I  have read some of this book now. Like i said to Adrian Chatfield many years ago, when it comes to reading i am a dipper not a diver. As a book it made me think, laugh ,sigh, feel humbled , but also nostalgic alongside a little frustrated. Looking at the issues the book explores through the memory of a man who loves the Lord, who has done his best to play his part in making the Gospel and the teaching of it accessible to all relevant to the moving society we live in. 

The positive bits of the abolition of Apartheid to the negative bits of the failure of synod to make women truly equal in all senses and the issue of failing to adequately care for the vulnerable in terms of sexuality.

I was able to read the book and reflect as to where i was in the world and greater picture with relevance to its content. Ecumenicasm has truly evolved in its lifetime. I remember how the Anglicans really thought that  free church people were less worthy. I dont take any notice now.

Let them rock back and forth in their long robes on their toes and look down at me, maybe they will get into the beat eventually lol.

The other thing i noticed was the mischievesness of the men involved, they know who they are . All them who shared with me and pretended they gave a damn about women in the ministry whilst voting against it,

Much work has been done in the ever evolving Church of Christ we are his ears eyes bodies and minds on the earth, so may the synod continue to evolve, and truly serve the people of God it represents.

In the words of Colin Buchanan himself " i am not saying that is the way it was/is, just the way i see/saw it.

waterangel

I enjoyed reading Gordon Kuhrt's review of CB's book. Off I went to my bookshelves and there it was, purchased soon after publication.

I had been a member of the Church Assembly's House of Laity for 1959 to early in 1968 representing Coventry Diocese. So I was involved in liturgical debates on Series 1 etcetera and Canon Law revision.

Initially the evangelical group was quite small and I was not always conformist to the most conservative line. I may have already become a Fulcrum type! 

On moving to Wakefield diocese my school responsibilities would only allow of being involved up to diocesan level but I read regularly of what was happening at national level and I came to have great respect for Colin B.

Well I have ordered the book and i am looking forward to reading it, so when i receive it i will comment further. My only observation to date is this, i know as many others know there are many good christian people out there, who dedicate there time, to co-ordinating the training of and care for those both training for and those in the ministry.

What does not yet appear to have happened is the link that puts together, the reconcilliation process between factions. What do i mean? I mean we often see or hear when there are problems that a minister of any denomination or gender encounters with negative press.

Being the boring person i am what i want to see and read is the reconcilliation process. What is the point in training ministers, to evade the very thing that we believe in. ie Love acceptance equality and forgiveness. That is not a criticism of Venerable Gordon Kuhrt but a general observation that this does not appear to have developed in the last 10 years. The Anglican tradition in particular say every service "peace be with you" how much i wish that people meant it for everyone,would an antiwoman clergyman really wish me peace?. They might want peace from me ie for me to shut up but would they wish me peace in and through Christ?

Having said all that genuinely I say may peace be with you.

Waterangel

I think you have missed the point. What COB has been doing is trying to make these structures work for the sake iof the Gospel. Read the book! I get students to read parts as it does give a helpful summary of where the CofE has been with these debates.

And your reference to the apostles is irrelevant - they lived before diaries, synods, TVs, aircraft, chicken tikka massala - we don't and we have to live out our faith in a new context.

I read the review with a growing sense of dis-ease and horror.  The institutional bureaucratic mechanics the Church Catholic appears to require in order, one prays, to serve the people of God: is numbing.  One has to wonder where Anglicanism would be if the founders of the Church had been thus encumbered with meetings and papers and synods and the entire paraphinalia of bureacratic delay and consequent inevitable obfuscation?

As I recently asked my Bishop, who had been distracted from our conversation by checking his appointments: 'I wonder what St Paul did for a diary?  Or St Peter and any of our founding Fathers?'

Does reciting the Offices in the solitude of one's study, because of the pressure of Church busy-ness, fulfil the call of our vocation to serve the wishes of the Holy Spirit?

Gordon Kuhrt's review of Colin Buchanan's book took me to my bookshelves to rediscover this fascinating book I bought 4 years ago.

I was a member of the House of Laity but in Synod's predecessor, the Church Assembly, from 1959 to 1967 representing Coventry Diocese. I was much more of a backbencher than CB! I go back to Series Two debates.

I had many Grove Books, from the very start and CB's writings there kept me informed about the many aspects with which I seemed to be in agreement with him, or perhaps he convinced me of that.

Quite an offer by Norwich Books too.