In the lead-up to Lambeth 2008, when the world’s Anglican bishops will meet for their once-in-a-decade conference and consider once again the future of the Anglican Communion, Anglican Communion in Crisis is an important book for Anglican clergy and scholars, as well as anyone else who is interested in what is happening in  he church worldwide.

Miranda K. Hassett has both academic credentials and a personal stake in the fracturing denomination that give   her credibility and sensitivity: with a PhD in anthropology from North Carolina in hand, she is also pursuing ordination in the Episcopal Church.

Her main premise is that the alignment in recent years of Southern-hemisphere bishops and Northern conservatives, primarily over the issue of homosexuality, is the result not of the shift of Christianity’s centre of gravity to the global South, but of “the cooperative globalizing work of American conservative dissidents and a number of sympathetic Southern Anglican leaders…” (p. 4). This is in no small part due to conservatives’ reaction over the consecration of Gene Robinson, a partnered gay man, as bishop in 2003. Here she readily contradicts scholar Philip Jenkins, giving more credit to American conservatives than he would in constructing this alliance.

Hassett carried out extensive field research in Uganda, which boasts the second largest Anglican church in the Communion (after Nigeria), and the U.S., with a special focus on an unidentified American parish that has separated from the Episcopal church to join the Anglican Church of  Rwanda.

Her training in anthropology is valuable in her description of the nuanced ways in which Africans, in particular Ugandans, view homosexuality, as well as the way in which they link – or perhaps do not link – foreign aid to theological or moral positions. For example, she points out, while Southern bishops at Lambeth 1998 strongly  endorsed the  debt-forgiveness resolution put forth by liberal bishops, they did not “restrain their views on homosexuality in order to please Northern liberals when the sexuality debate rolled around” (p. 98).

Her careful dissection of Lambeth 1998 sets the stage for further exploration and analysis of the African church and northerners’ views of it. Her reportage of secret meetings and candid conversations exposes the weaknesses in both liberals and conservatives. Both sides can learn from her findings.

As a scholar, Hassett has assiduously avoided saying which camp she resides in. The book is refreshingly free of  polemics. She concludes, however, that despite polarization of the Communion

into liberal and conservative factions, there should be room for more alliances – those involving liberals and moderates as well as conservatives.

Debra Fieguth is a writer and the Social Action Ministry Coordinator for the Diocese of Ontario.