The Church Times Podcast

On the podcast this week, Fr Alex Frost — parish priest, best-selling author, and host of The God Cast — talks to Madeleine Davies about the Church of England’s problems connecting with people from working-class settings. Fr Alex has written a comment article in this week’s Church Times which argues that the C of E needs to remove barriers that make it harder for working-class people to respond to a call to ordination or lay leadership. “I heard examples of intelligent and highly capable individuals from urban working-class settings who had struggled to break through the pomp and procedures of the Church of England,” he writes. “And of individuals dismayed by the Church and its approach to training and developing leaders who happened to drink Vimto more than they did Vin Mariani. . . “I could relate to this. In my own journey to ordination, I had many advocates; but, for every advocate I had, there were dreadfully high hurdles put in front of me to demonstrate whether I might be worthy of fulfilling my authentic and genuine call to ordination.” The Revd Alex Frost is the Vicar of St Matthew the Apostle, Burnley, a member of the General Synod, and host of the podcast The God Cast: https://www.youtube.com/@thegodcast5878 His book, Our Daily Bread: From Argos to the altar — a priest’s story is published by Harper North (Books, 11 November 2022). Madeleine Davies is Senior Writer 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 Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Emily Rhodes, who has written this month’s Book Club essay about the book, is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. The Beginning of Spring is a historical novel set in Moscow a few years before the Russian Revolution as political tensions mount. The story starts with the sudden unexplained departure of Frank Reid’s wife, Nellie. She boards a train heading west, leaving her husband and children behind. Frank moved to Moscow with his family to run his father’s print business. Unlike his rambunctious Russian neighbours, Frank is a repressed but honourable English gentleman — a man of reason. Frank is left to look after three small children, and, for him, the ensuing days are full of misadventure, poignancy, and wonder. This intriguing story, which doesn’t follow conventional plot lines, is set against the background of the great thaw in Moscow which heralds the arrival of spring. The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald is published by HarperCollins at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99); 978-0-00-654370-1. https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780006543701/beginning-of-spring?vc=CT405 Emily Rhodes is a writer and journalist, whose features and reviews have appeared in publications including the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Guardian, and the TLS. Sarah Meyrick is a novelist. Her latest novel is Joy and Felicity (Sacristy Press, 2021). The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature: https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub 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 Subscribe to Church Times before 15 April, and you will also a receive a FREE three-month subscription to the bestselling app, Reflections for Daily Prayer

On the podcast this week, the Rector of St Andrew’s, Ramallah, the Revd Fadi Diab, is interviewed by Francis Martin. Fr Diab was in the UK last week, hosted by Friends of the Holy Land, an ecumenical organisation whose volunteer committee he chairs (News, 22 March). During the visit, he met the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, Fr Diab says, “stands firm in solidarity with the Christian community in the Holy Land”. Fr Diab also preached in Southwark Cathedral and was in conversation with the Dean, the Very Revd Dr Mark Oakley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zZNPBFNlCI&ab_channel=SouthwarkCathedral Fr Diab speaks on the podcast about how life in the West Bank “has turned upside down” since 7 October, after Hamas attacks on southern Israel. The situation in the West Bank, however, could “not in any way be compared to the amount of pain in Gaza”, he says. https://www.friendsoftheholyland.org.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 Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson talks about her new book, Reading Genesis, which has been described by Rowan Williams as “a work of exceptional wisdom and imagination”. Marilynne Robinson is in conversation with Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand, a Visiting Scholar at Sarum College in Salisbury and Vice-Chair of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations. Reading Genesis is published by Virago and is available from the Church Times Bookshop for the special price of £20: https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780349018744/reading-genesis/%20?vc=CT322 Photo credit: Alamy For the whole of March, we are asking our readers to spread the news of the Church Times among their friends, acquaintances, and fellow churchgoers (and non-churchgoers). To celebrate (and help with) this, our paywall has been lifted for the whole of March, meaning you can enjoy all of our content — news, comment, features, faith, cartoons, and our historic archive — FOR FREE. There’s nothing complicated about it. We simply want to let as many people as possible know about our latest subscription offer: You can try your first 10 weeks of Church Times for only £10. All new Church Times subscriptions received in March will receive a FREE additional 3 month subscription to the bestselling app, Reflections for Daily Prayer. www.churchtimes.co.uk/subscribe For print readers, there should also be a sample copy of our new promotional leaflet in this week’s issue. Will you order more copies to distribute in your church? Simply email subs@churchtimes.co.uk, giving a name, postal address, and the number of leaflets you’d like (multiples of ten); or phone 01603 785911 with these details.

On the podcast this week, Mark Oakley reflects on “Love (III)” by George Herbert. This episode was first posted last year as part of the Church Times Poetry Podcast for Lent series. “Over my years of reading Herbert, I have come to see him as the poet who most expresses our relationship with God as a friendship,” Mark says. “Friendship requires courage enough to stop skating so quickly over our own thin ice in case we disappear through the cracks. Instead, we face the fact that we need support and connection and that, also, we have much to give as well.” The material in this podcast is taken from Mark Oakley’s book The Splash of Words (Canterbury Press), winner of the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing. The Very Revd Dr Mark Oakley is the Dean of Southwark. Artwork by Emily Noyce. For the whole of March, we are asking our readers to spread the news of the Church Times among their friends, acquaintances, and fellow churchgoers (and non-churchgoers). To celebrate (and help with) this, our paywall has been lifted for the whole of March, meaning you can enjoy all of our content — news, comment, features, faith, cartoons, and our historic archive — FOR FREE. There’s nothing complicated about it. We simply want to let as many people as possible know about our latest subscription offer: You can try your first 10 weeks of Church Times for only £10. All new Church Times subscriptions received in March will receive a FREE additional 3 month subscription to the bestselling app, Reflections for Daily Prayer. www.churchtimes.co.uk/subscribe For print readers, there should also be a sample copy of our new promotional leaflet in this week’s issue. Will you order more copies to distribute in your church? Simply email subs@churchtimes.co.uk, giving a name, postal address, and the number of leaflets you’d like (multiples of ten); or phone 01603 785911 with these details.

Before My Actual Heart Breaks by Tish Delaney is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Tish Delaney talks to Sarah Meyrick, who has written this month’s Book Club essay about the book. Before My Actual Heart Breaks is published by Cornerstone at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99); 978-1-78609-098-0. https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781786090980/before-my-actual-heart-breaks/?vc=CT601 About the book Against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Mary Rattigan’s dreams of emigrating to America are shattered when she finds herself pregnant at the age of 16. Mary’s strict Roman Catholic parents force her to marry a local farmer to minimise the shame that she has inflicted on the family. With flashbacks to her childhood, the story follows Mary’s marriage, one blighted by miscommunication, which is not helped by her lack of self-worth and past childhood trauma. Throughout the novel, the author’s prose captures the beauty of the sweeping countryside and farmland of Northern Ireland, and the use of the local vernacular adds authenticity to the book’s rural setting and to the raw emotions expressed. Tish Delaney was born in Northern Ireland and grew up during the Troubles. Leaving County Tyrone to study at Manchester University, she remained in England afterwards to work as a reporter and sub-editor on various magazines and national newspapers in London. Leaving The Financial Times in 2014, she moved to the Channel Islands to start a career in writing. Her debut novel, Before My Actual Heart Breaks, won the Authors’ Club’s Best First Novel Award. In June 2022, her second book, The Saint of Lost Things, was published. The author still lives on Alderney, which she often describes as mini-Donegal. Sarah Meyrick is a novelist. Her latest novel is Joy and Felicity (Sacristy Press, 2021). 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: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub For the whole of March, we are asking our readers to spread the news of the Church Times among their friends, acquaintances, and fellow churchgoers (and non-churchgoers). To celebrate (and help with) this, our paywall has been lifted for the whole of March, meaning you can enjoy all of our content — news, comment, features, faith, cartoons, and our historic archive — FOR FREE. There’s nothing complicated about it. We simply want to let as many people as possible know about our latest subscription offer: You can try your first 10 weeks of Church Times for only £10. All new Church Times subscriptions received in March will receive a FREE additional 3 month subscription to the bestselling app, Reflections for Daily Prayer. https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/subscribe For print readers, there should also be a sample copy of our new promotional leaflet in this week’s issue. Will you order more copies to distribute in your church? Simply email subs@churchtimes.co.uk, giving a name, postal address, and the number of leaflets you’d like (multiples of ten); or phone 01603 785911 with these details.

On this episode of the podcast, Debbie and Stephanie Hayton talk to Sarah Meyrick. Originally a heterosexual couple, they met as students, trained as teachers, got married, and had three children. When he was in his forties, David (as he was then called) told Stephanie that he had been struggling all his life with the longing to be a woman. After a great deal of preparation, he transitioned in 2012, and underwent full gender-reassignment surgery in 2016. Debbie has, however, been criticised by some in the LGBT+ community for her insistence that, despite her transition, she is not a woman. She rejects as “a fantasy” and “false narrative” the notion that anyone is born in the wrong body. She tells her story and explains her views in her book, Transexual Apostate: My journey back to reality, which is published by Forum at £16.99 (Church Times Bookshop £15.29); 978-1-80075-309-9. https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781800753099/transsexual-apostate?vc=CT165 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

Francis Martin, a reporter for the Church Times, was travelling last week with the Archbishop of Canterbury in Ukraine. On the final day of the trip, Francis interviewed Archbishop Welby, asking about what he had hoped to achieve, the differences he had noticed from his previous visit in 2022, and about tensions between the Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. They also spoke about the challenges currently facing the Church of England, and how the Archbishop divides his time. 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

