The Church Times Podcast

This week we have published a very special edition of the Church Times to mark the centenary of the Armistice. Deputy Editor Glyn Paflin has delved into the archives to produce an eight-page supplement recounting the course of the First World War as seen through the pages of the Church Times at the time. At the end of this podcast, he reads the paper’s Leader from 15 November 2018. Our coverage al...

Where are all the young people? Across the country, the average C of E church has just three children attending, and the smallest 25 per cent have none at all. At the Christian Resources Exhibition last month, the Church Times Live event brought together a panel of youth workers to talk about this: Ali Campbell, who runs the Resource youthwork consultancy; Savannah John-Leighton, Youth Leader at S...

This week, Ed Thornton speaks to Adrian Harris, the Head of Digital for the Church of England, and Thomas Allain Chapman, the Head of Publishing for Church House, about the C of E’s Christmas campaign this year: #FollowtheStar. As well as offering daily reflections on the website and app, the campaign encourages churches to make the most of the surge in interest in the 72 hours running up to Chris...

Robert McCrum is an associate editor of The Observer, and was the paper’s literary for 12 years. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, where he edited writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Marilynne Robinson, and Peter Carey. His books include The Story of English and a definitive life of PG Woodhouse. Robert McCrum’s latest book is Every Third Thought: On life, death and the endgame, pu...

For this week’s environmental issue, timed to coincide with the report by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we appointed a guest editor: Richard Black, a former BBC environment correspondent, and director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. With his help, we have assembled an impressive group of commentators to reflect on the threat to the planet posed by global warming. Among th...

This week, we talk about clergy well-being – are unrealistic job descriptions leading to stress and burnout? We hear about Conservative Party Conference and what the party’s Christians have been up to. And we hear from the Church Times Green Health Live conference – about how churches are harnessing the healing power of gardening. You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

On this week’s episode, we bring news of an exciting new competition – Theology Slam - which aims to find young voices who think theologically about the contemporary world. Ed Thornton talks to one of the organisers, David Shervington of SCM Press, Also on this week’s episode, Adam Becket brings us up to speed with the Labour Party Conference, where Jeremy Corbyn seems to have been paying attentio...

The UK is undergoing a great upheaval, which will change our relationships with the rest of the world and materially affect millions of people in this country. We're talking about Brexit, of course. In this week’s issue, we explore this political shift, from different angles and in depth: how we have got to here and where we might go next. Contributors include the Bishop of Leeds, Nick Baines, who...

This week, the Church Commissioners have defended their multi-million-pound stake in Amazon after the online company was heavily criticised by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his speech to the Trade Union Congress this week for “paying almost nothing in tax”. Madeleine Davies tells us how she broke the story. Plus, we look at our new month-long feature series on the religious life: from centuries-...

Born in Latakia, a port city in Syria, Fr Nadim Nassar is the first Syrian priest in the Church of England, and director of the Awareness Foundation. This week, Madeleine Davies caught up with him about his first book, The Culture of God: the Syrian Jesus - Reading the Divine Mind, Sailing into the Divine Heart, published by Hodder. He talked about growing up in the region where Christ was born, h...

On this week’s podcast, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the first African Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, talks to Madeleine Davies. The interview is also written up in this week’s issue, which is out now.

Rebecca Stott’s book In the Days of Rain tells the story of her family’s membership of and escape from the Exclusive Brethren. Reviewing the book for the Church Times, Malcolm Doney described it as “a dark journey into indoctrination, cruelty, and control”, and a “powerful and compelling” read. It was awarded the Costa Biography Award and is available in paperback from the Church House Bookshop fo...

"We are gripped by the power of consumerism – but it doesn’t have to be that way," says theologian Dr Eve Poole. In her new book, Buying God: Consumerism and theology, published by SCM Press, Eve Poole explores how we can wean ourselves off the material and on the eternal. She has also written on the subject in the Comment section of this week’s Church Times. Ed Thornton spoke to Eve about the new...

