Who would have thought forty years ago that the Anglican Communion would be on the forefront of intra-Christian debate? Long apparently held together by a combination of Anglophilism, liturgy, and good taste (all in some ways interchangeable), it has now become the flashpoint of the clash between the older northern Christian communities of Europe and North America and the Two-Thirds world, where it is proportionately stronger than any other historic European Protestant communion. Kevin Ward's A History of Global Anglicanism is an analysis of how this situation has come to be.

Ward's study is in many ways in tune with modern sensibilities. He has eschewed the insider's perspective that has historically emphasized the church's identification with the governing establishment—an identification that could allow the church to be referred to in nineteenth-century South Africa simply as “the Religion of the Queen”—in favor of a focus on outsiders. Thus the Scottish, Welsh, and Irish play a far greater role in his treatment of Britain, and other minorities, particularly racial and gender minorities that are often ignored in traditional accounts, play an equally important role in his narrative. He has also striven to give added weight to the story of Anglicanism outside of Europe and North America, and there emphasizes the role of local appropriation in shaping ecclesiastical traditions rather than simply missionary agenda. In this way the theme of the volume is the shift from an “English” communion, dominated by European cultural assumptions, to a truly “Anglican” or international community.

He has adopted a regional rather than a chronological organization for his narrative, and although he includes chapters on Britain and North America, he really focuses on Anglicanism outside of these contexts. The reader will be pleased by insightful discussions of the church in these areas. The treatment of the Caribbean and Africa are particularly illuminative. Regarding the former, he distinguishes between religious policy in islands such as Jamaica, where European settlers attempted to control the church, and Barbados, where Afro-Caribbean leadership quickly took hold and where Anglicanism became a far more popular religious community. He divides Africa into west, east, and south. In the first two, the strongly evangelical Church Missionary Society, indigenous evangelists, and conflict with Islam gave to Anglicanism there a sense of independence, vigor, and combativeness. The situation in Southern Africa was different. A significant European population made racial issues predominant there, and a historically high-church clergy often acted as defenders of the indigenous population. Ward is also to be applauded for his discussion of the contributions of Max Warren and John V. Taylor in helping the communion move toward a greater involvement with the Two Thirds world.

Throughout Ward's volume the two subjects of the changing demographics of Anglicanism and the present crisis in the communion are not far distant. Concerning the former, the statistics he offers are startling. The decline of the once mighty and prestigious British Empire has led to a sharp reduction of Anglicans in many areas of the world. This is not only true in Britain itself and the old Dominions—over the last century the Anglican percentage of the population of Australia has fallen in half, and that of Canada by three-quarters—but in unexpected places such as the Caribbean. In contrast, East and West Africa have seen spirited growth. This demographic revolution lies at the heart of the intra-communion controversies. But here Ward offers an important caveat. Since demographics plays such a key role in discussions of world Christianity, much depends on the accuracy of the numbers, and increasingly David Barrett, George Thomas Kurian, and Todd Johnson's World Christian Encyclopedia (2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001) is cited as the definitive source for statistics. Yet Ward notes that in a number of cases—in particular those of East Africa, West Africa, and Nigeria—these numbers are significantly higher than the Anglican communion's own statistics. Hence, the statistics of the World Christian Encyclopedia need to be used with a degree of care. Regarding the present imbroglio itself, formally over the issue of sexuality but in actuality far more complex in nature, Ward attempts to walk a careful line—supportive of the northern churches' call for inclusion and acceptance yet supportive of the concerns raised by the churches of the global south. He is hesitant about accepting Philip Jenkins's now influential idea of hemispheric revolution and is also uncertain whether the present conflicts stem from indigenous concerns or from international ecclesiastical politics. The only point he is comfortable with is criticizing the American Episcopal Church for forcing the issue.

It is unfortunate that the work is weakened by more than a few factual errors. It is of course difficult for any author to be an expert on the vast expanse of materials included here, but errors cannot but mar the overall effect of the undertaking. In the chapter on the United States, for example, Ward makes nineteen errors in twenty-one pages—in names, dating, and even in interpreting sources. Most probably this chapter is anomalous, but it does affect the reader's confidence in areas in which he or she is less familiar.

These caveats aside, A History of Global Anglicanism will be received as a welcome contribution to the understanding of the current Christian scene.