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76 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud

EP#75 “Staying Put” - with John Battle

5 november 2026 · 1 uur 13 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with John Battle.

John has had a storied life. Shaped by the “ancient ways” of Christian practice, he has lived for over four decades in a community where people struggle mightily to hold their lives together. For many years he was a Labour MP and served as a government minister, but this conversation focuses on what he loves most – living among his people and empowering them to enact their own change. John bears witness to what modernity and its culture of hyper-isolation have done to our relationships. He describes the men’s walking group he set up to combat suicide risk, and what it taught him about mercy, forgiveness, redemption and the need to “learn the language of listening.” Inspired by the early saints and the monastic tradition, he sees the healing power of belonging to a place: its spirit, its history and its memories. He tells the story of Bramley Baths – how a group of local people, beginning around his kitchen table, plotted to save a dilapidated municipal pool and built a successful social enterprise, a stable local institution with 60 jobs, benefiting thousands of people. For John, always attuned to the balance between contemplation and action, it is a vivid example of the relational, enabling role the churches are called to play in the reconstruction of society.

Sir John Battle was Labour MP for Leeds West from 1987 to 2010. He served as Minister of State for Science, Energy and Industry and then as a minister at the Foreign Office. Born in Bradford and rooted in Batley Carr, Dewsbury, he received a seminary education as a boy and then attended St Joseph’s College Up Holland intending to become a priest. Deciding instead to enter politics, he was a Leeds city councillor before entering Parliament as well as national coordinator of Church Action on Poverty. He serves as Pro-chancellor of Leeds Trinity University, is …
EP#74 The Theology of “Communio” - With Tracey Rowland

22 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 19 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Tracey Rowland about the unravelling of modernity and the response of the Church. Tracey explains how, over the last six centuries, faith and reason became separated, resulting in a false anthropology and the current crisis of identity. She unpacks the fracture that opened after Vatican II between the Concilio instinct that sought to correlate the faith with modernity, and the Communio current which insisted that faith and reason, nature and grace, truth and beauty belong together. This conversation underlines the vital importance of Christian intellectual engagement with our era. Tracey calls for an integrated, confident Christianity grounded in place and friendship, mediated by the sacraments. As she points out, Christian faith is not just another moral code. It is the very font of beauty and truth that forms a people and gives a culture meaning.

Tracey Rowland holds the St John Paul II Chair of Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia. Professor Rowland studied law at the University of Queensland and philosophy at the University of Melbourne before earning a PhD from the University of Cambridge on theological understandings of culture, drawing on Alasdair MacIntyre, Henri de Lubac, and Joseph Ratzinger. She also holds pontifical degrees from the Lateran University in Rome. From 2001 to 2017, she served as the inaugural Dean of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Melbourne. She was appointed to Pope Francis’s International Theological Commission in 2014 and to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in 2023. In 2020, she became the first Australian and only the third woman to receive the Ratzinger Prize for Theology. She is widely published and has authored influential books on Pope Benedict XVI, Catholic theology, and Christian humanism.

LINKS

For Tracey Rowland:

https://…
EP#73 - AI, The Church and a Post-Work World With Matthew Sanders

8 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 18 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet Matthew Sanders. Amid conflicting claims about AI, Matthew brings a leading tech practitioner’s experience and rare ethical seriousness. He speaks of what he calls the coming “existential cliff” — the disruption AI and robotics will bring to work, identity and meaning — in societies weakened by Western individualism. Though optimistic, he warns the transition will be messy. The classical, GDP-shaped model of work is ending; what replaces it will appear as we find new forms of work and vocation, and discern what must remain human. For Matthew, the AI revolution is not only economic and technological; it is an anthropological event. His hope rests less in technology than in the Church recovering its vocation as a place of human, intellectual and spiritual formation. Drawing on Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas, Matthew locates resolution not in Silicon Valley but in small communities gathered around church life. Just as the monasteries emerged from the collapse of the Roman Empire, Matthew believes the parish is called to become “the ark for a post-work world.” Lees meer

