Anglican Communion in Crisis : How Episcopal Dissidents and Their African Allies Are Reshaping Anglicanism

"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."--Jacket

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

Ian T. Douglas - Journal of the American Academy of Religion

This book heralds and makes accessible the New Pentecost of the global Christian community in all its many voices and plural wonder. For this, the academy and the Church are in Miranda Hassett's debt.

Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Abbreviations......Page 12 INTRODUCTION: A Communion in Crisis?......Page 16 CHAPTER ONE: Renewal and Conflict: The Episcopal Church and the Province of Uganda......Page 38 CHAPTER TWO: Taking Africa Seriously: The Globalization of Conservative Episcopalians......Page 62 CHAPTER THREE: “White Hands Up!” Lambeth 1998 and the Global Politics of Homosexuality......Page 86 CHAPTER FOUR: From African/Asian Juggernaut to Global Orthodox Majority......Page 117 CHAPTER FIVE: “At Home in Kigali”: Transnational Relationships and Domestic Dissent......Page 145 CHAPTER SIX: “Who Wants to Be in the Ugandan Communion?” Perceptions of African and American Christianity......Page 182 CHAPTER SEVEN: Integrity for Sale? Money and Asymmetry in Transnational Anglican Alliances......Page 223 CHAPTER EIGHT: The Next Anglicanism? Conclusions and Implications......Page 257 Notes......Page 276 C......Page 306 G......Page 307 L......Page 308 S......Page 309 W......Page 310