Politics in the Pulpit

Episode 3 - Erica Lees-Smith with Neil Thorogood and Steve Tinning (14th December)

The third episode of our Advent specials of Politics in the Pulpit is hosted by Erica Lees-Smith, and features Neil Thorogood and JPIT member Steve Tinning!

This week, Erica, Neil, and Steve explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 14th December.

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro

06:33 – Luke 1: 47-55 (Magnificat)

12:04 - Isaiah 35: 1-10

21:14 – James 5: 7-10

25:33 - Matthew 11: 2-11

30:52 – Psalm 146: 5-10

This episode includes particular discussion of the Tommy Robinson event due to take place this weekend, and what preachers could say from the week's readings to speak out for compassion and justice. For more resources please visit our recent blog - jpit.uk/is-this-love.

Episode 2 - Thomas Niblett with Erica Lees-Smith and Simeon Mitchell (7th December)

The second episode of the Advent season of Politics in the Pulpit is hosted by Thomas Niblett, and features guests and JPIT team members Erica Lees-Smith and Simeon Mitchell. We are trialling some live on-site episodes during advent.

This week, Thomas, Erica, and Simeon explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 7^th December.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

05:15 - Matthew 3: 1-12

11:35 - Romans 15: 4-13

17:40 - Isaiah 11: 1-10

24:40 - Psalm 72: 1-7, 18-19

 

Episode 1 - Erica Lees-Smith with Alex Clare-Young and Thomas Niblett (30th November)

The first episode of the new Advent season of Politics in the Pulpit is hosted by Politics in the Pulpit editor Erica Lees-Smith, and features guests and JPIT team members Alex Clare-Young and Thomas Niblett. We are trialing some live on site episodes during advent. This week, Erica, Alex and Thomas explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 30th November.

Episode 9 - Nicola Robinson (23rd November)

The tenth and final episode of this season of Politics in the Pulpit Autumn 2025 is hosted by Stephen Ansa-Addo, and features our special guest, Nicola Robinson!

Nicola Anne Robinson is a URC Minister, currently serving in the Leeds URC Partnership. She has a strong commitment to social and environmental justice, for people and planet who are experiencing marginalisation and exclusion, both locally and globally. Embedding themes such as racial justice, creation care, refugee awareness and more in worship services and with congregations, exploring how people who have been excluded from church can be welcomed and affirmed. Nicola is the Convenor of Yorkshire Synod’s Green Apostles group. In 2026, she will serve as Chaplain to the URC Youth Moderator. She is part of the ecumenical planning group for Pride Church Leeds which holds a service and gathering for our LGBTQ+ Christian community once a month. She lives with her lady companion, Maisie, a 10-year-old cockapoo. 

This week, Stephen, Nicola and Roo explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 23rd November.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

09:30 - Jeremiah 23:1-6

18:50 – Psalm 46

28:50 - Luke 23:33-43

41:25 - Colossians 1:11-20

 

Episode 9 - Lindsey Sanderson (16th November)

The ninth episode of Politics in the Pulpit Autumn 2025 is hosted by Stephen Ansa-Addo, and featuring our special guest, Lindsey Sanderson!

Lindsey is a URC minister, serving as Moderator of the National Synod of Scotland since January 2024. She currently represents the Synod Moderators on the JPIT strategy group. Her commitment to social justice plays a strong part of her Christian faith. She served as a trustee of Christian Aid and global ecumenical experiences through Council for World Mission and as URC representative on the World Council of Churches Central Committee. She has interests in liturgy, writing liturgy including hymn words and sharing the liturgical resources of the world church. She lives in Glasgow with her husband, older daughter and their dog Hamish.

This week, Stephen, Lindsey and Thomas explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 16th November.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

06:20 – Isaiah 65: 17-25

18:29 – 2 Thessalonians 3: 6-13

34:15 – Luke 21: 5-19 and Isaiah 12

Mentions

Social Care Sunday

Interfaith Week – www.interfaithweek.org

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer         

Episode 8 - Mark Rowland (9th November)

The eighth episode of Politics in the Pulpit Autumn 2025 is hosted by Alex Clare-Young, and featuring our special guest, Mark Rowland!  

Mark is Secretary of the Faith and Order Committee for the Methodist Church in Britain. He has been a Methodist minister since 2009 and his formation stretched from inner city Sheffield to the United States. He was awarded his PhD for a thesis entitled “A queer and Methodist theology of holiness: strategies for queering Wesley’s teaching,” reimagining concepts of sin, transformation and perfection. Before his current role, Mark has served in local church and chaplaincy ministry and has a deep passion for worship and preaching which respond to the realities of the world God loves and calls us to love. An activist for the greater participation and inclusion of LGBT+ people in the Church, Mark is co-Chair of OneBodyOneFaith and a trustee of Dignity and Worth. In his free time, Mark is a keen singer and organist. 

This week, Alex, Mark and Erica explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 9th November.  

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro 

04:16 - Luke 20: 27-38 

17:30 - 2 Thessalonians 2: 1-5, 13-17 

21:59 - Haggai 1: 15b-2:9 

28:58 - Psalm 145: 1-5, 17-21 

 

Mentions:

King unveils new memorial to LGBT veterans after gay ban campaign  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr7m8kzgy77o 

Just Money Movement – https://justmoney.org.uk/  

Make Them Pay coalition - https://www.makethempay.org.uk/ 

2025 General Council for the World Communion of Reformed Churches - https://wcrc.eu/gc2025/ 

 

Episode 7 - Phil Nevard (2nd November)

The seventh episode of Politics in the Pulpit Autumn 2025 is hosted by Stephen Ansa-Addo, and featuring our special guest, Phil Nevard!

