Recommended Reading

Here are some books that are on our recommended reading list. Some of these selections require Adobe® Acrobat Reader®. This is a free program that everyone should have since many resources on the internet require it. Simply click on the image below to be taken to the Adobe® Home Page.

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Whatever happened to the Jesus Lane lot? by Oliver R Barclay. Review by Tony Copple
Recommended by Rev. George Sinclair at an Anglican Essentials Canada conference in 2006, this 1977 book (which I bought second hand from Amazon, since it is no longer in print) has been a huge help to me, placing in context the orthodox - liberal debate and showing that a hundred years ago the same debate was raging. It tells the story of the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (CICCU), an evangelical group started in 1877, and still going strong. The CICCU was the primary source of missionaries from the West a century ago. The book even covers the period I was up at Cambridge, 1959 - 1962, as something of a low point (I never heard of it, not having any interest in faith in those days). It also mentions John Stott, and J I Packer. Highly recommended for those fighting today for a faith that would be motivational enough to move new missionaries out of their comfortable parishes in the West to joint the current workers from South Korea.

The Authority of the BibleJohn R.W. Stott: The Authority of the Bible (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1974. ISBN 0-87784-147-0). In this tiny booklet of 32 very small pages, Stott gives a clear explanation of why Christians still can and should trust and obey the Bible as God's Word, as they have from the beginning of the Church.

Same-Sex Partnerships?(Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1998. ISBN 0-8007-5674-6). Stott reviews four key sets of biblical texts with their contemporary challenges, then responds to five principal arguments advanced in favour of same-sex partnerships, concluding with a plea for Christian compassion toward the homosexual individual. 93 small pages.

This is a .pdf file, click on the image to download.

Report of the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church.

True Union in the BodyThis is a .pdf file, click on the book to download.

A contribution to the discussion within the Anglican Communion concerning the public blessing of same-sex unions. A paper commissioned by the Most Reverend Drexel Wellington Gomez Archbishop of the West Indies.
Robert A.J. Gagnon: The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001. ISBN 0-687-02279-7). Gagnon provides an encyclopedic examination of all the relevant biblical passages and all the exegetical hypotheses concerning them in 520 pages. In spite of its length and intellectual weight, the book is very readable. Straight & Narrow?Thomas E. Schmidt: Straight & Narrow? Compassion and Clarity in the Homosexual Debate (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1995. ISBN 0830818588). Schmidt's exceedingly compasionate book is particularly valuable for those who need to familiarize themselves quickly with the revisionist interpretations of Scripture put forward by “Gay Christians” and their supporters. It provides truly fair accounts of the revisionist arguments and most useful bibliographic references to the works of the revisionists, as well as critiques of their arguments. 240 pages.
Written by Geoff Chapman, this downloadable brochure answers pertinent questions that demand answering. This is also available from the Essentials Website. The Facts and Faces of Our Sexual Experience is a downloadable brochure written by Diane Knippers and is also available from the Essentials Website.

This is a .pdf file, click on the book to download.

A paper commissioned for the Primates of the Anglican Communion by The Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, The Most Rev. Peter Akinola, and The Most Rev. Gregory Venables.

This paper is offered to address the need for a practical statement of the Anglican Communion’s self-identity and mission, as warranted by its own official documents and public declarations. In some ways, it serves as a primer for the unique character of Anglicanism as a part of God’s plan for the Christian Church.

The paper is written in response to the grave threat to the Anglican Communion’s continued existence and flourishing posed by the Episcopal Church, U.S.A.’s recent actions in contradiction of the Gospel. Nonetheless, our wish is that the hopefulness of Anglicanism’s vocation in service of Christ’s mission is here set forth.

Daniel Cere, Douglas Farrow, Editors: Divorcing Marriage: Unveiling the Dangers in Canada's New Social Experiment (Kingston:Queen's University Press, ISBN 0-7735-2895-4).

"Divorcing Marriage makes a compelling case that romanticism plus rights has prompted Canada to embark on a radical social experiment absent the sober analysis and criticism that should be attendant on such efforts. Whatever one's view of gay marriage, this volume injects a strong dose of realism into a debate that tends to be driven by ideology and naïveté."

Jean Bethke Elshtain, Professor of Social and Political Ethics,
University of Chicago