Chairman's Report
I began last time (Journal no. 11) by remarking that the Society goes goes from strength to strength. This report exceeds that.
Most members will by now have heard, if not seen in the Times of Saturday 30 January, that after long and remarkable endeavour our good friend, member and Trustee, Sir Rowland Whitehead Bt, received a letter from Jeniffer Page Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome announcing that 'the current design does include plans for the Tyndale Bible to be shown in some form to demonstrate the profound effect it had on the development of the education of ordinary people in the UK'. This is tremendous news, and it is very much thanks to the patience, hard work, skill and general un-putdown-able-ness of Sir Rowland. I know at first hand just how many well-directed letters to the great and the good he has sent. We are all very grateful to him indeed. Quite what 'in some form' means will appear in due course - the Times item spoke of a 'replica'. The officers of the Society are, as you will imagine, working on it, hard. As I write, it is not just 'Tyndale in the Done'-- it is the only book there.
Tyndale in the Dome: the new millennium is the title of a remarkable Tyndale Society day conference to be held in the Lecture Theatre of the new British Library building at St Pancras from 10.30 to 5.30 on Saturday 19 June 1999. Please put this in your diary and come yourself.. bringing several friends. This is a Ploughboy Group event: the programme is being arranged by Mary Clow. Full details of speakers and programme will be sent to all members soon. For now I can reveal that it will be studying Tyndale's problem of 'getting it across' as it will appear from the year 2000. There will be demonstrations, for comment, of Bible material on radio, video (including the new animated Bible versions) and film; speakers from the world of the arts; and readings from 'Tyndale to show how he did it. Lunch may he taken in the BL, and there will be ample opportunity to see the BL Treasures exhibition, including the only copy of Tyndale's 1525 Cologne Fragment. The climax of the morning will be a full demonstration by David Ireson, convenor of the Ploughboy Group of his Let There Be Light multimedia introduction to William Tyndale. The day will end at 5.00 with tea.
Which is my next topic. David Ireson's wonderful 45-minute slides-and-sound account of Tyndale is now ready. It is intended for Society members to have and take to schools, colleges, local meetings (e.g. W.I.s) as well as churches. An unrevised version was shown at the Oxford Conference, where it was already a most moving experience. Those fortunate people like me who have seen the finished product are greatly struck by its power. We are all aware just how much work has been put into this by David Ireson, much assisted by David Green, and we are very grateful indeed to them. Copies are now available from Gill Guest at Littlegate Street, price £25.
The fourth major announcement is about Reformation. The Trustees are delighted to announce that they are in the final stages of the take-over of this fine academic annual journal by the international publishers Ashgate (formerly Scolar Press) based in Leicester. This should happen around Faster (1999). We are glad that Andrew Hope will continue as editor, and it will still be a Tyndale Society journal: but printing and storage, and advertising and distribution on a world-wide scale, will be handled by Ashgate. The prices will remain the same, and so will the excellent format. Ashgate are intending to reprint numbers 1 and 2, so that new institutional subscribers across the world can begin with a full run (members who missed them will also be able to buy 1 & 2). We look forward to a great deal of new interest across the globe. I express here our special thanks to Professor Andrew Pettegree of St Andrews, who was a moving spirit in this development.
As is announced elsewhere, the sixth annual Hertford Tyndale Lecture will be given on Thursday 21 October at 5.00pm in the Examination Schools, Oxford, by Professor Martin Biddle. Professor Biddle is England's leading medieval archaeologist, with, among much else, definitive large-scale work in Winchester, Repton and St Albans. For ten years. he has surveyed the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the site known as the burial place of Christ. His provisional title for the lecture is English pilgrims to the tomb of Christ. His book The Tomb of Christ will be published by Alan Sutton in March 1999. The chair at the lecture will be taken by former Archbishop Lord Runcie.
Also announced elsewhere, the sixth annual Lambeth Tyndale Lecture, at 6.00pm on Wednesday 3rd November, will be held in the new venue of the Guard Room, Lambeth Palace. The speaker will be the novelist Joanna Trollope, OBE. Her most recent novel, Other People's Children has attracted a great deal of attention. Her fiction, often told from inside the file of the Church, has been bought by millions across the world. Her subject at Lambeth will be The Christian Writer. Also new is the form of the occasion: her 25-min talk will be followed by open discussion. We are honoured that the chair will again be taken by Archbishop Carey.
David Daniell