About the Society
The New Cranmer Society is:
A movement within the Anglican Church of Melbourne encouraging the promotion of the Good News of Jesus in ways which can be heard and understood.
The New Cranmer Society promotes:
- Effective church governance which responds to the demands of today but is consistent with the teaching of Scripture / New Testament.
- Contemporary Biblical Anglicanism
- Orthodoxy
From the President - Malcolm Woolrich :
Welcome to the New Cranmer Society website. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) sought to promote preaching and the proclamation of the Good News in ways that ordinary people could understand, while upholding and not diluting the Bible's authority.
Such aims are as relevant today as they were 500 years ago.
The New Cranmer Society similarly endeavors to encourage our church leaders and institutions to be faithful to the teachings of Scripture and orthodox Anglicanism, and to express these truths in ways that are contemporary and mission-focused.
Please consider our principles and objectives which are set out in this web-site, and our invitation to join the New Cranmer Society. We seek to act with Christian integrity and prayerfulness, confident that God is at work in the cities of Melbourne and Geelong. We welcome your prayers and support.
Malcolm Woolrich
Principles
The New Cranmer Society adheres to the constitutional position of the Anglican Church of Australia with its historic declarations applied in their orthodox sense.
As well as upholding orthodox Christian belief, the New Cranmer Society seeks to adopt and apply in a renewed and current form the strategies used by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer including:
- Working for continuous reform of the Church and its institutional structures to bring them into greater consonance with the Scriptures while responding to the demands of the time;
- Proclaiming the gospel in idiom that will be "heard not only with the ears but also heart, spirit and mind".
Objectives
The objective of The New Cranmer Society is to unite in one association members of the Anglican Church in the diocese of Melbourne who wish to promote:
- The presentation of considered contributions to Synod, Synod related bodies, the Archbishop and Council of the Diocese and other diocesan councils and committees and governing bodies of Anglican organisations in the diocese of Melbourne generally;
- The identification and encouragement of the election and appointment of qualified and committed persons to membership of incumbency committees, and the bodies referred to in (a);
- Co-ordinated co-operative action by parishes and extra parochial organisations on matters of common concern;
About Thomas Cranmer
Who Was Thomas Cranmer?
Thomas Cranmer was summoned to become Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533. Later he said, "there never was man came more unwillingly to a bishopric than I did to that." He was a man of the Bible, a preaching theologian and a superb liturgiologist.
From 1534 he worked with others for the authorisation of an English Bible. With his fellow reformers, Cranmer was eager to promote biblical preaching and especially the doctrine of justification by faith alone through the grace of Christ.
The 1552 Book of Common Prayer was full of scripture and upheld the Bible's authority. It was for common prayer, involving the congregation.
Cranmer is recognised for his commitment to helping ordinary people understand the Good News of Christ and participate fully in their worship to God in a form they could understand.
