The Church Times Podcast

This week’s podcasts brings a highlight of the most recent Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature, which took place in Winchester in late February: Colin Heber-Percy in conversation with Andrew Rumsey on the theme, “Throwing away the map, and setting out anyway.” Dr Heber-Percy reads extracts from Tales of a Country Parish: From the Vicar of Savernake Forest, his account of life and parish ministry during lockdown, which was published last year by Short Books (Books, 1 April 2022, Faith Features, 18 March 2022), and discusses some of its themes with Dr Rumsey. Dr Heber-Percy also reads pieces of writing not included in Tales of a Country Parish. The Revd Dr Colin Heber-Percy is a Team Vicar in the Savernake Team Ministry, in Salisbury diocese. He is also a writer and screenwriter, and has written numerous articles on faith and film, the philosophy and theology of cinema. His book, Perfect in Weakness, on the work of Andrei Tarkovsky, is widely acclaimed. The Revd Dr Andrew Rumsey is the Bishop of Ramsbury in Salisbury diocese, and the co-lead bishop for church buildings and cathedrals. His most recent book is English Grounds: A pastoral journal (SCM Press) (Podcast, 2 December 2021, Books, 11 March 2022). https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Photo: 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

From Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday, Malcolm Guite shares a sequence of sonnets for Holy Week. They are taken from his collection, Sounding the Seasons (Canterbury Press). Today, he reflects on and reads his sonnet, “Maundy Thursday.” 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. 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

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On this month's episode of the Book Club Podcast, Dr Natalie K. Watson, who has written about the book in this week’s Church Times, is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. The Island of Missing Trees is set between Cyprus in 1974, at the start of the country’s conflict with Turkey, and London, decades later. Two teenagers, Kostas and Defne, from different sides of the warring parties, meet in secret at a taverna. In the middle of the taverna is an impressive fig tree. Kostas, a keen botanist, takes a cutting from his beloved Ficus carica when forced to flee to England. It is from the perspective of the fig tree that much of the story is told — a tale of love, loss, and generational trauma. Born in France (1971) to Turkish parents, Elif Shafak is an academic, author, and advocate of women’s and minority rights. As an author of fiction, she has written 11 published novels in both Turkish and English. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2019. She now lives in London. The Island of Missing Trees is published by Penguin at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99); 978-0-241-98872-5. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature. Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup. Discuss this month’s book at https://www.facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub Dr Natalie K. Watson is a theologian, writer, and editor, living in Peterborough. 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

From Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday, Malcolm Guite shares a sequence of sonnets for Holy Week. They are taken from his collection, Sounding the Seasons (Canterbury Press). Today, he reflects on and reads his sonnet, “The anointing at Bethany.” 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. 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

From Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday, Malcolm Guite shares a sequence of sonnets for Holy Week. They are taken from his collection, Sounding the Seasons (Canterbury Press). Today, he reflects on and reads his sonnet, “Cleansing the Temple.” 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. 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

From Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday, Malcolm Guite shares a sequence of sonnets for Holy Week. They are taken from his collection, Sounding the Seasons (Canterbury Press). Today, he reflects on and reads his sonnet, “Jesus weeps.” 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. 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

From Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday, Malcolm Guite shares a sequence of sonnets for Holy Week. They are taken from his collection, Sounding the Seasons (Canterbury Press). “In composing these sonnets, I had in mind that mysterious and beautiful phrase in the Psalms about the man in whose heart are the highways to Zion (Psalm 84.5),” he says. “I wanted to develop the hint offered in that phrase that there is an inner as well as an outer Jerusalem, and that therefore the events of Holy Week are both about Jesus’s outward visible and historical entry into Jerusalem. and what he did there, and also about his entry into the inner Jerusalem, 'the seething holy city' of our own hearts.” 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. 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, Olivia Jackson talks about her book (Un)Certain: A collective memoir of deconstructing faith. After the interview, she reads a short excerpt from the book. Faith deconstruction — the intentional examination of one's religious faith and beliefs, leading to a profound change in, or even loss of, that faith — has received increasing attention in the past few years, with the emergence of podcasts and online fora dedicated to discussing it. So, who are the people who deconstruct their faith, what causes them to do so, and where does the journey take them? (Un)Certain is a collective memoir built on the stories and reflections of more than 150 interviewees and nearly 400 survey respondents from all over the world, including the author's own story. Read an extract from the book here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/10-march/features/features/faith-that-expects-you-to-fall (Un)Certain is published by SCM Press and is available to buy from the Church Times Bookshop: https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780334063636/uncertain Olivia Jackson spent nearly 20 years working for mission agencies in the UK and overseas, and then as a human rights consultant with a focus on violence against women and girls, all of which fed into her own faith deconstruction. She lives on the side of a windswept hill with two dogs. 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 talks about his new book, Touching Cloth: Confessions and communions of a young priest. He is interviewed by Ed Thornton. In a review of the book for the Church Times, the Ven. Dr Lyle Dennen says the book “tells the story of his [Fergus’s] first year as a priest at a city-centre church in Liverpool. The book is in the style of a diary following the liturgical year. It is filled with many funny stories of clerical mishaps, and profound spiritual reflections.” Read an extract from the book in this week's Church Times. Touching Cloth is published by Bantam Press (an imprint of Transworld) at £16.99 (Church Times Bookshop £15.29). The Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie is a writer and priest who has ministered in parishes in Liverpool and central London. His previous books are A Field Guide to the English Clergy (Books, 30 November 2018, Podcast, 7 December 2018) and Priests de la Résistance! 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

In the fifth episode of the Church Times Poetry Podcast for Lent, Mark Oakley reflects on the poem “Prayer” by Zaffar Kunial, published in his collection Us (Faber & Faber, 2018). “The beauty of life is heard in this poem, but are the prayers that emerge out of its fragility and pain heard by anyone, by God?” Canon Oakley says. “For all our stores of knowledge and ingenuity, there are questions whose answers remain unknown in life. Our approach to them can distil us or destroy us. The poet John Keats referred to “negative capability” . . . that is, the ability we can have to hold doubts and mysteries without resolving them, resisting the impatience for quick clarity, in order to deepen and learn from them. “This is a defining characteristic of Kunial’s work, and certainly one of its attractions. The natural reticence mixed with the quiet strength of not grasping to a single view is, for me, very aligned to the sensibilities of a religious faith.” This is the last of Canon Oakley’s Lent podcasts. The series will continue in Holy Week when Malcolm Guite will reflect on a series of sonnets. Canon Mark Oakley is the Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge. His book The Splash of Words (Canterbury Press) won the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing. Artwork by Emily Noyce. Producer: Ed Thornton 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