In 146 pages and 21 easily digestible chapters, Bishop David Evans recounts journeys he undertook as a worker among students in Argentina, then Bishop of Peru and finally General Secretary of the South American Missionary Society.
Each chapter reflects something of the life and witness of Christians throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia whom David met on his own journeys that were sometimes highly risky, with hugely frustrating delays, and in spectacular scenery. You will never complain about the train being five minutes late again.
The Church of England House of Bishops has regularly contained Bishops with extensive overseas experience: one thinks of Manchester, Salisbury, Winchester, St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, Coventry, Leicester, Southwark and Rochester as Sees where within the last 50 years such bishops have served. Winchester, Reading and now to some extent Canterbury continue that very important tradition. For in the role of bishop a senior Christian leader can keep before the Church of England the nature and presence of Anglican churches around the world and the rich contribution they bring of the picture of Jesus in other cultures.
And Bishop David, who led the Diocese of Bradford in the transition between two former bishops gives contemporary reality to that tradition by bringing to life the reality of his many journeys.
The climax of Bishop Evans’ travelogue from his earliest days in Tanzania is the visit to the Beagle Channel at the tip of Latin America to the site of the death of the founder of the South American Missionary Society, Captain Allen Gardiner, commemorated by a simple plaque. David Evans reflects: “As we sat there (in the cave) 150 years later, I realised that my understanding of the rock image of God would have to change. It was not a question of God being a rock under one’s feet to give stability. It was God being totally enveloping.”
Chris Sugden in CEN
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