Product Description
This is a study of one of the most extraordinary religious phenomena of the last thirty years. The disappearance of the Tridentine Mass and the unrelenting assault on the Book of Common Prayer have created widespread hostility and a substantial loss of church membership.An informed and well-researched survey of this diverse and burgeoning movement is timely and will be of considerable interest to church people throughout the world. The topic also has linguistic and sociological implications, and relevance to liturgiology, theology, Church history and literary criticism. Barry Spurr's book provides this broad cultural analysis in a clear and illuminating account.While it deals fairly with all views, the book is written from a conservative standpoint, and will undoubtedly be considered controversial in liberal circles. What is certain is that all sides will want to read it. ... Read more

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What does it mean to be an Anglican? And Evangelical? Can these two identities be held together with integrity? Where the church seems to be fragmenting, how should we relate to the rest of the Anglican Church?

Thirty years ago two influential Anglican thinkers, J.I. Packer and N.T. Wright, addressed these questions in short and provocative Latimer Studies. Their work remains stimulating and important, and is republished here for a new generation, with fresh prefaces from each author reflecting on recent developments.

"The Evangelical Anglican Identity Problem" (Packer, 1978) addressed Anglican evangelicals who were unsure whether it was warrantable to continue as Anglicans.

"Evangelical Anglican Identity: The Connection Between Bible, Gospel & Church"(Wright, 1980) builds upon Packer's study, addressing Evangelical attitudes to the church.

"A Kind of Noah's Ark?" (Packer, 1981) had in view clergy and laity who were baffled and discouraged by the continually broadening spectrum of tolerated unorthodoxies within the Church of England, and in particular the hesitations felt by young men called to be pastors who were unsure whether it made sense to pursue their vocation as Anglicans.

All three pieces were thus tracts for the times, but are astonishingly relevant today.

J. I. Packer is Board of Governors' Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is one of the most important evangelical theologians of the last fifty years.

N. T. Wright is Bishop of Durham and a highly respected New Testament scholar, publishing at both academic and popular levels.
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Customer Reviews (4)

An anthropological approach to the Anglican Communion
The author goes out of her way to debunk Jenkins's now famous "The Next Christendom," but even if you are a fan of Jenkins you will find this book extremely interesting as she hashes out some of the nitty gritty as the would-be Episcopal priest/anthropologist goes between a conservative Anglican church in the southern USA and Uganda. Her field work consisted of many interviews with conservative Anglicans in the USA and their complex relationships with African Anglicans of the emerging global South. The writer herself is a bit mystified by all the fuss over human sexuality, but she does a good job of portraying conservative views as fairly as possible, given her own sympathies.

Although the book's title claims to depict the entire Anglican communion its focus is primarily on the relationship between conservative Episcopal churches in the USA such as the Anglican Mission to the Americas and their African allies. Though limited in scope I found the book fascinating.

Nothing Else Like It, But Could Have Been So Much More
There is nothing else in print that covers the same territory as Miranda Hassett's "The Anglican Communion in Crisis," not even Philip Jenkin's "The New Face of Christianity:Believing the Bible in the Global South."In an era of global shifts and realignments within the Anglican Communion, this is a timely book, and I'm glad I read it.

Hassett's book is obviously an updated version of her doctoral dissertation in anthropology from UNC at Chapel Hill.It focuses on events in the Anglican Communion from 1992-2002, and has been lightly updated to include subsequent developments.Hassett's strengths include a focus on fieldwork (largely in Uganda) and a remarkably even-handed approach to thorny theological and political issues.(She admits in a footnote that she is personally pro-gay rights, yet is willing to criticize the excesses of the liberal wing of the Episcopal Church when it is warranted by her fieldwork data.)She also makes insightful comments, which often are contrary to prevailing wisdom, about the nature of globalization and about Philip Jenkins' thesis of a global religions shift.

