The Reverend Canon Dr Mark Pryce will preach the sermon On the Due Obedience of Servants to their Masters in St Benet's Church at 11.45 on 21 April.
Dr Pryce is Bishop's Adviser for Clergy Continuing Ministerial Education in the Diocese of Birmingham and an Honorary Canon of the Cathedral.
An undergraduate at the University of Sussex, he trained for ordination at Westcott House and the United Theological College, Bangalore. After a curacy in West Bromwich he was Fellow, Dean of Chapel and Tutor at Corpus Christi College from 1990 to 2002, and Vicar of Smethwick Old Church in Birmingham diocese from 2002 to 2006. A theological educator and poet, his doctoral research at the University of Birmingham explored the theological contribution of poetry to clergy formation in the Church of England. He regularly teaches in the ecumenical Queen's Foundation Birmingham, and is a Montgomery Trust Lecturer in Christian Apologetics.
Canon Pryce's publications include Finding a Voice: Men, Women & the Community of the Church (SCM Press 1996), Literary Companion to the Lectionary (SPCK/Fortress 2001) and Literary Companion for Festivals (SPCK/Fortress 2003). More recently he has been working on poetry as imaginative response to the Gospels in a series co-authored with James Woodward and Paula Gooder, Journeying with Matthew/Mark/Luke/John (published by SPCK 2011-2014). He has contributed essays on poetry and spirituality to Moving On in Ministry (CHP 2013), Liturgical Spirituality (Seabury 2013) and Making Nothing Happen (Ashgate 2014).
John Mere, who died in 1558 was an Esquire Bedell and also Registrary of the University and a member of both King's and Corpus Christi Colleges.
He left property in the Parish of St Benet's, partly to pay for an annual sermon in his memory on particular subjects. Certain University Officers, including the Registrary and the two Bedells, receive (token) payments for attending, as do the Vicar and the Clerk of the Parish.
Flowers are placed on Mere's tombstone beforehand, and afterwards payments are also made to the inhabitants of the almshouses of St Anthony and St Eligius. The sermon is preached either by the Vice-Chancellor or a person nominated by the Vice-Chancellor, and is given on the first Tuesday of Full Easter Term.
The modern custom is for Corpus Christi College to suggest preachers for appointment, and the College has a strong links with St Benet's, where it is Patron of the Living, appointing the Vicar and maintaining seats for the Master and Fellows. The Master offers refreshment to those attending the sermon.
All are welcome. Members of the University should wear their gowns.