Francis Martin, a reporter for the Church Times, has been travelling this week with the Archbishop of Canterbury in Ukraine. During the trip, Francis interviewed Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zoria), a prominent figure Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Church (OCU), which is led by Metropolitan Epiphany (Dumenko) and is independent of the Moscow Patriarchate. He spoke about how the OCU is supporting the struggle against the Russian invasion, how it is helping Ukrainians who have left the country, tensions with the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and why he believes that God is protecting Ukraine. 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 Second Sleep by Robert Harris is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Susan Gray, who has written this month’s Book Club essay, is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. Robert Harris’s dystopian thriller is set in the 15th century, but, although medieval in tone and atmosphere, the date is misleading, as it is set 800 years in the future, because time has been restarted at the year 666. All traces of modern life, such as electricity and decimal currency, have disappeared. And the country is gripped by religious fundamentalism. The story begins with the young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arriving on horseback in a remote village in Exmoor to conduct the funeral of his predecessor, who met a mysterious death. Over the next six days, the young priest’s faith is tested as he uncovers the chilling truth. The Second Sleep is published by Cornerstone at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99). https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781787460966/second-sleep?vc=CT207 Susan Gray writes about the arts and entertainment for The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, and the Daily Mail. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature: https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub 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

For the podcast this week, Sarah Meyrick travelled to York to talk to the Canon Precenter of York Minster, the Revd Dr Victoria Johnson, and the director of the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM), Hugh Morris, about the importance of church music. The Church Times and the RSCM have together launched a new event, the Festival of Faith and Music, which takes place in York Minster from 26 to 28 April (News, 8 December). Full programme and ticketing information can be found at https://faithandmusic.hymnsam.co.uk. Through a programme of music and worship, talks and workshops, the festival is designed for clergy and church musicians, and seeks to celebrate church music in all its glory and to send delegates home encouraged, inspired, and equipped with new ideas for using music in worship. Canon Johnson will be speaking at the event about her book, On Voice: Speech, song, silence: human and divine, which will be published in March by Darton, Longman & Todd (Features, 5 January). On the podcast, she talks about some of the themes in the book, including why she is inspired by the singing of football crowds and how silence also figures in her thinking about sung worship. The keynote speaker at the Festival of Faith and Preaching will be the Archbishop of York, in a session called “Tuning forks and orchestras: Music and the mission of God”. Other speakers include Roxana Panufnik, composer of one of the works sung at the Coronation; and Andy Thomas, the author of Resounding Body: Building Christlike church communities through music. Two internationally renowned singers, James Gilchrist and Andrea Haines, both of whom started singing in parish church choirs, will talk about how it all began, and will perform some reflective music in the quire of York Minster. Find out more about the RSCM at www.rscm.org.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

The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North, is seeking to draw attention to the impact that the privatisation of the care system is having on vulnerable children. In his diocese, he writes in the Church Times, the number of care homes has risen significantly in recent years, “not because there is a disproportionate increase in demand for children’s care places in Lancashire. It is because these are towns where housing is cheap and where labour costs are low.” He continues: “Almost unseen, the children’s care sector has been taken over by private suppliers. Now, of course, there is nothing wrong with profit in and of itself, and I have no doubt that many individual staff members are skilled and dedicated. But I, for one, feel deeply uncomfortable about the rapacious way many of these companies are operating. . . “Instead of putting the vulnerable child in the place of honour, in the UK that child has been monetised. It is hard to imagine a greater trauma than the collapse of one’s home life and being taken into care. Yet that misery is being exploited. Desperate children have become a tradable commodity.” On the podcast this week, Bishop North talks about his concerns, and considers how churches can help children who are in care. Read his article here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/12-january/comment/opinion/children-in-care-should-not-be-monetised 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

Charlotte by David Foenkinos is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Emily Rhodes, who has written this month’s essay about the book, is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. Charlotte, translated into English by Sam Taylor, retells the tragic story of a Jewish artist, Charlotte Salomon, who died with her unborn baby in Auschwitz at the age of 26. Fleeing Berlin to escape Hitler’s reign of terror, the young artist found refuge in the south of France before her final transportation to the concentration camp. It was during this time that she created most of her work, a series of autobiographical paintings imbued with a sense of urgency and foreboding. The book is written in verse form. Each sentence is separated by a single line of spacing. Its lyrical style, while not sentimental in tone, adds poignancy and pace to the short story. David Foenkinos is an award-winning French novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of 18 novels, all of which have been translated into more than 40 languages. Charlotte won both the Prix Renaudot and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens in 2014. Charlotte by David Foenkinos is published by Canongate at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99); 978-1-78211-796-4. https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781782117964/charlotte?vc=CT506 Read Emily's essay here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/5-january/books-arts/book-club/book-club-charlotte-by-david-foenkinos Emily Rhodes is a writer and journalist, whose features and reviews have appeared in publications including the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Guardian, and the TLS. Find out about Emily’s Walking Book Club at https://emilyswalkingbookclub.substack.com The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature: https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclu

This week’s podcast brings a talk by Claire Gilbert given at the recent event “Fired in the heart: An online Advent retreat with Julian of Norwich”, hosted by the Church Times and Canterbury Press. Her talk includes a reading from her latest book, 'I Julian', a fictional autobiography of Julian of Norwich, which is available to buy from the Church House Bookshop. Claire Gilbert is the founding director of the Westminster Abbey Institute. She is a visiting fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge, and has been a member of numerous public and advisory bodies. Find out about forthcoming Church Times events, including the Festival of Faith and Music, at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/events 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

Akenfield by Ronald Blythe is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Malcolm Doney, who has written this month’s essay about the book, is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. The rural classic Akenfield was published in 1969. During the mid-1960s, Blythe interviewed 50 people in the two East Suffolk villages close to where he lived, and asked them about everyday life in the countryside. He gave the pair of villages the fictional name Akenfield. Capturing authentic voices, ranging from blacksmith to doctor, Akenfield is an extraordinary oral history of a way of life which now, in many ways, has disappeared. Issues covered in this portrait of village life include farming, education, welfare, class, war, and religion. Ronald Blythe (1922-2023) was a writer, an essayist, and a Reader. In the Church Times obituary in January 2023 (Gazette, 20 January), he was described by Malcolm Doney as “a man of letters, a man of the Church, and a man of the countryside”. For the last 45 years of his life, he lived in Bottengoms Farm, on the Essex-Suffolk border — an Elizabethan yeoman’s house that he inherited from the artist John Nash. It was the beauty of the Stour Valley which inspired his writing, and it became the subject of his long-running weekly column in the Church Times, “Word from Wormingford”. Akenfield by Ronald Blythe is published by Penguin Books at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99); 978-0-14-118792-1. The Revd Malcolm Doney is a writer, broadcaster, and Anglican priest, who lives in Suffolk. His book, co-written with Martin Wroe, Hold On, Let Go: How to find your life, is published by Wild Goose Publications. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature: https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub Picture credit: © CHURCH TIMES/NICK SPURLING 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, Sam Wells talks about his new book, How to Preach: Times, seasons, texts, and contexts. The interview with Christine Smith, publishing director of Canterbury Press, which published the book, was recorded at the How to Preach training day, organised by the Festival of Preaching, on 24 October at St Martin in the Fields, in London, where Dr Wells is the Vicar. In a review of the book for the Church Times, Andrew Nunn writes that Dr Wells “reflects on how he preaches, how he prepares, what he has learnt after over three decades of preaching in a variety of circumstances and situations. . . What this book encourages us to do . . . is to think again about what we are doing and why we do it." How to Preach is published by Canterbury Press and is available to buy from the Church House Bookshop: https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk; 978-1-78622-521-4. The next Festival of Preaching event will take place in Cambridge from 15 to 17 September. Details will be announced shortly. To be the first to receive details, sign up to our newsletter at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup or follow the handle the Festival of Preaching on Twitter https://twitter.com/FofPreaching https://festivalofpreaching.hymnsam.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

The General Synod voted this week — by a narrow margin — to allow stand-alone services of blessing for same-sex couples to go ahead in trial form. Church Times reporter Francis Martin sat through the marathon debate at Church House, Westminster, and has reported on what went on and the reaction to it. On the podcast this week, he talks to the editor of the Church Times, Paul Handley, about the significance of the vote and what might happen next. Read reports about the Synod meeting in this week's Church Times, in print and online. There will be more indepth coverage in next week's issue (24 November). 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 Photo: Geoff Crawford/Church Times

On Friday 26 May this year, James Macintyre was advised to go to Accident & Emergency, after experiencing stomach pains. He was sent immediately to ICU, where he was diagnosed with acute or “severe” pancreatitis. He would spend the next four months in hospital, which included two months in the ICU and five weeks in a coma. Doctors thought that he might not survive. On the podcast this week, James talks about how the experience has shaped his faith, and given him renewed appreciation of family, friends, medical staff, and parish priests. As he wrote in the Church Times last month (Comment, 27 October): “There was no hiding from the notion that I’d been given a second chance, an opportunity, to repent of past sins, to keep away from bad habits, and to head in a different direction.” James Macintyre is a journalist who has worked for publications including The Independent, The New Statesman, and Christian Today. He is a co-author of Ed: The Milibands and the making of a Labour leader (Biteback Publishing, 2012). 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

Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Richard Lamey, who has written this month’s essay about the book, is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. Two Storm Wood is set immediately after the First World War, when special battalions were given the grim task of retrieving the dead from the battlefields of northern France. A bold young woman, Amy Vanneck, sets out across the Channel to find out what became of her fiancé, who was listed as “missing, presumed dead”. Her search uncovers some unsettling truths, not only about her fiancé, a former teacher and choirmaster, but the other young soldiers traumatised by the hell of trench warfare. The novel picks up pace and tension as a gruesome discovery is made by Captain Mackenzie, and, together with Amy, a hunt begins to track down the psychopath responsible for this atrocious war crime. Canon Richard Lamey is the Rector of St Paul’s, Wokingham, and Area Dean of Sonning, in the diocese of Oxford. 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: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub

Dr Andrew Rumsey is known to many of our readers as the Bishop of Ramsbury in Salisbury diocese, and the author of the highly praised books Parish: An Anglican theology of place (Books, 21 July 2017) and English Grounds: A pastoral journal (Books, 11 March 2022). He is also a musician and poet, who last month released an album, Evensongs, on Gare du Norde Records. The eight folk songs were recorded live on a single summer day in All Saints, Ham, a remote 12th century church in Wiltshire. Dr Rumsey says he set out to capture something of the magic of a country church in August — complete with bees, birdsong, and a whisper of wheezy organ. At the end of the interview, you can hear a track from Evensongs, “It’ll Come To Me.” Evensongs is available on Spotify, and digital, vinyl, and compact-disc formats can be bought at: andrewrumseymusic.bandcamp.com 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

