A Church in the Alps, by Cicely Williams. London: Commonwealth and Continental Church Society, 1970. 46 pages, 14 photographs. Price $1.00.

A quiet little book pulling together such diverse threads as the Matterhorn disaster, the Alpine Club Centenary, the rising tide of tourists in the Alps, and early ecumenical efforts in Zermatt. The role of the English Church which opened in Zermatt in 1870 is traced throughout its first century of service. The modern climber may well be bemused by the Victorian life-style which dictated the initial construction of “the parish church of the Alpine Club”, but the powers of historical accommodation exhibited by the brooding giants of the Wallis appear equal to the task of reconciling even the Anglican orderliness of the Victorians with the secular exuberance of the current crop of “hard rock” climbers who now dominate the Zermatt scene.

William F. unsoeld