A Review by Rev. David Boulton
With a Foreword by the eminent academic Sir Roy Strong, this is a readable and authoritative guide to the established Church in the twenty-first century.
Historically, the guide describes the Church in these islands from its Romano-British origins to the centralized church structures of the modern era. It gives the reader a definition of doctrine, a description of mission and maintenance, music and ministry; it discusses the Thirty-Nine Articles and Royal Peculiars (and who knows what they are?).
Dr Martin Davie taught at one of the Church of England’s Theological Colleges, and is now Theological Secretary of the Council for Christian Unity of the Church of England, and Theological Consultant to the House of Bishops. His book is an absorbing overview of the Church of England in general. However, as an ordained minister in the Free Church of England, I felt the lack of a thorough understanding and overview of the Evangelical Revival and Methodism, that 18th century Anglican movement led by Whitfield and the Wesleys, from which the FCofE sprang, and which also breathed new life into a moribund Established Church.
That reservation aside, I have to say this is an important and helpful resource for clergy and laity alike, and very readable.
