Rev. David Ireson, Society Trustee and Ploughboy Group Convenor, took the story of William Tyndale to Spring Harvest this year. The evangelical gathering attracts thousands of people and was held at the Butlin’s site in Minehead. David gave two presentations of the Tyndale slide show, which was received with great interest by more than 300 people. We would be very interested to hear from any Society members who are giving presentations or talks about Tyndale. All such events are of great importance to the Society’s aim to make the work of William Tyndale known and appreciated.
The Society is also considering the publication of the Tyndale slide show on CD ROM. This format would enable you to view the show on an individual computer or connect it to a projector for public presentations. More details will be available once our investigations are complete.
The Society has launched a prize for the best essay submitted to Reformation by a young scholar. We are delighted to announce further that the prize will now be sponsored by The Stationers’ and Newspaper Makers’ Company and will be known as The Stationers’ and Newspaper Makers’ Company Prize. This has been made possible through the generous interventions of Sir Edward Pickering, Bob Russell and Vernon Sullivan. The name of the first winner will be made public in the editorial to issue 6 of Reformation.
Michael Schmidt will give this year’s Hertford lecture in Oxford on 11th October 2001. Michael Schmidt is considered by many to be England’s finest living poet. He founded and organises the poetry publisher Carcanet Press. After many years of teaching English at the University of Manchester, he is now Professor of Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. The title of his Hertford lecture is ‘Translating George Herbert’. His subject is religious language, and how the poetry of Herbert became, for a different audience in a different situation, the hymns of Wesley and Watts.
Music from the Society also comes in the form of our CD called ‘A Tyndale Christmas’, which features the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, sung by Hertford College Chapel Choir, Oxford, under the direction of Lee G. K. Dunleavy. Although William Tyndale did not live to complete his translation of the Old Testament, all but one of the traditional Nine Lessons readings can be from Tyndale (Isaiah 9 is taken from the 1611 ‘King James Version’). The CD is available now, and can be obtained from the Shop/Secretary.
We look forward to returning to Lambeth Palace on 16th October 2001, when the Right Reverend the Bishop of Rochester will give the annual Tyndale lecture on ‘Scripture and the Shaping of the Church’, and we hope that we can once again welcome many members at this wonderful location.
The Tyndale Society Conference Books for Burning? Vernacular Bibles in the 16th Century being held in Geneva, Switzerland on the weekend of 26-28 October 2001 has already attracted a great deal of interest. The speakers are Prof. David Daniell, Dr Guido Latré, Paul Rosendahl, Peter Raes, Dr Steve Sohmer and the Reverend Professor Carsten P. Thiede. Details can be found elsewhere in this Journal and by now all members should have received the full programme and registration details.
The title for next year’s Tyndale Society Conference has now been announced as The expanding Reformations: impact, iconoclasm, identity. The conference will be held in Leuven, Belgium between 30th August and 4th September 2002, and more details will be announced shortly.
Rochelle Givoni, July 2001