A good recommendation for reading this book is that it was at the top of the list that Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold sent to the House of Bishops as their reading list for last month's House of Bishops' meeting. It is a new and challenging book on an old subject that many Episcopalians have dismissed because they think they know all about it — global mission.

The book is the outgrowth of a consultation on "Anglicanism in a Post Colonial World" that was held at the Episcopal Divinity School in 1998. At the heart of this collection of papers are those prepared for that occasion, revised in the light of serious discussion there on the overall subject. Additional papers were then requested to "broaden and deepen the discussion" as the two editors said in the introduction. It consists of 15 chapters divided into three sections: Colonialism and the Anglican Communion, Challenges of the Present World, and Visions for the Future Church.

One of the most arresting features of these essays is the diversity of authors, half of whom were at the receiving end of "Colonial Anglicanism." Authors such as African primates Chiwanga and Ndungane write from the perspectives of cultures that were raped by the heavy hand of colonial imperialism. They know the hegemony — the oppressive weight — of Western, male-dominated, culturally insensitive missionaries who brought Anglican Christianity to their people. They are grateful for the gospel but conscious of the price that was paid by their countries under Euro-centric imperialism.

These, along with the other writers, with more recognizably Anglo-Saxon names, agree that the mission mindset of the church in the last 150 years must change radically if the church is to proclaim the gospel faithfully in the post-colonial 21st century.

This is not an easy book to read. For the most part, it was written by scholars who are drawing on resources unfamiliar to the average Episcopalian. It is challenging to long-held beliefs about the church, ultimate truth, order, and the way things obviously "ought to be." Some of these writers were thinking "out of the box," and presented new concepts and ways of looking at reality that were challenging. Some assumptions and conclusions I simply could not agree with. However difficult it might have been to read every word, I consider the book pivotal for a church that needs to make some radical changes if it is to faithfully present the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(The Rt. Rev.) David B. Reed

Louisville, Ky.