Welcome to a special edition of the Church Times podcast, recorded on Friday 6 October in Armenia. In this episode, Francis Martin, a reporter for the Church Times, interviews the Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of his trip to Rome and the South Caucasus. At the end of September, Archbishop Welby departed London for Rome. By the time he returned to the UK eight days later, he had visited three further countries: Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. As part of the trip, Archbishop Welby met Pope Francis at the Vatican, as well as refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh now living in temporary accommodation provided by the Armenian church ; he spoke with political leaders and church leaders, young Georgians who have created a new Anglican congregation in Tbilisi; Muslim and Jewish leaders in Georgia and Azerbaijan; and many others; in what he dubbed a “pilgrimage of listening”. Photo credit: Neil Turner/Lambeth Palace 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

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Rachel Mann, who has written this month’s essay about the book, discusses it with Sarah Meyrick. Crossroads is a family saga set in suburban Chicago in the 1970s. The book, the first in a trilogy, focuses on the Hildebrandt family and the struggles they face trying to adapt to a fast-changing society. At the head of the family is Russ, a disillusioned pastor who feels under threat from his charismatic young associate. They disagree over the running of the youth group, “Crossroads”. Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the burgeoning hippie movement, the narrative reveals the moral challenges that the younger members of the family face as they, in turn, reveal their troubles. Much of the story unfolds over the course of one day leading up to Christmas. This adds intensity to the story, reflecting Franzen’s skill in capturing the dramas of domestic life. Read Rachel's essay at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/books-arts/book-club Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen is published by HarperCollins at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99); 978-0-00-830893-3. The Ven. Dr Rachel Mann is the Archdeacon of Bolton and Salford, and a Visiting Fellow of Manchester Met University. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature: https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub 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, Justin Brierley talks about his new book, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God: Why new atheism grew old and secular thinkers are considering Christianity again Justin presented the popular radio show and podcast Unbelievable? for more than a decade, which included debates with many leading figures in the New Atheism movement. But he believes that the New Atheism has fallen and is being replaced by a new conversation on whether God makes sense of science, history, culture, and the search for meaning. Justin has written an article on the themes of the book in the comment section of this week's Church Times (29 September edition). The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God is published by Tyndale House and is available to buy from the Church Times Bookshop; 978-1-4964-6677-8. https://justinbrierley.com/the-surprising-rebirth-of-belief-in-god Photo credit: Tore Hjalmar Sævik 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

Queen Elizabeth II died one year ago, aged 96, after reigning for 70 years. In this week’s Church Times, Richard Harries writes that “the extent and depth of the national grief was quite extraordinary”. The late Queen’s “steadfast faithfulness was rooted in her Christian faith”, he writes. On the podcast this week, there is an opportunity to listen to an interview, recorded last September, with the Rt Revd Graham James, a former Bishop of Norwich, about the late Queen’s Christian faith and her role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Read Lord Harries's article at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/comment Photo: Alamy 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, Nathan Munday talks to Sarah Meyrick about his debut novel Whaling, and about his calling to both ministry and writing: not "a writer who preaches,” but “a minister who writes.” “It’s an experiment,” he says of the novel. “It’s me, finding my feet, finding my voice, studying the human condition. “Interestingly, I was at the time of writing it being called into the ministry, and I was sensing this shift in my own direction, in my own life. . . What I found is that writing fiction becomes a means of discussing the big things. I think, as ministers, we should be open to exploring new marketplaces. . . As ministers, we should not be afraid of writing creatively.” Whaling by Nathan Munday is published by Seren Books at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £9); 9-781781-727065. Picture credit: Kateryna Bila 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, Canon Yvonne Tulloch, the founder and CEO of the charity AtaLoss, talks about the need to support bereaved people, and calls for more funding for interventions that have been shown to be effective. In a Comment article for the Church Times this week (25 August issue), she writes: “To have a healthy future, loss needs to be processed. Unsupported, it can lead to many issues, such as behavioural and relationship problems, loss of function, employment issues and job loss, significant financial difficulties, and substance abuse, as well as physical and mental ill-health. Many counsellors say that unresolved grief is the root of their clients’ problems.” Yvonne is the founder and CEO of AtaLoss, a registered charity which helps bereaved people find support and well-being through a UK wide bereavement signposting website (https://www.ataloss.org), and by training and equipping churches to provide bereavement support for their communities through their Loss and HOPE project (https://www.lossandhope.org). The Bereavement Journey peer group support resource, which is being rolled out across the UK, is now being offered by churches in over 200 locations: https://www.thebereavementjourney.org 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

Lee Stockdale is an American poet, Episcopalian, and army veteran. He won the prestigious UK National Poetry Competition Prize 2022 for his poem “My Dead Father’s General Store in the Middle of a Desert”. His father, Grant Stockdale, was a close friend of John F. Kennedy; Lee’s mother, Alice Boyd Magruder, was a poet. On the podcast this week, Lee Stockdale talks to Sarah Meyrick about his shock at winning the prize, which had more than 17,000 entries. Former winners include Sinéad Morrissey, Ruth Padel, and Carol Ann Duffy. “I really believe the Holy Spirit just thought, here’s a poem that may be not just literary, whatever that is, but could perhaps be helpful and healing. I think that’s what happened,” he says. It is “a gift”, he says, because the poem refers to his father’s death by suicide when Lee was 11. “I’m now 70, and I’ve worked through that. I’ve come out on the other side.” He hopes that his poem offers hope. Lee’s debut collection, Gorilla, was published last year. https://www.leestockdale.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

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, the Revd Dr Mark Oakley, who has written this month’s essay about the book, discusses it with Sarah Meyrick. The Lincoln Highway is a classic American road-trip novel set in the 1950s. On release from a juvenile work camp, 18-year-old Emmett Watson decides to travel to California with his younger brother Billy on the highway of the book’s title. Stowed away in the trunk of the car are two former inmates. The travellers, in their quest for a better life, all have different aims. To accommodate everyone’s dreams, the ensuing ten-day journey ends up taking a different course. The story is told from the perspective of each of the characters. It is these authentic voices that add dramatic tension to the story’s plot line, always keeping the final destination unclear. The Lincoln Highway is published by Cornerstone at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99); 978-1-529-15764-2. Dr Oakley is the Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge, and Canon Theologian of Wakefield Cathedral. It was announced recently that he is to be the next Dean of Southwark. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature: https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub 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 Robert Stanier, a parish priest and keen cricketer, talks about how English test cricket has been revolutionised by “Bazball”: an attacking, risk-taking style of play that doesn’t worry too much about losing. Are there lessons here for the Church of England? He writes in this week’s Comment section, “For the Church, one lesson of the Bazball revolution is that, as we think about fresh expressions, perhaps we should be thinking less about new formats, but more about fresh mind-sets. Counter-intuitive as it is, what we already have may contain possibilities we haven’t even begun to uncover.” Read the article here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/21-july/comment/opinion/opinion-england-s-cricketers-test-the-art-of-the-possible The Revd Robert Stanier is Vicar of St Andrew and St Mark, Surbiton, in the diocese of Southwark, and a former winner of the 2018 Wisden Writing Competition (Comment, 18 May 2018). He played in a recent clergy match featuring a cluster of cricketers from southern dioceses. Read his match report here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/21-july/news/uk/clergy-cricketers-play-on-undaunted-by-fewer-players-and-summer-rain Photo: Alamy 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

Many of those who were ordained at Petertide will soon be embarking upon title curacies. What makes for a successful curacy? What are some of the problems that can arise between curate and training incumbent, and how can they be resolved? The Archdeacon of Auckland, the Ven. Rick Simpson, was the IME Officer, working with assistant curates and training incumbents, for Durham and Newcastle dioceses for 11 years. On the podcast this week, he draws on his extensive experience to explain how title curacies can work best. He has written about this for the Petertide edition of the Church Times. Read the article here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/7-july/features/features/title-curacy-where-are-the-rocks-and-how-do-you-steer-round-them The second edition of his booklet Supervising a Curate: A short guide to a complex task (P173), was published in March by Grove Books: https://grovebooks.co.uk/products/p-173-supervising-a-curate-a-short-guide-to-a-complex-task 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 podcasts brings another highlight of the most recent Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature, which took place in Winchester in late February: Mark Oakley’s talk, “What if this were the world’s last night?” John Donne’s lessons for today’s Church. “[Donne’s] commitment to nearness means resisting soundbite theology, any quick clarity or easy answer,” Dr Oakley says. “It means resisting turning honest complexity into dishonest simplicity; it means bearing with each other, seeking to read the lines of yourself and others, so that — and this, I feel, might be Donne’s great contribution to us as a Church — we are not charged to be relevant, but resonant. Our faith is not an opinion column, it is not a hobby, it is not the latest fad: it is seeking to address the perenial depth of what we experience as being human. Resonance happens in a deeper place than relevance.” The Revd Dr Mark Oakley is Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge, and Canon Theologian of Wakefield Cathedral. His books inclued The Splash of Words (Canterbury Press), which won the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize. He recently received the Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship at the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Awards 2023. https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.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

Sir Terry Waite was held hostage in Lebanon in the 1980s and ‘90s, while a special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie. He was in captivity for the best part of five years, most of this time in solitary confinement. Last week, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the King’s Birthday Honours list. When his book, Solitude: Memories, people, places (SPCK) was published in 2017 (Books, 24 November 2017), he was interviewed by Sarah Meyrick. The book is available in paperback from the Church House Bookshop. 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 General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church met in Edinburgh last week. Francis Martin has been there to report for the Church Times. He sat down with the Primus, the Most Revd Mark Strange, Bishop of Moray, Ross & Caithness, to talk about how the meeting has gone. Bishop Strange also spoke about the part he played in the Coronation; why he enjoyed last year’s Lambeth Conference; and the suspension of the Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, the Rt Revd Anne Dyer. Detailed reports of the Synod will be published in the 16 June issue of the Church Times, and will be available online. 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 writer and journalist Emily Rhodes talks to Ed Thornton about Emily’s Walking Book Club, which she wrote about in this week’s Church Times (Features, 9 June). The book club, which meets monthly on Hampstead Heath and also has a monthly Zoom and a Live Discussion Thread, recently discussed Ronald Blythe’s rural classic, Akenfield. On the podcast, recorded while walking round Clissold Park, in north London, Emily talks about how members of the book club responded to Akenfield; how a walking book club can foster community and meaning; and whether there are similarities to pilgrimage. Find out more about Emily’s Walking Bookclub at https://emilyswalkingbookclub.substack.com Emily Rhodes is a writer and journalist, whose features and reviews have appeared in publications including the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Guardian, and the TLS. https://emilyrhodeswriter.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

My Father’s House by Joseph O’Connor is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Canon Richard Lamey, who has written this month’s essay about the book, is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. Read the essay here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/2-june/books-arts/book-club/book-club-my-father-s-house-by-joseph-o-connor My Father’s House is a historical thriller set in Rome in 1943, when the city was under Nazi occupation. The story follows the journey of a group of Jews, diplomats, and escaped Allied prisoners who try to flee Italy. They take refuge in the Vatican City, and their escape is facilitated under the guise of a choir, by a courageous Irish priest. Tension builds as the Gestapo begin to suspect the priest’s secret operation. The novel is based on a true story, and is a retelling of the workings of the Rome Escape Line, covering the heroic work of Mgr Hugh O’Flaherty. My Father’s House is published by Harvill Secker at £20 (Church Times Bookshop £18); 978-1-78730-082-8. Canon Richard Lamey is the Rector of St Paul’s, Wokingham, and Area Dean of Sonning, in the diocese of Oxford. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature: https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub 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 podcasts brings another highlight of the most recent Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature, which took place in Winchester in late February: Gaia Vince in conversation with the Rt Revd John Pritchard about her book Nomad Century: How to survive the climate upheaval (Features, 2 December, Books, 23 December). In a review of the book for the Church Times, the Rt Revd David Chillingworth described it as “a remarkable and important book. It takes a hard look at what our world may become as the effects of global warming gather pace. . . “Vince suggests that the response of humanity to these challenges [of climate change] must be the one that it has always used: migration. Migration is ‘not the problem. . . migration is the oldest survival trick.’ Hence the title, Nomad Century.” Nomad Century is published by Penguin and is available to buy from the Church House Bookshop; 978-0-24152-231-8. https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780241522318/nomad-century Gaia Vince is an award-winning science journalist, writer, and broadcaster, and an honorary senior research fellow at UCL. The Rt Revd John Pritchard is a former Bishop of Oxford. https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Photo: KT Bruce 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

So far this year, there have been 18 school shootings in the United States, and a total of more than 200 mass shootings in the country. On the podcast this week, the Bishop of Colorado, the Rt Revd Kym Lucas, is interviewed about this epidemic of gun violence, and talks about her own experience of a shooting in her son’s school. Interview by Francis Martin. “When I tell people what I do, I say: ‘I’m a follower of Jesus. And I mean that Jesus who said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The one who said, “Those who live by the sword (or the gun!) will die by it,’”’ she says. “It is very odd notion that somehow being a follower of Jesus makes you an advocate of violence, or even a proponent of violence, in terms of gun ownership. I find that very strange.” 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

This month’s Church Times Book Club choice is Of Stone and Sky by Merryn Glover. On this Book Club Podcast, Ian Bradley, who has written an essay about the book in this week's Church Times, interviews the author. Of Stone and Sky is published by Birlinn and is available from the Church Times Bookshop for £8.99. Of Stone and Sky is a novel set in the hills and straths of the Scottish Highlands. At the heart of this multi-generational saga is the mystery of the disappearance of the Highland shepherd Colvin Munro. One of the main narrators of this modern-day redemptive tale is Mo, the missing shepherd’s foster-sister. Mo is a Church of Scotland minister, and her voice becomes the book’s moral compass. In the book, the author covers a range of themes relevant to the use of the Highlands, including land ownership, ecology, and the challenges facing sheep-farming. Merryn Glover is a novelist and radio dramatist. She was born in Kathmandu and brought up in Nepal, India, and Pakistan, where her Anglican Australian parents worked as Wycliffe Bible Translators. The author now lives in the Upper Spey Valley, in the Highlands, which provides the setting for Of Stone and Sky, her second novel. The Revd Professor Ian Bradley is Emeritus Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History at the University of St Andrews. His latest book, God Save the King: The sacred nature of the monarchy, is published by Darton, Longman & Todd at £8.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.09) (Comment, 28 April). The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature: https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup. Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub Photo: © Stewart Grant 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, there’s a chance to listen again (or perhaps for the first time) to a conversation between Professor Robin Dunbar and Dr Mark Vernon. They discuss Professor Dunbar’s book How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures, which is now available in paperback from the Church House Bookshop. In a review of the book for the Church Times (Books, 29 April 2022), Dr Vernon wrote: “The longstanding tendency has been to treat the almost universal presence of religious beliefs and rituals in human populations as a by-product of human needs, from lessening the terrors of death to bolstering the moral imperatives that support sociality. But, instead of treating religions as noble lies or discardable delusions, Dunbar presents the evidence for religious practices’ being a necessary part of human evolution. This necessity is why he thinks that religion will endure and resist secularising pressures.” Dr Robin Dunbar is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Dr Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist and writer. His latest book is Spiritual Intelligence in Seven Steps (Iff Books, 2022). His other recent books include Dante’s “Divine Comedy”: A guide for the spiritual journey (Angelico Press, 2021) (Podcast, 10 September 2021) and A Secret History of Christianity (John Hunt Publishing, 2019). Photo: Alamy 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, Richard Harries is interviewed about his memoir, The Shaping of a Soul: A life taken by surprise. In a review of the book in the Church Times (Books, 6 April), Stephen Platten wrote: “The pages breathe throughout a certain confidence, but failures are not swept away, and the writing is permeated by a consistent generosity.” Lord Harries was Bishop of Oxford from 1987 to 2006, after which he became a crossbench life peer in the House of Lords. He is the author of more than 40 books focused on art, literature, politics, social issues, morality, and, theology. He is also a frequent contributor to the Church Times. The Shaping of a Soul: A life taken by surprise is published by John Hunt at £18.99 (Church Times Bookshop £16.99); 978-1-80341-162-0 Read an extract at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/31-march/features/features/richard-harries-new-memoir-theology-and-sherry-in-the-officers-mess 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 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

In the fourth episode of the Church Times Poetry Podcast for Lent, Mark Oakley reflects on “Winter Swans” by Owen Sheers, published in his collection Skirrid Hill (Seren Books, 2005). “Those with a religious belief are as human as everyone else,” Mark says. “They live with the ebb and flow of the heart, as well as the pain of what the past is up to in the present. "Deep within the heart of Christian faith, though, is the belief that human beings were made for relationship, and that, although many things work against this — past traumas, present stresses, future doubts — it is an elemental part of the human adventure to seek to place our relationships in good order, integrated with honesty, freedom, and mutual concern.” 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

In the third episode of the Church Times Poetry Podcast for Lent, Mark Oakley reflects on “Love (III)” by George Herbert. “Over my years of reading Herbert, I have come to see him as the poet who most expresses our relationship with God as a friendship,” Mark says. “I’m not talking about friendship in terms of the 600 ‘Friends’ we have on Facebook, but rather the one or two people who have changed our life for good and maybe at some cost to us both. “Thinking about these friends can dare us to reflect, as I think did Herbert, that our life with God is a friendship that asks of us a mutual freedom. Friendship deepens as honesty deepens. We cannot put the other on a pedestal. We must try and prize off the mask that has begun to eat into our face. We need to be brave in hearing what we don’t like or saying what we have never dared. “Friendship requires courage enough to stop skating so quickly over our own thin ice in case we disappear through the cracks. Instead, we face the fact that we need support and connection and that, also, we have much to give as well.” The material in this podcast is taken from Mark Oakley’s book The Splash of Words (Canterbury Press), winner of the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing. Canon Mark Oakley is the Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge. 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

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On this episode of the Book Club Podcast, the Revd Alexander Faludy, who has written about the book in this week’s Church Times, is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. Published in 1940, Ernest Hemingway’s war novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is set in 1937, near Segovia, during the Spanish Civil War. The lead character, Robert Jordan, is a young American teacher who volunteers to help a group of guerrilla fighters blow up a bridge to stop the advance of Francisco Franco’s fascist forces. The drama evolves over three days at the cave hideout of the guerrilla fighters in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra. During that time, Robert Jordan falls in love with a Spanish girl, Maria. As tension mounts and death seems certain, the book’s title, derived from one of the metaphysical poet John Donne’s meditations takes resonance: “Ask not for whom the bell tolls It tolls for thee.” Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was an author and journalist, and is celebrated as one of the leading American 20th-century novelists. For Whom the Bell Tolls is published by Cornerstone at £8.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.09); 978-0-09-990860-9. 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: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub 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 second episode of the Church Times Poetry Podcast for Lent, Mark Oakley reflects on “Don’t give me the whole truth” by Olav H. Hauge (1908–1994). The poem is published in Hauge’s 1996 collection of the same name, published by Anvil Press Poetry, an imprint of Carcanet Press. “Here in this poem, Hauge prays that he will only be given enough in life to keep him going,” Mark says. “He doesn’t want all that there is. Like birds who only carry off a few drops of water from the stream, or wind that only takes a grain of salt from the ocean, he doesn’t want to possess everything or understand it completely. “Instead, he asks for glints, epiphanies, droplet recognitions that feed us enough to keep us exploring but not enough to make us feel we have arrived. It is the prayer of a pilgrim.” The material in this podcast is taken from Mark Oakley’s book The Splash of Words (Canterbury Press), winner of the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing. Canon Mark Oakley is the Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge. Artwork: 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

We are pleased to present a new poetry podcast for Lent, in association with Canterbury Press. This week, Canon Mark Oakley reflects on “Paternoster” by Jen Hadfield. "Paternoster" is published in her collection Nigh-No-Place (Bloodaxe Books, 2008), which won the T.S. Eliot Prize. We are grateful to Bloodaxe Books for giving permission to play a recording of Jen Hadfield reading the poem. bloodaxebooks.com. “‘Paternoster’ is, to my mind, one of her most beautiful poems,” Mark says. “It is a prayer of a draughthorse in which she reworks the texture and rhythm of the Lord’s Prayer through the horse’s heart. . . If you want a glimpse of the beauty of a prayerful, intimate litany from a tired but hopeful heart then I recommend you listen to it as well as read it. Hadfield’s poems are mesmeric and are meant, as are all poems, to be heard.” The material in this podcast is taken from Mark Oakley’s book The Splash of Words (Canterbury Press), winner of the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing. Canon Mark Oakley is the Dean of St John's College, Cambridge. Artwork: Emily Noyce 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 General Synod voted this week to welcome the Bishops’ proposals to provide prayers to bless same-sex unions in church — but with a last-minute clarification that their use would not contradict the Church’s current teaching on marriage. On the podcast this week, Francis Martin speaks to different Synod members to hear their reactions to the vote — from both those who welcome it and those who do not. Picture credit: Max Colson/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 Music for the podcast is by Twisterium.

