The Living Church Podcast

It's Lambeth Week! The Lambeth Conference is a gathering of bishops every ten years from across the Anglican Communion — though the schedule occasionally gets off track, such as during WWII and the Covid pandemic. They meet for prayer and reflection, fellowship and dialogue on church and world affairs. Why should you, O listener who may not be an Anglican bishop, or even an Anglican, care about the Lambeth Conference? We'll get to that. What has been up since the last Lambeth Conference in the church globally? The last 14 years in the world? Quite a lot. How will church leaders respond to complex questions on issues like Christian teaching on human sexuality and human rights? How will they make room for everyone at the table? Is there safe space to be honest, and how do people who disagree discern the call of the gospel together? How do you reconcile ecclesial tensions and heal old wounds? What do we make of former Abp. Rowan Williams's and Abp. Justin Welby's different approaches to the paradoxes and pressures of Anglicanism, including the rise of the ACNA and GAFCON, and important bishops who boycott the conference altogether? We'll discuss all of these things and more with the Rev. Dr. Andrew Goddard and the Rev. Dr. David Goodhew. Andrew Goddard was on a previous episode discussing the Living in Love and Faith curriculae. He's assistant minister at St James the Less, Pimlico, London; tutor in Christian ethics at Ridley Hall in Cambridge and Westminster Theological Centre; and member of the Church of England Evangelical Council. He published two recent pieces on our Covenant blog on "Lambeth in Retrospect." David Goodhew is a visiting fellow of St. Johns College, Durham University, and vicar at St. Barnabas Church, Middlesbrough, England. He has also been prolific on Covenant lately with four articles: "Lambeth 2022 and African Anglicanism"; "Is the Anglican Communion Growing or Dying? New Data"; "Whither the CofE?"; and "The Episcopal Church in 2050." Read the Windsor Report. Read the Lambeth Calls. Keep up with Lambeth news on livingchurch.org or by following us on Twitter or Facebook. Read our blog, Covenant. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Under the Banner of Heaven is a true-crime series based on a book, about the murder of a young Mormon woman, Brenda Lafferty (Daisy Edgar Jones), and her young daughter and the subsequent investigation of that murder. The show's creator is an ex-Mormon, Dustin Lance Black. And he invents a character, a police detective, Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield), who is also a Mormon. And Jeb's investigation of this case starts interacting with his faith, it brings up larger questions about religious faith and faithfulness as it faces evil, hypocrisy, and the ugliest truths. Can it survive? How does media tend to get these kind of pictures right, bring up the right kinds of questions? And what does it often miss? Today we welcome Dr. Patrick Q. Mason. Patrick holds the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University. He is the author of several books including Mormonism and Violence: The Battles of Zion; The Mormon Menace: Violence and Anti-Mormonism in the Postbellum South; and Proclaim Peace: The Restoration's Answer to an Age of Conflict. He was a Fulbright Scholar and is a past president of the Mormon History Association. Patrick is frequently consulted by the media on stories related to Mormon culture and history and is himself a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now put on your sunglasses and sunblock, because we're headed to Utah, and into the heart of some tough questions about what it means to be a person of faith, not just as a Mormon in the 1980s, but as a Christian in our world today. We hope you enjoy the conversation. Check out Patrick's books. Visit TLC's blog, Covenant. View TLC's new books! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Clergy and performing artists have a lot in common. How is liturgy like a concert? A staff meeting like a band rehearsal? All leaders, and all Christians, can learn so much from artists, good art, and artistic discipline about God's world, God's work, and life in Christ. Today I'm joined by the Rev. Jonathan Jameson, also known as Jon Jameson of the indie rock band Delta Spirit. We talk about his own giftings in the arts and ministry and how they've been mutually illuminating. We talk about about discipleship on the concert circuit, the importance of geeking out and loving what you love, steps to discerning vocation, and how Björk accidentally ended up in a conversation about sin and grace with Arvo Pärt. Jonathan is associate rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church Savannah, Ga. Until becoming a priest he was a full-time professional musician. Jonathan and his wife Amy, a fashion designer, recently moved from Montreal, and have two young children. Delta Spirit is the Americana-influenced indie band he's been part of for 17 years, along with four other musicians. They've toured with My Morning Jacket, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cold War Kids, and The Shins. Turn up your Fender Frontman -- maybe even to 11. Get those headphones on tight. We hope you enjoy the conversation. Watch Björk with Arvo Pärt Visit Delta Spirit's website Give to the Living Church --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

