Setting the Church of England Free
The Christian Church is dying in Western Europe, but is in denial. People feel inhibited from saying how bad things really are. But neither despair, nor denial, nor distant solutions are appropriate. In scripture and tradition the discipline of discerning the times, and seeing the way forward is rarely easy, and never without cost. It is a discipline, which requires all the tools of vision; including the gathering of data, analysis and a testing of what is being said as well as dialogue and prayerful discernment. It is this task of discernment and vision which is the springboard for this collection of essays and responses. The contributors to this volume are all loyal C of E, though from a variety of traditions within it, and do not seek a change in orthodoxy. But they do seek a new way of "being church". There is no blueprint here, in the nature of things we are in an explanatory phase, but the Church needs signposts and this title attempts to offer a number.