Other than a few years dabbling in other jobs, Phil has been a URC minister for most of his working life - over 30 years.  For all of that time Phil has managed to escape temptation into regional URC jobs and has happily followed his calling to be a local church minister and not much else.  Phil counts preaching to be one of the joys of ministry and URC folk might vaguely remember his name from the three year vlog and podcast series "Talking Absolute Worship" that Phil hosted through the Covid years.  Phil's most significant contribution to the Liberation struggle has probably been his voluntary work with the Battery Hen Welfare Association.  With the Essex team, including his youngest daughter, he has helped liberate thousands of battery chickens, many of them finding refuge and a new life in his own back garden.  Being a lifelong Bolton Wanderers fan has taught him all he needs to know about dealing with disappointment and disaster.  It is said that this is character-building!  Phil is currently Minister in three churches across Cambridgeshire and Suffolk and is mostly talking about retirement these days!

This week, Stephen, Phil and Simeon explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 2^nd November.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

08:50 - Habakkuk 1: 1-4; 2:1-4

23:56 - Luke 19: 1-10

37:44 - Psalm 119: 137-144

44:01 - 2 Thessalonians 1: 1-4, 11-12

Mentions:

Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann

The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Talking Absolute Worship podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/3bPvwOSi9UIuXVMhw5Ks9m

Together with Refugees https://togetherwithrefugees.org.uk/

The Zacchaeus tax campaign https://www.cwmission.org/news/spotlights/zacchaeus-tax-campaign-to-relaunch-in-africa/

Episode 6 - Claire Nicholls (26th October)

The sixth episode of Politics in the Pulpit Autumn 2025 is hosted by Stephen Ansa-Addo, and featuring our special guest Claire Nicholls!

Claire is Regional Minister for London Baptists, looking after 80 plus churches in South East London. She also oversees the Justice Hub in the association and has a particular focus on enabling and empowering women in leadership. She is a director of the London Baptist Property Board and does many other things as well – it’s a very varied role! She represents the Baptist Union on the JPIT SPG. Claire has led churches in North Manchester and South Croydon, and before she went to train for ministry she was a maths teacher in Derbyshire. She is passionate about bringing people together, within and despite of difference and loves to see churches walking with and watching over one another so that we can thrive in order to enable the good news of Jesus to be brought and lived out in our local contexts. She is a baker of wild and wonderful things and she likes a good walk and plenty of laughter. Good music makes her heart sing – one of the advantages of living in London is the access to last minute cheap tickets to shows and concerts, and Claire definitely takes advantage of this!

This week, Stephen, Claire and Roo explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 26th October.

Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 06:00 - Joel 15:20 – Psalm 65 23:30 - Psalm 84 34:17– Luke

Episode 5 - Melanie Smith (19th October)

The fifth episode of Politics in the Pulpit Autumn 2025 is hosted by Stephen Ansa-Addo, and featuring our special guest Melanie Smith!

Reverend Melanie Smith is the Training and Development officer and Pastoral Consultant for the West Midlands Synod of the United Reformed Church. She is also a Synod Green Apostle and a trained mediator through Place for Hope. Previously, Melanie served for two years as the Director for the Centre for Gender and Social Justice at the Pacific Theological College in Fiji, a higher education college serving 20 churches of 6 denominations across 16 nations in the south Pacific. Her first career took her from banking, to public sector accountancy, to working for Christian Aid as a Volunteer Development Officer in the West Midlands. She has tried to walk the talk by protesting against Trump, the arms fair, and at various climate protests. She has worked locally on Syrian Refugee Resettlement Schemes and individual refugee cases. She helped set up two food banks and two debt centres and chaired a homelessness charity during the pandemic. If she could live anywhere other than near family, it would be India.

This week, Stephen, Melanie and Thomas explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 19th October.

Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 09:00 - Luke 18: 1-8 24:10 – Jeremiah 31: 27-34 30:51 – Psalm 119: 97-104 37:12 – 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Mentions JPIT's guidance on the rise of the British National Party in 2006 - https://jpit.uk/wp-content/uploads/20... Freedom Sunday resources - https://www.ijmuk.org/freedom-sunday Tent of Nations - https://tentofnations.com/ Daoud Nassar from Tent of Nations visits JPIT at Methodist Church House - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...

Episode 4 - Sarah Edwards (12th October)

The fourth episode of Politics in the Pulpit Autumn 2025 is hosted by Stephen Ansa-Addo, and featuring our special guest Sarah Edwards!

Sarah Edwards is Executive Director of the JustMoney Movement, an ecumenical education and campaigning charity which has a vision of a world where money is used to shape a greener, fairer future for all. Sarah oversees the organisation’s work, which aims to resource a movement of Christians and churches to act more justly with their own money and to speak out for a more just use of money in the economy. Sarah has recently started training for ordination in the Church of England. She lives in North London with her husband and two children.

This week, Stephen, Sarah and Thomas explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 12th October.

Mentions

JustMoney Movement - justmoney.org.uk

• Tuesday 7 October - Greening our Finances: Practical steps for Eco Churches
• Wednesday 8 October - Investing in a Fairer, Greener World

UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association - uksif.org

Bill McKibben, environmental writer - billmckibben.com