Anglican Communion In Crisis: How Episcopal Dissidents And Their African Allies Are Reshaping Anglicanism

Book Summary

"Other scholars have addressed the liberal-conservative dynamics in American religion, but few have addressed the issue on a more global scale. This is an impressive book."--Randall Balmer, author of "Thy Kingdom Come and Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" "The link between conservative American Episcopalians and African Anglicans has been apparent for a decade or more. Now Miranda Hassett describes how this link has taken shape and how it works. "Anglican Communion in Crisis" is an important and timely book that gives insights into religion as a globalizing force and into the changing shape of religious conservatism."--William Sachs, author of "The Transformation of Anglicanism" ""Anglican Communion in Crisis" is admirable for the clarity and consistency of its arguments about the current ideological divides within the Anglican Communion. Miranda Hassett manages to describe some fraught theological debates while remaining sympathetic to the various positions. There is much fine scholarship here."--Simon Coleman, University of Sussex ""Anglican Communion in Crisis" is a detailed analysis of new networks between seemingly unlikely global partners--conservative American Episcopalians and predominantly East African Anglicans, united in their opposition to liberal Anglicans' growing openness toward homosexuality. This is the only thorough examination of these important global alliances that includes both textual and anthropological analysis. This is an important work for anthropologists of religion, for church historians, and for scholars of globalization."--Pamela Klassen, University of Toronto The sign outside the conservative, white church in the small southern U.S. town announces that the church is part of the Episcopal Church--of Rwanda. In "Anglican Communion in Crisis," Miranda Hassett tells the fascinating story of how a new alliance between conservative American Episcopalians and African Anglicans is transforming conflicts between American Episcopalians--especially over homosexuality--into global conflicts within the Anglican church. In the mid-1990s, conservative American Episcopalians and Anglican leaders from Africa and other parts of the Southern Hemisphere began to forge ties in opposition to the American Episcopal Church's perceived liberalism and growing toleration of homosexuality. This resulted in dozens of American Episcopal churches submitting to the authority of African bishops. Based on wide research, interviews with key participants and observers, and months Hassett spent in a southern U.S. parish of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda and in Anglican communities in Uganda, "Anglican Communion in Crisis" is the first anthropological examination of the coalition between American Episcopalians and African Anglicans. The book challenges common views--that the relationship between the Americans and Africans is merely one of convenience or even that the Americans bought the support of the Africans. Instead, Hassett argues that their partnership is a deliberate and committed movement that has tapped the power and language of globalization in an effort to move both the American Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion to the right.

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