Politics in the Pulpit

The JPIT Interns (3rd May)

This episode of Politics in the Pulpit is hosted by Adam Aucock, and features our special guests, the JPIT interns! This week, Adam, Erica and Thomas explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 3rd May.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Intro

• 11:32 - Acts 7: 55-60

• 18:36 - Psalm 31: 1-5, 15-16

• 26:12 - 1 Peter 2: 2-10

• 32:42 - John 14: 1-14

Mentions Addressing Anti-Judaism in Lent, Holy Week and Eastertide: Updated Lectionary Recommendations (The Methodist Church) - https://www.methodist.org.uk/for-chur...

‘Bible Society say their Quiet Revival report was wrong. Now what?’ Premier Christianity https://www.premierchristianity.com/r...

Christians for Impact - https://www.christiansforimpact.org/

26 April - Revd. Liz Wilson

This episode of Politics in the Pulpit is hosted by Thomas Niblett, and features our special guest, Liz Wilson!

Liz is the Vicar of St Anne, St Paul and St Augustine, Leicester, three parishes (with two churches) in the west of the city. In addition, she is the Area Dean for the City of Leicester Deanery and the vice Chair of Leicester Diocese Diocesan Board of Education.

This week, Liz, Thomas and Roo explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 26 April.

Jonty Langley (19th April)

 

This episode of Politics in the Pulpit is hosted by Erica Lees-Smith, and features our special guest, Jonty Langley!

Jonty Langley is a writer and commentator on religion, culture and politics. A former news columnist for Baptist Times and creative content lead at a missionary society, Jonty is now Editor of Shibboleth magazine and co-host of the Beer Christianity podcast. 

This week, Erica, Jonty and Thomas explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 19th April.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Intro
• 10:30 - Acts 2: 14a, 36-41
• 18:40 - Psalm 116: 1-4, 12-19
• 25:00 - 1 Peter 1: 17-23
• 36:40 - Luke 24: 13-35

Mentions

S(h)ibboleth magazine - https://shibbolethmag.com/pages/about...

Beer Christianity podcast - https://www.beerchristianity.co.uk/

Addressing Anti-Judaism in Lent, Holy Week and Eastertide: Updated Lectionary Recommendations (The Methodist Church) - https://www.methodist.org.uk/for-chur...

JPIT resources on responding to Christian nationalism - https://jpit.uk/responding-to-christian-nationalism

Dissolved by Circle of Dust - https://open.spotify.com/track/43K8q16PW2xlcw7kejDede

 

Matt Forsyth (12th April)

This episode of Politics in the Pulpit is hosted by Hannah Fremont-Brown, and features our special guest, Matt Forsyth!

Matt, who serves currently as the Vice President of the Methodist Conference (25-26) and the Mission Team Leader in the Northampton District. A hopeful realist who lives in the Fens with his wife, three girls, and a bouncy cockapoo. 

This week, Hannah, Matt and Thomas explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 12^th April.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Intro
• 07:15 - Acts 2: 14a, 22-32
• 15:34 - John 20: 19-31
• 29:18 - Psalm 16
• 32:28 - 1 Peter 1: 3-9

Mentions

Addressing Anti-Judaism in Lent, Holy Week and Eastertide: Updated Lectionary Recommendations (The Methodist Church) - https://www.methodist.org.uk/for-churches/resources/articles/addressing-antijudaism-in-lent-holy-week-and-eastertide-updated-lectionary-recommendations/

Together Alliance protest (Sky News) - https://news.sky.com/story/half-a-million-join-london-rally-against-the-far-right-claim-organisers-13525518

JPIT’s recent campaign for refugee family reunion - https://jpit.uk/refugee-reunion

Aniko Schuetz Bradwell - Easter Sunday special (5th April)

This episode of Politics in the Pulpit is hosted by Thomas Niblett, and features our special guest, Aniko Schuetz Bradwell!

Aniko is a Church of Scotland parish minister at Lammermuir Church, a rural parish of seven villages in a farming area of East Lothian, where she has been for just over ten years, and where she lives with her husband (who occasionally works with JPIT) and our son, as well as two cats, a guineapig and a flock of hens. She came to Scotland twenty years ago from my native East Germany, where I studied Literature and Religious Studies. She has worked with the Taizé and Iona Communities before working in the head office of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh. She studied and trained for ministry in Edinburgh, with, among others, a training placement in our churches in the Holy Land.

This week, Thomas, Aniko and Adam explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 5^th April in an Easter Sunday special. Happy Easter from all at JPIT!

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro

03:40 – Acts 10: 34-43

11:55 - Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24

17:20 - Colossians 3: 1-4

24:14 - John 20: 1-18

Mentions

JPIT refugee family reunion campaign – jpit.uk/refugee-reunion

Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere (documentary)

Closing reflection from Pádraig Ó’Tuama An Easter Sunday. A Sacred Echo. Solidarity in a Small Hell of Our Own | The On Being Project

David Coleman - Palm Sunday special (29th March)

This episode of Politics in the Pulpit is hosted by Erica Lees-Smith, and features our special guest, David Coleman!

The Reverend David Coleman is Environmental Chaplain for Eco Congregation Scotland, a post gifted by the United Reformed Church. Without formal authority, he’s nonetheless well known as a green voice in Scottish churches.  He visits grassroots churches and sometimes colleges, and engages in ecumenical conversation with many bodies on spiritual and environmental issues. David was invited to the Assisi conferences on establishing a global ecumenical celebration of Creation, ['24, ’25] and as part of the global supervisory committee for Season of Creation, he curates the Season resource for Scotland. He is a member of the Iona Community, and active in developing challenging reflective visual/liturgical material. David is 62, a widower, with two adult children.

