It’s all too easy to get the impression that faith is about creeds, doctrine, and knowledge - about mastering the ‘facts’ and having the ‘right’ answers. But Margaret Silf believes that faith is much more about mystery than mastery, and that living in the mystery allows us to shift our focus from religion to relationship – relationship with the Divine. Margaret Silf is a retreat leader and the author of bestselling guides to the spiritual journey. Recorded November 2014.
Oct 02, 2017•1 hr
Can we ever encounter the Christmas stories as if for the first time? Stephen Cottrell tells the story backwards and from the perspective of some of the characters we don’t usually hear from or think of as Christmas people - the prophets Anna and Moses, the Innkeeper’s wife, Rachel who weeps for her children, as well as Isaiah, the shepherds, wise men, Joseph and Mary. Stephen Cottrell is the Bishop of Chelmsford. Recorded December 2014.
Oct 02, 2017•1 hr 1 min
'In our search for God we are our own starting point.’ Rosemary Lain-Priestley, Dean of Women’s Ministry in the Two Cities area of the London Diocese, explores the spiritual necessity of looking our own experience in the face without glossing over the difficult bits, and how we can learn to see and be changed by the ordinary miracles we miss if we don’t pay attention to the daily. Recorded July 2014.
Oct 02, 2017•56 min
Compassion is love-in-action, and it’s also been said that the best name for God is Compassion. Trystan Owain Hughes,Diocesan Director of Ordinands for the Diocese of Llandaff, draws on contemporary scientific thought, ancient wisdom, poetry, literature and film to explore compassion’s place at the heart of humanity, and what it might mean for our public, church and spiritual lives if we were to put it at the centre of our lives. Recorded October 2014.
Oct 02, 2017•57 min
May God protect me from gloomy saints! said St Teresa of Avila, the least gloomy of saints. Peter Tyler, Reader in Pastoral Theology and Spirituality at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, brings refreshing new light to the life and work of this great mystic and considers how it is that Teresa’s ‘language of the soul’ finds such resonance in contemporary spiritual life, including the worlds of psychology, meditation, mindfulness and personal development. Recorded June 2014.
Oct 02, 2017•59 min
St Benedict wrote his ‘rule of life’ – his practical and spiritual guide for living a good life – in the sixth century, and it has been a foundational document for Christian monasticism and spirituality ever since. Esther de Waal explores the ancient, gentle wisdom of the Rule of St Benedict in relation to the demands of modern living and the importance of balance between prayer, work and study.
Oct 02, 2017•54 min
There is a great tradition of finding God in the natural world, and many people who have given up on church appreciate the spiritual benefits of climbing a mountain or walking in the countryside. Graham Usher, Bishop of Dudley, encourages us to look at the world with fresh eyes – and so be enchanted by the wonder of God all around us. Recorded September 2014.
Oct 02, 2017•58 min
December marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr. preaching at St Paul’s. This event will challenged us to fulfil the dream he put to us of an equal society, one free from discrimination, intolerance, prejudice and extremism. The discussion addressed the impediments to true equality, and discuss practical ways these obstacles can be removed. Recorded December 2014.
Oct 02, 2017•1 hr 28 min
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. How can it possibly be that God dies, and what can it teach us about how to live? Graham Tomlin, Dean of St Mellitus College, London, explores how the mystery of the cross can shed new, life-giving light on the way we live today. Recorded April 2014.
Oct 02, 2017•44 min
Professor Burridge, Dean and Professor of Biblical Interpretation of King’s College London, is one of the foremost Biblical scholars of our time, and this book grew out of ten years of academic research into the gospels, but also his desire ‘to bridge the gap between the prayer cell and the seminar debate’. For anyone intrigued or puzzled by the differences between the gospels, this is a revelatory reading of the four portraits of Jesus we are given in the New Testament. Recorded 2 March 2014.
Sep 29, 2017•52 min
The Reverend Richard Coles is a parish priest and regular host of BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live. He is also the only vicar in Britain to have had a number 1 hit single: the Communards' Don't Leave Me This Way. Fathomless Riches is his remarkable memoir in which he divulges with searing honesty and intimacy his pilgrimage from a rock-and-roll life of sex and drugs to a life devoted to God and Christianity. Recorded 11 November 2014.
Sep 29, 2017•1 hr 30 min
Two of the most exciting, prophetic voices in 21st century Christianity, who both found God in the grit of real life, on the streets of the cities they live in, and in the joy and pain of the people they serve and love. Sara and Nadia reflected on their own unlikely experiences of coming to faith, and how we can live the gospel in the new world of the 21st century. Recorded 28 August 2014.
Sep 29, 2017•1 hr 25 min
An ancient Christian tradition which originates on fringes of the Christian world, ‘it is refreshing to discover the role that art, storytelling and poetry played in the religious faith of the Celts, and it is perhaps this which enables us to feel such resonance with the Celtic past and spirituality.’ Dr Esther de Waal has a worldwide reputation as a writer, speaker and retreat leader, particularly on Celtic and monastic spirituality.
Sep 29, 2017•40 min
St Paul's Chancellor, Canon Mark Oakley, discusses the difficulty in reconciling the realities of life with easy and comfortable notions about faith. He reflects on faith as a collage of traditions, texts, and the myriad experiences of living, imagination, silence and prayer by which we respond to the grace of God. Recorded March 2013.
Sep 29, 2017•35 min
How can we change the world? Many of us feel helpless in the face of the world’s problems to change anything, and that it takes an exceptional person - a hero and or a saint - to make a difference. Michael Battle is the Founder of the Peace Battle Institute. Rowan Williams is Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge and former Archbishop of Canterbury.
Sep 29, 2017•42 min
The 1914-18 war was the war to end all wars. Since then, countless millions have died in conflict, and it’s debatable whether there’s been a single day of peace.Stanley Hauerwas is Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School. Samuel SSF is the Brother-in Charge of Hilfield Friary, the Anglican Franciscan community in Dorset. Recorded October 2013.
Sep 29, 2017•1 hr 27 min
Generosity could save the world. There is enough food and money for everyone on the planet if we took only what we need and gave the rest to those who have too little. But can we actually change our hearts, minds and politics enough to do that? David Lammy is the MP Tottenham. Lucy Winkett is the Rector of St James’s Piccadilly. Recorded Oct 2013.
Sep 29, 2017•1 hr 29 min
What is freedom? Aung San Suu Kyi, speaking under house arrest in Burma, said to the outside world in 1997: Please use your freedom to promote ours. But what does it mean to be free? Shami Chakrabarti is Director of Liberty, the National Council for Civil Liberties. Peter Selby is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Theology at King’s College, London and a former Bishop of Worcester. Recorded October 2013.
Sep 29, 2017•1 hr 26 min
Janet Morley calls the season of Advent ‘a pilgrimage of the heart’, a time for stillness and contemplation. She invites us to contemplate its themes of darkness and death, light and new life with some of our greatest poets, including George Herbert, Emily Dickinson, Philip Larkin, Sylvia Plath, TS Eliot and William Blake, in the hope that when the great feast of Christmas comes, we too will have ‘walked haphazard by starlight straight into the kingdom of heaven.'
Sep 29, 2017•54 min
For more than half a century, C S Lewis' Narnia series has captured the imagination of millions. Alister McGrath, Professor of Theology, Ministry and Education at King's College London, tells us that behind the best-selling books and Hollywood movies lies the unlikely story of an Oxford don who spent his days teaching medieval English Literature, his nights writing a best-selling fantasy series for children, and who became an inspiring, though reluctant, prophet of modern Christianity. Recorded ...
Sep 29, 2017•58 min
