- 224 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
What is the biggest threat facing churches today? Not enough young people? Too little mission and evangelism? Unsustainable buildings? Unappealing styles of worship? Not enough diversity? Whatever the reasons, the church today seems to exist in a state of anxiety, concerned with its self-preservation. In this bold and hopeful book, Martyn Percy argues that a being a broken church is in fact good news, as it is only through the cracks that the overwhelming abundance of God can shine through. This collection of essays and reflections considers what it means to be a precarious church. The term suggests uncertainty and peril, yet it is rooted in the Latin precatio, meaning prayer. It argues that the Church's vocation is not to be successful or even to survive but to be precarious, liminal, unpredictable and mysterious ā a place of encounter with the holy. The questions that should consume us are not, "how shall we remove the risks and alleviate our anxieties?", but rather "how shall we live in this age of uncertainty?" Every age has had its uncertainties and this inspiring volume explores what faithfulness to each other and to God looks like in an age of anxiety.
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Information
Table of contents
- Copyright information
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Preface: Prospects for a Precarious Church
- Introduction: A Progressive Union for a Precarious Church
- Part 1: Leaps and Bounds
- 1. The New Politics of Ecclesionomics for the Church of England
- 2. The Church of Englandās Growth Fetish
- Reflections for Part 1
- Part 2: āNuts and Boltsā
- 3. Reflecting on (Another) Governance Review Group Report
- 4. Authority, Administration and Control: Resisting Imposed Governance
- 5. Reflecting on the Governance Review Group Report
- Reflections for Part 2
- Part 3: The See of Faith
- 6. A Critical Commentary on A Consultation Document: Bishops and Their Ministry Fit for a New Context
- 7. The Modern Myth of Impartiality: What the BBC and the Church of England Have in Common
- 8. Crown, Constitution and Church: The Contemporary Crisis for English Religion1
- Reflections for Part 3
- Part 4: Rickety Religion
- 9. Issues
- 10. Structures
- 11. Time and Place
- 12. Post-Structuralism
- 13. Post-Structural Values
- Reflections for Part 4
- Part 5: Churches and Cultural Climate-Change Denial
- 14. Learning from Canute
- 15. Money, Sex and Power
- 16. Forecasting and Futurescapes
- Reflections for Part 5
- Part 6: Respair in a Time of Tumult
- 17. Respair in a Time of Tumult1
- Reflections for Part 6
- Part 7: A Beginnerās Guide to Beginning Again
- 18. Beyond Surviving Church
- 19. Plentiful Redemption
- 20. Coda
- Reflections for Part 7
- Afterword
- References and Further Reading
- Acknowledgements of Sources