Our History

The Anglican Church of St. Edmund, King and Martyr

2007 - Bishop Derek Hoskin serves Holy Communion at St. Edmund's. 

2006 - A new beginning with a new vision; Ed Davies arrives at St. Edmunds to serve as a litugical deacon.

1984 - St. Edmund's celebrates its 50th anniversary as Critchley Mission/St. Edmund's in Bowness.

1964 - The church was enlarged with the addition of a chancel and office. The building was dedicate by Rt. Rev. G. R. Calvert on All Saints Day.

1960 - The parishes of Holy Trinity in Montgomery and St. Edmund King and Martyr were combined under the rector of St. Edmund's.

1959 - A news article in the Bow-Mont Banner reports that St. Edmunds needs $65.00 in order to finish the steeple. The total cost of the steeple was $100.00.

 

1949 - June 2 the new church was dedicated. Rev. B. S. Bull was rector. Prior to this date, the church congregation met in the Scout Hall.

1948 - On May 6 the sod was turned by Rt. Rev. Ragg to signify the beginning of construction for St. Edmund, King & Martyr Church.

1946 - Permission was granted to build an Anglican church to be known as St. Edmund King and Martyr

1946 - Rev. W. G. Greenfleid was appointed Priest-in-charge. Regular services will be Holy Communion at 9:00 am on the first and fhird Sundays, Morning Prayer on the second and fourth Sundays. Evensong and Sermon at 7:30 pm and Church School at 11:00 am.

1940 - Services were moved to the Scout Hall

Mid-1930's - Services under the name of the "Mission Church at Critchley" were first held in homes and later in the Scout Hall on Bowness Road often with Lay Readers from the Pro-Cathedral Church of the Redeemer .

History of St. Edmund

Here is a short biography of the historical St. Edmund, the patron saint of our parish. 

When King Offa succeeded to the throne of East Anglia towards the end of the eighth century, his kingdom had, with one exception, been ruled by Christian Kings for some 400 years. Towards the end of his long and wise reign of 61 years, he became anxious concerning the sucession, as his only son Fremunde had renounced the world and become a hermit. He prayed to God for guidance and decided to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a perilous journey in those days, to seek in the holy places an answer to his prayer.

On the journey he stayed at Nuremberg, in the court of his cousin Alkmund, king of Saxony. It was there that he first saw Edmund, Alkmund's son, then probably 13 years old. During his sojourn in Saxony, King Offa was greatly attracted by the appearance and qualities of the young prince who, as well as being a keen sportsman, was a devoted Christian. The more he saw of him, the surer he felt he had been led by God to this boy who seemed so well fitted to be his heir. Before continuing his pilgrimage he placed a gold ring on Edmund's hand and told him that if it were God's will it might some day bring an even greater gift, a trust which he must never betray.

So Offa went on to the Holy Land and at all the holy places prayed that God would give Edmund to his country as their king. The journey proved too much for him, and on the way home he fell ill, and knowing that death was not far away he called his followers together and told them of his choice of Edmund to be his heir and bade them carry his message to his people and to the young prince to whome he sent his own coronation ring. So he died in peace, knowing that his kingdom would be in good hands.

At home his people mourned the death of Offa and wondered about his successor, some doubting whether they wanted to welcome a mere lad from another land to be their king. But great crowds lined the cliffs at Hunstanton to catch a glimpse of him on that day in the year 855 when he was due to land.

The moment he set foot on the shore, he knelt down in prayer and asked God's blessing on himself and his people. When he arose, it is said that 'springs of sweet and crystal water gushed forth from the earth as tokens of God's favour'. These springs for centuries remained a place of pilgrimage, and a twelfth-century writer records that 'pilgrims were wont to carry the healing water to remote pars for the infirm and others to drink'.

So the people of East Anglia took to their hearts this young and handsome, fair-headed Saxon prince with his truthful blue eyes and skin tanned with the sun and wind of his open-air life. The saintly bishop Humbert of Elmham undertook the task of preparing Edmund for his royal duties and for a whole year before the coronation the bishop guided Edmund's studies at the royal palace at Attleborough. It is said that the young prince at this time learned the recite the whole of the Psalter by heart. He was crowned on Christmas Day in 856 at Burna (generally regarded as Bures in Suffolk, then a royal capital). 'I promise', declared the King, now in his fifteenth year, on taking his oath, 'in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, first, that the Church of God , and all Christian people shall enjoy true peace under my government. Secondly, that I shall prohibit every kind of rapine and injustice in men of every condition. Thirdly, that in all judgments I shall command equity to be united with mercy, that the most gracious and clement God, may, through his eternal mercy, forgive us all.'

