The Cranmer Society at Cambridge University

Abstract This article examines the life of a society in the University of Cambridge that aimed to promote evangelical Anglican thinking and practice. It was named the Cranmer Society, after Thomas Cranmer, a leader in the sixteenth-century English Reformation, Archbishop of Canterbury, and a martyr for the Reformed faith. The Society commenced in the University of Cambridge in 1950. This study traces the Cranmer Society’s vision, its growth, its relationships and some of its struggles. A great deal was achieved during the 1950s and much of the 1960s. Major evangelical speakers came to talk to the Society, which could attract audiences of over 150. But there was also some uncertainty as time went on and in the later 1960s the Society had a period in abeyance. There was further activity on a smaller scale from the 1970s to 1983. The life of the Society sheds light on wider evangelical Anglican developments in the period. This study, while specific in its focus, contributes to understandings of the changing nature of evangelicalism and the evangelical Anglican priorities in this period. The launch of the Cranmer Society was an early evidence of what would be the growing strength and confidence of evangelicalism in the Church of England over succeeding decades. The aim was to equip undergraduates to play a full part in the Church’s life, primarily at local level but also more widely.