Talking Faith: two priests in the Scottish Borders talk about faith, doubt, and God

In this episode, Lesley and Pip confront the most common thing people say to them - "you only work one day a week!". In this podcast we go through our weeks, sharing some of the pleasures, privilages, and challenges of our job in small churches in a rural part of Scotland.

If you want to hear Beth's amazing vocals without the prattle on top of it, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s2bCbu4WkU

This week, hotfoot from General Synod, Pip interviews the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Mark Strange. Mark speaks about church growth and decline, and the future of the SEC.

We tell our stories - how it was that one of us (Lesley) stopped looking at cow ovaries for a living, and why the other (Pip) stopped trying to be a professional singer, and instead became the mundane, ordinary people you see before you...

Our latest reaction video features one of Pip's choices - which will be immediately apparent when we learn that the composer died over five hundred years ago. The phrase used of Josquin Des Prez by Martin Luther was "Other composers must do as the notes will. Josquin is the master of the notes and they do as he wills". Amazing stuff.

In this, our second episode of our podcast, we discuss one of the bigger issues

Got something you want us to listen to? Email us on talkingthefaith @ gmail.com We have very very different tastes in music, so this is our opportunity of sharing things we like with each other. This video is from Lesley and to say more than that will steal some of the joy that it brings... Here's the original - and see if you are not singing along https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-CCxYR80mU

In this episode Pip speaks with Bishop Dagmar, currently acting Bishop of Ely and Bishop or Huntingdon, as she prepares to pack up her theology books and make the great trek north to the sunlit uplands of the Scottish Episocopal church. Dagmar talks about her upbringing in the faith, her love of the border lands, and what led her to the glory that we call the 'piscy church. This was our first fora...

In this episode of Talking Faith, we discuss why people who believe in God don't go to church, and why sometimes dull churches might end up being hte right place for someone.

In this reaction video (the sound quality is very poor, our apologies, it was recorded outside on microphones not fit for purpose) we listen to a very squirmy incident where a certain new convert finds that biblical knowledge is not quite as encyclopedic as he thought... If you have anything you would like us to react to, email us at talkingthefaith@gmail.com

Lesley and Pip come from very different musical traditions, so they like to surprise each other with some music from their tradition. Here Pip shares a version of the Lord's prayer in Aramaic, sung in the presence of Pope Francis of blessed memory.

Have a question? email us at talkingthefaith@gmail.com ooh, let's start with the big one. It is still the season of Easter, the FORTY days of unremitting joy, as they say. In this podcast, we deal with a question that people who are honest enough to talk to us often ask - why on earth do we believe that a man was dead, and then wasn't?

Our new podcast, Talking Faith, will begin in the first week of May 2026. This is just a wee taster to introduce ourselves, and to apologise in advance how very amateur we are... if you have any questions or thoughts about the podcast, music for us to listen to and subjects for us to cover, email us at talkingthefaith@gmail.com and we'll be delighted to hear from you. Well that's our aim...

Welcome to the first of a new series! Talking faith, where two Episcopal priests in the Scottish Borders, discuss the questions that matter to you, whether you are an atheist, believer, or anything in between.