Premier Christian Newscast

Sadly, today’s episode will be the last episode of the Premier Christian Newscast. To wrap the show up, we looked back over the last two years at what stories and topics have come up the most. What has been making waves in church news? What issues are we unable to move on from? And what might this tell us about what is going to be hitting the headlines in the years to come? Has the Christian media got too distracted by culture war political nonsense, and missed the more important stories right under our nose? How do we faithfully go about trying to decide what to cover and what to ignore?
 We’ll be joined by Sam Hailes and Emma Fowle from Premier Christianity magazine to look back at what the Newscast feed tells us about the state of the church, and to consider what stories we expect to be keeping us busy throughout the rest of 2024 and into the future.

All of the UK will be going to the polls soon in a general election, which is expected at some point in the autumn. After a drubbing in the recent local elections, Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are widely expected to be dumped out of office in Westminster too. And just as more and more Britons are abandoning the Tories, so too are Christians. This week we’re wondering how believers are thinking about the parties, the politicians and the policies ahead of going to the polls. Many in Westminster expect this to be a tumultuous and history-making election, but how engaged is the church this time round? Where do Christians stand on the big flashpoints and debates? Is there really any meaningful Christian vote for parties to lobby for? And what do the Christian activists in the main parties make of it all?
 
 Guests:
 
 • Andy Flanagan, Christians in Politics
 • Hannah Rich, Christians on the Left
 • David Burrowes, former Tory MP and now the Conservative Christian Fellowship
 • Elizabeth Jewkes, Liberal Democrat Christian Forum

The horrendous attack on a mother and her children by Abdul Ezedi, an Afghan asylum seeker, in Clapham earlier this year sparked a ferocious row. A string of politicians and right-wing media outlets accused churches of giving asylum seekers like Ezedi bogus baptisms after they had fraudulently converted to Christianity to boost their arguments to not be returned to their home countries. But is any of this actually happening? What is actually happening on parishes and congregations up and down Britain which do minister to asylum seekers? And why have Christians become the lightning rod for politicians’ anger over the asylum system in the first place?
 
 Guests:
 • Guli Francis-Dehqani, the Bishop of Chelmsford
 • Krish Kandiah, director of the Sanctuary Foundation
 • Steve Tinning, public issues enabler for the Baptist Union
 • Emily Shepherd, CEO of Welcome Churches
 • Mike Coates, vicar of All Saints, Liverpool

It’s not just British denominations which are splintering under the weight of their divisions. The United Methodist Church in the United States has also gone through a painful five years of divorce, with up to one in four congregations choosing to leave. The crisis was, inevitably, precipitated by deep disagreements over LGBT issues including same-sex marriage. When a crunch vote in their assembly came, the conservatives won and yet it is the conservative churches which have left, some to a brand-new breakaway denomination. In some ways the split has been amicable and orderly, and yet it has also caused huge pain for others on both sides. What does the future hold, both for the conservative churches which have left and for those who remained? And is the path of mutually agreed separation a good model for other denominations experiencing similar fractures?
 
 Guests this week:
 
 - Tom Berlin, UMC bishop in Florida
 - Gregory Palmer, UMC bishop in Ohio
 - Timothy Tennent, president of Asbury Theological Seminary
 - Heather Hahn, assistant news editor for United Methodist News
 - Megan Fowler, religion journalist and contributing writer at Christianity Today

It’s not just a toddler group. Emphasis on the ‘just’. That’s the title and message of a new report which urges churches to take their midweek parents and toddler groups more seriously. These groups are not just about toys on mats and beakers of juice for tired mums, but vital for children’s flourishing and also for drawing families into the wider church community. The report is one of a number of recent initiatives trying to reignite ministry with children, which had been hammered by the pandemic, where lots of young people lost touch with the church during lockdown and never came back. How we are doing at relaunching children’s ministry since then? Is it properly integrated with the rest of our church lives? And what about those thousands of churches that don’t really have any young people any more? Is Christianity becoming a religion for grown-ups only?

It is not just the Church of England and the Catholic Church which has been wrestling with divisions over same-sex marriage in recent years. The Baptist Union is also split between those who believe God affirms gay marriage and those who hold to a traditional opposition to it. Yet unlike other denominations, the Baptists have come recently to an interesting compromise. Individual congregations are at liberty to host same-sex weddings or not to, according to their consciences. But gay Baptist ministers will not be allowed to themselves enter same-sex marriages. What has led the Baptists to this unusual position? Could it be a solution other denominations should explore? And, can this settlement hold into the future?
 
 Guests:
 • Ashley Hardingham, affirming Baptist minister 
 • Chris Goswami, traditionalist Baptist minister
 • Mark Woods, Baptist minister, writer and formerly editor of the Bapist Times

Ecumenism. Even the word itself is probably putting some of you off right now. A tiresome bit of churchy jargon that has no relevance for your church or spiritual life, right? But working for unity across churches and denominations is for some a genuine passion, an urgent priority, even a lifetime’s ministry. Earlier this year, a group of Catholic and Anglican bishops spent several days in discussion, joint services, pilgrimages and worship together. As these kind of ecumenical events always do, it ended with lots of warm words, a fairly vague joint communique, and promises to do it again in a few years. But did it actually change anything on the ground? Are denominations as separate as Catholicism and Anglicanism actually serious about trying to reunite? Should it be taken more seriously by ordinary churchgoers and ministers, or is it just cups of tea and endless talking shops? 
 
 Guests this week:
 • Christopher Landau, Anglican priest and director of ReSource, a charity promoting Charismatic renewal
 • Jan Nowotnik, national ecumenical officer for the Catholic Church in England and Wales
 • Paul Murray, professor of systematic theology at Durham University
 • Shermara Fletcher-Hoyte, principal officer for Pentecostal, Charismatic and Multi-cultural Relations at Christians Together in England

Many of England’s biggest football clubs – today some of the country’s largest entertainment businesses – were originally started by local churches 150 years ago. Fascinatingly, the connections between Christianity and football are not solely a historical quirk either. There are Christians playing the game at every level, managing teams and running clubs, while churches use the sport for both outreach and pastoral care. So much so that even the thoroughly secular Football Association held a jamboree at Wembley Stadium last year to celebrate the interplay between the beautiful game and Christianity. This week’s episode digs deeper into the links between the church and our national pastime, exploring everything from muscular Christianity to faith literacy to evangelism inside the dressing room. 
 
 Guests this week:
 • Michael Wakelin, Norwich City fan and former BBC religion producer who organised the FA’s Wembley event
 • Graham Daniels, former player and manager, now director at Cambridge United and head of Christians in Sport

Just before Christmas, the Catholic Church surprisingly announced priests could offer pastoral blessings to same-sex couples for the first time. The announcement has been a jolt of energy to the church, delighting liberals who have been quick to publicise their blessings, and equally infuriating conservatives. Why has the backlash been so vociferous, and what might this mean for the remaining years of Francis’s pontificate? Is it actually that big a reform after all, or has it all been blown out of proportion? Will it entrench schisms within the Catholic Church worldwide or push the denomination firmly towards progressive reforms in the future?
 
 Guests this week:
 • Catherine Pepinster, freelance Catholic journalist and former editor of The Tablet
 • Charles Collins, managing editor of Crux, a leading Catholic news website

Almost nobody has heard of Sir Paul Marshall until a few weeks ago. But, thanks to his Twitter account, the multi-millionaire hedge funder and media mogul has become briefly famous, or perhaps infamous. An investigation has revealed Marshall had a private Twitter account which had liked and re-posted dozens of hardline anti-Muslim and far-right tweets. As well as owning a slew of right-wing media outlets, Marshall is also deeply embedded in the church world, sitting on boards and funding projects including the HTB church planting network and the Church of England’s new Centre for Cultural Witness. Should we care that a man who has pumped in millions of pounds into church ministry may hold in private quite extreme views? Are Christians too casual about partnering with people who actually hold very different values to them? How should we think about the growing numbers of Christian figures who are getting involved in right-leaning politics, and perhaps drifting towards the radical fringes in the process?
 
 I’m Tim Wyatt, and you’re listening to the Premier Christian Newscast. This week, I’m joined by Sam Hailes and Emma Fowle from Premier Christianity magazine to discuss Paul Marshall’s dubious tweets, and what this might tell us about conservative politics in the church.

After the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the Church of England embarked on a racial reckoning just like so many institutions. This produced a landmark report and a new racial justice unit. But more than three years on, has any progress been made in dismantling prejudice and discrimination in the national church? Were the tumultuous events of 2020 a turning point, as the hierarchy hoped? We speak to ethnic minority clergy, bishops, the racial justice team and others to assess what life is like today for people of colour in the Church of England and if the tumultuous events of 2020 have actually sparked real change. 
 
 Guests include:
 • Guy Hewitt, the C of E’s racial justice director
 • Martyn Snow, the Bishop of Leicester
 • Augustine Tanner-Ihm and Alwyn Pereira, two vicar whistle-blowers who experienced direct racism 
 • Elizabeth Henry, formerly the church’s national advisor on race and ethnicity
 • Brunel James, part of the national racial justice unit

A Christian gospel singer was approached by the police while busking in central London. In a video of the conversation, one of the officers tells the singer she is not allowed to sing church songs outside of church grounds, and later sticks her tongue out. For many of those furiously sharing this video online, it is further evidence of how the secular authorities in this country are trying to unfairly push Christianity out of the public square. But is there really a problem with freedom of speech in the UK, or is this just one isolated incident of a confused copper not understanding the law? Is Britain actually becoming increasingly intolerant of orthodox belief, and if so, what – if anything – should the church be doing about this? 
 
 • Read more about the gospel busker and the police video here https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/met-police-apologises-after-officer-told-christian-busker-she-couldn-t-sing-outside-church-grounds
 • Read Heather Tomlinson’s magazine feature on free speech here https://www.premierchristianity.com/features/is-free-speech-under-threat/17106.article

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the government of Iran has sought to tightly control its small Christian minority and suppress the spread of Christianity throughout the population. But the Women Life Freedom anti-government protest movement has rocked the Islamist regime. Millions of Iranians have defied the strict interpretation of Islam the government espouses, prompting a violent backlash from the state. What impact has this convulsion had on the persecuted church in Iran? How has the church continued to grow despite the crackdowns? And is there any hope for Iranians to be given genuine freedom to worship any time soon? This week we’re digging into stories of the persecuted church in Iran, speaking with exiles and family members of Christians in prison, to better understand what price believers must pay to remain faithful to Jesus in the Islamic Republic.

The story which dominated the UK church world last year was undoubtedly the revelations about Mike Pilavachi and Soul Survivor. But while the C of E’s investigation into him confirmed he had acted inappropriately at the Watford church he led, the story has often been veiled in vague terms and muttered innuendo. What exactly did he do to those young interns? How much power and influence did he wield over the church and summer youth festivals he also founded? Was he just one bad apple, or is the wider Soul Survivor movement also complicit in the abuse? 
 
