williams's theology. These sympathetic yet probing essays traverse the full breadth of Williams's work, from his studies on Arius, the Desert Fathers, Hegel, and Trinitarian theology to his more pastoral writings on spirituality, sexuality, politics, and the Anglican Church. Endorsements: ""I read these essays with surprise and delight. This excellent collection of constructive critical essays are a tribute both to the richness of Rowan Williams's theology and the intellectual commitment, discernment, and fairness of their authors. Highly recommended."" --Alister E. McGrath Professor of Theology, Ministry, and Education King's College, London. ""I welcome this book very warmly. It offers a thoughtful, engaging, and respectful--albeit critical--account of Rowan Williams's theology that does him justice. Even when disagreeing on crucial areas such as sexuality or war, the contributors to this fresh and well-informed book show much affection and respect for Rowan Williams himself at this difficult time for Anglicanism. Would that all debates among Christians were conducted in a similar manner."" --Robin Gill Michael Ramsey Professor of Modern Theology University of Kent, Canterbury ""Neither setting Rowan Williams's work on an implausible pedestal nor dismissing it in caricature, the essays that Matheson Russell has gathered engage the Archbishop in thoughtful and critical conversation. I found myself by turns intrigued, delighted, puzzled, convicted, and annoyed--but also repeatedly driven to think again about Williams's work and, more importantly, about the issues that his work explores."" --Mike Higton Senior Lecturer in Theology University of Exeter About the Contributor(s): Matheson Russell is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Auckland. He is the author of Husserl: A Guide for the Perplexed (2006), as well as essays on Heidegger, phenomenology of religion, and political theology.

In 1898 the Church of England was shaken to its roots by the then Pope's declaration that Anglican orders of ministry were 'null and void'. This threatened to create an unbridgeable gulf between the two Churches, yet some Anglicans responded creatively by demonstrating their loyalty and fidelity to Rome - the movement was known as Anglican Papalism and it laid the foundation for new respect and fresh dialogue that culminated in the friendlier message Vatican II. Anglo-Catholic readers will value this illustrated history of a small but powerful and characterful movement within Anglo-Catholicism. MICHAEL YELTON is a County Court Judge and the author of a number of legal volumes. He has also written on ecclesiastical art and furnishings. He lives in Essex.

Paying attention to the world is a particular Christian calling, and one this author is well qualified to elucidate. These writings are at the interface of the life of the Church and ordinary life, and reflect an apprenticeship as an Anglican priest, involving an exploration of the resources which the tradition offers, in order to confront certain problems in the world. This is an era in which re-imagining the role of a priest is both important, and inescapably personal, and bound up with narrative. The ideas appear in response to particular questions and contexts, such as chaplaincy, village life, and working with clergy to understand their calling. Secular themes such as power, money, sex and time run through all the writing, as well as religious themes such as Scripture, liturgy, vocation, the place of the local church, and living a Christian Life.

Richard Rolle of Hampole, the first of the four great 14th century English contemplative authors, is often called, with justice, "the father of English mysticism." For him the life of contemplation was essentially a musical state, and song, rightly understood, embraced every aspect of the soul's communion with reality. Sudden outbursts of lyrical speech and direct appeals to musical imagery abound in his writings, as in those of no other mystic; and this constitutes their outstanding literary characteristic, as he declares himself at the very dawning of his mystical vision: "Looking to heaven with my whole desire, Suddenly, I know not in what manner, I felt in me upwelling noise of song, A surging, most liking, heavenly melody Which dwelt thereafter with me in my mind."

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

A flower of mystical insight from 14c. England, this book records the visions and prescient theological world-view of Julian, an anchoress at Norwich. Her unique and visceral retelling of both the birthing and the dying of Christ, the first book to be written in English by a woman, has never been excelled in the clarity and eloquence of its language. Here, preserving the humility of the original in a modern idiom, is a metered poetic version of her revelations: ...she who's Mother of our Savior Is mother of all who shall be saved; And our Savior our very Mother, In whom we are endlessly born Yet never shall come out of him.

In June 2008, more than a thousand senior leaders from seventeen provinces in the Anglican Communion gathered in Jerusalem to attend the Global Anglican Future Conference and Pilgrimage (GAFCON). Together they represented some 35 million Anglicans worldwide. This preparatory document, prepared by the Theological Resource Team of GAFCON, outlines the reasons for meeting in Jerusalem, the issues at stake, and the possible ways forward.

