The Living Church Podcast

In the words of the old Pentecost hymn, where does "the Holy Spirit make a dwelling"? This is the question of our episode today. The Spirit is the person of the Trinity who conceives and animates the flesh of Christ and his body, the Church. How are these realities related, and how do we recognize them? In 1998, the Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner, professor of historical theology at Wycliffe College, published a book called The End of the Church, a spicy title that refers to the egregious reality of disunity and failure in Christ's body. Given that, the book asks, doesn't death in the body indicate the Spirit's absence? In 2019, Dr. Radner published another book on what he sees as our contemporary misreadings and misunderstandings of the Spirit's work in the world and our lives, and that book is called A Profound Ignorance: Modern Pneumatology and Its Anti-Modern Redemption. Are we given the gift of the Holy Spirit in order to fix, or even alleviate, the world's problems and sufferings? How do we know what the Holy Spirit is up to, when faced with vague or conflicting claims of the Spirit's work? Where is the Holy Spirit in our failure? The Rev Dr. Wesley Hill and I sat down for a conversation with the Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner about just these questions. We were delighted and challenged. Enjoy listening in! Register for Master Class with Rowan Williams. Give to keep this podcast going! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/support

Church leaders, how do you welcome technology into congregational life after the pandemic? Are you excited by all the new possibilities? Or does the word "virtual" within a mile of the word "worship" make you cringe? Wherever you're at on this, very, very few of us are not asking questions about "hybrid church."  A couple weeks ago we set some framework with Dr. Sara Schumacher in a conversation about spiritual disciplines and the personal and communal development of Christlikeness and virtue as it relates to technology. Today we're going to get a different perspective from a rector who's been engaging technology for some time in pastoral care and evangelism, and especially social media and the internet, not only as a tool, but as a place for encounter. The Rev. Tim Schenck has been rector at St. John the Evangelist in Hingham, MA, since 2009. He's also served parishes in New York and Baltimore. In a former life he was a political campaign consultant,  public affairs officer, and a paratrooper. Father Tim is the author of five books including, most recently, Holy Grounds: The Surprising Connection Between Coffee and Faith (Fortress Press). He is also the mind behind the online devotional Lent Madness. Should we embrace "hybrid church"? What the heck does that even mean? Today begins a two-part conversation on this topic. Give to TLC. Register for Augustine Master Class with Rowan Williams. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/support

How many Zoom meetings, Facetime calls, Netflix hours, and general hours on a screen have you had this week? This experience is so common these questions have become a trope. But they're not really new. Don't forget: Before the pandemic, we were getting an avalanche of research about the risks and harms of screen time and digital technology. We were starting to hear about screen fasts and not letting our kids even see a smart phone until they reached a certain age. And then, suddenly, screens became a window to the world in a whole new way. Digital technology has enabled, sometimes powerfully, sometimes feebly, connection with other people and places: a way to go to school, keep tabs on family and friends, have game night, date, and even (maybe?) go to church. Today we introduce a series on just this tension, between what we're told we need, or actually need, in terms of digital tools and screen time to live faithfully as Christians in this moment, and the need to practice wisdom and discernment when it comes to choosing how to engage digitally with the world. We're setting up a little philosophical framework today with Dr. Sara Schumacher. Sara is Academic Dean and tutor & lecturer in theology and the arts at St. Mellitus College. She's also author of the booklet Reimagining the Spiritual Disciplines for a Digital Age. We had her on the show to talk about how the spiritual disciplines—particularly solitude, simplicity, and Sabbath—can help us to prepare to make choices about our use of digital technology, break addictive habits, and recognize when technology itself shows us where its limits are in helping us do what God calls us to. Check out Sara's book here. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/support

Sparkling waterfalls. Sacred wells. Talking animals. Is this a fairy tale? Or Celtic Christianity? We love to explore all things Celtic. Celtic prayer services, Celtic Christian art, like the Book of Kells. Celtic pilgrimages. We can get a little romantic about Celtic Christianity. The visual culture. The deep connection to creation. The sense of humor. And of course its wonderful panoply of saints. But what is "Celtic Christianity" actually? Is it helpful, or even correct, to lump together Irish and Welsh Christianity like that? What do we get wrong? What distinctives do we miss? And what is actually unique about what God was up to on those wet, cold, beautiful coasts? And how do Welsh people feel about all this? Well, today we'll be joined by: Dr. Sarah Ward Clavier, senior lecturer in history at the University of the West of England, Bristol, and a scholar of Anglicanism and early modern political culture.  Her forthcoming book is entitled, Royalism, Religion, and Revolution: Wales, 1640-1688. We're also joined by her husband, the Rev. Dr. Mark Clavier, residentiary canon at Brecon Cathedral, and the author of Reading Augustine: On Consumer Culture, Identity, the Church, and the Rhetorics of Delight. Our conversation is led by Dr. Hannah Matis, Assoc. Professor of Church History at Virginia Theological Seminary. Now grab your handcrafted Iona coffee mug and hold onto your prayer books -- for this fascinating conversation about the complex and surprising history of Celtic British Christianity! Donate to keep this podcast going. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/support