 To try and answer some of these pressing questions, the team at Premier Christianity magazine have been working on a new podcast called Soul Survivors. It will investigate the story of Pilavachi’s rise and fall, speaking to those who got hurt along the way. Today we’re sharing the entire first episode of Soul Survivors to give you a flavour of what to expect. 
 
 To subscribe for free to Soul Survivors to get each new episode as it is released, click here: https://pod.link/1712708889

Christians spend an awful lot of time thinking about how and why people join the church. But we rarely consider the opposite – all of those who leave. Every year, an entirely uncounted number of people give up on going to church. Some continue to believe and practice faith outside a worshipping community, others abandon Christianity entirely. Who are these people? What motivates them? Should churches change to become more porous or accepting of those deconstructing or considering quitting? And what, if anything, can churches do to try and either stop such people leaving or encourage those who have left back into the fold?
 
 Guests this week:
 
 • Katie Cross, lecturer in practical theology at Aberdeen University (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/sdhp/people/profiles/k.cross#about) 
 • Robin Stockitt, retired Anglican vicar, author of Leaving Church (https://grovebooks.co.uk/product/p-162-leaving-church-what-can-we-learn-from-those-who-are-done-with-church-2020/)
 • Olivia Jackson, author of Uncertain: A collective memoir of deconstructing faith (https://scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780334063636/uncertain) 
 
 Sign up to Tim’s church news Substack newsletter The Critical Friend here: https://tswyatt.substack.com/

Abuse scandals. Famous deaths. A lot of reports. And a even more arguing about same-sex relationships. 2023 was a busy year for church news, and 2024 is already shaping up to be more of the same. But before the last 12 months is totally swamped by what’s already kicked off this year, let’s take a brief look back at some of the most consequential stories from 2023, and think about how they may develop over the coming year. This week we’re joined by Emma Fowle and Sam Hailes from Premier Christianity magazine to discuss which stories left an impact from 2023 and why, and consider how they may continue to unfold over 2024.

Ever since October 7th, the world has been transfixed with horror at the violence and war unfolding in Israel and Gaza. First the brutal Hamas terrorist attack which left over a thousand dead and hundreds more snatched as hostages. Then the devastating Israeli bombing campaign, which has killed thousands more. And now Israeli soldiers and tanks fighting deep within Gaza, as civilians desperately try to avoid the bombs, bullets and shells. As Christians, we have watched this horror scene unfold in the Holy Land for over two months. Many of us feel helpless, confused, bewildered. How can we process what is taking place in the lands where Jesus walked, in the build up to the celebration of his birth 2,000 years ago? Do we have to pick a side? What on earth can we pray? This week’s podcast is joined by a panel of Christians who are living or working in Israel and Palestine to try to get a grip on the crisis in the Holy Land, and think through where on earth God is in the midst of it all. 
 
 Guests:
 - Sally Azar, pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem
 - Richard Sewell, Dean of St George’s College, Jerusalem
 - Jamie Eyre, director of programmes, partnerships and advocacy for Embrace the Middle East

In France, Emmanuel Macron has launched a new fund to raise hundreds of millions of euros to pay for the preservation and renovation of ancient church buildings across the French countryside. The move has excited church conservation types on this side of the Channel, as a possible model to follow to safeguard our crumbling Christian buildings which can no longer rely on local tithes or cash-strapped denominations to pay for essential maintenance. But how can we safeguard Britain’s Christian heritage in an era of rapidly declining church attendance and growing secularism? Should taxpayers be expected to foot some of the cost? Or is it a waste of time to worry about maintaining medieval buildings which are in the wrong places, impossible to heat, and no longer able to sustain a congregation anyway?
 
 Guests this week:
 - Rachel Morley, director of the Friends of Friendless Churches
 - Eddie Tulasiewicz, head of policy and public affairs for the National Churches Trust

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the famous atheist and scourge of Islam, has suddenly announced she has now become a Christian. Many in the church have reacted with excitement that a prominent anti-religious voice has switched sides. But others have been scornful, noting her article explaining the conversion seems focused on Christianity’s role in the culture war and fails to mention Jesus or the cross. Why do we end up arguing so much about celebrity conversions like Ali’s? Should we be wary of public figures whose embrace of Christianity may have ulterior motives? Are we seeing the first inklings of a broader return to faith by public intellectuals and the final nail being hammered into the coffin of New Atheism?
 
 Guests this week:
 - Andy Bannister, evangelist and director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity
 - Emma Fowle, deputy editor of Premier Christianity magazine
 
 - Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s article ‘Why I Am Now A Christian’: https://unherd.com/2023/11/why-i-am-now-a-christian/ 
 - Andy’s article for Premier Christianity: https://www.premierchristianity.com/apologetics/from-islam-to-atheism-to-christianity-the-unlikely-conversion-of-ayaan-hirsi-ali/16741.article

It’s not only the Church of England that has been having big synods recently. Throughout October, hundreds of bishops and others from the Catholic Church gathered in Rome for their own synod. But unlike the regular twice-yearly meetings the C of E has had for decades, this synod is a much larger, and rarer event. It’s all part of Pope Francis’s efforts to erode the hierarchical nature of the church and shift its culture towards one where the voices of ordinary lay churchgoers are more prominent. Conservatives fear this is the beginning of a process which could see traditional doctrines around women’s ordination, priestly celibacy, and gay relationships abandoned. But the Vatican insists this is actually all about what it is calling ‘synodality’ – a new way of doing church together, rather than immediately moving to debate the hot-button issues which divide Catholics. 
 
