33 Facts About Michael Ramsey

Arthur Michael Ramsey, Baron Ramsey of Canterbury, was an English Anglican bishop and life peer.

Michael Ramsey was appointed on 31 May 1961 and held the office until 1974, having previously been appointed Bishop of Durham in 1952 and the Archbishop of York in 1956.

Michael Ramsey was known as a theologian, educator, and advocate of Christian unity.

Michael Ramsey's parents were Arthur Stanley Ramsey and Mary Agnes Ramsey nee Wilson ; his father was a Congregationalist and mathematician and his mother was a socialist and suffragette.

Michael Ramsey was educated at Sandroyd School, Wiltshire, King's College School, Cambridge, Repton School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where his father was president of the college.

Michael Ramsey was something of a prodigy who, when only 19, translated Wittgenstein's Tractatus into English.

Michael Ramsey graduated in 1927 with a First-class degree in Theology.

Michael Ramsey was ordained in 1928 and became a curate in Liverpool, where he was influenced by Charles Raven.

Michael Ramsey then ministered at St Botolph's Church, Boston and at St Bene't's Church, Cambridge, before being offered a canonry at Durham Cathedral and the Van Mildert Chair of Divinity in the Department of Theology at Durham University.

Michael Ramsey was consecrated a bishop by Cyril Garbett, Archbishop of York, at York Minster on Michaelmas that year.

Michael Ramsey held to the Anglo-Catholic tradition, but he appreciated other points of view.

Michael Ramsey had a particular regard for the Eastern Orthodox concept of "glory", and his favourite book he had written was his 1949 work The Transfiguration.

Michael Ramsey believed there was no decisive theological argument against women priests, although he was not entirely comfortable with this development.

Michael Ramsey was active in the ecumenical movement, and while Archbishop of Canterbury in 1966 he met Pope Paul VI in Rome, where the Pope presented him with the episcopal ring he had worn as Archbishop of Milan.

Michael Ramsey preached at the Roman Catholic St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City in 1972.

However, while fostering ties with the Roman Catholic Church, Michael Ramsey criticised the Pope's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae against birth control.

Michael Ramsey encouraged efforts to promote closer relations between Anglicans and Orthodox.

Michael Ramsey enjoyed friendship with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras, and Alexius, Patriarch of Moscow.

Michael Ramsey supported efforts to unite the Church of England with the Methodist Church and was disappointed when the plans fell through.

In 1925, Michael Ramsey travelled with the debate club and spoke at multiple venues in the United States.

Michael Ramsey became close friends with party leader Jeremy Thorpe.

Michael Ramsey disliked the power of the government over the church.

Michael Ramsey was against apartheid, and he left an account of a very frosty encounter with John Vorster.

Michael Ramsey went to live first at Cuddesdon, where he did not settle particularly well, and then for a number of years back in Durham, where he was regularly seen slowly making his way through the cathedral, and talking to students.

However, Durham's hills were rather steep for him and he and Lady Michael Ramsey accepted the offer of a flat at Bishopthorpe in York by then archbishop John Habgood.

Michael Ramsey Hall at Nashotah House was named in his honor, and is a residence for students and families.

Lady Michael Ramsey died on 17 February 1995 and was buried alongside her husband.

Michael Ramsey received numerous honours, he was an honorary fellow of Magdalene College and Selwyn College, Cambridge, and of Merton College, Keble College, and St Cross College, Oxford.

Michael Ramsey was made an honourary master of the bench, Inner Temple in 1962; was a trustee of the British Museum from 1963 to 1969; and made an honourary Fellow of the British Academy in 1983.

Michael Ramsey held honourary degrees from Durham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Hull, Manchester, London, Oxford, Kent, and Keele and from a number of overseas universities.

Michael Ramsey's name has been given to Michael Ramsey House, a residence of St Chad's College, University of Durham.

Michael Ramsey was a Fellow and Governor of the college and he regularly worshipped and presided at the college's daily Eucharist.

Michael Ramsey gave his name to the former Archbishop Michael Ramsey Technology College in Farmers' Road, Camberwell, South East London.