Description:
This slim and highly accessible study, based on a series of addresses to clergy, shows how the ministry of presbyters and bishops evolved in the early church with roots in the teaching office of elders in the Jewish synagogue.
Brief description: Roger Beckwith (1929-2023) was one of the Church of England's leading evangelical thinkers. His many decades of theological industry on behalf of the Anglican evangelical cause are interwoven with the story of Latimer House, the forerunner of Latimer Trust whose motto is 'Biblical Truth for Today's Anglican Church'. An Oxford graduate, Beckwith had served his first curacy at St Peter's, Harold Wood, in east London, a parish with a long evangelical history, followed by four years as tutor at Tyndale Hall, Bristol, an evangelical theological college founded by the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society. He later became Latimer House warden, and published many tracts and essays.
Review Quotes:
"A little gem!"
J I Packer
"Roger Beckwith's classic study of ministry in the early church has lost none of its relevance as we seek to adapt our structures for our own day. There are important lessons here for us all as we plot a way forward in equally challenging times."
Gerald Bray, Beeson Divinity School
"Elders in Every City repays careful and repeated reading. As a bishop, I am constantly struck by the unhelpful practices in much contemporary church polity. Roger Beckwith reminds us of the need to revisit the apostolic era and early church, and how Thomas Cranmer and his Reformation colleagues sought to return Anglicanism to a healthy practice. The republication of this book is very timely."
Andy Lines, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Network in Europe