The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Rachel Mann, who has written this month’s book club essay about the book, is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. The Inseparables is published by Vintage at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99); 978-1-78487-718-7. The Inseparables is an autobiographical novel that was never published in Simone de Beauvoir’s lifetime, as it was considered too intimate for publication at the time of its writing in the 1950s. It covers the real-life story of de Beauvoir’s adolescent relationship with Zaza, which had a profound effect on the philosopher’s thinking and writing. Zaza died at the age of 21. In the book, Zaza is represented by the character Andrée Gallard, and the author appears as the narrator, Sylvie Lepag. Set in France just after the First World War, the story follows their ten-year relationship from the age of nine, describing their in-depth discussions about equality, justice, and religion. Their teachers deemed them “inseparable”. The late Simone de Beauvoir (1908-86) is heralded as being one of the most important philosophers and feminists of the 20th century. She worked alongside the French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, and became one of the leaders of the existentialist movement. Her writing included work on philosophy, feminism, fiction, autobiography, and politics. Her books include the novel The Mandarins (1957), which won the Prix Goncourt. The author is best known for her influential philosophical work The Second Sex (1949) — a work of feminist philosophy which was put on Vatican’s Index of Prohibited Books. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature. Tickets are now on sale for the next Festival, which takes place in Winchester from 24 to 26 February. For more information and to buy tickets, visit https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk. Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub 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 Music for the podcast is by Twisterium

On the podcast this week, the writer and activist Symon Hill talks about protest and Christian faith. Symon was arrested on 11 September during the Proclamation of the King’s Accession in Oxford, after shouting “Who elected him?”. The charges against him were dropped earlier this month (News, 13 January). He talks on the podcast about the importance of the right to protest peacefully, as well as about why he believes that forms of non-violent direct action are often necessary in the pursuit of justice, such as when campaigning against the arms trade. He also talks about his new book, The Peace Protestors: A history of modern-day war resistance, which the Revd Fraser Dyer described as a “richly detailed and thoroughly readable history of the past forty years of peace protest in the UK” (Books, 23 December). An extract from the book is published in this week’s Church Times, as well as a feature by Symon on activism and Christian faith. Read here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/27-january/features/features/symon-hill-my-arrest-for-querying-the-king. The Peace Protestors is published by Pen and Sword History at £25 (CT Bookshop £22.50). https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk As well as being a writer and activist, Symon works part-time for the Peace Pledge Union and teaches History and Religious Studies for the Workers’ Educational Association. https://symonhill.org 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 writer and comedian Cariad Lloyd talks about her new book, You Are Not Alone: A new way to grieve. The book is a distilliation of what she has learned through her award-winning podcast, Griefcast. “I think we don’t talk about death enough, basically,” she says. “Even if we’re better than we were, say, 50 years ago, we don’t give space to grief. We don’t allow people to be sad. We kind of expect people after a year, maybe two years, to stop going on about it, even if we never say that out loud.” You Are Not Alone is published by Bloomsbury Tonic and is available to buy from the Church House Bookshop: https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk https://cariadlloyd.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 Picture credit: BBC/Fremantle Media/Talkback

The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land, short stories by Omer Friedlander, is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, he talks to Susan Gray, who has written this month’s book club essay about the book (read it at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/books-arts/book-club) The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land is a collection of 11 short stories. They are all set in modern-day Israel, transporting the reader to the lush orange groves in Jaffa, the arid Negev desert, and the narrow alleyways of Jerusalem. The stories are set against the conflict in the region, but the focus remains on the individual characters with their own tales of love, heartbreak, loss, and strife. The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land is published by John Murray Press at £14.99 (Church Times Bookshop £13.49); 978-1-399-80394-6. Omer Friedlander is a young Israeli-born writer who now lives in Brooklyn, in New York City. He was born in Jerusalem in 1994, and grew up in Tel Aviv, before studying English Literature at the University of Cambridge. From there, he continued his studies in the United States, and achieved an MFA from Boston University, supported by the Saul Bellow Fellowship. His writing has achieved global success in Canada, France, Israel, and the US, and his short stories have won many literary awards, including first place in the Baltimore Review Winter Contest, and the Shmuel Traum Literary Translation Prize. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature. Tickets are now on sale for the next Festival, which takes place in Winchester in February. For more information and to buy tickets, visit https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub 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 Picture creidt: © Yab Traiber

On the podcast this week, the Bishop of Maine, the Rt Revd Thomas James Brown, talks to Madeleine Davies about the American Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Elizabeth Strout – many of whose books are set in the State of Maine, New England. They discuss, among other things, Strout’s depiction of the Puritan mindset, the challenges of small-town ministry, and how clergy might respond to the gossip that occurs in their communities. Bishop Brown also considers the comparison often made between Elizabeth Strout and Marilynne Robinson. Madeleine has written a feature on Elizabeth Strout for this week’s Church Times (16 December). 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, the Revd Michael Coren is interviewed about his book The Rebel Christ. The book is is published in the UK by Canterbury Press and is available to buy from the Church House Bookshop for the discounted price of £10.39. Michael is a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, a contributing columnist for the Toronto Star, and the author of more than 18 books. He also writes regularly for publications such as the Globe and Mail, The New Statesman, and the Church Times. Once a high-profile figure in conservative Roman Catholicism in Canada, about a decade ago Michael changed his mind on issues such as same-sex marriage and embraced a more progressive form of Christian faith. It cost him his lucrative broadcasting career and made him the target of vitriol, but he says he found freedom in the radical and progressive nature of the gospel. The Rebel Christ starts with the question: "Why is it that the purest, most supremely liberating philosophy and theology in all of history is now seen by so many people around the world as intolerant, legalistic, and even irrelevant religion embraced only by the gullible, the foolish, and the judgmental?" Interview by Ed Thornton https://michaelcoren.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

On the podcast this week, James Runcie talks to Sarah Meyrick about his new memoir, Tell Me Good Things: On love, death and marriage. It tells the story of his love for his late wife, Marilyn Imrie, a drama director, singer, and artist, who died of motor neurone disease (MND) in August 2020. “It’s about grief, and love. And I hope it’s also about gratitude and thank fulness,” Runcie says. James Runcie is an award-winning novelist, playwright, and film-maker. He is the author of twelve novels including the seven books in the Grantchester Mysteries series, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His most recent novel is The Great Passion (Books, 8 April). Tell Me Good Things is published by Bloomsbury at £12.99 (Church Times Bookshop £11.69); 978-1526655448. James Runcie will be in conversation with the tenor James Gilchrist at the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature in February 2023. Tickets available now at https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk/ Photo credit: KT Bruce 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

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On this accompanying podcast, Dr Natalie K. Watson, who has written the Book Club essay about the book, talks to Sarah Meyrick. The book is published by Picador at £8.99 and is available from the Church Times Bookshop for £8.09. Dr Natalie K. Watson is a theologian, writer, and editor, living in Peterborough. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature. Tickets are now on sale for the next Festival, which takes place in Winchester in February. For more information and to buy tickets, visit https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk 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 About the book: Inspired by the Vardø storm and the witch trials in northern Norway in 1621, The Mercies follows the lives of the women who are left behind on their remote island after a ferocious storm wipes out all the men at sea. In the storm’s wake, the women learn to embrace independence, but their newfound strength is put to the test when an official arrives from the mainland armed with the task of dismantling their power and restoring male domination. The women’s independence is perceived as subversive, and charges of witchcraft soon follow. A chilling witch hunt begins.

