15 February
Thomas Bray, Priest, Founder of the SPCK and the SPG, 1730
In 1696 Thomas Bray, an English country parson, was commissioned to
report on the condition of the Church in the colony of Maryland. He
spent only ten weeks in the colony, but he radically re-organized
and renewed the Church there, providing for the instruction of
children and the systematic examination of candidates for pastoral
positions. He founded thirty-nine lending libraries and numerous
schools. Both in Maryland and upon his return to England, he wrote
and preached in defense of the rights of enlaved Africans, and of
Indians deprived of their land. Back in England, he worked for the
reform of prison conditions, and for the establishment of preaching
missions to prisoners. He persuaded General Oglethorpe to found a
American colony (Georgia) for the settlement of debtors as an
alternative to debtors' prison. He founded a missionary society, the
SPG (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) and an educational
and publishing society, the SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge), both of which are still active today.