During the next 10 or so years, the young king ruled his people wisely and well and was greatly loved by them. The great threat to the peave of the land came in those days from the Danes whose marauding bands had landed in Southampton and spread northwards and eastwards, bringing death and destruction wherever they penetrated. Edmund created a defense system known as Edmund's Dyke, part of which still remain in the Newmarket area. The Danes first reached the borders of East Anglia in 866. For the best part of four years, they were held in check. During this time, Lothbroc, the Danish leader, was rescued from a shipwreck by the East Anglians. He was shown every kindness by King Edmund, whose faith required that he should love his enemies.

This clemency aroused the jealous anger of Beerne, the huntsman, so he murdered the Danish leader and was himself banished for his crime and put in an open boat and pushed out to sea, left to the mercy of the wind and waves. Ultimately washed up on Danish shores, he was taken to the court of Lothbroc, where his two sons, Ubba and Inguar, were reigning in his stead. He told them that Edmund had caused Lothbroc to be put to death, and this so enraged Ubba and Inguar that they landed in the the north, and after wintering in York, their army marched southwards, burning the monasteries at Croyland, Peterborough, Ramsey, Soham and Ely. Meeting Edmund's army, they engaged in a bloody battle and took Thetford by storm. Then they ordered Edmund to give up half his kingdom and pay heavy taxes or the whole country would be overthrown. Further battles ensued and both armies were well nigh to exhaustion when Ubba arrived on the field with large reinforcements.

Edmund felt that it was useless to resist anymore. Perhaps if he were to surrender himself to the Danes, they would be content and leave his people in peace. So he did so, in company with the saintly Bishop Humbert. His enemies gave him the chance of saving his life if he would renounce the Christian faith. This he refused to do. So they tied him to a tree at Hoxne. The shot his body through and through with arrows, but with his last breath he continued to profess his faith in Jesus Christ. They then cut off his head and flung it into a wood nearby. The bishop was put to death as well.

Not many days afterwards, when the Danes had left the battlefield, the frightened East Anglians crept out from their hiding places in the forest and found the martyred bodies of king and bishop. But they could not find the head of Edmund. They searched everywhere, wandering about the forest, crying aloud in their grief; 'Where art thou?' Suddenly, they heard a sound which seemed to be a young voice crying, "Here, here!" Breaking through the thicket, they came to a clearing where they found an old grey wolf watching by the King's head, enfolding it with his paws as a mother embracing her child and baying with a cry that sounded like the voice they had heard calling to them. The people tenderly took the head and laid it with the body in the grave they had made.

People came to visit the place where the king was buried and a wooden chapel was placed over his grave. Loving hands made it beautiful and many pilgrims came to visit the shrine and went away comforted and sometimes healed. Gifts poured in and in time they determined to build a worthy shrine. The body was brought to the town of Bury, then called Beodricksworth, in 903. The shrine of St. Edmund ultimately was transformed into the great Abbey of St. Edmundsbury, which became the most famous place of pilgrimage in the country, and the repuation of the saint spread throughout Europe. The date of his canonization is unknown, but churches dedicated to his memory are to be found all over England, and there are some in other parts of the English-speaking world as well. One of the new chapels in the cathedral extension was consecrated during the 1100th Anniversary Year and called St. Edmund's chapel. Pilgrims and tourists still come from afar to Bury St. Edmunds, the town of St. Edmund, the shrine of a King.

Present-day Bury St. Edmunds is a busy market town set in the rolling Suffolk farmland. Local shops line the streets leading to Angel Hill, with its handsome buildings grouped in front of the cathedral. Beyond the cathedral lie the ruins of St. Edmund's Abbey and the Rivers Lark and Linnet wind their way across green fields. Charles Dickens knew Bury St. Edmunds well: he gave readings at the Regency Athenaeum, and he stayed at the ivy-covered Angel Hotel.

St. Edmund is one of the few early saints to be recognized by the authoritative 'Oxford Book of Saints' as a real person rather than as a legendary figure shrouded in myth and legend.

Prayer of Saint Edmunds:

O God of ineffable mercy, who gave grace and fortitude to blessed Edmund the king to triumph over the enemy of his people by nobly dying for your Name: Bestow on us your servants the shield of faith, with which we can withstand the assaults of our ancient enemy; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Edmund of East Anglia, king and martyr

Related Bible Verses:

Psalm 21:1-7 or 126
1 Peter 3:14-18
Matthew 10:16-22 (Bap) 

Some Interesting Reading

St. Edmund - England's rightful patron saint