The Church Times Podcast

The Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, is interviewed on the podcast this week about a new Lent course that she has written, The Room Where it Happens, based on the smash-hit musical Hamilton. In a review of Lent books and resources in the Church Times, David Wilbourne writes: “In The Room Where it Happens, Rose Hudson-Wilkin comes to house groups, wherever they may be, watching the smash-hit musical Hamilton with them, and introducing staid Anglicans to hip-hop. She parallels her own immigrant experience with Alexander Hamilton’s, blisteringly honest about her humble origins, the ensuing hurts, and the dreams that fired her. . . “In 22 years of parish ministry, I ran many Lent house groups, and, as a bishop, I addressed larger Lent gatherings. I sense that this course will work brilliantly.” The Room Where it Happens is published by Darton, Longman & Todd, and is on offer at the Church Times Bookshop. Music for the podcast is by Twisterium Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader.

On the podcast this week, the Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie, priest and writer, reads a profound and moving article he wrote for the 4 February edition of the Church Times. Titled “In the end is my beginning,” it’s about a funeral he conducted recently with unexpected and deeply personal resonances. He is the author of A Field Guide to the English Clergy (Books, 30 November 2018, Podcast, 7 December 2018) and Priests de la Résistance! The loose canons who fought fascism in the twentieth century (Books, 8 November 2019, Features, 15 November 2019). Both are published by Oneworld Publications and are available to order from the Church Times Bookshop (here and here). Follow him on Twitter: @_F_B_G_ Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader.

Cole Moreton has interviewed the famous, the infamous, and the extraordinary. He was named Interviewer of the Year in 2016 for his work in The Mail on Sunday, and was shortlisted for a fifth time in 2018. On the podcast this week, Cole reflects on the art of interviewing, and recalls memorable encounters with such people as Tiger Woods, Scarlett Johansson, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In a a forthcoming new podcast, “Can we talk?”, which launches on 8 February (produced by Hodder Faith), he reflects in each episode on a single encounter, and reflects on what such encounters have taught him about the incredible lives we live as human beings and the lessons we can learn from connecting with each other. In this week’s Church Times (28 January), we publish an edited transcript of the episode in which he describes an unforgettable encounter with Dr Tutu. His debut novel, The Light Keeper, was published in 2019 and is out now in paperback (Books, 10 January 2020; Podcast, 27 March 2020). https://shows.acast.com/cole-moretons-can-we-talk https://colemoreton.com Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader.

Chris Mabey is interviewed on the podcast this week about the deepening political crisis in Myanmar, and the plight of Christians in the country. His book, Whispers of Hope: A family memoir of Myanmar, tells the story of how he came to understand the rich, nuanced history of Burma/Myanmar, through the family of his Burmes wife, April. He has also written on the crisis in Myanmar for this week’s Church Times (21 January). Chris Mabey is a chartered psychologist and Emeritus Professor at Middlesex University Business School. Whispers of Hope is published by Penguin Random House at £29.99 (Church Times Bookshop £26.99); 9-7898-1-495425-9. https://www.chrismabey.co.uk/ Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader.

On the podcast this week, the Revd Katherine Price, Chaplain of Queen’s College, Oxford, talks about her experience of Slimming World, and how it prompted her to think differently about the quest for spiritual health. She also considers whether the Slimming World’s model has lessons for the Church of England’s mission. “At Slimming World, I’d realised that I actually did have the will power and the discipline to make changes in my life that had a tangible difference,” she says. “But I was thinking, ‘Hang on a minute, I wasn’t even massively motivated to lose weight; it wasn’t my number one priority. My prayer life, which is a much bigger priority for me, why don’t I have that discipline there?’. . . “And I was wondering why is it that this really quite simple group, the Slimming World group, was enabling me to make the changes that I wanted to make in my life to lose weight; and the Church, for whatever reason, that surely should be exactly the group which is enabling me to make changes in my spiritual life, and somehow that wasn’t happening for me. And that just raised that question for me, I think.” Katherine has also written an article for this week’s Church Times. Picture credit: David Olds Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader.

