The Living Church Podcast

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/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Rev. Canon Dr. Andrew Goddard, a key architect of the Living in Love and Faith project, tackles the complexities of human sexuality and marriage within the Church of England. He discusses the diverse resources provided, emphasizing the importance of personal stories and the need for deeper theological understanding. Andrew highlights how LLF serves as a learning tool rather than a directive, encouraging communal discernment. He also reflects on sociological trends impacting church teachings and shares hopes for future dialogues, while urging patience in decision-making.

"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/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

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/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In time for Superbowl season, the presiding bishop and two Texans talk about the enjoyment and ethics of American football. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Books, coziness, and Anglophilia: what die-hard Anglicans love about Christmas can also teach us about Advent. We talk with novelist H.S. Cross about her books, English boarding schools, suffering, and nostalgia as "edenic longing." Explore titles by H.S. Cross. To sponsor this podcast, visit here and click "Support." --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

The Rev. Gayle Fisher-Stewart and the Rt. Rev. José McLoughlin are seasoned law enforcement officers. Now, as Episcopal clergy, they share their uniquely insightful perspectives on current policing practices as well as hope for change. Learn more about The Living Word Plus. Learn more about the Center for the Study of Faith in Justice. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In a time of fear and pandemic, how do we face the reality of our own mental health and others' while continuing to share the hope of Jesus? Join us in this honest and powerful conversation with the Rev. Rob Merchant. Donate to the Living Church. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

What does it look like to approach spiritual perfection? Writer and laywoman Sarah Cornwell reads excerpts from the "Seventh Mansion" of St. Teresa of Ávila's classic, The Interior Castle. Click here to subscribe to Daily Devotionals. Register for Reading Augustine in a Time of   Crisis with James K.A. Smith. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In part 3 of our “Multicultural Anglicanism” series, we talk to the Rev. Canon Anthony Guillén about being Latino and Episcopalian, shared leadership, and the joys and gifts that often go unseen. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands