The Living Church Podcast

What do pilgrimage, tiny bridges, and time machines have to do with Christian unity? Today we'll be looking at the ministry of the Anglican Centre in Rome, a hub of ecumenical meeting, dialogue, and fellowship in the Eternal City. The Anglican Centre was founded in 1966, during the watershed of ecumenical engagement that followed the Second Vatican Council. It hosts lectures, exhibitions, spec...

What do bluegrass, bourbon, and Bible have in common? How about a group of Hillbilly Thomists? Today, we share an episode from the Signal Award-winning podcast,  No Small Endeavor . Produced by PRX and Great Feeling Studios,  No Small Endeavor  explores what it means to live a good life. In this episode, you’ll hear from the Hillbilly Thomists, the Billboard-charting bluegrass band made up entirel...

What can Christians on the right and left continue to learn about the experience and discipleship of trans people and those with gender incongruence? Today we'll be looking into some of the tough questions of transgender anthropology and pastoral care. But instead of debating directly over the questions (Should we use preferred pronouns? What is just legislation? How do we talk to kids? To aff...

Today is a conversation between a pastor and a farmer. What might working the land, protecting local economies, and nurturing Christian communities have in common? We'll be speaking with Mary Berry, executive director of the Berry Center, and daughter of poet, farmer, and essayist Wendell Berry. My fellow interviewer today is the Rev. Clint Wilson, rector of St. Francis in the Fields, Harrods...

With the death of Pope Francis, today's bonus episode is a reflection on his ministry, particularly as it relates to Christian unity. Fr. Matthew Olver and Amber Noel chat with Fr. Martin Browne, who serves at the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Christian unity. Martin shares his first impressions of the pope and what it was like working for him. We discuss the pope's choices and cha...

How can Christian leaders face the "overwhelm" of our times, in politics and national life, in personal life and relationships, and in ministry?  We live in an age of what our guest today calls "polycrisis." Issues interconnect, pile on, and come hard and fast, faster than we can fix or, often, respond to in a thoughtful or Christian way. How do we avoid either inaction or anxiousn...

How did a Swedish Pentecostal find himself called to the beauties, benefits, and dangers of an institutional church? Today we join the Rev. Magnus Persson of the Church of Sweden, which is a Full Communion Partner with the Episcopal Church.  We discuss the "Three streams" of Swedish Lutheranism and it's intersections with Anglicanism, how God led Magnus away from charismatic success to...

Executive Director of TLC, the Rev. Dr. Matthew S.C. Olver, interviews the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Sean Rowe. Presiding Bishop Sean has been in office now for a few months. We talk about his priorities for his term, and what slimming down some of the structures and programs of the Episcopal church might look like. We also ask what he'd say to Episcopalians who d...

For a topic that's truly "on pointe," our guest today reminds us of the joys and rewards of freedom and discipline, just in time for Lent: ballet dancer and choreographer Silas Farley. We discuss his early journey in discipleship and liturgical dance, holy coincidences that connected him with his Russian ballet hero, how discipline can lead to freedom in the Spirit both in dance and li...

Poet Christian Wiman said of today's guest: “She has a rare ear, a keen mind, and a vivid spirit. Like the faith that is her chief subject, her poems cut and console in equal measure.” What Wiman says about her poetry is true about her conversation, too. Today's episode features a chat with writer Kate Kilcup Marsh. Kate is a poet, priest's wife, and mother, and is working on a memoir....

What hath Martin Luther to do with Thomas Cranmer? This episode explores a fascinating shared history between Anglicans and Lutherans. These two Reformation-born groups were not only finding their feet at the same time, they were also interested in friendship from early on. We'll also be learning what it means to be Lutheran, and what Anglicans and Lutherans continue to do together and learn f...

Ever wonder how we got to "this moment" as a country, as a church?  Many people are thinking about these questions. Many of them are evangelicals, who stand out in American culture as a group of incredible influence: lots of sucess growing churches, and, as our politicians know, lots of power in the polls. Among the evangelicals thinking, "How did we get here?", is Mike Cosper. You...

Happy birthday, Council of Nicaea! She was born in 325 AD and was the biggest gathering of Christian leaders of that time, and still known as the foundational meeting of Christians to make decisions about doctrines of the faith after the time of the apostles. Today we are celebrating the 1700th birthday of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, who is looking incredibly good at her age. At today's...

The real miracle of Christmas is not the title of a Hallmark movie. And it's not very cozy. We indulge in some cozy chat today (Cambridge at Christmas time!), but the heart of our conversation is about the Incarnation in the arts, and how music, painting, poetry can help to unstick us, to remind us who our Incarnate Lord really is, in all the puzzling and startling smallness of his Nativity. T...

There are people who tend to be on the fringes in church: the unhoused, those with mental illness, teens and kids, single people, those with dementia, and those with no family. But all of these folks are in the center of church life at St James the Less, Pimlico, in London.  Today we'll speak with the rector, the Rev. Lis Goddard, about how this came about, and how it works. This is a conversa...

Today we'll be talking about the material of worship. The literal material. We sat down with Robert Hoare, the managing director of vestment maker, Watts & Co, to talk about its venerable and sometimes quirky history, and the ancient and unbelievable craftsmanship of the chasubles, cassocks, copes, surplices, maniples, mitres, stoles, and humeral veils Christian clergy wear today, to lead...

How are Anglicans persevering in ministry and life together in the face of climate change? The Bishop of Puerto Rico, the Rt. Rev. Rafael Morales Maldonado, has a passion for creation-care ministries, outreach, and evangelism. What's up in ministry in Puerto Rico? And especially how are they integrating concern for climate change into ministry there? Bishop Rafael is the diocesan bishop of Pue...

Today we'll be touching down in Kansas, Japan, Africa, China, and the middle east, for some global lessons in leadership. How are Christians formed as effective leaders, and how do they in turn form effective leaders? How do we learn leadership from beyond our home turf to serve in fearlessly contextualized ways? My guest today is Dr. Mary Ho. Mary is an expert in strategic leadership, and she...

Two bishops in Bermuda give us a glimpse at a gesture of Christian unity that's making a difference in a diverse community. We'll hear today how the Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops of the island both found their call into island ministry, how their friendship started, and some of the fruit it's bearing in their dioceses in sweet and surprising collaborations. We'll also hear so...

What or who are angels? Why does it matter?  Some of you may be coming to today's episode with some skepticism or at least curiosity. Why are we talking about angels and demons? Should we bother thinking or talking about invisible creatures? Is it possibly to not be scary or weird about it? As we'll discover today, Christians have always been concerned with angels, because angels are deepl...

With election season heating up in the U.S., many Christian leaders feel the extra strain. With churches and nations dealing with painful divisions, how might Christians — and anyone else — learn to enjoy and share life together? What does that take? Today it takes us to the virtues, ways to live at peace with ourselves and others through the exercise of certain habits. The cardinal virtues are fo...

How can poetry teach us to read Scripture? Everything within creation Speaks of Jesus’ Incarnation. Likewise too, his saving Passion Is shown forth in all that’s fashioned. The Word God spoke before all ages Can be traced in Scripture’s pages. The Bible tells one vast narration from Genesis to Revelation.  So begins "Figural Graffiti," a delightful instructional poem by theology professor...

Clergy couples: How do they work? Where are the tensions and the graces? Even highly functional, loving, clergy marriages can look so different. Knock, knock – can we come inside your marriage for a peek? In this episode, host Amber Noel gets really nosy. Here are three couples willing to come on the podcast and talk honestly about their clergy couple marriages – what makes them tick, what ticks t...

What is Christian Communion? And who cares?  If you listen to this podcast, you probably do.  Today we're not talking about the Lord's supper, but the longing for and practical work toward Christian unity. What does this have to do with the average Christian? Or the average pastor trying to focus on local ministry? How do Anglicans care about (and struggle with) Christian unity especially?...

Ever run out of preaching material for a major feast day? May today's episode inspire you. It's funny how the gospel unveils and then veils itself to us in seasons of our ministry and preaching. There are so many times when there's more than we can capture. And then other times it feels lilke the well runs dry on the same passage we've come to for years. But this "dryness"...