 Guests this week:
 - Austen Ivereigh, Catholic writer, biographer of Pope Francis, and attendee at the synod 
 - Gill Goulding, theologian at the University of Toronto, nun, and member of synod’s theological commission
 - Catherine Pepinster, journalist and writer, former editor of Catholic newspaper The Tablet
 
 - ‘The Keys and the Kingdom: The British and the Papacy from John Paul II to Francis’, by Catherine Pepinster: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/keys-and-the-kingdom-9780567666314/ 
 - ‘Pope Francis and Mercy’, by Gill Goulding: https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780268206444/pope-francis-and-mercy

Last week was a momentous one in the long-running civil war over same-sex relationships in the Church of England. Just like in February, a session of the General Synod – the church’s elected parliament – was almost entirely focused on scrutinising the bishops’ plans to offer formal services of blessing for gay couples in church. The lengthy and at times torturous debate offered a window into a church bitterly divided, almost 50-50 before liberals and conservatives, and how the country’s largest denomination is still trying to tease out a way of reconciling these two, perhaps irreconcilable, groups. 
 This week’s episode goes inside the synod debate over three days, and then we hear from representatives from each side on how they react to the ultimate vote in favour of the plans for same-sex blessings. 
 
 Guests this week:
 
 - Ed Shaw, pastor at Emmanuel Church, Bristol, and ministry director of celibate same-sex attracted evangelical charity Living Out
 - Helen King, historian and prominent progressive Synod member
 - The Bishop of Lancaster, Jill Duff
 - Neil Patterson, Anglican priest, and chair of the Synod gender and sexuality group
 - John Dunnett, national director of the Church of England Evangelical Council

How to handle 31 October and the spooky festivities it prompts across society is a topic which has divided the church in recent years. Some Christians abhor Halloween while others embrace it. What for the wider world is a harmless bit of fun involving dressing up and sweets, to many believers is a sinister and even occultish celebration of evil. Should the church shun Halloween, or that going over the top? How should we distinguish between genuinely dangerous dabbling with the occult, and primary school-age children dressing up as witches? Do church-organised Light Parties redeem the 31st October or simply set the church up in pompous judgement over secular society? And should we actually be trying to reclaim the ancient Christian origin of All Hallows Eve after all?

The increasingly dictatorial government of President Daniel Ortega has turned its oppressive gaze onto the Catholic Church in Nicaragua in recent years. Angered by the church sheltering anti-government protesters in 2018, the state has intimidated, harassed, detained and exiled numerous church leaders and Christian activists. But many within the Catholic Church, which represents the vast majority of Nicaraguans, have continued to speak out against Ortega’s human rights abuses despite the persecution. This week, Kelly Valencia from Premier’s news team shares the story of Bishop Rolando and Father Ramiro, who have suffered escalating oppression at the hands of the Ortega regime. 
 
 (Correction: at one point Kelly mistakenly says that Father Ramiro was exiled with a further 190 or so others. The correct figure is 222.)
 
 - Open Doors has more information on the persecution of Christians in Nicaragua https://www.opendoorsuk.org/persecution/world-watch-list/nicaragua/ 
 - The US Commission for International Religious Freedom has a useful page on Bishop Rolando, including a selection of new coverage of his case https://www.uscirf.gov/religious-prisoners-conscience/forb-victims-database/rolando-alvarez 
 - This CSW article covers the latest forced exiles of priests by the Ortega government and the continued imprisonment of Bishop Rolando https://www.csw.org.uk/2023/10/20/press/6100/article.htm

Europe is often described as the world’s first post-Christian continent. In what was the cradle of Christendom, a tidal wave of secularisation has swept through from the post-war era onwards. But while mainline and established denominations – whether Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox - have if anything seen even more decline than we have here in Britain, there are some small signs of new life. A new breed of church planters are beavering away, trying to figure out how to bring to faith young adults who are two if not three generations post-Christendom. 
 
 In this week’s show we’re speaking to three ministers trying to revive Christian faith in some of the hardest soil for the gospel on Earth. What do 20 and 30-something Europeans actually think about the church as it quickly recedes from its previous position of unquestioned cultural dominance? How can you re-intrigue folk with the Christian story when so much of it is both boringly familiar and totally irrelevant? And what might have to change about how we do church to build new communities of faith in places where Christianity has once reigned supreme but now collapsed?
 
 Guests this week:
 - Tim Vreugdenhil, CityKerk, Amsterdam
 - Rene Breuel, Hopera, Rome
 - Emmanuel Tsoutsas, Pangrati Evangelical Church, Athens
 
 Find out more about the Europe Collaboration here - https://www.europecollaboration.com/

17 October marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Eight years ago the UN set itself the ambitious target of eliminating severe poverty globally by 2030. But despite almost a century of steady progress, numbers of people living on less than $2 a day have actually started increasing, not dwindling down to nothing. What’s gone wrong? Why are we struggling to press forward with development in the world’s poorest communities? And was eradicating poverty ever really on the cards? This week we’re speaking to theologians and Christians working in aid and development to find out how the church is mobilising to try and push ahead in the battle to end poverty. But we’re also pondering Jesus famous words that poor will always be with us. What exactly did he mean by that, and should believers be joining the UN is aiming for total eradication of poverty?
 
 Guests:
 - Mark Preston, senior director of partnerships at Compassion UK
 - Elizabeth Myendo, Tearfund’s operations lead for Southern and Eastern Africa
 - Justin Thacker, theologian and author of Global Poverty: A Theological Guide
 - Noirine Khaitsa, senior manager for Compassion International, based in Uganda
 - Chris Shannahan, Methodist minister and theologian at the University of Birmingham

“Martyrs are more numerous in our time than in the first centuries: they are bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, lay people and families, who in the different countries of the world, with the gift of their lives, have offered the supreme proof of charity.” Those were the words of Pope Francis as he announced he was setting up a new commission to record Christians who died for their faith in the 21st century. Martyrdom has a long history stretching all the way back to Stephen in the book of Acts, but for those of us in the safe West we rarely think about it happening right now, in the third millennium. Yet by some counts, there are more martyrs now than ever before. Where and why are Christians dying today in the world? And how can we be inspired and encouraged by their example, or is the glorification of martyrs actually something which should have died out centuries ago?
 
 Guests this week:
 - Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Church
 - Andrew Boyd, Release International
 - Mervyn Thomas, Christian Solidarity Worldwide

Mostly, we can only guess what clergy in the Church of England think about any number of hot button issues, but last month The Times conducted a fascinating survey of 1,200 serving vicars, rectors and curates. For the first time in about a decade, we can dig into a much more representative sampling of what the clergy think, on everything from same-sex marriage to the establishment of the church, from slave trader statues to the future of church decline in Britain. Does it matter that three-quarters do not believe Britain is a Christian country any more? Do they expect their own parishes to survive the decline of Christianity in the coming decades? Should the C of E allow gay couples to marry in church? We’re joined by Sam Hailes and Emma Fowle from Premier Christianity magazine to talk through all this, and much more…
 
 Read The Times’s survey and feature on it here - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/church-of-england-christianity-survey-gay-marriage-sex-female-archbishop-70ck07sj6

Christian pilgrims have been visiting Jerusalem and the Holy Land for centuries, trying to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. But in recent years, there has been a disturbing rise in incidents of harassment and abuse against Christians by Jewish Israelis. Some pilgrims have been spat on in the street and Christian graveyards have been desecrated. And it is not solely foreign visitors – Christians who live in Israel have also reported a worrying uptick in hostility, mostly from some within the Haredi or ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. In this week’s show we try to find out what is driving this trend, and how its small Christian minority could respond well amidst the complexities of religious populism and competing histories of persecution. 
 
 Guests this week:
 - Richard Sewell, Dean of St George’s College in Jerusalem
 - Faydra Shapiro, director of the Israel Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations
 - Francis Martin, reporter at the Church Times
 
 Read Francis’s report for the Church Times here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/4-august/news/world/christians-face-harassment-on-via-dolorosa

Immigration is never far from the headlines these days. Whether it’s the government’s highly controversial plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda, the so far unsuccessful efforts to stop migrants crossing the Channel on small boats, or even the scheme set up almost overnight to bring in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees, we talk a lot about borders and those crossing ours to come into the UK. It raises passions on both sides of the political spectrum, whether you’re for open borders or slamming down the drawbridge. But should the Church weigh in, on something so contentious and provocative? Is there a common Christian tradition or values we can offer to the public debate? 
 
 Guests this week:
 
 - The Bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson-Wilkin
 - Krish Kandiah, Sanctuary Foundation
 - Julian Prior, Good Faith Partnership

‘Prohibiting people from worship and communal religious exercise is profoundly illiberal and illegitimate.’ Those are the words of the former EU Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Jan Figel. The Slovakian has launched a legal case against his own government at the European Court of Human Rights over its ban on churches meeting in person during the covid pandemic, arguing the bans on worship were ‘unfair and disproportionate’. 
 While the closure of churches by force of law was controversial at the time, as the pandemic has receded they have become even more contentious. Was it fair and proportionate to make believers worship online rather than in person? Does any government have the right in a free society to prevent people from practising their faith? Or was the truly Christian path to step back from physical gatherings out of love for our neighbours and desire to protect vulnerable congregants from a deadly virus? 
 This week we’re joined by Emma Fowle and Megan Cornwell from Premier Christianity magazine to reconsider the pandemic-era closure of churches and discuss what, if any, precedents may have been set around religious liberty and balancing competing rights during those unprecedented times.

Men have dressed up as women for thousands of years, but as you’ve probably noticed, drag is having a particular moment right now. Drag races are prime time TV fodder and drag artists are everywhere in popular culture. And the church is no different. In recent months a worship song by a Christian drag queen has shot to the top of the iTunes Christian charts, while the Christian festival staple Greenbelt is preparing to host an array of drag events at its annual gathering. Some have welcomed this, hailing it as a step towards better inclusion in the church and a joyful way to raise questions about gender stereotypes. Others have been horrified by the intrusion of what they see as hyper-sexualised caricatures into worship spaces. 
 This week we’re diving into the debate around drag and faith, to try and tease out what people object to and what others love about it. Is it degrading or liberating? Is it provocative or playful? Can drag be spiritual, or is it only bawdy? We’re joined by a Christian drag queen and a vicar and writer to talk it all out. 
 
 Guests:
 - Elijah Kinne, pastoral assistant at St James, Piccadilly, and drag queen ‘Barbara’
 - Rev Mike Starkey, Anglican vicar and writer
 
 You can find Mike’s blog on drag in church here - https://www.flaneurnotes.com/post/on-drag-going-to-church

It’s pretty well known that most churches in Britain are largely filled with white faces. Clearly there are hundreds of thousands of believers from other ethnic backgrounds, but on the whole they tend to worship in separate churches. In an era when we are more and more aware of racial injustice and lingering prejudice, can we just accept this as it is? Should church leaders be striving to make their congregations more multi-cultural and ethnically diverse? And how can we lead well and sensitively over a racially mixed church family? This week, Emma Fowle from Premier Christianity magazine assembles a panel of diverse church leaders to dig into the challenge of how to build thriving racially diverse churches.
 