From Charles Darwin to sex robots to the Big Bang and the Gospel of John—we are going to take a journey today into the wild and woolly world of faith and science. Faith and science—how do we have these conversations?—evolution, artificial intelligence, Covid, When does life begin?, How should it end?—how do we have these conversations in ways that are charitable and as smart as possible and leave behind some of the my-yard-sign-is-more-loving-than-your-yard sign Babel, but also admit tough questions and pose rich gospel responses? Allow me to send all of you to our blog, Covenant, to check out two of our most recent articles on faith and science. You can find links for both of those below. The Rev. Dr. Kara Slade will be joining me today to talk about learning how to run our fingers along the seams of faith and science. They're not seamless, not two ways of talking about the exact same thing. They don't always "agree together quickly on the way," but that disagreement need not lead us into internecine Christian wars, or wars with our neighbors—though it probably will lead us at times, and for seasons, into conflict with a prevailing ethic or vision of the world, especially when the vision threatens our ability to be human. Kara Slade is associate rector of Trinity Church in Princeton, N.J., and canon theologian of the Diocese of New Jersey. She shepherds Anglican and Episcopal students at Princeton Theological Seminary. She holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and materials science and a Ph.D. in theology, both from Duke University. Her latest book is The Fullness of Time: Jesus Christ, Science, and Modernity (Wipf and Stock). Read Kara Slade's article, "Follow the Science? Yes and No." Read Sarah Coakley's article, "God, Evolution, and Cooperation." Check out Kara's latest book, The Fullness of Time: Jesus Christ, Science, and Modernity. Find out more about the Love's Redeeming Work conference. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Midterm elections. General Convention. Lambeth Conference. Family dinner. A work meeting. Interacting with parishioners on social media. Seeing for the first time the bumper stickers and various car decals of the person you thought you really liked. From friendships, family, and marriage to church leadership to international politics, we live in zones of conflict. We can, and sometimes have to, avoid it. We can, and sometimes have to, manage it. But the people who lead peacebuilding programs at Jerusalem Peacebuilders believe you can always, with the right tools and time, participate in transforming conflict. What the heck does that mean? Transforming conflict. And without avoiding religion, politics, or anything else spicy and personal. That's the question we ask today. This topic is for everyone. How can we broach tough topics rather than protecting ever-widening safety zones of silence? The topics we avoid are often the things that make us human and able to know others as full humans. And they're often our soft spots. So if you're not a hider, and you're more a wear-your-opinion-on-your-sleeve kind of person, this episode is for you too. What if our soft spots are right where God is calling us to connect? Calling us to be courageous witnesses to relationship in polarized communities? How can we face relational challenges without running away or exploding? How do we deal with feeling triggered? And what are some tools we can use for investing patiently in the relational long run, instead of trying to fix everything now? The Rev. Canon Nicholas Porter joins us today with his colleague Sarah Benazera. Nicholas is the founder and executive director of Jerusalem Peacebuilders, an interfaith, non-profit organization that promotes transformational, person-to-person encounters among the peoples of Jerusalem, Israel, Palestine, and the United States. A long-time resident of Europe and the Middle East, Nicholas is an educator and Episcopal priest. Sarah is Senior Educator and Curriculum Advisor of Jerusalem Peacebuilders. She is a humanist, peace-activist, storyteller and educator, with years of hands-on experience in international and intercultural dialogue. They'll share their wisdom with us today. They'll also tell some beautiful and inspiring stories about the messy but rewarding experience of working with young people from some of the world's most contentious contexts. As Sarah and Nicholas tell us today, peacebuilding is a marathon. So let's join them to get hydrated, and get stretched. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Have you heard of a little theological term, theosis? This is an important term, beloved and taught most explicitly in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but is at the heart of Christian hope. And, many Christians believe, at the heart of Christian experience. It's a term that grabbed my attention many years ago because to my little ol' Pentecostal heart, it captured the dynamism of life in Christ I'd been told I should pursue growing up and homed it within the life of the Church and most ancient root systems of the Christian faith. If you've not heard this word, I'll leave you with that teaser for now. Many of us have had these moments of finding the vocabulary of the heart, or of some experience or desire we couldn't quite name, suddenly appear before us in the writings of the saints. Then when I started reading C.S. Lewis, I found a translator and a teacher of many of these concepts, and an imagination that helped me put them on a theological map -- maps that often looked like Narnia or the planet Venus. Though Lewis doesn't use the word "theosis" in his writings, I found my understanding of this core Christian hope expand under his teaching. And I wondered how much interest in or exposure to Eastern Christianity Lewis had in his life. Who were his