Matthew Harvey Sanders is Founder and CEO of Longbeard, the leading mission-driven technology company building faithful, Catholic-oriented artificial intelligence. The Longbeard team has developed some of the most significant Catholic AI initiatives in the world, including Magisterium AI, a powerful large language model trained exclusively on official Church documents and ancient Christian manuscripts; Vulgate AI, a dedicated tool for biblical access and study; and Ephrem, the world’s first fully dedicated Catholic AI. Sanders is committed to creating technology that fosters human solidarity, serves the Church, and challenges the dominant technocratic paradigms of our age. He is also the founder of the Builders AI Forum and has served as a digital strategist for numerous Catholic nonprofits, creating ethical tech platforms for evangelisation and environmen…
EP #72 Joining God in the Neighbourhood - with Karen Wilk

24 september 2026 · 1 uur 3 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet Karen Wilk, who has devoted her life to discovering what it means to join with God in the neighbourhood. Like many other pastors, Karen began in youth ministry. Over time, though, she grew uneasy watching so much church-life energy go into getting people through the door, rather than helping them develop a real relationship with Jesus. Long before it was fashionable, she recognised there was something upside-down about this and wondered what it would look like to form church in her neighbourhood - with her neighbours. Shaped by influences like John McKnight’s Abundant Community, Karen has quietly and persistently pioneered a deeply loving commitment to place and people. In a moment when many are awakening to the realisation that Christ’s church is meant to be rooted in the local, Karen’s story is a testament to what patient, pioneering faithfulness can create in a neighbourhood - something beautiful for God.

Dr. Karen Wilk is a community pastor and neighbourhood animator who is part of a growing network of Canadian faith communities. For almost 20 years, Karen has been pursuing a ‘new thing’ — seeking to discover and join God at work in her neighbourhood, and equipping and inspiring others to do the same (through Resonate Global Mission and Forge Canada). She has a Doctorate in Missional Leadership from Northern Seminary (Chicago) and lives in Edmonton, Canada. She has been a pastor/teacher for about 40 years. She’s also a spouse, mum, nana, e-biker, birder, pickleballer, outdoorsy and crafty type.

LINKS

For Karen Wilk:

https://forgecanada.ca/

www.resonateglobalmission.org/

Mentioned in this episode:

John McKnight and Peter Block The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods

Barbara Brown Taylor An Altar in the World: Finding the Sacred Beneath Our Feet

Books:

Don’t Invite Them to Church: Moving f…
EP #71 The New Spiritual Hunger – with Christian Smith

10 september 2026 · 1 uur 19 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Christian Smith about what is happening to spirituality in the US. Christian’s deep research on attitudes to religion among the young has led him to the sober conclusion that traditional faith in North America has become “obsolete”. Something massive is shifting across Western societies: amidst the exhaustion of liberal modernity, the turn toward re-enchantment means that the churches’ framing of the culture as secular no longer holds. The spiritual hunger of the young is attaching to politics, identity, conspiracy, the occult and techno-utopianism as readily as to church. When asked how priests and pastors should respond, he sees that authentic Christianity embodies what the young are yearning for: a cosmic vision, sacramental life, disciplined prayer practices, embodied community, faithful doctrine and moral clarity. But rather than conventional evangelising, the times call for a posture of listening, hospitality and dialogue as a better way to connect.

Christian Smith is a leading figure in the sociology of religion. Best known for coining the term “moralistic therapeutic deism” to describe the beliefs of American teenagers, he has written many influential works on faith, culture and the moral life. His books include the forthcoming Occulture: The New Face of American Spirituality (2027) and the recent Why Religion Went Obsolete (2025). Christian is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, where he taught for nearly twenty years and founded the Center for the Study of Religion and Society. Prior to Notre Dame, he spent twelve years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds a BA from Gordon College and an MA and PhD from Harvard University. Rais…
EP #70 A Politics of Restoration - with Maurice Glasman

23 juli 2026 · 1 uur 31 min
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Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair welcome Maurice Glasman back to Leaving Egypt for a second conversation. Maurice traces the exhaustion of a settlement built on progressivism and globalisation -one the church has too often been co-opted into rather than resisted. In its eroding, he sees opportunity for a politics built not on elite abstraction but on ordinary virtues - commitment, constraint, solidarity, family, place and nation - drawn from the well of Catholic Social Teaching. Water, land, the human person: for Maurice these are gifts of God, not commodities, and recovering that conviction is where renewal begins. He argues the divide is no longer left versus right but sovereignists versus globalists, those who want power to rest with peoples and places, versus those who would transfer it to borderless, unaccountable systems of capital, ideology and technology. He turns to two countries close to his heart: confronting Iran’s regime and backing its people’s resistance, and Ukraine’s costly defence of its sovereignty. What may be coming, he senses in a yearning for settled life from working-class Britain to Ukraine and the Iranian people, is restoration: the recovery of family, faith, place and nation: a hopeful story the church could yet join, if only it had eyes to see it. Lees meer