 Guests this week:
 - Steve Derbyshire, senior pastor of City Gates Church in Ilford
 - Olivia Amartey, executive director for Elim Pentecostal churches in the UK and Ireland, and associate minister of a church plant in Birmingham
 - Ben Lindsey, founder of anti youth violence charity Power The Fight and author 
 - Mohan Seevaratnam, part-time GP and leader of Mosaic, an Anglican church plant in North London
 
 Look out for a feature article drawing out some of the highlights of this conversation and our guests’ insights in next month’s Premier Christianity magazine, available in print and online.

At a recent Protestant convention in Germany an entire church service – liturgy, prayers, psalms, and sermon – was written and delivered by AI software. Around the world ministers and Christian techies are experimenting with tools such as ChatGPT to see what the latest technology can do when prompted to create materials for worship services. What impact could AI have on church? Will pastors begin using these programs to write their sermons en masse? Is ChatGPT just another computer tool we should readily adopt to simplify and streamline ministry, or something more concerning? Can an AI really expound scripture faithfully or lead spiritually meaningful prayers? And will congregations accept the intrusion of non-human elements into worship services anyway? 
 
 Guests this week:
 - Chris Goswami, Baptist minister, chaplain, and 30-year veteran of the tech industry
 - Adam Graber, theologian, podcaster and writer on emerging technologies and spirituality
 
 Read more about the AI service in Germany here: https://apnews.com/article/germany-church-protestants-chatgpt-ai-sermon-651f21c24cfb47e3122e987a7263d348 
 Chris wrote a piece explaining ChatGPT and its Christian implications for Premier Christianity earlier this year: https://www.premierchristianity.com/culture/chat-gpt-the-biggest-leap-forward-in-ai-is-changing-everything-heres-what-it-means-for-your-church/14938.article

Financial institutions are guilty of discriminating against Christians. That’s the claim of Anglican vicar Richard Fothergill and charity exec Mike Davidson, both of whom are prominent Christians who have recently had their bank accounts closed. They argue banks are trying to force those with unpopular views out of public life. But the banks insist they are free to work with whoever they choose, and that personal views do not come into it. Are there really forces trying to unbank conservative believers whose convictions are at odds with society? And should we be worried about an extension of our roiling culture wars around sexuality into the realm of boycotts and economic warfare?
 
 - I wrote about the cases of Fothergill and Davidson for Premier Christianity here: https://www.premierchristianity.com/news-analysis/why-are-banks-closing-the-accounts-of-these-christians/15897.article

The work of keeping children and vulnerable adults safe from harm and abuse in church has never been a more central part of the Church of England’s remit. Yet in its efforts to do right by victims and build ever more robust policies to root out abusers, the church has managed to get itself in a terrible mess. Survivors and campaigners are up in arms at bishops and the hierarchy, accusing them of stifling dissent after two independent consultants were fired last month. It all culminated in a stormy, tumultuous meeting of the church’s national assembly, the General Synod. This week we take a deep dive into the chaos and strife of Anglican safeguarding, to find out how it all fell apart and whether anyone can put it back together again. 
 
 Guests include:
 
 - Andrew Graystone, survivor advocate and campaigner
 - Gavin Drake, Synod member and anti-abuse activist
 - Jasvinder Sanghera, survivor of forced marriage and former Independent Safeguarding Board member
 - Jamie Hamilton, lay member of the Synod and Archbishops’ Council
 - Rev Ian Paul, Anglican vicar, and member of the Synod and Archbishops’ Council

The recent Asbury Revival prompted huge excitement among many British charismatics and Pentecostals. But it has also prompted some uncomfortable questions, including why isn’t this happening more over here? When the Charismatic Renewal movement hit the UK in the 1980s, there was a moment when miraculous healings, demonic deliverance, speaking in tongues, the gifts of the Spirit and signs and wonders seemed to be becoming part of the everyday life of the church. And yet as the years turned into decades, it feels like things have slowly simmered back down. So why haven’t we seen more supernatural outpourings, more revivals, more outbreaks of the Spirit? 
 For this week’s Premier Christian Newscast, Emma Fowle from Premier Christianity magazine gathered a small panel of Christian leaders, theologians and prophets to discuss what ever happened to the Charismatic Renewal and what the church might do if it wanted to usher the Spirit back into the building.
 
 Guests:
 - RT Kendall, theologian, author and former pastor of Westminster Chapel
 - Pete Hughes, Anglican minister and pastor of Kings Cross Church, London
 - Emma Stark, co-director of the Global Prophetic Alliance and Glasgow Prophetic Centre

Recently, the Church of England announced that its multi-billion pound funds would no longer invest in any fossil fuel companies. For years the Church had tried to use their position as shareholders in companies including BP, Shell, Total and ExxonMobil to nudge them towards cutting emissions and changing strategies. But now they have given up, concluding the oil and gas firms were not aligned with the Paris climate deal’s aim to limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees. 
 Will this divestment make any difference, or is it just virtue-signalling? What role should the church play in campaigning around the climate crisis? And, is it hypocritical to throw stones at these companies when the church is struggling to decarbonise and hit its own net zero targets anyway?
 
