Episode 98: with Bishop Rob Wickham for Sunday 8 October

On this week’s episode of Politics in the Pulpit, our new host, Chris, is chatting to Bishop Rob Wickham. 

Raised in Surrey, Bishop Rob Wickham studied geography at Durham University, specialising in urban regeneration. Bishop Rob has also completed an MA in Theology, politics and faith-based organisations, and has written another thesis on the creative use of church buildings.

Before training for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, he witnessed high unemployment while working in a Tyneside council estate in the declining years of the nearby the Swan Hunter Shipyard, where decades earlier his grandfather had worked.

As rector of St John’s, Hackney, in east London, then-Fr Rob oversaw a re-ordering of the 2,000-seater church to allow for greater community use. The church hosted concerts, job fairs, a food bank, a night shelter, debt advice, the local branch of the credit union, and what became the most-used knife bin in London.

In 2012 the Speaker of Hackney Council gave him an award for outstanding community building during and after the London riots the previous year. In the days after the disturbances, he led a peace vigil with other faith leaders, headed a clean-up operation, hosted community meetings in the church and organised a community street party for 400 people, to help restore trust.

In 2015 was made Bishop of Edmonton in north London, becoming the country’s youngest bishop, at 43, and in 2023 he became the CEO of Church Urban Fund. 

 

Chris and Bishop Rob discuss preaching on the lectionary readings for Sunday 1st October:

Exodus 20: 1-4, 7-9, 12-20 

Philippians 3: 4b-14 

Matthew 21: 33-46 

Psalm 19 

‘Politics in the Pulpit’ is JPIT’s weekly lectionary resource, helping to equip preachers, ministers and worship leaders to unpack justice and peace issues in the pulpit. You can join in the conversation on Twitter/X at @pulpit_politics or using #PoliticsInThePulpit, or on our Facebook community – find the group here or from the Joint Public Issues Team’s Facebook page.