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Last Rites: The End of the Church of England
 
 
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Last Rites: The End of the Church of England (Paperback)

by Michael Hampson (Author) "I first attended an ordination service just three years before my own ordination ..." (more)
3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Granta Books (2 Oct 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1862078912
  • ISBN-13: 978-1862078918
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.4 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 121,930 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #58 in  Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestant > Anglicanism

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Product Description

Review
  • 'The best book I have ever read about life inside the Church of England. Lucid, passionate and timely. Read it now before the whole thing's gone' Andrew Brown, Church Times
  • An explosive demolition job on the Church of England, arguing for its break-up
  • Exposes the shocking extent of homophobia in the church
  • The crisis in the church permeates all aspects: church buildings, the liturgy, its finances, the morale of the clergy
  • Michael Hampson worked as a parish priest for thirteen years
  • Channel 4 documentary under discussion 'A polemic, passionate and well-informed book...extremely readable and informative and it is a wonderful guide to what is currently happening in the Church of England...very moving' Baptist

    Sainsbury's Magazine "Hot Books" November 2006
    "Utterly compelling"


    See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
I first attended an ordination service just three years before my own ordination. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars a religious broadside at a sinking ship, 14 Dec 2006
By S. G. Wright - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
A healthy spirituality requires healthy spiritual communities to support it, and Hampson's analysis of the state of the Church of England is profoundly disturbing. It has essentially been colonised by a form of fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity that now threatens the very existence of the state church. Moving inexorably towards greater homophobic, misogynist and excluding influences the church in Hampson's searing yet compassionate view is very nearly a lost cause and is failing in its primary duty to be of spiritual succour to Christians in the world wide Anglican communion. Yet he offers hopeful possibilities. Having done a demolition job on the parlous state of the church - its inner tensions, its riven values, its shaky finances, its failing structures and systems - he offers hope in his analysis. His recommendations for an Anglican revival, restructuring, realigning and re-envisoning of its core purpose and practices contain many eminently sensible solutions. It may be that he is too optimistic, that disabled as it is, the Anglican church is lost as a mainstream, liberal, progressive and inclusive Christianity. Does that matter? Some might say, a plague on your house, yet there is an investment for us all if the Anglican church can find good health. The development of healthy spirituality in communities will be affected one way or another by the health of such (still) massively and globally influential bodies as the Church of England and those others in the Anglican communion. He writes not just from a theological or a scholarly perspective (and he writes exceedingly well) but also from a personal one - giving a fascination read rooted in his own story, and thereby making the relevance and depth of the problem accessible and apparent to any reader, not just Anglicans. In so doing he also produces a fine case study in what can happen to a spiritual community when it is gripped by unhealthy shadows. I hope that his analysis and suggestions for ways forward are accepted. If not, the Anglican church as a relevant force for good and for Christianity in the modern world is lost. A highly recommended read for all.

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16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Kind words spoken in frustration?, 30 Oct 2006
By Dr. Richard Harris (Bristol, Enlgand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is a heartfelt, earnest and very readable book about one former clergymen's experiences within the Church of England. The author is gay and the book resonates with both the kindness but also the prejudice he experienced working as a homosexual priest within the church. The honesty is compelling and helps to take the reader beyond (perhaps) misplaced theology to see, as Jesus did, not the doctrine but the person, fully loved by God. Bound up in this honesty is found hurt and this is the book's Achilles' heel. The author, Michael Hampson, makes unwarranted sideswipes at strange targets including family services, non-stipendiary (`part time') priests, inclusive baptism services and the `emerging church' movement. Worse, there is a tendency to somewhat coarse stereotyping and generalisation which, at its worse - for example when talking of the `cult of fundamentalism' - seems no more nuanced or inoffensive than much of the brickbats thrown at homosexuality within the church. Still, frustration can manifest itself in many ways and, for much of the book, it does so positively. Some of his manifesto about dismantling the traditional Church of England, promoting both greater diversity and more local autonomy require serious consideration. And anyone who is brave enough to suggest that it's time the CoE handed over the keys of its ancient but empty building to some other organisation that is prepared to pay for that heritage, thus leaving the church to concentrate on the present, is certainly worth listening to.
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7 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars simplistic and unhelpful, 23 Mar 2007
By Mr. C. Goble "chris132510" (Northamptonshire, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book excels at generalisation and sweeping statements. It shows no love of the Church of England and I don't recognise (having been ordained 9 years) this book being about the same church as I'm ordained in. True, we have problems, this book states some of them, and also states some of the successes as problems! He is obviously hurting and almost machine guns targets not caring whom he hits. This is a book which tells me more about the writer than the Church of England. I honestly could not recomend it to anyone, all I read are sweeping statements which don't do justice to evangelicalism, the charismatic movement, Anglo-Catholicism or the Church of England as a whole.
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