The Church Times Podcast

On the first episode of the new year, editor Paul Handley talks about work of the groups charged with resolving the Church’s disputes about sexuality. He has been quizzing two of the people leading the Living in Love and Faith group, the Bishop of Coventry, Dr Christopher Cocksworth, and Dr Eeva John. What are the project’s aims and what will its work mean for the Church’s stance on same-sex relationships?

This week, we talk to actor and playwright Justin Butcher about his new book Walking to Jerusalem: Blisters, hope and other facts on the ground, published by Hodder. It tells the story of a pilgrimage from London to Jerusalem in 2017, which marked three major anniversaries: the centenary of the Balfour Declaration; the 50th year of Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territors; and the tenth year of the blockade of Gaza. Brian Eno says that the book "displays the kind of unusual empathy essential in that tangled and tragic situation". Walking to Jerusalem can be purchased from the Church Times Bookshop for £15.30. Picture credit: Mark Kensett

This week, Ed Thornton talks to John Pritchard, the former Bishop of Oxford and a popular writer of books such as The Life and Work of a Priest, Why go to Church?, and God Lost and Found. His latest book is called Five Events that Made Christianity, published by SPCK. In the book, he takes readers on a pilgrimage of the Holy Land, as he unpacks the five great events that made Christianity: Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. For each event, he explores what happened, what does it mean, and what does it mean for us now. The book is available to buy from the Church Times Bookshop for £9. You can read an extract, on what the incarnation means for us now, in our Christmas double issue, out next Friday. There’s still time to buy a Christmas gift subscription of the Church Times for £85, a 30% saving on the paper’s cover price. It also includes a Christmas card announcing the gift, a bar of Fairtrade chocolate, and one of three great books. The offer is available until the end of the year, but if you order today (Friday) and we will endeavour to send the book in time for Christmas. Go to Churchtimes.co.uk/christmas. Image credit: KT BRUCE

This week, the Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie is in conversation with the writer and historian Tom Holland. They talk about Fergus's new book, A Field Guide to the English Clergy: A compendium of of diverse eccentrics, pirates, prelates and adventurers; all Anglican, some even practising. The conversation was recorded at an event at Hatchard’s Bookshop in London last month. The book is available from the Church Times Bookshops at the special price of £11.70.

On this week's podcast, Madeleine Davies speaks exclusively to Archbishop Justin Welby, in Blakeney, Norfolk, his childhood escape. The Archbishop speaks candidly, among other things, about why he draws on his difficult family history in his public ministry; whether he would have liked to have been an MP; and why he loves to mess around on boats. Subscribe to the Church Times Podcast on iTunes.

This week, freelance journalist Andy Walton joins us to talk about his recent visit to the diocese of Ely, which has ambitious plans to increase churchgoing. Andy visited a new church-plant in Huntingdon and spoke to people in the diocese about the plans. Plus, Madeleine Davies reports back on her recent visit to Norfolk with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

This week we have published a very special edition of the Church Times to mark the centenary of the Armistice. Deputy Editor Glyn Paflin has delved into the archives to produce an eight-page supplement recounting the course of the First World War as seen through the pages of the Church Times at the time. At the end of this podcast, he reads the paper’s Leader from 15 November 2018. Our coverage also includes stories and pictures of how churches have been marking the centenary; William Philpott, Professor of the History of Warfare at King’s College London, considers why the Armistice did not lead to world peace; we look at G.A. Studdert Kennedy, aka Woodbine Willie in a new light; and Peta Dunstan tells the story of Dorothy Buxton. We also have a fascinating feature by Phillip Dawson about he discovered the stories of the names on the war memorial at Christ Church, Southgate, in north London, with the help of obituaries written by its Vicar during the First World War, the Revd Charles Peploe, and a wealth of other sources. Ed Thornton spoke to Phillip about the project brought renewed meaning to the church’s remembrance.

Where are all the young people? Across the country, the average C of E church has just three children attending, and the smallest 25 per cent have none at all. At the Christian Resources Exhibition last month, the Church Times Live event brought together a panel of youth workers to talk about this: Ali Campbell, who runs the Resource youthwork consultancy; Savannah John-Leighton, Youth Leader at St John’s, Hoxton in London; and Polly Baker, who works as a youthworker on an estate. The session was chaired by Madeleine Davies. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

This week, Ed Thornton speaks to Adrian Harris, the Head of Digital for the Church of England, and Thomas Allain Chapman, the Head of Publishing for Church House, about the C of E’s Christmas campaign this year: #FollowtheStar. As well as offering daily reflections on the website and app, the campaign encourages churches to make the most of the surge in interest in the 72 hours running up to Christmas Day by giving details of their services and events on the church-finding website A Church Near You. If you are not yet a subscriber to the Church Times, you can try your first ten issues for just £10. Visit churchtimes.co.uk/subscribe You can subscribe to the Church Times Podcast on iTunes.

Robert McCrum is an associate editor of The Observer, and was the paper’s literary for 12 years. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, where he edited writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Marilynne Robinson, and Peter Carey. His books include The Story of English and a definitive life of PG Woodhouse. Robert McCrum’s latest book is Every Third Thought: On life, death and the endgame, published by Picador. The book confronts an existential question: in a world where we have learnt to live well at all costs, can we make peace with what Freud calls 'the necessity of dying'? Searching for answers leads him to others for advice and wisdom, and Every Third Thought is populated by the voices of brain surgeons, psychologists, cancer patients, hospice workers, writers and poets. “Historically, the oldie turned to God in the search for fulfilment during his or her later years,” McCrum writes. “Today, with the idea of God under assault from belligerent atheists, and an indifferent majority of committed agnostics, there’s still a hunger for a dialogue with something bigger and richer than individualistic materialism.” You can subscribe to the Church Times Podcast on iTunes