However, it could have been so much more.The organization of her book is somewhat choppy and structurally unclear; her prose is frequently turgid and bloated; many of the references to globalization literature seem gratuitious and intended to satisfy her dissertation committee; and the updating of her dissertation to include events since 2002 is uneven.Her focus on Uganda is useful from a fieldwork perspective, and no dissertation can be expected to cover everything.However, developments in the Provinces of Nigeria and the Southern Cone, which have proven to be equally significant from a realignment perspective, are virtually ignored.

In short, limitations aside, Hassett's book is the best one currently available.However, the definitive account of the forces for realignment within the Anglican Communion has yet to be written.Indeed, the story itself has yet to be played out in history.Once she completes her divinity degree at the Episcopal Divinity School, perhaps Hassett herself can write such a history, as long as she remembers that less is more and tighter is more powerful.

Ignores basic factors
Amazingly, and for whatever reason, Hassett seriously downplays the part played by American, fundamentalist, non-Anglican, right-wing financial backing in the creation and ongoing support of the "crisis", which is far more about power than about theology.Particularly telling is Ms Hassett's frequent citation of David Virtue, a particularly virulent anti-gay blogger (his site, Virtue Online, is widely referred to in "liberal" circles as Venom Online) while ignoring or being completely unaware of Jim Naughton's "Following the Money", a definitive, excellently sourced study of the financing of American and African break-away groups by American right-wing individuals and groups.Naughton's study is available online, courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.http://www.edow.org/follow/.Read it.

How Globalization Twists Cultural Concepts and Understandings
This is a fascinating book. It goes beyond the superficial newsreporting to deal substantively with the undercurrent of issues impacting the Anglican Communion.

Hassett provides a detailed anthropological analysis of the issues undergirding the Anglican Communion, from extensive interviews and field work in a church within the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA), which has been aligned with the "conservative" minority against the "Church", and from visits and interviews within the Anglican Church in Uganda.

As a non-Anglican that, nonetheless communes within the Episcopal Church due to my denomination's agreement with ECUSA, I read this book from my academic background in public administration and political science, and with background in teaching and research interests in international relations and comparative politics, and the impact of globalization. I read it from a certain built-in mindset that the situation of the Anglican Communion is a test case for how "states" would act in an environment not constrained by a convention such as the Peace of Westphalia. While the book basically confirmed that mindset, the palpable reaction I came away from the reading of this book is how pejorative terms, concepts, and ideas have become in a global political climate of polarized extremes. Just what exactly do "liberal" and "conservative"and "orthodox" mean? Do they mean the same thing in different cultures and within differing cultural contexts? It is true that we are living in a global age of exacerbated political speech, and, as a result, there has been a certain "assault on reason" (to quote the name of the book by the former US VP, Al Gore - The Assault on Reason). The heightened tenor of global political speech is certainly one of the by-products of the dynamics of globalization.

Hassett's thesis is that the context of the issues affecting the Anglican Communion are not just the result of the split between the church universal in the global north and south. This thesis, widely attributed to Philip Jenkins from his well-regarded work, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, and his follow-up book, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South, seeks to generalize all issues affecting Christianity as simply the result of the ascendance of the global south while Christianity in the global North continues to gradually decline. Hassett seeks to argue that there is a deep cultural context to the issues within the Anglican Communion, within specific African churches as well as within the ECUSA, while certainly not discounting the overarching impacts of the dynamics of globalization. She incorrectly infers that Jenkins' work discounts the role of culture, however. She does bring a deeper understanding, though, of some of the underlying precepts of cultural influences in the development of some African leaders' thought on the issues ongoing within the Anglican Communion.

This is a surprisingly balanced and very disciplined anthropological study that asks a series of very fundamental questions that could be the basis for future research. First, how do cultures define themselves within political discourse? Second, how can differing political discourse be ameliorated to allow for deeper cultural understanding, and, in the specific case of the Anglican Communion, spiritual and theological understanding? Third, specific to the context of the study, how can the tools of statecraft be used to bridge the differences within the Anglican Communion so as to avoid schism? Fourth, to return to a basic question of both theology and philosophy, what is "reason" and how can it be attained and maintained in a global climate that seeks to pull to the extremes as a result of the dynamics of globalization?

I think the greatest contribution of this study is the inference that deeper understanding of the cultural context of terms, concepts and processes (i.e., parliamentary procedure, which Hassett incisively notesas an issue because of the supposition that those in from "western" churches within the Communion are more skilled at these procedures than those in the churches in the Communion within the global south). It begs for further research by employing an oral history approach -- by listening to those actors in the dispute talk about what they do and what they believe and why, so as to infer ways to create bridges to understanding.

This is not a political tome. It is a serious work of anthropology that deserves wide readership for its discussion of cultural and political dynamics as much as the continuing "reasoning" within the Anglican Communion.The book's subtitle suggests that it leans towards the "Episcopal dissidents and their African allies". However, I do think that's a little misleading, particularly in the reading of Chapter 7, which details the "assymetry of money and transnational alliances".I think it would be a more accurate description to say that the actions within the Anglican Communion have led to a certain awareness of differences of opinion that could actually be the basis of a renewed and invigorated Anglican Communion. Calling the issues in the Anglican Communion a "crisis" I think is a bit disingenuous. The Anglican Communion, like many other denominations, is simply in search of greater reason that seeks to draw closer to God through Christ Jesus.

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A collection of the fundamental documents and texts from every period of Anglican history and almost every Province of the worldwide Anglican communion. The book includes documents from c.96 up to 1989. ... Read more

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Useful for scholars
This book, created out of a resolution from the Lambeth Conference 1988, is a comprehensive collection (and serves in some ways as an annotated bibliography) of sources of Anglican faith, doctrine and practice from the earliest beginning of the church to the late 1980s.Any such text is going to suffer from two shortcomings, inherent in any published enterprise of this scope -- first, it must needs be selective; to be generally affordable and accessible, it must be incredibly selective, so scholars will argue as to whether particular things incorporated here need to be included, and if something else not included should be.Second, because it is a book published at a certain date, it will become 'dated' material fairly quickly, particularly given the pace at which new things are be published.These duly noted, the editors here have done a very good job at producing a book that should be useful to scholars and other general researchers for some time to come.

The editors Evans and Wright worked in chronological arrangement to incorporate sources from the early church to the present.They do not include canonical texts, as these are assumed to be foundational already as part of the Anglican triad of scripture, tradition and reason.The first text included is a piece by Clement, Bishop of Rome; a letter to the Corinthians, addressing various contentious issues in a way that continues to speak to the church.Other early authors incorporated include Irenaeus, Melito, Ignatius, Cyprian, Origen, and others.These are writings shared by the whole church, East and West; part of the intention of the editors, reflecting the will of the Lambeth Conference, was to stress the historical continuity of the Anglican Church in its various provinces today with the church historically over time, all the way back to the earliest post-canonical writings.

The writings from the sixteenth century forward are primarily drawn from Church of England and other Anglican sources.As a result, even in the index there is no entry for John Calvin or Martin Luther, a remarkable thing given that their theology and influence has had some impact on the development of Anglicanism; this I feel is the one drawback of the book, that it takes a bit too narrow a focus sometimes in the effort to adhere to the catholic rather than protestant strands of Anglican history, save where those protestant strands are directly English in nature.

The material included here includes both 'acta', the official documents or texts, and 'exempla', writing from later authors who reflect the concerns and ideas of the time.Some are from later historians or church officials; most come from the mainstream of church history and documentation.However, the 'acta' generally carry no more 'official' weight than the 'exempla' -- this is not an effort to create an official Anglican canon of documents with, in the words of the editors, 'automatic and binding authority for all Anglicans'.In many ways, there is no distinctively and definitively Anglican theology, so such a canonical effort would unlikely succeed in any case.

For most readers (including most Anglicans), this material is the kind of optional-extra reading they don't need to be able to participate in the life of the church.This really is a book for scholars and those concerned with the historical progression of the church; in that sense, this book would be of value for any Anglican library, particularly clergy and academic professionals.
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Continuing title: Containing the Liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer According to the Use of the Church in the United States of America Together with Other Devotions and with Liturgical and Ceremonial Notes, 860 pages. Maroon red cover. 1958 date. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Western Rite Lovers Treat!
The Anglican Parishes Association publishes a wonderful hardcover edition of this missal. It has a hard, red, cover. Rubrics are printed in red, text is printed in black. The cover is red too.

There is a well-written section explaining the Mass directly preceding the "ordinary" for the mass, though there are no "general rubrics" (it helps if one is familiar with "Ritual Notes" or the Anglican Breviary). There are three canons for the Eucharistic Prayer printed in this book, the Gregorian (Roman Rite), the 1549 BCP, and the 1928 BCP.

Available new for $25, 00 at the Anglican Parishes Association website. You don't need to buy the $70, 00 used copy offered here. You can buy 3 new ones for $5, 00 more if you really want to spend that kind a money!

(No I am NOT Anglican, I am Eastern Orthodox with a warm heart for the Western Rite)

Fr. Dcn. Gregory Wassen ... Read more

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Roadmap, myth, or history?The Book of Revelation draws readers and repels them.It offers some people hope and instills fear in others.In this volume of the new AABS series Frederick W. Schmidt, also the series editor, explores the approaches that have dominated the interpretation of John’s Apocalypse and offers the reader an accessible means of understanding and evaluating them.With this grounding in hand, Schmidt explores how Revelation can shape our understanding of God, and nurture our spiritual lives in unexpected ways.

Leaving behind left-behind theology, Schmidt offers instead an approach that allows this obscure, almost opaque text to speak to us anew about God, faith, hope, and justice.

Books in this series, co-sponsored by the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars, are written in accessible language, sensitive to the needs of people who have little or no experience in reading the Bible. Each book focuses on exploring the historical and critical background, as well as how the biblical texts written centuries ago can still speak to readers today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Tremendous read, tremendous insight
As the first in a series of everyday commentaries on Scripture, Dr. Schmidt's work on Revelation is a wonderful place to start.With the huge popularity of the Left Behind series and other similar books, a true, in-depth study of Scripture is refreshing.When you read this work, you are able to unpack what The Revelation of St. John is actually saying, not what "scholars" tell you it says.A man with unparalleled credentials as an Anglican priest and Biblical scholar, Dr. Schmidt is a wonderful storyteller who has an amazing ability to clarify one of the most misunderstood books of the Bible.

A Journey of Complexity and Clarity
It was refreshing to read a text on Revelation that did not contain a blow by blow description of earth's final days, the judgment of all humankind and the transformation of heaven and earth.This book is based on the whole of the Scripture and not just the parts of it that suit us.At one point, the author quotes William Sloan Coffin who once observed that the problem with Americans and the Bible is that we read it like a drunk uses a lamppost.We lean on it; we don't use it for illumination.I found the clarity of this book to be helpful for adult study groups and the depth of the book as a possible use for seminary classrooms.It politely but ruthlessly demolishes the "Left Behind" approach and outlines an alternative to reading the Book of Revelation, informed by historical and literary criticism. I was made aware of such important, complex topics as the character of Revelation as oral communication; the performative nature of various genres, and the inescapable presence of violent, vengeful themes in apocalyptic literature.As I completed the book I sensed that I had been on a journey that honored complexity and brought me to a degree of clarity. ... Read more

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The consecration of V. Gene Robinson as an openly gay bishop of New Hampshire has divided the Anglican community, a historic pillar of Christianity embraced by seventy million people in 164 countries. Journalist Stephen Bates assesses the current state and historical context of this fight. Including personal interviews with all chief players in the struggle, this is the only book to offer the full story of the Church+s battle over homosexuality. As the threat of schism looms ever closer, this book, with its controversial yet fair look at the fight, will be both illuminating and essential to all with an interest in the Church and its stance on homosexuality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Sobering but also unputdownable
It's a bit of a surprise to discover that a book which discusses some of the splits and controversies within the Anglican Church is unputdownable, but "A Church At War" was indeed that. What made the book so good was, firstly, the excellent writing style of Stephen Bates, whose book "God's Own Country" about American Christianity is also fascinating. Bates identifies himself as a Catholic married to a Charismatic Evangelical and his writing shows that he is very familiar with and at home in the world of Anglicanism.

This book is not just about the homosexual debate within Anglicanism. It looks wider, describing some of the political machinations behind many of the events including Lambeth Conferences, the Appointment of Canon Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading, the US Episcopal Church's Gene Robinson situation and the contribution made to events by the ever-strengthening Evangelical section of the church. The underlying theme is that the divisions over homosexuality are more of a power struggle with the evangelical wing of the Church identifying this issue as one over which they could make a stand and wrest power from the liberals. This includes conservative American Christians bankrolling the African Anglican churches in their campaigns against the loosening of the church's stance on gay people, and many of the machinations such as this are shown taking place behind the Lambeth conferences and other meetings while the Archbishops of Canterbury make statements about listening to and learning from each other in a spirit of love. Parts of this book make for very uncomfortable reading, rather akin to watching children having a punch-up in a playground.

Bates speaks firmly from the side of those who believe that gay people have their part to play in the life of the church. He doesn't spend much time considering the Biblical references to homosexuality, just enough to show that there are scholarly reasons that mean it isn't a cut and dried issue, whether or not people find the arguments convincing themselves. This book isn't an impartial discussion but instead is a gripping read with caricatures of many players in the story, amusing asides and yet an overall sobering message. Bates reminds the reader many times of the inconsistencies in some of the arguments used against homosexuals (for example that divorce and remarriage are now allowed, although Jesus forbade that) and it's hard to know whether he has chosen some of the worst of the quotes from the Evangelical wing to contrast with the humble and godly statements of the gay people in his pages. Most of the evangelicals campaigning against changes in the church's acceptance of homosexuals come across very badly, with particular focus on many of the African church leaders and their own double-standards (as Bates points out, the Nigerian church vilified homosexual acceptance within the church but doesn't do anything about the polygamy, child sacrifice and the stoning of adulterous women within their own church).

This book isn't an easy read. It's hard to read of the strife and arguing between people who are supposedly in mission together. It's appalling to hear of some of the abuse and discrimination that gay people within the church have suffered. It's also frightening to believe, if his overall thesis is right, that those in control of the section of the church with growing authority chose to make a stand on this subject in order to wrest power from other traditions within Anglicanism, apparently unconcerned about the human despair and devastation that would follow. This isn't an impartial book but it's an important book for people from all sides of Anglicanism to read as it acts as a mirror to those within the church and can help them to see how the outside world may see them and their squabbles.

Interesting comparison
It's interesting to note that of the reviews so far, the two favourable reviews both give their real names (and five stars), whereas the two critical reviews do not (and they both give one star).
I think the readers biases are influencing their judgements here.

Excellent book!
I loved this book--it made me think a great deal about how I have bought into fundamentalist ways of thinking.Thank you.

Brilliant exposé of evangelical fundamentalism
Bates provides a brilliant exposé of how a small cabal of conservative Evangelicals, a minority even within the Evangelical tradition in Anglicanism, have made homosexuality the definining issue in the Anglican Communion today.Bates ruthlessly exposes the media spin, American big money backers, unbalanced extremists and double standards behind the anti-gay camp in Anglicanism.Bates traces the growth of conservative Evangelicalism within Anglicanism in contrast to an increasingly pluralist and tolerant social stimmung in Britain and Ireland, relating how the sense of being backed into a corner makes the extremist wing of the Church more dangerous.He also casts a caustic eye over the double standards that make male-male sex a defining issue of orthodoxy for conservative Evangelicals while they ignore issues like polygamy and Christian involvement in the Rwanda genocide.

This book is disturbing.After reading it, moderate, Catholic and open Evangelical Anglicans will be in no doubt that we are engaged in a war for the soul of the church.In his final chapter, Bates looks at some of the casualties of that War.For the sake of those broken people, it is a war we must win.

Bates Motel
Unless you are a liberal, save your money. Stephen "Norman" Bates' book belongs in the slasher novel category. He is guilty of lobbing grenades at the orthodox and conservatives. After reading Bates book, the reader can understand why Nigerian Archbishop Akinola and Dr. John Stott didn't grant Bates an interview. Bishop Edward Little must wonder why Bates called him "mousey". What a shame Bates, an Oxford historian, marred his book with such an infantile description of Dr. David Virtue. His book fails miserably at helping the warring factions to understand each other. Until Bates gets to a gym, he should refrain from calling others "portly". Mercifully, he spared the reader his mug shot. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is a collection of essays by leading theologians and church leaders on the implications of the proposed Anglican Covenant, which has been offered as a solution to the recent crises facing worldwide Anglicanism. At the Anglican Primates' meeting in February 2007 a draft Covenant was commended for study by the constituent churches of the Anglican Communion. This book presents a sober and dispassionate discussion of the theology and politics behind the Covenant. The writers represent a number of different theological traditions and disciplines within and beyond Anglicanism. What unites them is a desire to understand other opinions and to listen to different views. The contributors include theological educators, church historians, ethicists, biblical scholars, and canonists from different parts of the Anglican Communion and from ecumenical partners. While the book aims to be dispassionate and to stand apart from the rhetoric of ecclesiastical parties, it also offers original and thought-provoking discussions based on detailed and thorough scholarship.

In his introduction Mark Chapman discusses the development of the authority structures of the Anglican Communion, as well as the recent history of conflict between the member churches, particularly over the issue of homosexuality. Ecumenical reflections on conciliarity are offered by Paul McPartlan, a leading Roman Catholic scholar, and Kenneth Wilson, a prominent Methodist. John Barton, Professor of Old Testament at Oxford University, contributes a chapter on the concept of Covenant in the Old Testament tradition. This book provides a valuable resource for global Anglicanism as it begins to develop the final version of the Covenant over the coming years. It will be crucial reading for all those involved in preparing for the Lambeth Conference of 2008. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Affirming Faith
"Anglican Covenant" covers much of the debate before the last Lambeth Conference.The chapters are by different authors with varying points of view.This makes it a good reference for anyone who wants to know where one might fit into the on-going discussions (debates) in the Anglican communion.It seems to give hope to various dissenting views in the church, though it really offers no solutions. It is good to understand where people throughout the world stand on the issues, even when there seems to be no solution.The comforting thought is that the communion can hold all those of various views. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A highly readable and surprisingly rich introduction
We are putting together a short course at our church on what it means tobe an Episcopalian and came across this compact volume, which was compiledit seems as part of the general preparation for the Lembeth conference inCanterbury this past summer (1998).The book's organization may seemwhimsical in part (the first chapter is a list of saints' days), but thereis no part of the book that does not tell you something fundamental andinteresting about the makeup of the Anglican communion.There is a map ofthe Anglican world, which will astonish Episcopalians in the U.S. (werepresent only 2.4 million of a total 70 million Anglicans world wide). You will find a list of the archbishops of Canterbury (pages 40 through 42-- nearly all single names -- like Feologild -- on page 40) beginning withAugustine and ending with George Carey.You will find a chapter on historyand vision, a chapter on the history of the Lambeth conference, a chapteron elements of the faith, and a glossary of Anglican terms.You will findgreat irony (see the last sentence on page 47), and you will findcontributions by Frank Griswold (Anglican Spirituality) and John Westerhoff(Anglican Temperament).You will find the hymns of George Herbert, whichare breathtaking in their power.And, as if that were not enough, you willlearn that a new rose -- The Compass Rose -- was bred by Norcutts andlaunched (?) at the 1997 Chelsea Flower Show by the Archbishop ofCanterbury in anticipation of the 1998 Lambeth conference. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing’s Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
The Continuing Anglican Movement is made up of those who strive to "continue" in the way of traditional Anglicanism, which many feel the American Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada have abandoned in their Prayer Book reforms, policies regarding the ordination of women, the full inclusion of gays and lesbians, and other issues. This is the only full-length history of the Continuing Anglican movement in the United States and Canada, an engaging, fascinating, and often painful ecclesial saga-available once again in a new edition from the Apocryphile Press. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

History on the move
This is an interesting part of American history that has never been well documented.As we live in the next stage of the exodus from an increasingly non-christian Episcopal Church it is good to find a well done story of those who have gone before and how they have fared.