Lord Maurice Glasman is a British politician, political theorist, commentator and community organiser who has served as a Labour life peer in the UK Parliament since 2011. He is best known as the founder of Blue Labour, a movement launched in 2009 to address Labour’s drift from its founding roots, challenging both New Labour’s neoliberalism and progressive identity politics. Drawing on Catholic Social Teaching, Aristotle and the thought of Karl Polanyi, he promotes a politics of the common good. Alongside his parliamentary work he remains active internationally, particularly in relation to Ukraine and Iran. He has a longstanding commitment to community organising, most recently in Grimsby, throu…
EP#69 - Walking with Jesus in Deprived Places - with Ian Williamson

9 juli 2026 · 1 uur 25 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet Ian Williamson. Ian is a man of great courage whose life was transformed after being dominated by heavy drinking, cocaine addiction, gambling debts, and self-destruction. When he encountered Christ, he chose not to leave but to stay on the council estate where he grew up - and recognised that discipleship there required a distinctively relational approach. He now mentors fellow working class pastors, encouraging them to let their lives speak and to dwell among neighbours as fellow travellers. Ian speaks frankly about the deep alienation between many working class communities and mainstream churches. He names the collapse of moral leadership and the failure of many middle-class leaders to connect with the concerns of poor areas. He also describes the catastrophic damage done to family life and how globalisation has eroded community-centred ways of living. He sees an urgent need for spiritual rebuilding, one relationship at a time. Ian is “the genuine article” — an ordinary man living an extraordinary vocation, through whom the love of Jesus shines.

Ian Williamson is a working-class pastor and church planter from Middlesbrough. Raised in a single-parent home, his early life was dominated by violence and addiction and shaped by work as a nightclub bouncer. After meeting Jesus, Ian’s life was transformed. He was led to plant and pastor New Life Church, and with his wife Rachel, to co-found SixtyEightFive, a ministry supporting men and families affected by fatherlessness. Now, as Executive Director of Medhurst Ministries, he equips pastors for contextual mission, evangelism and relational discipleship, planting and supporting churches in the UK’s most deprived places, especially council estates.

For Ian Williamson

www.medhurstministries.org

In Context Podcast:

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

Facebook: https://www.…
EP #68 Guiding a Church in a Time of Crisis - with Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani

25 juni 2026 · 1 uur 17 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair speak with Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani. As a bishop in the Church of England, she knows its challenges, both internal and external. She is sensitive not only to its wrestling with decline, but also with the need to reorient itself in a time when both society and the churches confront crisis on multiple levels. Her life has prepared her well for this moment. Experiences of disruption as a refugee have given her a deep confidence that God is both present and actively working, even as familiar structures undergo change, even as communities fragment. With realism and quiet courage, she embodies the struggle of a faithful pilgrim finding ways to “leave Egypt” within the confines of institutional life. Resisting the rush toward strategies and programmatic fixes, she prefers prayerful listening rather than seeking safety in control. In the midst of uncertainty she delights in grassroots relationships, encouraging others to discern the movement of the Spirit and to discover what kind of church God is forming in this time of crisis.

Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani is the Bishop of Chelmsford in the southeast of England, UK. She is the lead Bishop for Housing for the Church of England, a member of the Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords, and is currently Chair of the Board of the Church Army. Born in Iran, daughter of Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, the Anglican Bishop in Iran, and Margaret, daughter of William Thompson, Guli and her family left the country in the wake of the Iranian Revolution in 1980 when she was 13 years old, and to date she has been unable to return.

