The Church Times Podcast

This week, Ed Thornton catches up with Madeleine Davies and Adam Becket, who have just returned from the press gallery at the General Synod, which has been meeting in Church House, Westminster. They tell us what some of the stand-out debates have been, including the surprise commitment to setting a 2030 target for net zero carbon emissions; repentance for the racism expressed to the Windrush generation; and the latest on the Living in Love and Faith project. Picture: The Revd Andrew Moughtin-Mumby (Southwark) speaks on his private member’s motion which called for the Synod to “lament, on behalf of Christ’s Church, the conscious and unconscious racism experienced by countless BAME Anglicans in 1948 and subsequent years” Credit: Geoff Crawford/Church Times Listeners might be interested to hear about the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature, which takes place at Bloxham School, Oxfordshire, on Friday 21 February and Saturday 22 February. For a full programme and to buy tickets, visit bloxhamfaithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

This week, Ed Thornton talks to Paul Handley, who this month marks 25 years as editor of the Church Times. His first issue as editor was published on 10 February 1995. He reflects on how the Church and the newspaper has changed since then. If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

This week, Madeleine Davies talks through the pastoral statement on civil partnerships by the House of Bishops, and the strong criticism that it provoked — including among the Bishops. Read the latest on this story at www.churchtimes.co.uk

This week, Ed Thornton talks to the Revd Alexander Faludy about George Orwell’s relationship with Christianity. Orwell died 70 years ago, on 21 January 1950, an avowed atheist. Faludy writes in this week’s Church Times, however, that Orwell had a complex relationship with faith intellectually and with Anglicanism institutionally. “Even as Orwell fought against Christianity, denying its metaphysical claims and finding it wanting in moral integrity, he had to acknowledge that the standards by which he judged it — and, indeed, the world — were Christianity’s own.” If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader Picture credit: Alamy

This week, Ed Thornton talks to Dr Stephen Tomkins about his new book, The Journey to the Mayflower: God’s outlaws and the invention of freedom. This year is the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower, the ship that took the Pilgrim Fathers to the New World. The Journey to the Mayflower is not a history of The Mayflower journey, however. “My book stops where most other books on the subject start,” Dr Tomkins says. “My story is about the illegal, underground church, the religious movement in the time of Elizabeth 1 and James 1, their experience of secret worship and of persecution and of exile, and the reasons why they felt the need to leave the country and seek a new life elsewhere. It’s the story of the English movement that then led people to America, rather than a story of American beginnings.” The Journey to the Mayflower: God’s outlaws and the invention of freedom by Stephen Tomkins is published by Hodder & Stoughton at £20 (CT Bookshop £18). Stephen Tomkins is the author of eight books on Christian history, including biographies of William Wilberforce and John Wesley. He is the editor of Reform magazine, and was previously deputy editor of Third Way. If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

The Revd Peter Crumpler is a season-ticket holder at Brentford FC, a club that he has supported for more than half a century. He is also a Self-Supporting Minister in St Albans diocese and a former director of communications at Church House Westminster. In this week’s Church Times, he writes about some of the surprising lessons that that the Church can learn from football. And on this week’s podcast, Ed Thornton speaks to him to find out more. If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

On this week’s podcast, Madeleine Davies moderates a discussion between Andy Root and Nick Shepherd about faith and doubt in a secular age. In a wide-ranging discussion, they talk about issues such as attendance stats, the lack of children and young people in churches, what to make of religious experience, and how to minister in a secular age. Dr Andy Root is Pro­fessor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, and the author of Faith Formation in a Secular Age, published by Baker at £13.99 (Church Times Bookshop £12.60). Dr Nick Shep­herd, the director of Setting God’s People Free, the Renewal and Reform pro­gramme that explores how the Church “helps the whole people of God serve God’s mission in God’s world”. If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

The next Archbishop of York is to be the Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, at present Bishop of Chelmsford, Downing Street announced on Tuesday. Bishop Cottrell spoke at a press conference at Church House on Tuesday morning and took questions from journalists, including the Church Times’s Madeleine Davies. This special edition of the podcast features highlights from that press conference. If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

Should Christians be ambitious? Is church growth something to aim for, or does it risk giving church leaders performance anxiety? These are among the questions that the Bishop of Penrith, Dr Emma Ineson, tackles in her new book Ambition: What Jesus said about power, success and counting stuff, published by SPCK. On this week’s podcast, Ed Thornton talks to Dr Ineson about these issues and more. The Church Times this week publishes a second extract from the book, which looks theologically at church growth. Dr Emma Ineson is the Bishop of Penrith in the diocese of Carlisle. From 2014 to 2019, she was Principal of Trinity College, Bristol. Ambition is available from the Church Times Bookshop for £9. You can also listen to the Church Times Podcast on the Church Times app for iPhone and iPad, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast platforms. If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

The Irish poet Micheal O’Siadhail is admired and quoted by leading theologians. He has published 16 collections of poetry, and was awarded an Irish American Cultural Institute prize for poetry in 1982 and, in 1998, the Marten Toonder prize for Literature. The Five Quintets was published this year in the UK by Canterbury Press. It received the Conference on Christianity and Literature’s 2019 book of the year award. In a review published in August in the Church Times, Martyn Halsall writes: “In The Five Quintets he explores modernity, the philosophical currency evaluating Western thought for the past four centuries. From its demise emerges the insistent question: “What follows?” O’Siadhail brings a lifetime’s reading and analysis across many disciplines, together with formidable lyrical enthusiasm, an expansive linguistic palette, and a restless imagination, to suggest an answer of philosophical artistry and spiritual grace.” O’Siadhail visited London last month, during which time he spoke at Westminster Abbey alongside Lord Blunkett, a former Labour Cabinet minister. The next day, O’Siadhail gave a reading from The Five Quintets at Highgate School, in north London, to an audience of pupils, staff, and guests. Thank you to Highgate School for allowing the event to be recorded for the podcast. It was introduced by the school's Head of Religion & Philosophy, Robbie Leigh. The Five Quintets is available to buy from Church House Bookshop. If you don't yet subscribe to the Church Times, check out our new reader offer: 10 issues for £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader