Toward 2015: A Church Odyssey

The Episcopal Church, like other ""oldline"" churches, is in a critical time of transition, the results of which will be as earthshaking as those of the 16th-century Reformation. So say Kew, a missions specialist, and White, the Episcopal bishop of Milwaukee, who go beyond their trend-watching New Millennium, New Church (1992) to chart Anglicanism's probable course over the next 20 years. Frequently citing secular thinkers and evangelical churchmen, the authors address concerns felt by virtually all denominations in America: aging membership, spiritual pluralism, bitter factionalism. If the church is to thrive, the authors contend, evangelization must become its top priority. Denominations that continue to focus on current membership rather than actively seeking new members are numerically and spiritually doomed, they write. Despite their well-reasoned analysis, in subordinating all other aspects of ecclesial life and theology to evangelism, the authors may leave some readers wondering just which aspects of the specifically Anglican tradition will be flourishing in the year 2015. (Jan.)