"First published in 2002 by SCM Press. This paperback edition published in 2003". -- verso of t.-p.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
"The purpose of this book is twofold. It provides brief portraits of forty-eight bishops who were in office from about the time of the 1832 Reform Bill, when the Church of England as well as the nation as a whole entered a period of continuous change, until the final years of the twentieth century." -- Intro., p. [1].
Beeson "ends by asking why such able and interesting bishops are now in short supply and wonders whether the hectically busy managerial role assumed by the bishops of the new millennium represents a betrayal of the Episcopal office and a consequent weakening of the Church's witness in an incredibly secularized society. Looking not far ahead, the likely impact of women bishops is also discussed". -- back cover.
Contents: Acknowledgements / TB -- Introduction -- The aristocrats and the courtiers -- The scholars -- The statesmen -- The prophets -- The pastors -- The controversialists -- The headmasters -- The church reformers -- The social reformers -- The missionaries -- The evangelists -- The odd men out -- The pioneers : looking ahead -- Bibliography -- Index.
OTCH Note: The bishops described are in order of discussion: Edward Stuart Talbot, William Cecil, Charles Sumner, Cosmo Gordon Lang, Robin Woods, Connop Thirlwall, Joseph Barber Lightfoot, Mandell Creighton, Kenneth Kirk, Ian Ramsey, Archibald Campbell Tait, Randall Davidson, William Temple, George Bell, John Percival, Edward Lee Hicks, John A.T. Robinson, E.R. (Ted) Wickham, Edward King, William Walsham How, Edward Woods, Launcelot Fleming, Herbert Hensley Henson, Ernest William Barnes, Frederick Temple, George Ridding, Neville Gorton, Geoffrey Fisher, Edward Stanley, Charles James Blomfield, Samuel Wilberforce, Leslie Hunter, James Fraser, Brooke Foss Westcott, Charles Gore, George Augustus Selwyn, John William Colenso, Charles Mackenzie, Frank Weston, Joost de Blank, Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram, Walter Carey, Christopher Chavasse, Cuthbert Bardsley, Henry Phillpotts, T.B. Strong, Mervyn Stockwood and Douglas Feaver.
"The clergy have not been spared by HIV and AIDS, the Archbishop of Central Africa, the Most Rev. Bernard Malango, stated earlier this year [2005]. Officiating at the Church's strategic planning workshop on HIV/AIDS under the theme `Generation Born Without AIDS', Archbishop Malango said the Church had not been spared by HIV as some clergy were dying from the disease".
While attending a meeting of MISSIO, the Mission Commission of the Anglican Communion, in Harare, Zimbabwe, in April 1999, the author attended the funeral of an AIDS victim with the Rev. Petros Nyatsanza. The man who died was pre-deceased by his wife and infant daughter, all victims of AIDS.
The Advent 1996 issue of the International Anglican Family Network "tells of just a few of the projects, linked with churches, which are trying to alleviate the suffering and halt the spread of the disease. In this terrible situation there are signs of hope." Article includes reports from 12 different countries.
The author, a librarian and Volunteer in Mission from the diocese of Montreal, is working at Newton Theological College, in Papua New Guinea. She describes a powerful speaker at the College. "Fr. Nicholas (Anglican priest) from Zimbabwe, who was doing a training workshop on AIDS/HIV. This man is training church people and teachers by telling them about the Zimbabwean experience: how the church shut its eyes and ears to the virus, refused to talk about the sexual connection, refused to endorse the use of condoms and now is reaping the awful harvest of those decisions". She also describes how garbage disposal is handled at the College and the concern that the College has polluted a local water source. She will soon start teaching an advanced English course for the wives of students.
"The Diocese of Central Zimbabwe is planning an extensive food relief programme as the region is suffering a fourth year of major food shortages." The diocese set up extensive HIV/AIDS programmes in 2003. An average of "two parishioners die of AIDS every month per parish. This translates into three people every day." Mr. Peter Kwaramba is the diocesan communications officer and also in charge of the St. Patrick's HIV/AIDS action programme also known as PATHAID. The programme works for "HIV/AIDS prevention, but also to deal with its contingent problems, including support for the terminally ill, orphaned and marginalised children, and for families in general. `The project sees HIV/AIDS as a developmental problem and tackles it prevention, care and support ... with empowerment ... spiritual and economic', said Mr. Kwaramba. The only problem with ensuring the project worked, he added, was a lack of funds and a vehicle".
A meditation by the now retired bishop of Manicaland, Zimbabwe. A reflection on Mark chapter 15, verses 9-14, the persecution and suffering of Christ because he was not one of the powerful and threatened them with his love for the poor and powerless. "As we know the same violence that nailed Jesus to the cross in still prevalent in our world even today. It has many forms and can be physical as well as verbal .... HIV and AIDS is claiming lots of lives in Zimbabwe today. Should anyone be stoned to death because of helping the infected or affected, for instance the orphans ? Should anyone be harassed or beaten up because she/he has offered food to a hungry family ? Indeed we have heard voices saying time and again: Do not love or care for them because they are not 'one of us'. Whenever an act of violence is committed, the perpetrators appear to be victorious. But history has shown us again and again that perpetrators of violence always become the losers in the end. Jesus appeared to be a victim but today we celebrate his victory of the resurrection ...".