teachers? What do we learn through what he was learning about love's redeeming work? So, on to theosis in the life, works, and relationships of CS Lewis. What do we find there? I had a couple of conversation partners and guides who were up to the task, and we unearthed a few delightful surprises together. Drs. Crystal and David Downing are co-directors of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College, Illinois, which promotes the work of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein, Dorothy Sayers, Charles Williams, and other key British Christian authors, and helps develop new writers and scholars of faith and imagination. Crystal formerly served as Distinguished Professor of English and Film Studies at Messiah College, and is the author of several books on Dorothy Sayers, postmodernism, and film. Her most recent book, Subversive: Christ, Culture, and the Shocking Dorothy L Sayers, won a starred review by Publisher's Weekly and was Publisher's Weekly's pick of the week. David Downing has written several scholarly books on C.S. Lewis and provided a critical introduction and explanatory notes to the new edition of C.S. Lewis's The Pilgrim's Regress. He also serves as a consulting reader of Lewis and editorial consultant for a number of academic publishers. Now enter the wardrobe, hop on the bus, and snuggle into your space capsule. Or hold tight to your copy of St. John Climacus. And enjoy the conversation. Give to TLC Learn more about the Love's Redeeming Work conference Check out the Marion E. Wade Center --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Happy Easter to all our listeners. We hope it's been beautiful and full of good food, nourishing time in nature or with people you love, and living into, even if in a small way, our Lord's victory. This week, we'll hear a conversation in honor of women's vocation, dedicated to a particular saint, that woman who stayed at the empty tomb, that bold apostle to the apostles, St. Mary Magdalene. The ordination of women, much less women's spiritual leadership and authority more generally, is not an issue from a bygone era. It's still a live question in many parts of the Church, as we know, and in many parts of the Anglican world. How does healthy, continued discernment happen, while maintaining unity in the Church? How does rooted transition happen when the time comes to change things? How can excavating history be a part of the Holy Spirit's work in helping the Church discern good paths forward? Women's leadership is a good case in point. And today we look specifically at the question of whether to open the ordained diaconate to women in the Roman Catholic Church -- or actually, to re-open it. This is a fascinating movement that offers a good case study for Anglicans and other Christians as we continue to discern together how to be faithful to his leading in our time. Today we hear from Dr. Phyllis Zagano. Phyllis is an internationally acclaimed Catholic scholar and lecturer on contemporary spirituality and women's issues in the Church. Her award-winning books include Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church; Women & Catholicism: Gender, Communion, and Authority; and Women: Icons of Christ. Phyllis has also served as a member of the Papal Commission for the study of the diaconate of women and is the winner of two Fulbright awards. She holds a research appointment at Hofstra University. Thanks for joining us today. And as you listen in, think of a woman in leadership you can support or pray for this week. Read about Sister Priscilla Wright. Purchase Phyllis Zagano's book, Women: Icons of Christ. Give to the Living Church. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

A very Happy feast of Easter to all of you podcast listeners. To all of our Western listeners, he is risen! And to many of our Eastern listeners, a blessed Holy Week to you, and a very happy Pascha when it comes! Something else that's happening this week: Friday, April 22, is Earth Day. Our celebration of the Lord's Passion and victory over death coincides with Earth Day, so in light of the upcoming Lambeth focus on creation, and the persistent calls to mutual, loving sacrifice, prayer, and stewardship of the earth from Archbishop Justin, Presiding Bishop Michael, Pope Francis, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, among other local leaders around the world, we are recognizing this Easter/Earth day coincidence this week in a couple of ways. First, in our Daily Devotional. The Living Church puts out a free online devotional every day. This week our author is the Rev. Dr. Rachel Mash, Environmental Coordinator of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. She was also a guest on podcast episode #60, Green Anglicans: An Introduction. She's been reflecting on the connection between Easter and creation this week. You can sign up for the Daily Devotional here, or find them at livingchurch.org. We're also going to plunge deep into the topic of creation and Christianity on today's episode, in conversation with a good friend of the Living Church, the Rev. Canon Dr. Mark Clavier. Mark is Residentiary Canon of Brecon Cathedral in Wales where he also directs Convivium, an initiative to foster a vision of the Church that stands apart from consumerism. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio Wales and The Living Church and spends a lot of his free time walking. His most recent book is A Pilgrimage of Paradoxes: A Backpacker’s Encounters with God and Nature. Mark and his wife, historian Dr. Sarah Ward Clavier, have been on our show before. (As have their dogs, Humphrey and Cuthbert: they provided the howling sound effects for our 2021 Halloween episode.) I brought Mark on today because his work as a pastor, and even his conversion as a Christian, has had so much to do with the earth -- especially landscapes, and preserving and loving local environments. So much of his call has been wrapped up in watching God reveal his character through the woods of South Carolina, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia, and then the Brecon Beacons and byways of Wales. Today we'll talk about his travels, being bowled over by God's glory, medieval bestiaries, living as Christians in climate apocalypse, and of course, Wendell Berry. And another coincidence: Monday, April 25, will be the feast of St. Mark. So let's get on with our conversation with our own friend, Mark, and listen together for God's healing word to our world. Sign up for our Daily Devotional. Check out Mark Clavier's latest book. Give to the Living Church. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Lately you may have heard about Pope Francis taking some heat for not being more severe and explicit with Vladimir Putin in denouncing Russian aggression against Ukraine. Yesterday evening I was taking a walk in my neighborhood listening to a recent episode of The Commonweal Podcast. And in it, New Yorker staff writer Paul Elie points out that as we wait to see how the pope and other church leaders will respond to this situation in Ukraine, we are also in a time when so many things about the papacy, church leadership, how they function on the world stage is unprecedented. Whatever's happened in the past, we really don't know what's possible now in terms of Christian witness and hope. Pretty good stuff to ponder in time for the Lambeth Conference. Pope Francis has undoubtedly been addressing some of the biggest issues of our time in some very public ways, notably with Laudato Si' and Fratelli Tutti, and today we're getting an inside look into the "What now?", into how the Vatican is addressing this big vision for human flourishing, in cooperation with other Christians. For this insider look I had the pleasure of chatting with Alessio Pecorario. Alessio is the Coordinator of the Security Task Force of the Vatican COVID-19 Commission and a senior official of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, which includes many areas of dialogue and oversight. We discuss the importance of Christian witness in this moment, Christian unity even amid disagreement, Anglican vocations to unity and dialogue dovetailing with Catholic gifts, and the gift of the papacy to strengthen the influence of positive Christian leadership worldwide. Now before I let you go here, I've been meaning to ask you, dear listener, for feedback about the podcast. How do you like it these days? This show is for invested Christian leaders like you. So what would you like to hear more of? What are you appreciating? What would you like from this that you don't currently have? If you have a comment or an idea, email me at ambernoel@livingchurch.org. I would love to hear from you. And as always, if you enjoy the podcast, if you enjoy this episode, send it along to a friend. And now, let's head to the heart of Rome, for a listening session on Christian leadership and care for our world. We hope you enjoy the conversation. Learn more about the Laudato Si' Action Platform. Get the Early Bird Discount for Love's Redeeming Work. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

How was I to know that a conversation on the art of Anglican preaching would take me to talking about T.D. Jakes and The Grateful Dead? Well, I guess when you're talking to the Rev. Jacob Smith, it's bound to happen. We're talking about the art and craft of preaching today, thinking about beginners to the craft, but also thinking about those who have been at it for a long time, and what it might take to get out of the rut of old habits, re-energize your imagination, and even let yourself get nervous behind the pulpit again, if you haven't felt that way in a while. What is a good sermon, anyway? And how much does it really matter if the liturgy and the Eucharist take center stage? What can bad preaching do? And what does preaching have in common with stand-up comedy and tennis? Apart from tips for good preaching or better preaching, we've got some edifying stories of embarrassing mistakes to learn from, and forays into the realm of pop culture. We also survey a few other preaching styles throughout history that may not be familiar, or even comfortable, but we can definitely learn from, from Jonathan Edwards to televangelists. Fr. Jacob was born on the Navajo Reservation and was raised in Yuma, Arizona. As an Episcopal priest he initially served in the Diocese of San Diego, and he's been at the Parish of Calvary-St. George's in NYC in various roles for 15 years. His wife, Melina, by the way, publishes a church curriculum for children you should check out called Storymakers. And in part of his free time, when he's not watching a favorite show and gleaning sermon illustrations, Jacob is lovingly working on the Same Old Song preaching podcast with fellow priest Aaron Zimmerman. Now get out your Moleskine journal and your favorite pen and join us as we make some insightful and fun notes on preaching! We hope you enjoy the conversation. LEARN MORE about our conference in Oklahoma City, Love's Redeeming Work: Discovering the Anglican Tradition Storymakers curriculum Same Old Song podcast --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/living-church/supportAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands