[6] During his time in Cambridge, Ramsey came under the influence of the Anglo-Catholic dean of Corpus Christi College, Edwyn Clement Hoskyns.

On the advice of Eric Milner-White he trained at Cuddesdon, where he became friends with Austin Farrer and was introduced to Orthodox Christian ideas by Derwas Chitty.

[2] Following observations of a religious mission at Cambridge, he had an early dislike of evangelists and mass rallies, which he feared relied too much on emotion.

[16] The two prelates issued "The Common Declaration by Pope Paul VI and the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Michael Ramsey".

In it they said that their meeting "marks a new stage in the development of fraternal relations, based upon Christian charity, and of sincere efforts to remove the causes of conflict and to re-establish unity.

[18] However, while fostering ties with the Roman Catholic Church, Ramsey criticised the Pope's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae against birth control.

[2] Ramsey's willingness to talk to officially sanctioned churches in the Eastern Bloc led to criticisms from Richard Wurmbrand.

[2][18] In 1965, "he outraged right-wingers when he declared that under certain circumstances, there would be Christian justice in using British troops to overthrow the white-minority regime [of Ian Smith] in Rhodesia.

[18] Regarding Africa, Ramsey opposed curbs on immigration to the UK of Kenyan Asians, which he saw as a betrayal by Britain of a promise.

Although retired, Ramsey remained active, "a fact reflected in his writing of four books and numerous additional undertakings".

[22] He went to live first at Cuddesdon, where he did not settle particularly well, and then for a number of years back in Durham, where he was regularly seen slowly making his way through the cathedral, and talking to students.

A benevolent and popular figure, he occasionally participated in services there, notably giving an address at the 1984 dedication of the Marks & Spencer financed Daily Bread window, on the topic of St Michael.

[23] However, Durham's hills were rather steep for him and he and Lady Ramsey accepted the offer of a flat at Bishopthorpe in York by then archbishop John Habgood.

They stayed there just over a year, moving finally to St John's Home, attached to the All Saints' Sisters in Cowley, Oxford, where he died in April 1988.

[2] During his retirement, he also spent several terms at Nashotah House, an Anglo-Catholic seminary of the Episcopal Church in Wisconsin where he was much beloved by students.

[2] The window (placed in the chapel by the class of 1976 who were among his first students at Nashotah) also includes a miniature image of the Bishop and his wife Joan.

He held honorary degrees from Durham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Hull, Manchester, London, Oxford, Kent, and Keele and from a number of overseas universities.”[22] Dr Sam Brewitt-Taylor, a historian at Lincoln College, University of Oxford,[24] holds that “there is much more historical and theoretical work to be done before Ramsey’s legacy can be properly ascertained.”[25] Ramsey's name has been given to Ramsey House, a residence of St Chad's College, University of Durham.

[26] An annual Michael Ramsey Lecture on an appropriate theological topic is delivered at Little St Mary's, Cambridge in early November.

[27] In October 2009 it was reported by Maev Kennedy that two divers had found a number of gold and silver items in the River Wear in Durham which were subsequently discovered to have come from Ramsey's personal collection, including items presented to him from dignitaries around the world while he was Archbishop of Canterbury.

The divers were licensed by the dean and chapter of the cathedral as the owners of the land around the stretch of the river where the items were found.

The cathedral was planning an exhibition relating to Ramsey's life in 2010 and a new stained-glass window dedicated to him by artist Tom Denny.

[28] The two amateur divers, brothers Gary and Trevor Bankhead, found a total of 32 religious artefacts in the River Wear in Durham during a full underwater survey of the area around Prebends Bridge.