He is risen! Today we've got an Easter gift for you. Every so often we have an episode of the podcast we call "Classic Texts," kind of like a mini audiobook, in which a special guest comes on and reads an excerpt from a good book, usually a spiritual classic, for us to enjoy. Today there are several special guests, and several kinds of goodies in the Easter basket. Today we'll hear fiction, sermons, theology, and lots of poetry. If ever there was a Christian season for poetry, it is Easter, amen? Give to support this podcast. Our very warm thanks to our guest readers: Novelist Heather Cross reads an excerpt from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (by kind permission of The CS Lewis Company, Ltd.). Poet and priest Malcolm Guite reads "Easter" by George Herbert. The Rev. Dr. Katherine Songerdegger reads "Come Forth" by Wendell Berry, "An Altogether Different Language" by Anne Porter, and "That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection" by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry reads an excerpt of No Future Without Forgiveness by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Dr. Jane Williams reads an excerpt from a sermon by Lancelot Andrewes, preached Easter Day 1622. Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams reads "Hymn of the Resurrection" by William Dunbar. Mother Samira Page reads "Recognising You" by Amy Scott Robinson and Richard Lyall. Our hope for this reading today is that it might usher you more deeply into the presence of the one who comes and seeks us out, in the garden where we weep, in all our locked rooms. May you find him, may he find you, may the hope of the resurrection touch you and give you joy, in these readings today. Give to support this podcast. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/support

Do you remember that episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, where he goes into the crayon factory, and we see all the crayons getting made? SO GOOD. And, call us biased, but we think today's episode of The Living Church Podcast is kind of like that episode of Mister Rogers. Because today we've pulled together six different guests to take us behind the scenes of the Living Church, to the colorful variety of folks who influence our identity and our business operations. Today we'll meet some folks from our Foundation, the people who have a big impact on shaping TLC. Editors Mark Michael and Amber Noel talk to TLC's five newest Foundation members. If you want to see all the fascinating stories and delightfully varied backgrounds of this amazing group, you can go to livingchurch.org/foundation. Give an Easter gift to the Living Church. Guests today include: Heidi J. Kim The Very Rev. Dr. Paul F.M. Zahl The Rev. Clint Wilson The Rt. Rev. Samy Shehata The Rev. Colin Ambrose --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/support

Chances are if you're listening to this podcast, you're a reader. And you may have had at some point or another a profound experience with a book, probably with more than one. Books shape our lives, and they shape our spiritual lives. In fact, books have become particularly apt tools in the Christian toolkit for spiritual formation. What is your relationship to reading and growth in the spiritual life? Do books have to be great or deep in order to bear spiritual fruit? What makes reading a uniquely powerful avenue for spiritual growth? What are some of its dangers to the spiritual life? What is a Christian way to read, if there is such a thing? Do books and reading make us too "ivory tower" for the "real world"? Can books ever help divides between those with more access to elite education and those with less? Today we'll hear a really fun conversation I had with the Rev. Dr. Lauren Winner, where we looked at some of these questions. Dr. Winner is a well-known Christian author and Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality at Duke. She's also Vicar of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Louisburg, N.C., and self-proclaimed book lover. (Book addict?) Our conversation takes us from childhood to incarcerated communities, to a top 5 of some of the books that have had a spiritual impact on her life. Some of the books we discuss in the show: Facing East: A Pilgrim's Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy At Home in Mitford Reading Is My Window: Books and the Art of Reading in Women's Prisons Radical Orthodoxy The Making of a Sonnet Pilgrim, You Find the Path by Walking Gentile Tales: The Narrative Assault on Late Medieval Jews In This House of Brede Shakespeare Behind Bars: the Power of Drama in a Women's Prison Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin Kristin Lavransdatter (trans. Tiina Nunnally) Catherine of Siena Register for the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies conference: Anti-Racist Ministry for a Global Church --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/support

If you're an Episcopalian or Anglican, chances are you've probably heard by now of the release of the landmark project on human sexuality and marriage, Living in Love and Faith. Today, we're going to dive into this project with one of its architects. LLF is a suite of resources just put out by the Church of England — it includes videos, a book, study and teaching materials — and what does it do? It does a lot. It shares the massive results of research, history, storytelling — theological, anecdotal, traditional, scientific, sociological — and it begins to really closely analyze the sources of convergence and divergence between people who have differently formed consciences and viewpoints on marriage and sexuality to try to come to a truly new place of communal discernment. LLF is not a project intended to give answers. And that may be frustrating to some folks. So what is the goal of the project? And what's the end game? How do the people who directed the project hope it will serve the Church? How might it likely relate to Lambeth 2022? Is it really new, or is it just a bunch of old news packaged in a new way? What has it uncovered exactly? And how can people, from dioceses to local congregations, use it? Today we get to hear from the Rev. Canon Dr. Andrew Goddard, who was part of the team who built LLF, interviewed by the Rev. Canon Dr. Jordan Hylden. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/support

"There are no five easy steps to trusting God in darkness." Let's go back in time a little. Let's not talk about 2020 for a second. Let's talk about 2017. I don't know how things were for you in 2017, but in 2017, the Rev. Tish Harrison Warren had a terrible year. And it inspired a beautiful book. The book is called Prayer in the Night: for Those Who Work or Watch or Weep; and it takes up the subjects of pain and grief, in all their opaqueness, in all their dailyness, and our vulnerability in the face of them. It also takes up the way pain can shut down the very things we need most when pain comes: prayer, and a sense of God's presence. And yet, it's also a book about "average suffering" and "common heartache" -- it's not about a pandemic; and it's not a memoir. It's about the things most if not all of us will go through in our lifetimes, whatever the state of the world around us: the loss of people we love, loneliness, tragedies that don't space themselves out politely but come in a quick succession. And it's a book shaped around the practice of Compline. How do the prayers of Compline face and pray through the darkness and dangers of the night? Tish joins us today to talk about her book, and about her story. She is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. Along with Prayer in the Night, she is the author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, which was Christianity Today's 2018 Book of the Year. She has worked in a variety of ministries: as a campus minister, an associate rector, in ministries to those in addiction and poverty, and has most recently served as writer-in-residence at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, PA. She is a monthly columnist with Christianity Today, and her articles and essays have appeared in many places including the New York Times. She interviewed here by the Rev. Dr. Wesley Hill, Associate professor of New Testament at Trinity School for Ministry. Purchase Tish Harrison Warren's new book, Prayer in the Night. Register for the free Lenten course, Grace in the Wilderness. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/support

There are basically four options. When you meet someone you disagree with, you can either kill them, create a system to coerce them, run away, or do politics." That is one of several quotable quotes in our conversation today on democracy, socialism, and Christianity. Even if you're not Political with a big P, meaning maybe you simply don't want to get into it with Uncle Terry on Facebook, both our guests today would probably venture to say it's not easy to avoid being political with a little p. That is, if being political just means finding ways to negotiate our common life together. Historically speaking, Christianity is in the very root systems of democracy and socialism. What philosophies, and what Christian ideals, are at the heart of both of these systems of organizing common civic life? How have they actually played out? Our guests today approach democracy and socialism, not as buzz words, but as ways of enhancing and guiding how we think of each other and how we approach citizenship in the communities and countries in which we find ourselves. And they uncover some fascinating history, like: Why and when did established churches make the turn toward supporting democracy, a system that sought to de-establish them as nationally governing bodies? Why were some of the great socialist figures in earlier generations also Anglicans? What does this mean as we make decisions for how to live in our times? Listen and find out. Our guests today include: Dr. Luke Bretherton, Robert E. Cushman Professor of Moral and Political Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke Divinity School, and the author of Christ and the Common Life: Political Theology and the Case for Democracy. Dr. John Orens, who is the Professor of European History at George Mason University and author of Stewart Headlam’s Radical Anglicanism: The Mass, the Masses, and the Music Hall. (Gotta love that title.) Our conversation is moderated today by Covenant blog author Dr. Stewart Clem, assistant professor of moral theology and director of the Ashley-O’Rourke Center for Health Ministry Leadership at Aquinas Institute of Theology. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/support