The subject of infant baptism is undoubtedly a delicate and difficult one ... But this must not make members of the Church of England shrink from holding decided opinions on the subject. That church has declared plainly in its Articles that 'the baptism of young children is in any wise to be retained, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ.' To this opinion we need not be afraid to adhere." J. C. Ryle This book aims to help Anglican Evangelicals recover that same gracious yet unashamed confidence shown by Bishop Ryle in the nineteenth century. The authors defend biblically the doctrine of infant baptism and its proper evangelical practice within the Church of England. They expound a covenantal understanding which has impeccable evangelical credentials in order to reassure a new generation of Anglican Evangelical 'paedobaptists' that theirs is no new or peculiar doctrine, and to persuade those who may not have fully appreciated the Reformed heritage we in the Church of England enjoy. Dr. John R. W. Stott CBE is Rector Emeritus of All Souls, Langham Place in London and over the last 60 years has been one of the most influential leaders of evangelicalism worldwide. Dr. J. Alec Motyer is the former Principal of Trinity College, Bristol, and was for many years incumbent of St. Luke's, West Hampstead and later minister of Christ Church, Westbourne Lee Gatiss is Associate Minister of St. Helen's Bishopsgate and Editor of The Theologian (www.theologian.org.uk).

The recent discovery of two manuscripts by Thomas Traherne has sparked renewed interest in the seventeenth century writer and a reappraisal of his significance not only as a poet but as a theologian and philosopher engaged in the political and social realities of his day. Happiness and Holiness includes extracts from the newest manuscripts, from better known works and from fragments and notebooks - all of Traherne's known works are represented, making this the most varied and complete collection of his writings available in a single volume. Here we see Traherne, who died at the age of 37, in all his creative genius as a visionary poet, political controversialist, contemplative, teacher, parson, amateur scientist, friend and benefactor. This volume offers for the first time an introduction to the full range of Traherne's work, and opens doors on the breadth and depth of Traherne's theology and its surprising resonance with our own times. Traherne is best known for his poetry of innocence, nature and joy, yet what we have known and loved best from his writings reveals only part of the picture. Happiness and Holiness allows a much richer and fuller understanding of Traherne to emerge. 'Traherne is poised to come into his own as a great classic of Christian thought and imagination, and this superb collection should make sure it happens sooner. Denise Inge gives the best available concise introduction to Traherne's life and work, and then offers a selection of his writing that decisively shows not only his extraordinary range as a spiritual writer, poet, philosopher, ethicist and celebrant of God and God's ways but above all the richness, liveliness and breadth of his theology. The sensitive and daring choice of extracts leads the reader into the depths of a life intensely engaged with God and with the glorious variety of creation. Again and again one is amazed at Traherne's striking relevance to the twenty-first century.' David F. Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge

Lancelot Andrewes was born of honest and godly parents in 1555. In 1603 he assisted at the coronation of James I. In 1605 he was raised to be Bishop of Chichester, and he was one of the translators of the Bible in 1607. He was one of the most popular preachers of his day, and well beloved amongst the laity and the clergy alike. But for all of his worldly accomplishments, it is for his private devotions-never intended for publication-that he is best remembered. With that entrancing book open before us we search the histories and the biographies of his time; the home and the foreign politics of his time; the State papers, the Church controversies, and not least the Court scandals and the criminal reports of his time, with the keenest interest and the most solicitous anxiety. A timeless treasure of Anglican spirituality, now once again available from the Apocryphile Press.

Praying for England reflects on the role of Christian priesthood in contemporary culture, and comes up with some surprising and timely insights about its efficacy and importance. There are ritual and representative functions of the priest, it argues, which remain spiritually and socially vital, even - perhaps especially - in a society which ostensibly ignores the Church, or appears so pluralistic as to lack any religious cohesion. The priestly role as mediator before God of society's deepest pains, losses, joys and irresolvable anxieties is here reimagined, and brought freshly to life though moving narratives of pastoral encounter. Above all, the priest is seen as one who goes on 'praying for England' in decisive but often uncelebrated ways, prayer being the chief measure and test of the priest's representative role. This is a deceptively simple volume - theologically accessible but often deeply moving and profound. In it a new vision is sketched of how Christian priesthood can go forward today with humility, understated dignity, and spiritual power. It will be of special interest to English churchpeople in an 'established' setting, but is written no less with an ecumenical and international readership in mind.

"If we are to be edified by our worship, we need to think about the words we are using, so that we can make them our own." The Book of Common Prayer is a valuable teaching resource in the Church, yet because of its unusual language, it can be, in places, hard to understand. In this little booklet, Roger Beckwith takes us through the Book of Common Prayer, explaining the meanings of words and phrases to help us to understand them more fully.

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

With the Lambeth Conference of 2008 in mind, Arthur Middleton presents this timely proclamation of the need to return to a western Orthodoxy to Anglicans across the world. Canon Middleton takes us back to early principles and shows us how they still speak to us today.

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

This is both a lively introduction to the history and expression of the rich and diverse Anglican spiritual tradition and a strikingly original contribution to the issues that underlie its current crisis and threaten to tear it apart. Barlett suggests that Anglican spirituality and theology are not only resilient enough to survive the present malaise but have the potential to be a most effective 'post-modern' expression of the Christian faith.