Our distinguished former Vice Principal and Academic Dean, the Revd Canon Professor Mark Chapman is to be awarded the Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Award is “For a lifetime contribution to the history and theology of Anglicanism, the education and formation of Christian ministers, and the ecumenical and synodical work of the Church of England”.
The citation reads:
“Mark Chapman is a scholar priest of outstanding significance and international recognition, to whom generations of students are profoundly indebted. He served as a tutor at Ripon College Cuddesdon for 32 years, and as Vice-Principal for 22 of them. Mark has been Canon Theologian of Truro since 2016 and has served on the Council for Christian Unity. In addition to his Oxford University chair, he has been a visiting professor at Oxford Brookes University and at the University of the Auvergne Clermont-Ferrand.
He is the sole author of 11 books (to date), editor or co-editor of 18 more (both scholarly and popular), and author of hundreds of journal articles and book chapters on doctrine, church history and ecumenism. He is widely recognised as one of the foremost scholars of Anglican ecclesiology, and his books on Anglicanism are standard texts for students. His profile across and beyond the Anglican world and the international respect accorded to his scholarly expertise are second to none. He has played a key part in ecumenical conversations, especially with the German Evangelical Church (EKD) and has been co-chair of the Meissen Theological Conference since 2019. He has also contributed significantly to working parties and forums of the Church of England, including Living in Love and Faith (the History working group), serving on General Synod from 2010 to 2021. All the while, he has been held in affection and awe by generations of trainee clergy of diverse academic and ecclesial backgrounds as a teacher who inspires, amuses, encourages and delights. He has also served, since being ordained, as honorary curate in the local parish and is as loved and esteemed by parishioners in the community as by students in the lecture hall."
Mark said: "I am deeply honoured to have been given this award, which came as a complete surprise. I am one of those lucky people who has always found his job immensely rewarding and stimulating. Over the years I have taught well over a thousand clergy and I have always found that I have learnt a huge amount from them as I have sought to inspire them with a love for learning and history and a love for God. I have also had the privilege of lecturing and teaching across the Anglican Communion and enjoy seeing how the Gospel relates to very different contexts. I will always have a particular affection for Cuddesdon which formed me and which gave me such wonderful opportunities for teaching and writing as well as such congenial and inspirational colleagues and students."