Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, Reformation Martyr, 1556

Today is of course, also, Good Friday, yesterday Maundy Thursday. With my husband, also an ex-low-church Anglo-Catholic convert, I was discussing the fact that we had never really seen the "point" of Maundy Thursday. Of course, in churches that do not emphasise the Eucharist, the very first Eucharist would not particularly be commemorated.

Cranmer, as well as some fairly devious, some would say, loophole-finding on behalf of our old friend Henry VIII, is particularly known for his work on the Book of Common Prayer. In this one can find two different approaches to the Eucharist - the approach that says this is the Body and Blood, and the approach that suggests we "do this in remembrance". At our church it seems to be the whim of the server on that particular day which form of words we get. I like that - it can challenge me or comfort me depending on my thinking on any particular day, as God wishes.

Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, c. 394

There are at least two or three Gregorys and this one is a man after my own heart - scholarly, but bad at administration. He was very interested in Greek philosophy and used its ideas but ultimately argued that Christian philosophy was superior. One of his arguments was that since God is infinite he must be unknowable (I probably have got that wrong or oversimplified).

Like our Vicar's sermon today, in which he likened the resurrection to his computer. He has no idea how it works, but it does, and he gets the benefit.

David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601

Dewi Sant is celebrated today in a festival of Welshness - leeks, daffodils, Welsh cakes, bara brith, stovepipe hats, choral singing, and rugby. We spotted Prince Charles wearing a baby leek in his buttonhole.

Stories about David include a miraculous healing at his baptism - similar to Simeon, a miraculous pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and the phrase "Remember the little things", which he is said to have used in his last sermon. A forerunner of Schumacher and of the "Think Global - Act Local" movement. He founded a monastery on the west coast of Wales in what is now St. David's, the smallest city in Britain, and the cathedral followed. It is strange to build an important cathedral in a tiny, fairly inaccessible place, but for some reason this seems to me to be a very Christ-like thing to do - glorifying God even if not very many people will see the work.