The worries many people have about the Church of England and its future are not confined to the matters most hotly debated in Synod. C. H. Sisson does not pretend to have answers. What he does, in pieces which range over more than four decades, is to touch on a variety of urgent questions - from current arguments over the language of the liturgy to political relationships. To this he brings a long-standing interest in the history and literature of the church as well as in its current doings.

His approach is not academic: he sees parish affairs from the perspectives of a churchgoer, non-churchgoer and ex-churchwarden, and government in the light of his experience at Whitehall and abroad. Above all, the book is the work of a poet, translator and critic for whom language is a matter of vivid contemporary concern.