"This book will make a profound difference for the church in this moment in history."
— The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry
Sometimes it takes disruption and loss to break us open and call us home to God. It’s not surprising that a global pandemic and once-in-a-generation reckoning with white supremacy—on top of decades of systemic decline—have spurred Christians everywhere to ask who we are, why God placed us here and what difference that makes to the world.
In this critical yet loving book, the author explores the American story and the Episcopal story in order to find out how communities steeped in racism, establishment, and privilege can at last fall in love with Jesus, walk humbly with the most vulnerable and embody beloved community in our own broken but beautiful way.
The Church Cracked Open invites us to surrender privilege and redefine church, not just for the sake of others, but for our own salvation and liberation.
Stephanie Spellers serves as Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s Canon for Evangelism and Reconciliation. The author of The Church Cracked Open, and The Episcopal Way (with Eric Law), she has directed mission and evangelism work at General Theological Seminary and in the Diocese of Long Island. A native of Kentucky and a graduate of both Episcopal Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School, she lives in Harlem, New York.
“If you are looking at the landscape of the church and wondering, ‘How’d we get here?’ and what’s next, I invite you to board Rev. Spellers’s plane and take in the big picture with her. Take in the history, the theology, the pain, the beauty, and the hope that her view from thirty thousand feet offers. When she lands the plane, you’ll realize—there’s simply no better guide out there.” —Nadia Bolz-Weber, author
“Stephanie Spellers draws our attention to the unraveling of white Christianity in the face of contextual diversity and Jesus’s cross. She invites her readers to stop negotiating with the past and to realize that love is not maintaining and protecting community but the very cracking open at the heart of community.”—C. Andrew Doyle, IX Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Texas
“In a moment when structures and patterns in the church’s life are being deeply disrupted, this book is a loving, passionate invitation to repent, reimagine, and renew. Stephanie Spellers not only names hard truths but also and even more importantly offers hope and promise in Jesus’s way of love.” —Dwight Zscheile, PhD, VP of Innovation and Associate Professor of Congregational Mission and Leadership, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota
