I am delighted to welcome you all to Lambeth today for the annual award ceremony of the Archbishop's Examination in Theology. I have enjoyed speaking to many of you at earlier events during the day.

As you will see from the slip of paper in your service sheet I will be conferring MAs in Theology on two candidates; the Revd Paul Hullyer and the Revd Anthony Long. Before I do that, however, I would like to put these awards into context for you. The Lambeth MA, inaugurated by Archbishop Runcie in 1990, arose out of the Lambeth Diplomas which were instituted here in 1905 by Archbishop Randall Davidson. The Lambeth Diplomas were intended to provide the opportunity for women to study and become proficient in theology, principally so that those who taught religious education were equipped with a high standard of biblical and religious knowledge fitting for their work. What was created was a comparatively rare thing: an advanced qualification which could be undertaken by people in varying circumstances: and this for women who until this time (in practice if not in theory) had been largely excluded from the field of advanced theology.

It took almost a further forty years, however, and the arrival of Archbishop William Temple to finally agree that the same opportunity should be made available to men, and to secondary school masters in particular.

When Archbishop Runcie introduced the Lambeth MA it was in order to provide the opportunity for theological study at a more advanced level than the Diploma. It had become noticeable that too few students from this country were able to find the funding to do graduate work in theology, even when they had been accepted by theology faculties. Indeed, out of all the awards from the British Academy for research, those for theology formed only a very small percentage.

Archbishop Runcie therefore agreed that the Lambeth Diploma Committee should be allowed to register a limited number of candidates for an MA by thesis (with thirty on the books at any one time.) These were to be graduates in Theology, or closely related subjects, of at least 2:1 standard, or those who had gained the Lambeth Diploma with Distinction. It was hoped that this would provide a new avenue by which the Church could encourage theological study. I am delighted to be able to say that it clearly has, as we now have 16 candidates currently registered for the MA. Both the Diploma and the Lambeth MA continue to provide a useful and economical means of study, especially for clergy, and we continue to receive a steady flow of applications. This is extremely encouraging news and owes much to the wisdom of those originally behind its inception.

This would not continue, however, without the hard work of all those men and women who contribute so much of their time, energy and expertise to the work of the Archbishop's Examination in Theology. It is very much appreciated.

Our thanks are particularly due to the Reverend Canon Dr Martin Kitchen, the Director, to the Registrar, the Revd Dr Anders Bergquist, and to all members of the Committee, some of whom I am happy to welcome here today.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Bryan Almond, the Musical Director of the University of London Church Choir, who, with some of his members has come to lead us in our singing.

Let me now turn to the first of today's recipients.

Paul Hullyer in his thesis, Singing the Lord's Song has researched Charles Lowder, one of the heroic figures of nineteenth-century Anglo-Catholicism who spent most of his ministry in the East End of London. In 1855 he helped to found the Society of the Sacred Cross, a body which continues to flourish today.

Paul's work looks at the ten years from 1856, when Lowder set up St George's Mission in Wapping, to the establishment of the new parish of St Peter's, London Docks in 1866. Lowder was a priest whose life was full of colourful episodes. Perhaps a favourite is an incident shortly before he moved to Wapping, when he ill-advisedly paid sixpence to two choirboys to buy rotten eggs, and throw them at a Protestant candidate for the churchwardenship. This led to an appearance in the Magistrates' Court, and to the worsening of an already strained relationship with the formidable Bishop Blomfield of London.

But Paul Hullyer goes beyond the colourful surface of Lowder's work, to investigate more seriously his pastoral strategy in this fruitful decade. He mines the data from the 1851 census to build an understanding of the social and demographic

structure of the London docks, and relates this to a careful reading of the accounts left by Lowder and his contemporaries of their work. The doctrine of the Incarnation was central to Lowder's own reflection on his ministry: the church must live among its people, as directly as Christ lived among his.

If the study of nineteenth-century Anglo-Catholicism has sometimes concentrated on ritual controversy, this study searches for the pastoral and missionary motives that lay behind the elaborate ceremonial for which the Mission became notorious. The study is sympathetically written by one who is himself a pastor, and a serving parish priest in the Diocese of London. Hillingdon, one hopes, has a less tempestuous relationship with its bishop than St George's Mission, but we can all sometimes share Lowder's sense of having to 'sing the Lord's song in a strange land'. Paul, congratulations.

Martin Kitchen: Archbishop, I present to you the Reverend Paul Hullyer to be awarded the Lambeth MA in Theology.

It now gives me very great pleasure to be able to use the right given by me by virtue of my historic office to grant dispensations, previously granted by the Pope, which means that I can dispense you, Paul Hullyer, from residence to qualify for the degree of Master of Arts for which you have shown evidence that you are worthy.

THE PRESENTATION – follows the order of service with the oath.

I will now address our second MA candidate, Anthony Long, whose thesis is entitled The Maintenance of God's service; Books and Parochial Liturgy in the Diocese of Norwich, 1529-1559. This is an examination of service books used in parochial worship during what he calls 'the formative period of the English Reformation'. During these unsettled years the liturgy of the Latin Sarum rite was performed with local feasts, in the churches until 1529. With the Reformation these were adapted under Henry VIII, replaced with vernacular forms in Edward VI's reign, restored under Mary I and finally superseded by English rites at the Elizabethan Settlement.

The study is confined to the ancient diocese of Norwich, covering the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk with a few Cambridgeshire parishes. However the method of investigation relates East Anglia to the wider sphere by seeking local responses to canon and statute law, royal proclamations, injunctions and central decrees as the Reformation progressed. It attempts to provide some answers to the questions: 'How did parishioners view the celebration of the ancient liturgy?' and 'How did they react to the liturgical changes imposed upon them by successive Tudor administrations?'

He concludes that during the reign of Henry VIII there was a strong loyalty to traditional parochial worship in East Anglia and to the service books which embodied its forms. Under Edward VI the English liturgy was enforced by heavy penalties and while there were mixed sympathies during the Marian restoration the old liturgy seemed to be popular in the area. At the Elizabethan Settlement, when the Prayer Book was again introduced in an even more draconian manner, communities had no option but to obtain English books and comply with the law which drove steadfast Catholics into recusancy. The length of Elizabeth's reign ensured stability within the Church in its development of Anglican spirituality.

The great strength of this piece of work is the quality of the research with an impressive and informed range of reference to primary sources and service books, as well as informed reading of secondary literature.

Mr Long is to be congratulated on a detailed, careful and informed study of his subject. The examiner reports that any student should be proud of this piece of work and that he hopes there is some way of making this research more widely available. Congratulations Anthony.

Martin Kitchen: Archbishop, I present to you the Reverend Anthony Long to be awarded the Lambeth MA in Theology.

It now gives me very great pleasure to be able to use the right given by me by virtue of my historic office to grant dispensations previously granted by the Pope, which means that I can dispense you, Anthony Long, from residence to qualify for the degree of Master of Arts for which you have shown evidence that you are worthy.

THE PRESENTATION – follows the order of service with the oath.