On the podcast this week, the novelist Robert Harris talks to Susan Gray about his latest book, Act of Oblivion. The novel takes place in the aftermath of the English Civil War, and swings between Restoration England and pre-Independence, Puritan New England. “A huge manhunt was started: 59 people signed the death warrant of Charles I, and there were about 30 left alive,” Harris says. “They were wanted, together with anyone who had sat as a judge on the King. A manhunt would make good structure for a novel, especially if I could invent a manhunter-in-chief: someone must have co-ordinated this hunt which went on across the Continent and throughout England.” The book is reviewed in this week’s 12-page Christmas Books supplement, and a write up of the interview also appears. Robert Harris is the author of 15 best-selling novels, including Fatherland, Conclave, Munich, and The Second Sleep (Books, 29 November 2019). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Act of Oblivion is published by Hutchinson Heinemann at £22 (Church Times Bookshop £19.80); 978-1-5291-5175-6. 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 former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams considers the significance of the Christian hope of a new heaven and a new earth. The talk was delivered this week in St Martin-in-the-Fields, in central London, as part of its autumn lecture series, “What am I living for?”, in partnership with the Church Times. The next lecture in the series, on Monday 21 November, is by Grayson Perry, and is on the theme of art. Book tickets at https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/whatson-event/what-am-i-living-for-art Rowan Williams will be delivering the Sir Tony Baldry Lecture at the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature, which takes place in Winchester in February. Find out more about the festival programme and how to buy tickets at https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk 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

The Day That Went Missing by Richard Beard is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, he talks to Sarah Meyrick, who has written this month’s Book Club essay about the memoir. The book, which won the 2018 PEN Ackerley Award for literary autobiography, is published by Vintage and is available from the Church Times Bookshop for £8.99. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature. Tickets are now on sale for the next Festival, which takes place in Winchester in February. For more information and to buy tickets, visit https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk/ 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 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, Jo Swinney talks to Sarah Meyrick about A Place at The Table: Faith, hope and hospitality. The book is a joint project with Jo’s late mother, Miranda Harris, who died suddenly in October 2019. Mrs Harris and her husband, Peter, founded the Christian conservation charity A Rocha International. In an age when loneliness and isolation have reached unprecedented levels, the book calls for Christians to embrace the practice of hospitality — which can be simpler and more profound than is often imagined. “To be hospitable doesn’t require culinary excellence or matching cutlery — it doesn’t even require a home of one's own; true hospitality offers a welcome into imperfection and messiness, a place to belong and be embraced.” A Place at The Table is published by Hodder & Soughton at £16.99 (Church Times Bookshop £15.29) placeatthetable.info 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

This week’s podcast features talks from the final of the Theology Slam 2022, which took place on 27 September in St Edmund Roundhay, in Leeds, as part of the HeartEdge conference “Humbler Church, Bigger God”. Theology Slam is a competition to find engaging young voices who think theologically about the contemporary world. Its organised jointly by the Church Times, SCM Press, and HeartEdge. The first finalist to speak is Alex Clare-Young, a pioneer minister in the United Reformed Church, currently serving in Cambridge, who is in the final stages of submitting a thesis for a Ph.D. in queer theologies at the University of Birmingham. Alex, who is a trans non-binary person, spoke on the implications of the incarnation for how Christians think about the body. The second finalist is Victoria Turner, also a member of the URC, who is in the final stages of a Ph.D. in world Christianity at the University of Edinburgh, where she is exploring developments in Christian mission. Victoria spoke on the theme of justice in relation to Amos 5. The third finalist is Amanda Higgin, who is training as a Baptist minister at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, alongside working towards a Master’s degree in New Testament theology, with a focus on the Letter to the Hebrews. Amanda's talk was on the topic of recovery. Watch the whole event, including, judges’ feedback and Q&A, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9E4CHXphg4&ab_channel=ChurchTimes Read the winning talk at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/7-october/comment/opinion/theology-slam-winner-wandering-from-pain-to-healing Music for the podcast is by Twisterium. Find out about forthcoming Church Times events at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/events 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

To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek is the choice for this month's Church Times Book Club - and on the podcast this week, the author speaks to Rachel Mann (who has written this month's Book Club essay about it). The book is published by Canongate and is available from the Church Times Bookshop for £8.99. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature. Tickets are now on sale for the next Festival, which takes place in Winchester in February. For more information and to buy tickets, visit https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub About the book: To Calais In Ordinary Time is a work of historical fiction set in England in 1348. It covers the story of a group of travellers journeying towards Calais across England as the Black Death sweeps across Europe. Written in a way to capture the authenticity of spoken medieval English, the language is interspersed with Middle English words. The young noblewoman’s language is marked by Norman French, the learned proctor’s language is punctuated with Latinisms, and the language of the down-to-earth adventurous ploughman is more Saxon. It is a novel about life, love, death, and war, set during a time of turbulence and uncertainty across Europe. Picture credit: © MARZENA POGORSALY 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, Matt Rowland Hill talks to Sarah Meyrick about his critically acclaimed memoir, Original Sins. The book tells the story of growing up as the son of an Evangelical Baptist minister in South Wales and then Leighton Buzzard, fraught with bitter family conflict and fear of damnation. After rejecting religion in his late teens , he became addicted to crack and heroin, eventually being set on the path to recovery with the help of a Christian rehab charity. “They had a different style of Christianity to my parents’,” he says. “They felt that they were helping me because they were expressing God’s love, and that just blew my mind. . . “Did I then become the prodigal son and come back to Christianity? It would have made a very nice story if I had.” Original Sins is published by Chatto & Windus at £16.99 (Church Times Bookshop £15.29) Picture credit: Laura Lewis 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.

Dame Hilary Mantel, the acclaimed author of the Wolf Hall trilogy, has died aged 70, her publisher has announced. At an event at Launde Abbey in 2019, Dame Hilary reflected on the life of Thomas Cromwell and his place in the Reformation. The short talk that she gave at the start of the event is featured on this week’s podcast. It was recorded about a year before the publication of the final book in the triology, The Mirror & the Light (Fourth Estate) (Books, 12 June 2020). The full event, at which the Revd Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch also spoke, can be listened to https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/2-august/regulars/podcast/hilary-mantel-and-diarmaid-macculloch-at-launde-abbey-remembering-thomas-cromwell An edited record of their talks and conversation can be read at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/2-august/features/features/make-something-of-me-creating-thomas-cromwell 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.

Since the death of Her Majesty the Queen last week, many have drawn attention to her deep Christian faith, which inspired dedicated, humble service during her 70-year reign. On the podcast this week, the Rt Revd Graham James, a former Bishop of Norwich, talks about the late Queen’s Christian faith and her role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. He has also written an article in this week’s Church Times, which can be read at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk. There is also extensive coverage of tributes, funeral plans, an obituary, and more. “One of the things that really struck me was that the Queen’s faith was interwoven entirely and completely with the rest of her life,” he says. “And I think it came out of an era in which she was formed in which the Book of Common Prayer was still the absolute bedrock of the Church of England, in which the assumption is that God is woven into part of human life and is not a leisure activity for weekends or something that appeals to only a section of the population. . . He says later in the interview: “The Queen did move with the times. . . she accommodated herself, without changing in herself, to a changing culture. But the one thing that she didn’t cease to do, which much of England had ceased to do during her reign, was go to church and speak of the importance of the Christian faith to her. “What we saw was a country that never wanted the Queen, let alone the rest of the Royal Family, to give up going to church, but wanted sometimes to do this on their behalf, because they saw in her a unity between Church and State, they saw in her, as a figurehead without political power, a means of creating harmony in the country. And I think instinctively people realised that came from a deeply held Christian conviction on her part.” Picture credit: Alamy 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.

A Terrible Kindness, the debut novel by Jo Browning Wroe, is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club — and on the podcast this week, the author speaks to the Revd Malcolm Doney (who has written this month’s Book Club essay about it). The book is published by Faber & Faber at £14.99 (Church Times Bookshop £13.49). Jo Browning Wroe has an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia, and is Creative Writing Supervisor at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. A Terrible Kindness, a Sunday Times bestseller, was inspired by conversations that she had with two embalmers who had volunteered to help at the Aberfan disaster when they were young men in 1966, and from her own childhood experience of growing up at a crematorium in Birmingham where her father was a supervisor (fuller synopsis below). The Book Club podcast is a monthly series launched recently in association with the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature. Jo Browning Wroe will be a speaker at the next festival, in February 2023. 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 About A Terrible Kindness: The fictional story of a newly qualified embalmer William Lavery, who, on hearing the news of the Aberfan disaster in 1966, volunteers to help. The experience alters him profoundly, forcing him to revisit the painful losses in his own life — the death of his father, the disappointment of a lost musical career, and an estranged relationship with his mother. The story charts William’s inner turmoil over the ensuing years: covering his attempts to find redemption by mending fractured relationships, reconnecting with music, and reaching out to others. The story ends with his return to the disaster site 17 years later. 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 Revd Guy Hewitt is to be the first Racial Justice Director of the Church of England, it was announced this week. In April 2018, when he was the High Commissioner for Barbados to the United Kingdom, Mr Hewitt was interviewed on the Church Times Podcast about the campaign he led for thousands of members of the Windrush generation to be recognised as British citizens. He had written about it in the Church Times earlier that month, as the campaign was gathering pace (Comment, 13 April 2018). “The policy U-turn that the Government made in less than two weeks of this becoming an issue was, for me, a modern-day miracle,” he said in the interview. “It was unprecedented for a government to take such a drastic and radical change of position in such a time-frame.” Later in the interview, he said: “What we were in this for was to get justice for the Windrush generation. For me it’s not about recriminations or even who is at fault: it is about continuing to work forward to find a solution.” He concluded: “One of the roles of that the Church of England, that the Christian community, that the interfaith community can do is to find a way of reinforcing the love, the togetherness, the solidarity that exists. "This country has got to find a way, once and for all in the 21st century, when we are talking about a modern, global Britain, to be able to put aside all forms of discrimination and move forward as a single people, united under one Kingdom, which is Great Britain.”

