The Church Times Podcast

For two decades, the writer Rhidian Brook has been a contributor to Radio 4’s Thought for the Day: the “God-slot” on the Today programme that is loved by some and criticised others. An extract of his new book, Godbothering: Thoughts, 2000-2020 (SPCK), is published in this week’s Church Times. At the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature last month, he spoke to Bishop John Pritchard about what it’s like being a Thought for the Day contributor: how he comes up with ideas, how to avoid being platitudinous, and what the presenters make of it, among other things. “You want to make people think and sit up, but you don’t want to harangue people either,” he said. “I try and think of my more cantankerous atheistic or agnostic friends, who may be driving to work or shaving or whatever it is, and think ‘Ok, how do I hold their attention?” Listen to the conversation on this week’s podcast. Rhidian Brook’s novels include The Aftermath and The Killing of Butterfly Joe. 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

Paul Edmondson, Head of Research at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, considers some of the different kinds of love which can be found across the Shakespearean canon. The talk is complemented by readings from Finbar Lynch and Catherine Cusack. It was recorded at the 2020 Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature, which took place at Bloxham School, Oxfordshire, on 21 and 22 February. Read more about the festival in this week’s Church Times. Picture: Paul Edmondson (centre) with Finbar Linch and Catherine Cusack. Credit: KT Bruce 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 former International Development Secretary Rory Stewart spoke at an event at St James’s Piccadilly, in London, on Monday, organised by Christian Aid. Mr Stewart, who is standing as an independent candidate to be mayor of London, was in conversation with the journalist Edward Stourton. Mr Stewart was asked about the Government’s record on international aid and Britain’s place in the world, among other things. Listen to an edited recording of the event on this week’s podcast. Picture credit: Elizabeth Dalziel/Christian Aid 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 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