As a new century approaches, the Anglican Communion continues to expand and mature. What began as a series of colonial chaplaincy outposts has become a worldwide family of autonomous churches with a common heritage amid remarkable diversity. Until now, most of the published material about Anglicanism has reflected the perspective of the United States and the United Kingdom. In response to this dearth of genuinely global resources, England’s Center for Anglican Communion Studies initiated the process that has resulted in this remarkable volume.
In Anglicanism:A Global Communion the editors have brought together men and women, lay and ordained, from all over the world, to demonstrate the breadth of experience, spirituality, and thinking that exists within the worldwide Anglican family. This is a collection of essays by 81 contributors from all parts of the Anglican Communion. Essays deal with issues of faith; worship, spirituality and theology; the Church and ministry; mission within a diversity of faiths and cultures; Church and society; and Anglican identity. This is a joint publication of Church Publishing and Cassell’s, London.
Above all, these accounts taken together say an emphatic No! to the myth of Anglicanism as a privileged club for white Anglo-Saxons who live in the northern hemisphere but presume to speak for their southern neighbors. Here at last is a book stating unequivocally that in the Anglican Communion there are many gifts, many voices. (384 pp)