CULTURAL CONTEXTS IN WORLDWIDE CONTEMPORARY ANGLICANISM: BEYOND THE ANGLICAN COVENANT

This research study attempts to explore the role that the notion of culture has played both, in the recent crisis within the Anglican Communion over issues of human sexuality, and in Anglican self-understanding more generally. I pay particular attention to the cultural transitions and clashes in different geo-social contexts, and to the dynamics between postmodern and postcolonial worldviews. The methodology employed here follows an inductive comparative analysis of the documents connected with the Anglican Covenant (2009). To date, there is no other academic investigation that has offered an in depth analysis of these texts as culturally contextualized identity articulations. The findings reveal a diversity of approaches to culture and a complex series of cultural clashes and alignments within this family of churches.