Katherine Parr is an unsung hero of Reformation Anglicanism.

In so many ways it it fair to call this “Cranmer’s Church.”

To a great extent the 1549 Prayer Book was a translation of Bucer’s liturgy for Cologne. The term "Book of Common Prayer" comes from Bucer, and many of the changes made in the 1552 edition are thanks to him.

When we recognize the Grand Canyon-size gulf between us and God, we are forced to look for a solution beyond our human capacity and righteousness: to a God who saves us to the uttermost - who alone has the power to bring dead people back to life.

Michael Nazir-Ali did the right thing if his heart is not fixed on Anglican’s commitment to the primacy of Holy Scripture, and to the doctrines of justification by grace through faith alone, the universal priesthood of all believers, and to a sacramental understanding that expresses these core biblical teachings.

God himself is the consecrator of the elements of Holy Communion, not a fancy-dressed holy man mumbling unintelligible words and raising a host at a high altar for the peasants to see.

Jane Seymour gave King Henry VIII his only living legitimate son, the future King Edward VI.

The "Great Ejection" refers to 1,800 evangelical/puritan Church of England ministers who were expelled from their pulpits by law following the Act of Uniformity of 1662.

I saw Jane’s tragic destiny and wished to possess her courage.

The settlers in Jamestown understood this. Do we?

In 1548 the task of writing a Book of Common Prayer was given to a committee of six bishops and six other learned men (mostly Tudor humanists) under Cranmer’s leadership.

John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was the face of opposition to the evangelical/Protestant teaching that was finding its way into 16th century England.

Bromiley reminded us that the key to understanding Cranmer is to remember that grace always precedes faith: “Justification is not even by faith but only by grace.” For Cranmer, God always takes the initiative

I went to church hoping to meet God, but the preacher handing out marching orders instead. You can imagine how disappointed I was! I went hoping for some relief for my weary soul, but I left with the example of a better Christian to emulate.

Unless he could be exempted from the use of the vestments specified in the Ordinal (ordination service) that still suggested a Catholic mass and sacrificing priesthood, he would prefer to remain a traveling preacher.

Catholic scholars claim that he was too gentle and kindhearted to support the systematic extermination of evangelicals in England, but in fact this last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury led a cleansing at Cambridge University of the menacing evangelicals January 26, 1557.

There would be battles between those who anchor their identity in the formularies and those who don’t (the Thirty-nine Articles, the Homilies, and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer). The 1830’s Oxford Movement and the Broad Church Movement and its various iterations of progressivism have taken a shotgun to the traditional Anglican formularies and tried their hardest to relegate them to the basement where Aunt Hazel was kept when she visited.

Diarmaid MacCulloch delivered the 1998 Birkbeck Lectures at Cambridge University which he expanded into this book. In The Boy King, MacCulloch addresses the six-year reign of King Edward VI (1547- 1553): what led up to his enthronement, the issues, challenges and accomplishments of his reign, and the lasting effects on church and society of a young king determined to land the newly formed Church of England in, what came to be called, Protestantism.

If you love the Book of Common Prayer, you owe much to Martin Bucer. Bucer was the German Strasbourg Protestant reformer (1491-1551) that Thomas Cranmer invited to England to help him write the Book of Common Prayer. He arrived in England with the returning Protestant exiles who had fled England under Henry VIII. He was given the prestigeous Regius Professor of Divinity chair at Cambridge University.