"In "A Church at War Stephen Bates has given us a book that reads like a thriller and unfolds like a tragedy. It is a story of an attempted coup, the takeover of a once benign and inclusive institution by religious extremists who want to recreate it in their own narrow and destructive image. The battle is ostensibly over homosexuality, but in reality it is about the status and interpretation of the Bible. As Bates eloquently shows, though the struggle is not over already there have been some spectacular casualties--the most notable being Rowan Williams, the present Archbishop of Canterbury. Anyone who cares about the future of the Anglican Church should read this book."--Richard Holloway, formerly Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church
"Bates manages to turn the minutiae of church politics into an engrossing and exciting narrative. He takes a pitiless scalpel to the poverty of conservative evangelical thinking on sexuality, and reveals plenty of evidence of a determined conservative minority bidding to seize power in worldwide Anglicanism. He poses a challenge to the Anglican Communion to fight its way out of its current mess through the exercise of a good deal more generosity and imagination than has so far generally been the case."--Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church, University of Oxford
"Human sexuality has become one of the more contentious issues for churches as they wrestle with their identity and place in the modern world. Bates' insightful book does an admirable job of revealing the fissures and faultlines of the current debate in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion. His analysis is a sure-footed guideand an essential companion for all those who want to understand the competing convictions that have contributed to the discussions so far."--Martyn Percy, Director, Lincoln Theological Institute, Manchester and Adjunct Professor of Theology, Hartford Seminary, Connecticut
"Stephen Bates has left us in his debt with his gripping account of recent events in the Anglican Communion. It is a sorry tale, but is one that needs urgently to be told, and Bates tells it brilliantly. There is an old Anglican prayer which speak of charity as being the bond of peace and of all virtues. A good dose of that is needed at the moment if an historically inclusive church is not to end up being narrow, exclusive and unchristian."--
