Michael Ramsey - Definition and Overview

Arthur Michael Ramsey, Baron Ramsey of Canterbury (1904-1988) was Archbishop of Canterbury from June 1961 to 1974.

Michael Ramsey was educated at Repton School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union Society. Before Canterbury, he had previously been Bishop of Durham and Archbishop of York. He was a significant academic theologian. A member of the High Church group, he was active in the ecumenical movement.

Like most twentieth century Archbishops of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey presided over a period of decline in the Church of England. He was nonetheless liked and respected both in the church and more widely, perhaps more so than either his immediate predecessors or successors; he had the reputation of being humane, principled, and discreet. After retiring as Archbishop in 1974 he was created a life peer, as Baron Ramsey of Canterbury, of Canterbury in Kent, enabling him to remain in the House of Lords where he had previously sat as one of the Lords Spiritual.

Michael Ramsey's elder brother, Frank P. Ramsey, was a noted philosopher.

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