Introduction: implosion -
1. The rise and fall of a global church -
2. Faith in an age of crisis -
3. Empire, church and moral geography -
4. Tipping points -
5. Slavery, church and colonial racism -
6. Crowning glory -
7. To be, or not to be? -
8. Anglicanism: a moral reckoning -
9. Communion and Commonwealth -
10. The English enigma -
11. Church, Communion and classism -
12. Cultural weather forecasts -
13. Things fall apart -
14. Beyond control -
15. Grains of truth -
Conclusion: the writing on the wall -
Coda: nobody's friends and the end of hierarchy.

"This book offers a bold and unsettling truth: the British Empire and Great Britain are primarily English constructions, and the Church of England benefited from English enterprise and exploitation, serving as the spiritual arm of the imperial project. English Anglicanism has cast itself as the lead character in its own 'serious fiction'--the main religious player in a drama of Church and Empire. Yet, in collusion with colonialism, it is now trapped by historical amnesia. Martyn Percy examines the English interests concealed in appeals to Britishness, showing how slavery, exploitation, classism and racism upheld elitist and hierarchical worldviews that bolstered both Empire and Church. By viewing the rest of the world as lesser, both institutions have declined in global standing, now reduced to minor national players on the world stage. Religious, social and political imperialism thrived on deprecating others, but those once marginalised have fought for equality and independence. Today, the worldwide Anglican Communion faces a new era of moral reckoning" -- Publisher, page [2] of dust jacket