This paper offers four principles for a contemporary Anglican theology of religions that is decolonial by looking at theologians beyond the West for inspiration. At the same time, it bases its claims for its Anglican traditionalism by showing the continuity of these ideas in an older lineage of Anglican theology on religious diversity, incarnationalism and social theology. The four principles are as follows: a polydox approach to theology; a liberation-based interreligious solidarity; an openness to learning new directions in theology from Spirit-Sophia; and an incarnational emphasis on lived and embodied experiences and practices. The paper starts by looking at the history of Anglican incarnational theology, it then explores how theologies of religious diversity have developed from the nineteenth through the twentieth century, next it explicitly links incarnation, diversity and social justice, and a final section develops the four principles in a global and ecumenical conversation.

This article argues that the current Anglican Communion crisis is best understood as constitutional erosion: the weakening of shared norms that historically mediated disagreement through recognizable form, restraint and reception. Doctrinal and moral disputes function as triggers, but the deeper driver is the loss of a common grammar of legitimacy, so that procedurally valid provincial actions can be constitutionally unintelligible to other provinces. The article interprets key African and Global South interventions not primarily as theological or cultural reaction but as contested constitutional reasoning rooted in episcopal guardianship, communion discipline and inherited catholic order. It analyses the Global Anglican Future Conference and Global South instruments as substitute constitutional documents generated by the incapacity of the Instruments of Communion to secure effective restraint and proposes a minimal inter-provincial accord: clarified instrument authority, operationalized reception, limited covenantal discipline and a standing advisory process for communion impairment.

This article demonstrates the profound shaping influence of the First World War on the post-war lives and ministries of Australian Anglican Army chaplains. Through their use of the Anglican liturgy and their leadership of Anzac commemoration, returned Anglican chaplains offered means of consolation and hope to grieving Australians. They also addressed the need of many Australian veterans to make sense of their war experience as meaningful and sacred. In doing so, returned chaplains created the rituals, symbols and liturgy that would give enduring voice and shape to an emerging Australian civil religion. Veteran chaplains also founded religious brotherhoods; forged institutions, ministries and advocacy aimed towards the working class and men; and offered a corporate vision of society that sought to break the impasse between labour and capital, and contend with post-war claims of fascism, communism and capitalism. In turn, this article contends that the war’s aftermath represents a moment in Australian history when the Anglican Church focused on what it meant to be a nation, and the goals and aspirations worthy of national energy and enthusiasm. Returned Anglican chaplains were able, and had earned the right, to speak about such matters.

A reflection on the recent Nairobi-Cairo proposals of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO). The background to the proposals is set out with criticism of the resulting document and suggestions for improving relations in the Anglican Communion.

A Swahili proverb states ‘mafiga mawili hayaivishi chungu – two stones would not properly hold a cooking pot’. It suggests that complex relationships may inform even what appears to be simple. This paper suggests that this pattern may usefully be applied to thinking about, and living out, the doctrine of the Atonement. Indeed, it may usefully be adapted to the dictum of Prosper of Aquitaine: lex orandi, lex credendi, lex bene vivendi. A full engagement with the doctrine will have epistemic, relational and behaviour components. Recognizing the Scriptural grounding of the doctrine in the practice of sacrifice and its attendant rituals shows how the doctrine may be believed, related to the personal response and relationship to God (prayer), and lived out liturgically, which is in turn an expression of an ethic to be embraced. Christian life must embrace both orthodoxy and orthopraxis.

Bishop Frank Weston’s The Black Serfs of Britain (1923) is a short pamphlet which critiques British colonial governance in East Africa in wake of the First World War. Much more difficult to obtain than its earlier sister volume, The Black Slaves of Prussia (1918), it sees Weston in a familiar combative vein. The two works are crucially important in gaining a fuller picture of Weston, his thinking and his legacy. Often remembered as an Anglo-Catholic contrarian, these political texts bring to the fore his Christian socialism and add crucial details to the journey which would famously lead to the Anglo-Catholic conference and his powerful injunction to serve Christ both in worship and social ministries. The text of The Black Serfs of Britain is printed in full with introductory material, commentary, and notes.

Pedagogical theology examines Church belief and practice through the lens of learning. The author examines Anglican ecclesial language and discipleship ministry recognition practice through the lens of learning. In this context, empirical parish learning community research findings indicate a link between ministry involvement, ministry leadership and growth in faith. This connection between doing ministry and growth in faith is strengthened when the word ‘lay’ is replaced by the word ‘disciple’ and the word ‘commissioned’ is emphasised. The importance of the sacrament of baptism informs these changes. Through baptism, people become disciples of Jesus; through baptism, disciples have equality of discipleship; through baptism and confirmation, disciples are commissioned. All disciples are given the best opportunity to grow in faith when they do ministry in a church culture which recognises that the primary ordering of ministry occurs in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation.

This paper argues that for Anglicans, the local church is made up of both the parish and the diocese. Each holds a number of tensions and in holding them creates the ecclesial space in which parish and diocese can find their vocation. The paper sets out the tensions and vocations of parish and diocese, in turn, mapping them against the four ‘Marks of the Church’. This helps to show the ways in which parish and diocese need one another to fulfil the calling of the local church.