This week, Erica, David and Roo explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 29^th March in a Palm Sunday special.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Intro
• 10:00 - Matthew 21: 1-11

• 23:20 - Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29
• 36:10 - Isaiah 50: 4-9a

Mentions

Together Alliance protest on 28^th March - https://www.togetheralliance.org.uk/

Eco-Congregation Scotland - http://www.ecocongregationscotland.org/

Closing prayer, by Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan - https://www.friendsoftheholyland.org.uk/blog/palm-sunday

Jenny Mills (22nd March)

Listen to the latest episode of Politics in the Pulpit for Sunday 22 March. Hosted by Alex Clare-Young with guest Jenny Mills and JPIT team member Paul Morrison. 

Spring Episode 10 - Al Barrett (15th March)

This is the final episode of Politics in the Pulpit for Spring 2026 hosted by our wonderful host William Gibson, and features special guest, Al Barrett!

Revd Dr Al Barrett has been Rector of Hodge Hill Church (a CofE-URC local ecumenical partnership) in east Birmingham since 2010. He has been involved in long-term journeys of intergenerational community-building with neighbours in the council estate where he lives, and pursuing racial justice and creation care within and beyond the local church community. Al seeks to engage in earthed, collaborative theological work in the intersections of church, mission, race, class, gender and ecology, and is also in training to be a wild therapy practitioner.

This week, William, Al and Erica explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 15th March or Mothering Sunday.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Intro

• 06:15 - John 9: 1-41

• 20:17 - 1 Samuel 16: 1-13

• 28:37 - Psalm 23

• 38:00 - Ephesians 5: 8-14

Mentions

Being Interrupted: Re-imagining the Church's Mission from the Outside, In by Al Barrett and Ruth Harvey (SCM, 2020)

Towards a Critical White Theology (Routledge, 2025) edited by Al Barrett, Anthony Reddie and Jill Marsh

‘Trauma, de/composing masculinities and ensoiled christologies (or, how men might face and follow their shit)’ by Al Barrett and Simon Sutcliffe, in Will Rose-Moore (ed.), For Nothing is Hidden: Masculinities and Trauma in Church and Theology (SCM, forthcoming).

A Healing Homiletic: Preaching and Disability by Kathy Black (Abingdon Press, 1996)

More in Common, Seven Segments of Britain https://www.moreincommon.org.uk/seven...

JPIT’s current campaign for refugee family reunion https://jpit.uk/refugee-reunion

The Nap Ministry founded by Tricia Hersey https://thenapministry.wordpress.com/

Rest is Resistance: Free yourself from grind culture and reclaim your life by Tricia Hersey (Octopus Publishing Group, 2024)

The Good Shepherd: A thousand-year journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament by Kenneth E. Bailey (SPCK, 2014)

Spring Episode 9 - Grace Thomas (8th March)

This episode of Politics in the Pulpit for Spring 2026 is hosted by William Gibson, and features our special guest, Grace Thomas!

Grace is the Canon Missioner at Manchester Cathedral, as well as Diocesan Environment Officer and Associate Tutor at Luther King Centre. Grace's publications include a chapter on ecological grief in Words for A Dying World (Malcolm (ed), 2020, SCM), a chapter about female clergy wellbeing in Female Faith Practices (Routledge, 2023), a co-edited book Chaplaincy – Contemporary and Global Perspectives (SCM, 2024) and a co-authored Grove book entitled Climate Action as Mission. Grace is passionate about justice, especially in areas of climate, ethnicity and poverty. She is the chair of the charity Greater Together Manchester and is the Northern Province Clergy Rep for AMEN, which seeks to support Anglicans of Minority Ethnic Heritage. Grace regularly presents Radio 4's Daily Service.

This week, William, Grace and Thomas explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 8^th March.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Intro
• 04:50 - Exodus 17: 1-7
• 09:24 - Psalm 95
• 14:13 - Romans 5: 1-11
• 21:56 - John 4: 5-42

Mentions

Words for A Dying World: Stories of Grief and Courage from the Global Church edited by Hannah Malcolm (SCM, 2020)

Female Faith Practices: Qualitative Research Perspectives edited by Nicola Slee et al (Routledge, 2023)

Chaplaincy: Contemporary and Global Perspectives by Grace Thomas and Kim Wasey (SCM, 2024)

Climate Action as Mission: How to Link the Gospel with Safeguarding Creation (Grove Books, 2021)

https://www.unicef.org/wash/water-scarcity

A Million Acts of Hope campaign - https://millionactsofhope.org/

The Women in the Gospel of John: The Divine Feminine by Judith Kaye Jones (Chalice Press, 2008)

Women of the Passion by Margaret Ives (Canterbury Press, 1998)

Spring Episode 8 - Teri Peterson (1st March)

This episode of Politics in the Pulpit for Spring 2026 is hosted by William Gibson, and features our special guest, Teri Peterson!

Teri is a Church of Scotland minister, serving the parish of St John’s in Gourock. She came to Scotland in 2017 from Chicago where she was a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Teri has a background in music and in mission work in the Middle East, and she is passionate about the intersection of faith and life. She sees her calling as helping bring sacred and secular together through community work, creativity, and service. In her free time she doomscrolls articles about history and current events, plays with her three cats, reads historical fiction about women, and looks out the window at her amazing view.

This week, William, Teri and Adam explore the lectionary readings for Sunday 1^st March.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Intro
• 06:00 - Genesis 12: 1-4a
• 15:40 - Psalm 121
• 21:57 - Romans 4: 1-5, 13-17
• 27:52 - John 3: 1-17

Mentions

Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes by Mitri Raheb