Divided We Stand: A History of the Continuing Anglican Movement [Paperback]

Douglas Bess (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0971963606 | ISBN-13: 978-0971963603 | Publication Date: July 2002

"Divided We Stand" is the first comprehensive history of the Continuing Anglican Movement. The book examines the histoy of a relatively small movement of Episcopalian dissidents who, during the last decades of the 20th century, withdrew from the institutional church in order to form independent ecclesiastical bodies. These Episcopalian sects were developed during various waves of traditionalist discontent, which began in the 1950s, increased during the 1960s, and reached their peak in the 1970s.

The book also chronicles the controversies within the Episcopal Church that led to the formation of traditionalist dissent, and eventually to schism, but focuses most of its attention on the internal history of the ecclesiastical bodies formed by those who broke away from the Episcopal Church.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Douglas Bess is a Continuing Churchman from California. He has an M.A. in Theological Studies from the Claremont School of Theology. This is his first published historical work.

Product Details

• Paperback: 314 pages
• Publisher: Tractarian Pr (July 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971963606
• ISBN-13: 978-0971963603
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,045,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally something to make sense of the Alphabet Soup, February 24, 2003

By 

W. Klock (Courtenay, British Columbia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Divided We Stand: A History of the Continuing Anglican Movement (Paperback)

As a minister in the Reformed Episcopal Church -- not technically one of the Continuing jurisdictions -- I've found myself encountering and working with members of the Anglican Continuum. Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of the Continuum is sorting out the different groups and what they represent. This book does exactly that and if you're looking for some help to sort out the various jurisdictions and where they've come from you'll find your answers here.

The book is rather poorly edited and would be greatly improved if it had an index, but on the whole I found it very informative. The greatest problem with this book is stated by the author in the introduction: there is no comprehensive source of history and documents for the Continuing Anglican churches, and those sources that are available are frequently biased and sometimes unreliable. If you read this book, remember that some parts are rather biased and many parts include a good bit of speculation.

If you are interested in the Continuum -- where it's come from and where it's going -- you'll find this book fascinating. Just remember to read between the lines and don't accept everything at face value.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Continuers Get Their Day In The Sun, August 27, 2002

By 

David Garrett (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Divided We Stand: A History of the Continuing Anglican Movement (Paperback)

This book was a pleasant suprise. As an Episcopalian, I was expecting it to basically trash the "mainstream" Episcopal Church, and to glorify the "dissidents" who make up the Continuing Churches. Although the book is certainly sympathetic to the Continuers, it is also brutally honest about the weaknesses of certain groups and figures within the movement.
Perhaps the book's greatest strength is that it tells the story (and tells it with a fresh writing style) of a group of conservative Epsicopalians that (to the best of my knowledge) have never had their story revealed before. There are some fascinating and quirky tales: of the early Continuing bishop who was an influential member of just about every radical right-wing political group in the 1960s; of a leading bishop in the movement who seems to have been a habitual "jurisdiction hopper," ecclesiastical coniver, and womanizer; and my personal favorite - the "brawling bishops" incident.
However, besides these juicy tales of strange and erratic behavior by some leaders in the Continuing movement, the book is basically a serious examination of the problems that committed "traditionalist" Episcopalians and Anglicans encountered when they were isolated in jurisdictions of their own creation. The old problem of "High Church" and "Low Church" interpretations of Anglicanism seems to have reared its ugly head with renewed force within the Continuing churches. Having left the Episcopal Church in the 1970s because it was alleged to have been politically radicalized and taken over by "secular humanism," the Continuers discovered that their commitment to "orthodoxy" led to more problems than they had imagined.
A warning is in order. The book does have its weaknesses. Idealogically, many Episcopalians may not take kindly to the author's description of female priests as "priestesses," or to his descriptions of Episcopalian political activism in the late 1960s as "foolish" and "naive." Also, the book could have used a more thorough editing job. There are quite a few typos. Perhaps most frustrating is that the book does not have have an index (although it is well footnoted). Despite these flaws, the book was much more interesting and informative than I was expecting it to be.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You Can't Tell the Players Without a Scorecard, March 18, 2007

By 

Eric M. Weaver "Anglican" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Divided We Stand: A History of the Continuing Anglican Movement (Paperback)

This is a very interesting book, but gets overloaded with so many players that it is difficult to keep track of who is who! I suspect that this is a "First Edition" and that the second edition will be forthcoming at some point, as the continuing Anglican movement is still playing itself out and how its end state will look is far from certain right now. But with The Episcopal Church's descent into what can most charitably be called "non-orthodox Christianity," this is a story that is far from over.