Jenny’s letter 23rd March
Dear Friends,
On 21st March the Church of England gives thanks for the life and work of Thomas Cranmer. He was one of many people acknowledged last week, which began on Monday with St Patrick’s day.
Why does the church remember certain people on certain days? The people are the saints, the teachers, the martyrs (people who died for their faith) and the missionary people of the church. We remember what they have done, acknowledging that it is upon many of them our faith has been built. We can look to them, too, as models of discipleship and obedience to God’s call on their life.
Thomas Cranmer was a quiet, bookish clergyman with a sharp mind and a knack for reform. But in many ways, he helped shape the foundation of the Church of England as we know it today.
He was born in 1489 and his early life was unremarkable. He studied at Cambridge, became a priest, and lived the kind of scholarly life that involved studying dusty theological texts. But his big break came when King Henry VIII was looking for a way to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, his first wife.
Cranmer, a rising academic, had some radical ideas about royal authority over the church. Word of his thinking reached Henry, who was thrilled to hear someone backing his side of the argument. Before Cranmer knew it, he was Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest church position in the land.
With that title came immense power—and immense danger. Cranmer helped Henry VIII break from Rome and establish the Church of England, a move that turned England’s religious world upside down. But he wasn’t just a political tool; he genuinely believed in reforming the church.
His most lasting contribution was the Book of Common Prayer, published in its present form after his death in 1662 and is still the foundation of what the C of E believes.
At St Barnabas we use the 1662 service of Holy Communion each month and while many churches only use Common Worship (2000), The Book of Common Prayer is still legal and offers a clear working out of the doctrine of the C of E. ‘Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi’ what we say is what we believe.
I am sure that your understanding of Tudor history will help you to realise that it wasn’t exactly a stable time to be a religious leader. After Henry VIII died, Cranmer’s reforms gained real traction under the Protestant king, Edward VI but Edward’s reign was short, and when his Catholic half-sister Mary I took the throne, Cranmer’s luck ran out. He was arrested, put on trial for heresy, and ultimately burned at the stake in 1556.
In a dramatic twist, after signing multiple documents denying his reformed views, moments before his death he defiantly declared his Protestant beliefs before being led to his fiery end.
Today, Cranmer is remembered as one of the most influential figures in English religious history and his ideas helped lay the groundwork for the church as it is today. In particular, his preaching and his writing of liturgy (the words we use in our services) continually focused the worshipper on Christ and his writings demonstrate a knowledge and love of the scriptures.
Perhaps you have not heard of Cranmer. If you are still reading at this point I encourage you to take a look at the text of the book of Common Prayer. Though the English is old, the substance is a powerful and in all of the protestant churches his words and reforms still echo centuries later.
I wish you the very best of weeks as you continue to journey through Lent.
