The Fate of Communion: The Agony of Anglicanism and the Future of a Global Church

This book deserves far more attention that it is getting. The two authors take a discerning look at the current crisis within Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion from a decidedly conservative stance. The book is divided into four segments. The first looks at the current situation in the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church. The second section considers the issue of authority in the Church. The third segment considers what it means to be a Communion. And the final section looks at some of the issues that could well impact the future of the Anglican Communion. They have written a well reasoned book that manages to avoid much of the rancor that permeates so much of what is written about the current conflicts within the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church. They approach this subject from an unabashedly conservative point of view. A point of view that I do not share on the immediately divisive issue of human sexuality. I feel that I came away from this book with a better understanding of some of the issues surrounding the current Anglican crisis. And, I read the entire book without getting so pissed off that I threw it against the wall. Not once! A few parts of the book stand out in my mind. Fr. Radner's chapter titled "Children of Cain" was particularly interesting. It examines the negative impact of the American cultural aspects of religious pluralism and religious marketplace mentality on the character and structure of the Episcopal Church. Fascinating material! I will let you read it for yourself. Dr Turner's chapter titled, "ECUSA's God and the Idols of Liberal Protestantism" provides a very succinct (and perhaps too brief) an analysis of what he calls the Episcopal Church's 'working theology'. The reduction of theology to one of radical inclusion does, I think, lead to a de-emphasis on the concepts of atonement, holiness, discipleship, and even evangelism. I agree with him here. Anyone who has read the Episcopal Church's current Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's recent book titled A Wing and a Prayer will realize that he is 'spot on' in his analysis. Again, well worth reading. One issue that is alluded to but not fully examined is whether or not the Anglican Communion is simply a voluntary federation of independent national churches or 'something much more'. Both authors argue that the Anglican communion is decidedly 'something much more' although that is hardly a universal (and most likely not even a majority) view within the Episcopal Church. Certainly, the Anglican Communion has been slowly lurching towards communion, but as late as the 1978 Lambeth Conference, a resolution was passed that explicitly stated that the conference was not legislative body and so its resolutions were not binding.