Night of Fire by Colin Thubron is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club — and on the podcast this week, the author is interviewed by Francis Martin (who has written this month’s Book Club essay about it). Thubron is an acclaimed travel writer and novelist, whose eight novels and 11 works of non-fiction make up an oeuvre that transports readers around the globe, and deep into the human psyche. He is a former President of the Royal Society of Literature. As well as talking about Night of Fire (synopsis below), the conversation explores the relationship between travel writing and fiction, faith and neuroscience, and the part played by doubt in the creative process. The conversation was recorded at Colin Thubron’s home in west London. This is the fourth Book Club podcast, a monthly series launched recently in association with the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature. Night of Fire is published by Vintage at £8.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.09). Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub About Night of Fire: A fire spreads through a house, threatening to engulf the six tenants: a failed priest, an atheist neurosurgeon, and an obsessive photographer, along with a naturalist, a schoolboy, and a traveller. Each has lived a fascinating life, conjured in Thubron’s lyrical prose. But, as the inferno courses through the building, we start to notice inexplicable resonances between the lives of the tenants: motifs that recur and details that repeat, and that surely cannot all be explained as coincidence. 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, Malcolm Guite talks about the faith of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the anniversary of whose death was marked on Monday (25 July). Part of the interview featured on the very first episode of the Church Times Podcast, in 2017, shortly after the publication of his book Mariner: A voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Hodder & Stoughton) (Books, 10 February 2017). “Coleridge roots our own capacity to know through the imagination with the divine imagination. And he sees the imagination with which we perceive the world as an echo in the finite mind of the eternal and infinite act of creation in the divine”, Malcolm says. “That’s dynamite, that’s an amazing thing he’s actually saying: anybody engaged in a moment of artistic apprehension and intuition is echoing the way God made the world and helping to see it.” After the interview, Malcolm reads a sonnet that he wrote for Coleridge. It was recorded in St Michael’s, Highgate, in north London, where Coleridge is buried. Malcolm’s most recent book is Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God (Canterbury Press) (Faith feature, 13 May, Books 1 July). 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, the Revd Dr Andrew Atherstone talks about his new book, Repackaging Christianity: Alpha and the building of a global brand — the first book length history of the Alpha movement. It’s published by Hodder & Stoughton and is available to buy from the Church Times Bookshop for the reduced price of £19.80. The book “tells the remarkable story of Alpha . . . from its origins in the West London dinner party set of the 1970s, turbo charged by the influence of John Wimber and the Toronto Blessing in the 1990s, to what is now an international movement embraced on every continent in the world”. On the podcast, Dr Atherstone talks about what he uncovered while researching the book, explains how Alpha has evolved over the years, and addresses some of the criticisms that have been directed at the movement, from within and outside the Church. Dr Atherstone is Latimer Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and a member of Oxford University's Faculty of Theology and Religion. His previous books include a biography of the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Justin Welby: Risktaker and Reconciler (DLT, 2014). 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, Ali Campbell talks about why he believes that youth and children’s work is facing a crisis — and what can be done to support this ministry. Ali is leading a new association, Paraklesis, to support lay people in youth, children’s, and family’s ministry, which is supported by the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow. Read more about it here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/8-july/news/uk/new-association-offers-support-to-lay-workers-and-volunteers-in-youth-and-children-s-ministries Ali says: “Paraklesis, taken from the Greek, really just means to be alongside, to journey with, to be an advocate for. It’s where we get “Paraclete”, that sense of the Holy Spirit being the Comforter, and the one who is alongside us. So that’s why the name is what it is, because we want that to be what the organisation does.” Ali runs The Resource, a youth- and children’s-ministry consultancy, and is a former youth adviser for the diocese of Chichester. His books include Follow Me! (Kevin Mahew). https://www.paraklesis.org.uk https://theresource.org.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.

Widowland by C. J. Carey is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club — and on the podcast this week, Sarah Meyrick interviews the author, Jane Thynne (who wrote the book under the pen name C.J. Carey). The book was suggested by the Revd Richard Lamey, who has written this month’s Church Times Book Club essay about it. This is the third Book Club podcast, a monthly series launched recently in association with the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature. Widowland is published by Quercus at £8.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.09); 978-1-5294-1200-0. Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month's book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub About Widowland: The Coronation is approaching, but it is 1953 in an alternative universe, and Princess Elizabeth won’t be taking the throne. Widowland imagines a world in which Britain made peace with Germany in 1940. Under this new alliance, many of the men have been sent to the continent, or disappeared. As women now greatly outnumber men, they are categorised, when they reach 18, into a range of roles which shape everything about their future. Women over 50, and those too old to give birth, become marginalised and fall into the bottom rung of society. They live in a ghetto, Widowland. Outbreaks of insurgency emerge, and the Ministry of Culture gives the heroine, Rose, the task of infiltrating Widowland to find the source of this uprising. Will she carry out her instructions and betray the women? Picture credit: © Charles Kerr 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 comedian and writer Paul Kerensa talks about the expanding and lucrative world of the Christian film industry. Paul has written two features for the Church Times exploring a century’s worth of Christian film. The first part was on cinema, and the second part on the rise of streaming services. Both can be read at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk Paul is a writer of books including So a Comedian Walks into a Church, TV shows including Not Going Out and Miranda, and plays including The First Broadcast, which is on tour now: https://paulkerensa.com/tour 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, Sarah Meyrick interviews the Revd Richard Coles about his new book, Murder Before Evensong — a crime novel and his first foray into fiction. The book introduces us to Coles’s clerical sleuth: the Rector of Champton, Canon Daniel Clement, who shares the rectory with his widowed mother, Audrey, and two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda. “I think anyone who’s been in parish ministry will find the life of the parish priest in some ways maps on to that of a detective,” Coles says. “Because you’re kind of looking at the exterior of things, and for disruptions in the pattern, and wondering what that might tell you about what’s going on underneath.” Coles also talks about how he is finding life after having left parish ministry Murder Before Evensong is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in hardback and eBook at £16.99, and audio download (Church Times Bookshop £13.59, with signed copies available while stocks last). 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 General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church has been meeting in Edinburgh this week — the first time it has met in person since 2019 (although it has been set up as a hybrid gathering to include members who wish to participate over video link). Francis Martin has been there to report for the Church Times. He sat down on Saturday with the Primus, the Most Revd Mark Strange, Bishop of Moray, Ross & Caithness, to talk about how the meeting has gone. Bishop Strange also spoke about how the Scottish Episcopal Church is responding to the climate crisis; the recent St Andrew’s Declaration with the Church of Scotland (News, 3 December 2021); the mediation process in the diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney (News, 8 October 2021); and the forthcoming Lambeth Conference. Detailed reports of the Synod will be published in the 17 June issue of the Church Times and online in the coming days. 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, a chance to listen again (or perhaps for the first time) to the finalists’ talks in the 2021 Theology Slam, a competition to find engaging young voices who think theologically about the contemporary world. The first talk is by Imogen Ball, a final year ordinand and MA student at Trinity College Bristol, speaking on “Creativity in a time of pandemic”. She is followed by Joshua House, a recent theology graduate from the University of Leeds who is now a trainee RE teacher, and who speaks on “Community in a time of pandemic”. The final talk is by Flo O’Taylor, a Ph.D. student at Durham University, on “Justice in a time of pandemic”. The 2022 Theology Slam competition is organised jointly by the Church Times, SCM Press, and Heartedge, and is open to anyone aged 18 to 35. Entries close at 11.59pm on Monday 6 June. To enter, visit https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/theology-slam-entry-form-2022 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, we bring you the second episode of the Church Times Book Club podcast, a monthly series launched last month in association with the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature. This month, Sarah Meyrick talks to Stephen Brown, the Church Times film critic, about the title he chose for this month’s Book Club: Jack by Marilynne Robinson. It is the fourth novel in a series: the other books are Gilead, Home, and Lila. But it is not necessary to know the other three books that precede it, Stephen says. “In some ways Jack is easier to access than the other ones, he says. “The previous books have been about a later period, whereas now we’re coming the understanding of where Jack is coming from. “It’s just immediately after the Second World War, it’s set in St Louis, Missouri, and it’s got a cast of Jack, who is a bit of a prodigal son, and his meeting with Della. She is black and he is white in a highly segregated society.” Stephen has also written about the book for this month’s Church Times Book Club feature. He writes: “Characters do, indeed, look through a glass darkly. Their perceptions are never wholly true. The preceding volumes furnished other (only partial) understandings of Jack. Calvin’s notion of depravity was based on the warped mirrors of his time, which failed to give the full picture. Jack, through sins of commission, sees himself as hopelessly incapable of being what he is meant to be.” Jack is published by Little, Brown at £8.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.09); 978-0-349-01179-0. Read previous Church Times Bookclub articles at www.churchtimes.co.uk/books-arts/book-club Find out more about the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature at faithandliterature.hymnsam.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.