On the podcast this week, the Revd Andy March, Vicar of St Christopher’s, Coventry, talks about his debut book Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of war, an extract from which is published in this week’s Church Times (7 January). The book tells the remarkable true story of Andy’s grandparents, Fred and Rike Clayton, who first met in Dresden at the start of the Nazi era. In a foreword to the book, the Bishop of Coventry, Dr Christopher Cocksworth, writes: “It is my hope that, thanks to Andy’s efforts, the story will inspire you as much as it has inspired me, and that it will find its place as a signpost, even a landmark, along the path of reconciliation, trust and love which links Coventry and Dresden; Britain and Germany.” The book is published by Halwill Publishing and is available from the Church Times Bookshop for £8.99. Signed copies can also be purchased at https://halwillpublishing.co.uk Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader.

This week’s podcast returns to a Christmas interview from 2017, when Ed Thornton spoke to Paul Kerensa, the stand-up comic and comedy writer, about his book, Hark! The biography of Christmas (Lion Books) (Books, 24 November 2017). They also talked about comedy gigs in churches, comedy and evangelism, and whether preachers should tell jokes in sermons. Paul’s latest book, written with Ruth Valerio, is Planet Protectors: 52 ways to look after God’s world (SPCK) (Features, 22 October). His other books include Noah’s Car Park Ark (SPCK) (Books, 22 June 2018) and So a Comedian Walks Into a Church . . . Confessions of a kneel-down stand-up (DLT) (Books, 12 July 2013). Paul hosts the podcast British Broadcasting Century, and more information about his work, including upcoming gigs, is available at paulkerensa.com. Paul has also written for the BBC sitcom Not Going Out, some CBBC shows, and some pre-school animations for churches out next year. Treat friends and family to a gift subscription this year. We’ll send a Christmas card announcing your gift - and your choice of one of two free books! https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/christmas

“What could Shakespeare’s plays and poems teach me about the Christian faith and the God who loves me?” This is the question posed by Peter Graystone on this week’s podcast, as he reflects on the spiritual significance of a memorable scene in The Winter’s Tale. The talk was first given at an online Advent Retreat, on 27 November, hosted by the Church Times and Canterbury Press. It is introduced by Christine Smith, Publishing Director of Hymns Ancient & Modern. To access a recording of the whole event, book a ticket at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/advent-retreat Peter’s latest book, All’s Well that Ends Well: From dust to resurrection: 40 days with Shakespeare, is published by Canterbury Press and is available from the Church Times Bookshop for £11.69. Peter is a writer who has worked for Scripture Union, Christian Aid, and the Church Army. He is the Church Times’s theatre critic, and a contributor to Reflections for Daily Prayer. Music for the podcast is by Twisterium. Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader.

On this week’s podcast, Dr Andrew Rumsey talks about his new book, English Grounds: A pastoral journal (SCM Press). The book is available to buy from the Church Times Bookshop for the special price of £15.99, and extracts are published in this week’s Church Times (3 December). “It’s a book about places, the way that we shape them and they shape us,” he says in a short video about the book. “It’s about memory and belonging and heritage, Christian heritage especially, and the way in which the Church has shaped the nation’s story for good and ill over many centuries, and my hope that the Christian narrative can yet help us to tell a more hopeful story about England’s future.” At the end of the podcast, he reads an extract from the book and plays a song, “Silbury Hill,” which he wrote to accompany the launch of the book. Dr Rumsey is the Bishop of Ramsbury in Salisbury diocese, and the co-lead bishop for church buildings and cathedrals. His previous book is Parish: An Anglican theology of place (Features, 2 June 2017, Books, 21 July 2017). Music for the podcast is by Twisterium. Picture credit: KT BRUCE Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader.

As the start of Advent approaches, this week's podcast returns to Malcolm Guite’s journey through “The Great O Antiphons”: seven prayers which the Church prayed during the first centuries, which called afresh for Christ to come. Malcolm reads each of the seven prayers and reflects on them, and offers his own poetic response to each one, taken from his collection Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian year (Canterbury Press). This talk was first broadcast last November during an online Advent retreat, hosted by the Church Times and Canterbury Press. The Revd Dr Malcolm Guite is a Life Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge, and writes the weekly Poet’s Corner column for the Church Times. His books include Mariner: A voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Hodder), Love Remember: 40 poems of loss, lament and hope (Canterbury Press), and David’s Crown: Sounding the Psalms (Canterbury Press). Music for the podcast is by Twisterium. Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader.