21 March 2026 – Thomas Cranmer

Thomas Cranmer became Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Henry VIII  but was martyred during the reign of Bloody Mary Tudor on 21 March 1556. We saw where he was tried in Great St. Mary’s in Oxford. Prior to the reign of this Catholic Queen, he had been instrumental in shaping the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

He is well remembered for the beautiful collects which he devised and which have been dutifully repeated down through the centuries much to the pleasure of many worshippers who have by use and wont memorised these texts and thereby nurtured their spiritual life.

‘God, which hast prepared to them that love thee such good things as pass all man’s understanding; Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we loving thee in all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Christ, our Lord.’

In the preface to the Prayer Book, there are words of guidance concerning the worship of the Church. In ‘Of Ceremonies’ which is subtitled, ‘Why some be abolished, and some retained’, Cranmer tackles the vexed question of the old and the new in common worship. It is our question too. Nothing changes!

‘And whereas in this our time, the minds of men are so diverse, that some think it a matter of conscience to depart from a piece of the least of their ceremonies, they be so addicted to their old customs;

and again on the other side, some be so new-fangled, that they would innovate all things, and so despise the old, that nothing can like them, but that is new:

it was thought expedient, not so much to have respect how to please and satisfy either of these parties, as how to please God, and profit them both.’

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