Description

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The consecration of V. Gene Robinson as an openly gay bishop of New Hampshire has divided the Anglican Community, a historic pillar of Christianity embraced by seventy million people in 164 countries. Most Anglican groups outside the United States oppose the ordination of gay clergy. After Robinson's consecration, overseas bishops jointly announced that they were in a ""state of impaired communion"" with the 2.3 million-member US Branch of the Episcopal Church--a step short of declaring a full schism.

In A Church at War, journalist Stephen Bates assesses the current state and historical context of this fight. Including personal interviews with all chief players in the struggle, this is the only book to offer the full story of the Church's vicious row over homosexuality. Showing the strengths and weaknesses of the different positions, Bates takes the details of church politics and creates an engrossing and exciting narrative. As the threat of schism looms ever closer, this book, with its controversial yet fair look at the fight will be both illuminating and essential to all with an interest in the Church and its relationship with homosexuality.

About the Author

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Stephen Bates is The Guardian's religious affairs and royal correspondent. He is a regular broadcaster as well as writer, and has contributed to a wide range of publications, both at home and abroad.

Praise For…

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"In A Church at War Stephen Bates has given us a book that reads like a thriller and unfolds like a tragedy. It is a story of an attempted coup, the takeover of a once benign and inclusive institution by religious extremists who want to recreate it in their own narrow and destructive image. The battle is ostensibly over homosexuality, but in reality it is about the status and interpretation of the Bible. As Bates eloquently shows, though the struggle is not over already there have been some spectacular casualties--the most notable being Rowan Williams, the present Archbishop of Canterbury. Anyone who cares about the future of the Anglican Church should read this book."--Richard Holloway, formerly Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church
"Bates manages to turn the minutiae of church politics into an engrossing and exciting narrative. He takes a pitiless scalpel to the poverty of conservative evangelical thinking on sexuality, and reveals plenty of evidence of a determined conservative minority bidding to seize power in worldwide Anglicanism. He poses a challenge to the Anglican Communion to fight its way out of its current mess through the exercise of a good deal more generosity and imagination than has so far generally been the case."--Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church, University of Oxford
"Human sexuality has become one of the more contentious issues for churches as they wrestle with their identity and place in the modern world. Bates' insightful book does an admirable job of revealing the fissures and faultlines of the current debate in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion. His analysis is a sure-footed guide and an essential companion for all those who want to understand the competing convictions that have contributed to the discussions so far."--Martyn Percy, Director, Lincoln Theological Institute, Manchester and Adjunct Professor of Theology, Hartford Seminary, Connecticut
"Stephen Bates has left us in his debt with his gripping account of recent events in the Anglican Communion. It is a sorry tale, but is one that needs urgently to be told, and Bates tells it brilliantly. There is an old Anglican prayer which speak of charity as being the bond of peace and of all virtues. A good dose of that is needed at the moment if an historically 0inclusive church is not to end up being narrow, exclusive and unchristian."--Christopher Rowland, Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford
"Stephen Bates leads the reader briskly through the biblical and historical background, as well as telling in a most entertaining style all the more recent stories of debates and meetings about homosexuality...I hope that American Episcopalians, both conservative and liberal, will read it with care..." --Simon Sarmiento, Anglicans Online
"...a racy and enjoyable account of Anglican battles over homosexuality...Bates has done his homework...thanks to Bates' detective work, we now have a clearer idea of what happened...."--Damian Thompson, Sunday Telegraph
"Writer Stephen Bates' well-regarded book on gays and the clergy...has predictably not pleased everyone at Lambeth Palace." --Richard Kay, The Daily Mail