You Can't Tell the Players Without a Scorecard
This is a very interesting book, but gets overloaded with so many players that it is difficult to keep track of who is who! I suspect that this is a "First Edition" and that the second edition will be forthcoming at some point, as the continuing Anglican movement is still playing itself out and how its end state will look is far from certain right now. But with The Episcopal Church's descent into what can most charitably be called "non-orthodox Christianity," this is a story that is far from over.

Interesting but Not Surprising
Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. My first observation is that I know nothing of the credentials of the author.This is very important when dealing with (reading) such a book. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that it confirms much of my understanding of what has and is still taking place in the Continuing Anglican Movement south of the 49th. As a priest within the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada I am aware of how much of what goes on in the U.S Church gradually enters Canada. Not all of this is good, sadly. I cringe at the description of devious and deceitful behaviour. I realize it is in Canada too and it appears to be growing.The author has done us a great service and I pray that his sincere efforts awake those who seem to be content to sleep on, regardless. Thank you Mr. Bess.
The Rev'd., Fr. Richard S. Mowry, TSF
(a.k.a The Rev'd., Bro. Cuthbert, TSF)

Finally something to make sense of the Alphabet Soup
As a minister in the Reformed Episcopal Church -- not technically one of the Continuing jurisdictions -- I've found myself encountering and working with members of the Anglican Continuum.Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of the Continuum is sorting out the different groups and what they represent.This book does exactly that and if you're looking for some help to sort out the various jurisdictions and where they've come from you'll find your answers here.

The book is rather poorly edited and would be greatly improved if it had an index, but on the whole I found it very informative.The greatest problem with this book is stated by the author in the introduction: there is no comprehensive source of history and documents for the Continuing Anglican churches, and those sources that are available are frequently biased and sometimes unreliable.If you read this book, remember that some parts are rather biased and many parts include a good bit of speculation.

If you are interested in the Continuum -- where it's come from and where it's going -- you'll find this book fascinating.Just remember to read between the lines and don't accept everything at face value.

Continuers Get Their Day In The Sun
This book was a pleasant suprise. As an Episcopalian, I was expecting it to basically trash the "mainstream" Episcopal Church, and to glorify the "dissidents" who make up the Continuing Churches. Although the book is certainly sympathetic to the Continuers, it is also brutally honest about the weaknesses of certain groups and figures within the movement.
Perhaps the book's greatest strength is that it tells the story (and tells it with a fresh writing style) of a group of conservative Epsicopalians that (to the best of my knowledge) have never had their story revealed before. There are some fascinating and quirky tales: of the early Continuing bishop who was an influential member of just about every radical right-wing political group in the 1960s; of a leading bishop in the movement who seems to have been a habitual "jurisdiction hopper," ecclesiastical coniver, and womanizer; and my personal favorite - the "brawling bishops" incident.
However, besides these juicy tales of strange and erratic behavior by some leaders in the Continuing movement, the book is basically a serious examination of the problems that committed "traditionalist" Episcopalians and Anglicans encountered when they were isolated in jurisdictions of their own creation. The old problem of "High Church" and "Low Church" interpretations of Anglicanism seems to have reared its ugly head with renewed force within the Continuing churches. Having left the Episcopal Church in the 1970s because it was alleged to have been politically radicalized and taken over by "secular humanism," the Continuers discovered that their commitment to "orthodoxy" led to more problems than they had imagined.
A warning is in order. The book does have its weaknesses. Idealogically, many Episcopalians may not take kindly to the author's description of female priests as "priestesses," or to his descriptions of Episcopalian political activism in the late 1960s as "foolish" and "naive." Also, the book could have used a more thorough editing job. There are quite a few typos. Perhaps most frustrating is that the book does not have have an index (although it is well footnoted). Despite these flaws, the book was much more interesting and informative than I was expecting it to be. ... Read more