Sir John Major, who was Prime Minister of the UK from 1992 to 1997, delivered a speech this week at the National Cathedrals Conference in Newcastle Cathedral. The conference, “Different Country, Different Church”, included talks, workshops, and debate about the direction of the Church on social, racial, and climate justice. Sir John spoke about the challenges facing the Church of England, in particular the “Herculean task” of maintaining its parish churches and cathedrals. “The lion’s share of the cost of maintaining this huge community asset falls on the diminishing number of regular worshippers. This is unjust. Some argue that it may be necessary to close churches, reduce the number of stipendiary clergy, and sell assets. I do hope not.” He also addressed issues in wider society, such as asylum and immigration, Brexit, Covid, and the cost-of-living crisis. “In times of austerity, we are told that we are ‘all in it together’,” he said. “If so, then logically, we should ‘all be in it together’ in times of prosperity. I hope the Government will devise a policy that encourages ‘trickle down’ and shares national growth more fairly.” An extended extract from the speech is featured on this week’s podcast. Read the full speech at https://www.englishcathedrals.co.uk/latest-news/john-major-conference-speech-full-transcript. Read more about other talks at the conference at https://www.englishcathedrals.co.uk/news. Picture credit: Simon Bray 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, Tom Holland interviews Sam Wells about his latest book, Humbler Faith, Bigger God: Finding a story to live by. Their conversation was recorded at an online book launch this week. Watch the full event, including Q&A, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4iTXOWSFag. In a review of the book published in The Church Times (Books, 29 April), John Saxbee writes: “While recent books have made a cogent case for Christianity today, Samuel Wells here succeeds in making that case in the light of, rather than in spite of, its cultural despisers. His approach is original, accessible, and compelling. . . “Each of ten topics has a separate chapter following a set pattern: the traditional Christian story; what’s wrong with it; the secular humanist rival to it; the rival’s flaws; Wells’s ‘story to live by’, and how this differs from the traditional and rival alternatives. It’s a methodology as old as Aquinas, but in Wells’s hands it feels as fresh as new paint.” Humbler Faith, Bigger God is published by Canterbury Press and is available from the Church House Bookshop for £14.99; 978-1-78622-418-7. The Revd Dr Sam Wells is the Vicar of St Martin-in-the Fields, in central London, and is the author of more than 30 books. Other recent books, also published by Canterbury Press, include Finding Abundance in Scarcity (Books, 6 August 2021), A Cross in the Heart of God (Books 22 January 2021), and Love Mercy (Books, 12 February 2021). Tom Holland is a historian, author, and broadcaster. His books include Dominion: The making of the Western mind (Little, Brown) (Features, Podcast, 27 September 2019), which Sam Wells talks about at the start of the podcast. Tom Holland co-hosts the hugely popular podcast The Rest is History. 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, we launch the Church Times Book Club Podcast, a new monthly series produced in association with the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature. This month, Sarah Meyrick talks to Susan Gray about a title she chose for this month’s Church Times Book Club: The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by the Australian writer Richard Flannagan (who also wrote The Narrow Road to the Deep North, which won the 2014 Booker Prize). The Living Sea of Waking Dreams tells the story of three Tasmanian siblings — Anna, Terzo, and Tommy — who are caring for their mother, Francie, at the end of her life. Flanagan wrote the novel in 2016, during the Tasmanian bushfires, and then updated it the next year when bushfires raged across Australia. “Climate change and wildlife extinction is deftly woven into a story of familial bonds and end-of-life care, and works as a broader canvas supporting the central narrative,” Susan writes in this week’s Church Times (6 May). The Living Sea of Waking Dreams is published by Vintage at £8.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.09); 978-1-5291-1405-8. Susan Gray writes about the arts and entertainment for The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, and the Daily Mail. Picture credit: © JOEL SAGET Read previous Church Times Bookclub articles at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/books-arts/book-club Find out more about the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature at https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.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, Nick Spencer, senior fellow at the think tank Theos, talks about how the science v. religion debate has developed since the New Atheist movement came to prominence more than 15 years ago. Nick is the co-author, along with Hannah Waite, of a new report 'Science and Religion: Moving away from the shallow end', produced by Theos and the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. Read our story about it at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk In a Comment article for the Church Times this week (29 April), Nick writes: “People — in particular, certain kinds of atheist — do claim that science and religion are in complete tension. But it is not always clear where this alleged tension lies. To put it another way, there is a great deal of smoke hanging about the science and religion debate, the fog of an allegedly ancient war. But, beneath the smoke, where exactly is the fire?” Nick Spencer hosts the 'Reading Our Times' podcast, produced by Theos, which explores the books and ideas that are shaping us today. In 2019, he presented a three-part series on Radio 4, 'The Secret History of Science and Religion' (Comment, 21 June 2019, Radio, 28 June 2019). His next book, 'Magisteria: The entangled histories of science and religion', will be published by Oneworld Publications in March next year. His previous books include 'The Political Samaritan: How power hijacked a parable' (Bloomsbury, 2017), 'Mighty and the Almighty: How political leaders do God' (Biteback, 2017), and 'Evolution of the West: How Christianity has shaped our values' (SPCK, 2016). 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, Dr Mark Vernon interviews Professor Robin Dunbar about his new book, How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures. Robin Dunbar is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Anthropological Institute. How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures is published by Pelican at £22 (Church Times Bookshop £19.80) Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist and writer. His recent books include Dante’s “Divine Comedy”: A guide for the spiritual journey (Angelico Press, 2021) and A Secret History of Christianity (John Hunt Publishing, 2019). Picture credit: Alamy 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 former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams joined other faith leaders on a visit to Ukraine this week. Its purpose, he said, was “affirm our solidarity with victims of this appalling war, and express thanks for the courage shown by the Ukrainian people, in the hope that we can at least let them know that they are not forgotten”. During the visit, Lord Williams, along with other faith leaders, spoke at an event in Chernivtsi, "Faith in Ukraine," organised by the Elijah Interfaith Institute and the Peace Department. His two addresses at the event follow, and are used with the permission of the organisers. A video of the full event can be found at https://faithinukraine.com/stream/ 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, Sam Wells preaches a sermon on Psalm 23, which was given online this week at the Festival of Preaching event “Preaching in Perilous Times,” hosted by the Church Times and Canterbury Press. “It may not be much of a stretch to say the 23rd Psalm was composed for the Ukrainian experience of death, destruction, horror, and fear in the face of Russian invasion,” he says. “We have many questions in the face of the horror of war and the shock of one European country invading another, something we regarded as unthinkable. Psalm 23 doesn’t answer our questions; instead, it transforms our context." The other speakers at the Festival of Preaching event were Malcolm Guite, Pádraig Ó Tuama, Rachel Mann, Lucy Winkett, and Angela Tilby. Buy a ticket to watch the whole event at https://festivalofpreaching.hymnsam.co.uk/preaching-in-perilous-times. The Revd Dr Sam Wells is the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, in central London, and is the author of more than 30 books. His most recent, published by Canterbury Press, include Finding Abundance in Scarcity, A Cross in the Heart of God, and Love Mercy. The are all available to buy at https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk Find out about forthcoming Church Times events at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/events 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 Arthur Riley is a writer, liturgist, and poet, and the creator of Black Liturgies, “a project seeking to integrate concepts of dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation with literature and spirituality”. On this week’s podcast, she talks about her debut book This Here Flesh: Spirituality, liberation and the stories that make us, which is a New York Times bestseller. An extract is published in this week’s Church Times (1 April). Cole is in conversation with Chine McDonald, director of Theos, whose latest book is God is Not a White Man: And other revelations (Hodder & Stoughton) (Podcast, 28 May 2021; (Books, 11 June 2021) This Here Flesh is published by John Murray Press and is available to buy from the Church Times Bookshop for the discounted price of £14.99. https://colearthurriley.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.

On the podcast this week, Professor Helen Bond and Professor Joan Taylor talk about their new book book, Women Remembered: Jesus’ female disciples. Inspired by their Channel 4 documentary Jesus’ Female Disciples, the book examines how a host of women — named and unnamed — have been remembered (or silenced) by posterity. It looks at the representation of these women in art, and how they have been represented in inscriptions and archaeology, as well as in biblical texts. Women Remembered is published by Hodder & Stoughton at £16.99 (CT Bookshop £15.29) Dr Helen K. Bond is Professor of Christian Origins and Head of the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Joan Taylor is Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King’s College London. 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 Leo Cheng, Consultant in Oral, Maxillofacial and Head & Neck Surgery at St Bartholomew’s, The Royal London and Homerton University Hospitals, talks about the work of Mercy Ships. For more than 20 years, he has volunteered during his holidays on board the Africa Mercy, performing life-saving and life-changing operations. Earlier this month, a new purpose-built ship, Global Mercy, set sail for Africa from Rotterdam. The charity says that the new ship will more than double its surgical and training capacity (News, 9 July 2021). Speaking in Rotterdam before the ship set sail, Princess Anne, who is a Patron of Mercy Ships, said: “A mixture of volunteers bring brilliant surgery, knowledge, and medical skills, from countries all over the world — but everybody who comes here has a skill and is happy to serve in whatever capacity will help the whole. The success Mercy Ships has had training doctors, dentists and medics to carry out the work in the future in their own countries — that is a real legacy.” Find out more about Mercy Ships at https://www.mercyships.org.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, Fr Luigi Gioia reflects on the theme of “Lent as the time of healing.” His talk was given at an online Lent Retreat last Saturday, hosted by the Church Times and the Church House Bookshop. Buy a recording of the entire event at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/lent-retreat. Fr Gioia is a freelance writer and speaker in theology and spirituality and Associate Priest of St Paul’s, Knightsbridge, in London. His books include The Wisdom of St Benedict: Monastic spirituality and the life of the Church (Canterbury Press), Touched by God (Bloomsbury), and Say it to God (Bloomsbury), which was the Archbishop of Canterbury’s 2018 Lent Book. They are all available to buy at the Church House Bookshop: https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk Find out about forthcoming Church Times events at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/events 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 Mpho Tutu van Furth talks about her book Forgiveness and Reparation, The Healing Journey. The conversation with Catherine Fox was recorded at Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature, which took place online on 19 February. The theme of the festival was Finding Hope. Buy a recording of the whole event at https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk/february-2022/ Forgiveness and Reparation, in the My Theology series published by Darton, Longman & Todd, is available to buy from the Church House Bookshop. Read an extract here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/11-february/features/features/forgiveness-and-reparation-dance-begins-with-love Mpho Tutu van Furth is a South African pastor, author, artist, and activist. She is the daughter of Archbishop Desmond and Leah Tutu and the founding director of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. Find out about forthcoming Church Times events, including an online Lent retreat on Saturday (5 March), at https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/events Find out more about the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature at https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.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, Hugh Williamson talks about the distinctive ministry of worker priests/Ministers in Secular Employment (MSEs), which are the subject of a cover feature that he has written for this week’s Church Times. Hugh’s father, Canon Tony Williamson, was an Anglican worker priest in a car factory in Oxford for 30 years (Obituary, 22 March 2019), so Hugh has long had an interest in this ministry. In his feature this week, he talks to a priest who is a full-time hairdresser, another who, until recently, was a checkout worker at a supermarket, a priest who is a carer, and another who works in a café. “Talking to them, and others like them, reveals a refreshing approach to faith, focused on how we express and support faith in everyday settings, not only in church buildings,” he writes. “And it challenges the Church to reflect on what ministry means.” https://www.hughwilliamson.org/ 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, we revisit an episode from a year ago, in which the Anglican novelist Francis Spufford talks about and reads from his second novel, Light Perpetual (Faber and Faber), which is now available in paperback from the Church House Bookshop: https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk It was recorded last year at a one-day online event organised by the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature. Since it was published last year, the book made the long list for the Booker Prize (News, 30 July 2021). Francis Spufford’s first novel, Golden Hill (Reading Groups, 3 March 2017), won the Costa First Novel Award 2016. He has also written five highly praised works of non-fiction, including Unapologetic: Why, despite everything Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense (Books, 4 October 2013; Features, 7 September 2012), which was shortlisted for the 2016 Michael Ramsey Prize. The next Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature takes place online on Saturday (19 February). Find out more and book tickets at https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk/february-2022 Photo credit: Eamonn McCabe/Popperfoto Music for the podcast is by Twisterium