 - Read more about the divestment plan here: https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/church-of-england-divests-from-fossil-fuels
 - The pioneering eco-church in Bristol I mention at the end is called Hazelnut Community Farm https://hazelnutcommunityfarm.com

Joshua Sutcliffe, it seems, cannot stop getting into trouble. The Christian teacher has been fired twice from schools and also prosecuted for street preaching during the pandemic lockdown. And now, he has been banned from teaching anywhere for two years by the Teachers Regulation Agency for refusing to use the preferred pronouns of a trans student and sharing his opposition to gay marriage during a maths class.
 Sutcliffe claims he is simply trying to live out and share the gospel, telling everyone from his pupils, to teachers, to passers-by in the street, all the way up to the audience of Piers Morgan’s TV show, the truth about their sin and need for Jesus. Is he a victim of a Britain which has turned its back on Christianity and is trying to silence the gospel? Should the church embrace controversial and outspoken figures like Sutcliffe and support his legal efforts to fight back? Or has the maths teacher lost sight of the Jesus he seeks to proclaim and fallen down a rabbit hole of culture war squabbling and gratuitous offensiveness? 
 
 - Read a recent interview with Sutcliffe in Premier Christianity https://www.premierchristianity.com/interviews/banned-christian-teacher-speaks-out-students-had-a-vendetta-against-me/15682.article 
 - He was also interviewed two years ago after he first lost his teaching job https://www.premierchristianity.com/interviews/is-this-the-most-persecuted-31-year-old-in-britain/5502.article 
 - I wrote a big feature in 2021 exploring whether Christians were truly being persecuted in the UK https://www.premierchristianity.com/features/investigation-are-christians-in-the-uk-persecuted-/4366.article 
 - You can find out more about Sutcliffe on his personal website https://www.joshuasutcliffe.com/

Seventy-five years ago this week, the HMT Empire Windrush docked in the UK, bringing 800 migrants from Caribbean nations to their new lives in Britain. But the anniversary is a bittersweet one the British Caribbean community thanks to the lingering aftermath of the Windrush scandal, which saw thousands of legal residents mistakenly treated as illegal immigrants under the Home Office’s hostile environment policy. At the time many churches and Christians were among those demanding justice for the Windrush generation, but half a decade later have we taken our eye off the ball? Has the government fixed its mistakes and provided genuine restitution and resolution? And has the scandal prompted British churches to address their own failures to welcome their Caribbean brothers and sisters when they arrived in the 1940s, 50s and 60s?
 
 Guests this week:
 - Guy Hewitt, racial justice director for the Church of England
 - Alton Bell, Pentecostal pastor and head of the Movement for Justice and Reconciliation
 - Joe Aldred, Pentecostal bishop and formerly Churches Together in England
 - Israel Olofinjana, Baptist pastor, theologian and director of the Evangelical Alliance’s One People Commission

Graphic lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner safely, and the existence of 72 different genders. According to the Christian MP Miriam Cates, these are some of the things appearing in sex education classes up and down the country. According to her campaign, a radical progressive ideology has infiltrated sex and relationships education. In response to her lobbying, the prime minister said he would bring forward a review into sex education in schools, to ensure they are not teaching quote inappropriate or contested content. 
 But is this really something to be worried about? What are children actually being taught about sex, gender and identity at school? Should Christian parents be joining any campaigns to supposedly de-wokify education, or is this all just a right-wing culture war talking point?
 Guests this week:
 - Nick Batt, youth and families worker at Christ Church Bromley
 - Julie Maxwell, community paediatrician and deputy director of Lovewise
 - Lizzie Harewood, executive officer of the Association of Christian Teachers

Churches have been holding baptisms, weddings and funerals for the people of Britain for well over 1,500 years. But in recent decades the numbers of those choosing to hold these pivotal life moments inside a church building have been plummeting sharply. In this week's episode we discuss whether Christians should be concerned about this trend and what might be behind it. Is this another symptom of the slow death of nominal Christianity, or an alarming sign of how detached the British church is from the people it is supposed to be serving and reaching with the gospel?

<p>Last month, the Rwandan capital of Kigali was the unlikely host of a gathering which will shape the future of the world’s third-largest Christian denomination – the Anglican Communion. Hundreds of conservative and evangelical delegates from across the world met in Kigali under the banner of Gafcon – the Global Anglican Future Conference. And there, they put a bomb under longstanding Anglican structures by declaring they would not accept Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the closest thing Anglicanism has to a pope, as their leader. Fired up by fury at how the mother church of Anglicanism – the Church of England, which Welby leads – has decided to bless same-sex unions, Gafcon has begun a struggle for control, and in some ways a struggle for the soul, of the Anglican Communion. </p> <p>Guests this week:</p> <ul><li> <p>Susie Leafe, conservative Anglican activist</p> </li> <li> <p>Rico Tice, Church of England vicar</p> </li> <li> <p>Andrew Atherstone, evangelical church historian </p> </li> </ul>

<p>The coronation service was unmistakably first and foremost a service of Christian worship. Charles came not to be commissioned into a constitutional role, but to anointed into a sacred, almost priestly, calling. And yet despite all this, in many ways, this month’s coronation was perhaps the UK’s first post-Christian enthronement. The country’s religious landscape is almost unrecognisable since 1953, the last time we did this, and Charles’s coronation reflected that in important ways too.</p> <p>So why do we crown kings the way we do? How did the coronation and monarchy become so enmeshed with Christianity and is this actually a good thing? And how has this coronation changed spiritually-speaking, and what might this tell us about the religious trajectory our nation is on?</p> <p>Guests this week:</p> <ul><li>Rev William Gulliford, Church of England vicar and royal commentator</li> <li>Catherine Pepinster, religious affairs journalist and author of Defenders of the Faith: The British Monarchy, Religion and the Next Coronation</li> <li>Rhiannon McAleer, head of research and impact at the Bible Society</li> </ul>