This week, Madeleine Davies and Ed Thornton talk about the latest wave of church plants from Holy Trinity, Brompton. What’s the strategy? They also discuss the ethical questions a senior cleric has been asking about the Church House Conference Centre hosting the annual Land Warfare Conference. And Ed talks to the Revd Peter Crumpler about why democracy needs local newspapers, and how churches can...

The Revd Mark Meynell is Europe and Caribbean Director for Langham Preaching, part of the Langham Partnership. For nine years, he was on the senior ministry team at All Souls Langham Place, in London. His latest book, published by IVP, is called When Darkness Seems My Closest Friend. It explores the shame, confusion, exhaustion, isolation and despair of living with depression, especially as a Chri...

This week, our reporters Madeleine Davies, Hattie Williams, and Adam Becket discuss the key debates and highlights from the General Synod in York, which finished on Tuesday. Plus, a survivor of clerical abuse, Gilo, tells us about a Synod fringe meeting on safeguarding, last Friday evening, and gives his thoughts on the debate on the House of Bishops report, which took place the next day. In this...

Guy Stagg spent 10 months walking from Canterbury to Jerusalem, following medieval pilgrim paths across 5,500 km. He began the journey after several years of mental illness, hoping that the walk would heal him. A non-believer, he wanted to understand religion by taking part in its rituals. The Crossway, published by Picador, is an account of his journey, a mix of travel and memoir, history and cur...

On this week’s podcast, how can church investors step up pressure on corporate polluters to combat climate change? Ed Thornton talk to the Chief Investment Officer of Epworth Investment Management, Stephen Beer, who manages the investments of the Methodist Church. And we hear about GA Studdert Kennedy, or Woodine Willie, the World War 1 Chaplain. A new critical edition of his book of theology from...

For this week’s podcast, Madeleine Davies spoke to Vicky Beeching, who was given an award last year by the Archbishop of Canterbury for her outstanding contribution to contemporary worship music. Her new memoir, Undivided, tells her story of coming out, becoming whole, and living free from shame. You can read the interview in this week’s Church Times.

Rob Bell was once the pastor of a megachurch in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was saluted by one newspaper as “the next Billy Graham”. Today, he is more likely to be found on stage at a stand-up comedy club in downtown Los Angeles than in a pulpit. Ed Thornton interviewed Bell for this week’s issue of the Church Times, and we post the full interview here, much of which didn’t make it into the paper....

This week, Madeleine Davies fills us in on the Archbishop of Canterbury's speech on Europe - a story the Church Times broke on Tuesday that has provoked outcry among Brexiteers. Plus, the Bishop of Derby, Alister Redfern, talks to Hattie Williams about the C of E's a new app to help people spot signs of slavery at car washes. And, an extract from a fascinating conversation between the former Presi...

This week, the Bishop of Burnley, Philip North, tells us why it is time richer dioceses shared their wealth with poorer ones; Madeleine Davies fills us in on the story of whether priests in Canterbury are being advised to betray the Seal of the Confessional; and Adam Becket goes to an interfaith Iftar meal in St John’s Wood Synagogue in London, where he speaks to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

This month sees the publication of Phoebe, Dr Paula Gooder’s first foray into fiction. The story of the Deacon and Patron mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Romans, it invites us into the world of first-century Christianity, in some respects, not so different to our own. In an interview with Madeleine Davies, Dr Gooder talked about the power of the imagination, women pursuing their calling then and...

The political philosopher John Gray is the former Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics. His best-selling books include Straw Dogs, False Dawn: The delusions of global capitalism, and Black Mass: Apocalyptic religion and the death of utopia. His new book, Seven Types of Atheism, is published by Allen Lane. We asked Nick Spencer, research director at Theos and author of At...

The first Church Times Festival of Poetry was held in the picturesque setting of Sarum College in Salisbury Cathedral Close, during one of the finest Bank Holiday Weekends in memory. The opening talk was given by Canon Mark Oakley, the Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, titled A Splash of Words: 'Why poetry'? There is full coverage of the festival in this week’s Church Times. Picture credit: Ash M...