The Exchange of Gifts

Simon Barrington-Ward was one of the worldwide Church's great 'bridge-builders', charting an imaginative path for Christianity from the local to the global, and from a turbulent twentieth century right into the challenges of a new millennium. Establishing a pioneering reputation as the Church Mission Society (CMS) General Secretary and then Bishop of Coventry, his long and extraordinary life spanned nine decades, combining the heart of a pastor with wide-ranging gifts as a mission theologian, lecturer, chaplain, spiritual director, ecumenist, writer, reconciler and justice advocate. He was also Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

This book - featuring both recognised and emerging voices - explores the range of concerns and lives Simon Barrington-Ward touched, his importance as a contemporary witness to an historic faith, and the inspiration and guidance his example offers to followers of Christ navigating an uncertain future. The fascinating life it documents, and to which it pays tribute, will be of interest both to Anglicans and to Christians of many different outlooks and backgrounds. Here is a figure who can unite across difference and point us towards a path of hope in an often divided world.