<p>Believers living under repressive regimes or surrounded by violent extremists are still tragically subject to traditional persecution – imprisonment, physical attack, verbal threats and harassment, and even death. But increasingly persecution comes via the internet, on social media platforms, and sometimes even via the smart devices Christians use themselves. From facial recognition software to firewalls, what are the persecuted church dealing with today? How has one country, China, become a nexus of this kind of high-tech persecution? And what can Christians in the safe West do to fight back?</p> <p>Guests this week:</p> <ul><li>Dave Landrum, the director of advocacy and public affairs for Open Doors</li> <li>Francis Davis, professor of civic leadership and international studies at Roehampton University</li> <li>Anna Lee Stangl, Americas advocacy team leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide</li> </ul>

<p>“Without faith, places of worship and people of faith, this country would be poorer, blander, and less dynamic. Faith is a force for good, and the Government should do more to both understand and release the potential of this fantastic resource.” Those are the words of Colin Bloom, the government’s faith engagement advisor, in the conclusion of his report ‘Does government do God?’. Four years in the making, the 165-page report aims to explore the relationship between religious communities and the government. What is the relationship like between Britain’s churches, and it’s government? Do civil servants and ministers understand those of faith, and do they even want to work together where they can? This week we’re digging into the Bloom report and thinking about the future of the relationship between the church and state. Guests include:</p> <ul><li>Colin Bloom, government faith engagement advisor and author of the report</li> <li>Tim Farron, evangelical Christian MP and former leader of the Liberal Democrats</li> <li>Daniel Singleton, national executive director of FaithAction</li> <li>Danny Webster, director of advocacy for the Evangelical Alliance</li> </ul>

<p>A new survey of more than a thousand churches has concluded weekly attendance has dropped by about 22% on average since before the pandemic. Intriguingly, the research also suggested a large part of this decline was because churches had cut the number of services they offered during the lockdowns and not resumed all of these post-covid. What lessons can we draw from this for ministers and pastors struggling to build their congregations back after the lockdowns? What place does online streaming have now there are no restrictions on attending worship? And who are those who drifted away during covid and never came back, and should we mourn their absence in the first place?</p> <p>This week we’re discussing church attendance post-pandemic and the rights and wrongs of counting success via bums on seats with Emma Fowle and Megan Cornwell from Premier Christianity magazine.</p> <ul><li>The report about church attendance can be read here: <a href='https://oxford.anglican.org/post-covid-19-trends-patterns-and-possibilities.php'>https://oxford.anglican.org/post-covid-19-trends-patterns-and-possibilities.php</a> </li> </ul>

<p>Last month, staff at BBC local radio stations went on strike in protest at major cuts heading their way. Among locally-produced shows due to be scrapped to make millions of pounds of savings are Sunday services and religious broadcasting, mostly to be replaced by programming produced nationally. These cuts come at a time when Christians from various parts of the church have accused the national broadcaster of marginalising religious broadcasting. Is the BBC really trying to squeeze out faith from its schedules? Should Christians be fighting to defend their quotas and protected slots, or is this actually a dead end? And what is religious public service broadcasting actually for – serving niche content for the dwindling band of churchgoers, or trying to showcase Christianity to secular society at large?</p> <p>Guests this week:</p> <ul><li>Michael Wakelin, a TV and radio producer and formerly head of BBC religion</li> <li>Angela Tilby, retired Anglican priest and former BBC religious producer</li> <li>Paul Kerensa, a writer and comedian who’s recently written a history of the BBC and religion</li> </ul>

<p>Denominations are much quicker to close down churches based in poorer areas than those serving the rich. That’s the headline finding a report from the charity Church Action on Poverty, which scrutinised five denominations in Greater Manchester to examine what churches were shut down and where over the past decade. Is this indicative of a loss of faith in ministry to the poor, or just pragmatic economics? Why is British Christianity becoming ever more middle class and have we lost sight of the gospel bias towards the least, the last and the lost?</p> <p>Our guests this week:</p> <ul><li>Philip North, the Bishop of Burnley in the Church of England</li> <li>Eunice Attwood, the Methodist’s Church’s church at the margins officer</li> <li>Niall Cooper, the chief executive of Church Action on Poverty.</li> </ul>

<p>It’s hard to spend any time in the church these days without constantly coming up against so-called Christian celebrities. Whether it’s worship leaders, authors or big-name pastors and speakers, it seems the entire infrastructure of the church relies on these high-profile individuals who have become famous for their ministries. But is any of this actually healthy? Nicky Gumbel, the head of Alpha has announced their next leadership conference will not publicise the names of its speakers and worship leaders in advance to try and counteract ‘Christian celebrity culture’. Should we celebrate efforts to damp down on fame? Or is it unavoidable that gifted Christians who offer their ministry to the church will become well-known, and, well, why shouldn’t they? This week I’m joined by Emma Fowle and Sam Hailes from Premier Christianity magazine to try and think through the pitfalls and blessings of celebrity culture in the church.</p>

<p>Almost exactly ten years ago, on 13 March 2013, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis. In the subsequent decade, this previously obscure Argentinian cleric has revolutionised the papacy while steering the Catholic Church through sweeping reform, inside and out. He’s scandalised conservatives and thrilled some progressives, while overturning what the watching world assumed popes had to be like.</p> <p>In today’s episode we speak with two biographers of Francis to find out their assessment of the pope’s ten years in office. What has he achieved? Where have his ambitions fallen short? Why do some Catholics love him, and still more loathe him like few popes before. And what legacy will he leave behind when he does eventually leave behind the throne of St Peter?</p>