LINKS

For Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani

https://www.chelmsford.anglican.org/about-us/the-bishop-of-chelmsford/

Bishop Guli’s address at Great St Mary’s in Cambridge, 16th Sept 2024

Books

· Listening to the Music of the Soul, 18 September 2025

· Stations of the Resurrection, Encounters wit…
EP#67 - Christian Witness in De-industrialised Communities - with Justin Gill

11 juni 2026 · 1 uur 23 min
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In this episode, Al and Jenny meet Justin Gill. Justin became a follower of Jesus as a young man in his native Pakistan from where he immigrated to the UK. Immersed in post-industrial English communities for twenty years, he became well acquainted with the complex realities of race, poverty, religion, and questions of belonging. This conversation explores the turbulent relationship between Christianity, Islam and secularisation in a time of cultural and political instability. Justin senses that God has brought him, as a Christian, into Muslim contexts, and to be among the indigenous English working class. His love for peoples and place is evident in his deep understanding of these different communities’ reactions to deindustrialisation, and how their responses to current tensions express their distinct histories and worldviews. Tying all this together is his deep conviction of Christ as Redeemer and His presence in hard, conflicted places. Lees meer

Justin Gill works with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), advising on cross-cultural mission in a network that links more than 50,000 Christians across the UK. Justin speaks here in a personal capacity. Born and raised in North Pakistan, he was an advisor on minority affairs to a political party and led relief operations following the 2005 earthquake. Moving to the UK in 2006, he gained an MSc in Development and Project Planning at Bradford University and lived in North Yorkshire. He continues to support evangelical church networks in Pakistan. He now lives in Leicestershire and attends Knighton Free Church.

For Justin Gill

https://fiec.org.uk/people/justin-gill

https://fiec.org.uk/who-we-are/staff

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/justin-gill-fiec

https://x.com/Justin4Gill

https://fiec.org.uk/resources/moving-towards-intercultural-church

https://fiec.org.uk/resources/should-every-church-be-multi-racial

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.…
EP #66 Re-Enchanted, Relational, Local - with Tim Soerens

28 mei 2026 · 1 uur 19 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet Tim Soerens. Tim is a wild dreamer - in the very best sense - who describes his development in terms of a “re-enchantment with Christian faith”. Tim is on a rich, imaginative journey fostering ways of being church within creative experiments of local life – through postures, practices and relationships rather than programmes. Dedicated to flourishing neighbourhoods, he has become convinced of the need for stronger local economies, and now, to that end, he convenes collaborations across faith and secular lines. Tim sees the Christian imagination offering many gifts along that road, especially through local-scale partnerships that shift congregations to become relational communities in solidarity with their neighbours.

Tim Soerens is Executive Director and co-founder of the Parish Collective, an ecumenical network that connects and resources Christians to be church within their local neighbourhoods, focusing on presence, place, and community renewal. He is also co-founder of Neighbourhood Economics which convenes faith leaders and entrepreneurs to catalyse ideas for repairing local economies. Tim studied rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned his Master of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

For Tim Soerens

www.timsoerens.com

https://www.parishcollective.org/team

https://neighborhoodeconomics.org/who-we-are/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoerens

https://x.com/timsoerens

https://www.instagram.com/timsoerens/

https://www.facebook.com/tim.soerens/

Books

Everywhere You Look: Discovering the Church Right Where You Are

The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches Are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community (with Paul Sparks)

https://w…
EP #65 A New Generation Finds Home - with Sophie Taylor

14 mei 2026 · 1 uur 14 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair speak with Sophie Taylor about the quiet but growing movement of young adults towards the Catholic Church. Drawn by a hunger for truth and belonging amidst a chaotic culture, many arrive with little formation - some new to faith, others reclaiming what earlier generations let slip. Sophie explores what attracts them: the Church’s sacramental imagination - beauty, liturgy, art, and mystery - and the way parish life can reframe reality and relationship. She also names the challenges of moving from online isolation and post-COVID social anxiety into embodied community, arguing that young adults need more than a friendly welcome: they need intentional formation in relational life. With realism and hope, Sophie describes how deep listening and attentive encounter can renew belonging in the Church and beyond. This is a compelling picture of God’s mission at work - one heart at a time - inviting the whole Church to become a living oasis amid the storms of our age.

Sophie Taylor is the Adult Faith Formation Officer at the Diocese of Leeds, where she supports new Catholics, resources catechists, and organises formation events and days of reflection to help adults across the diocese grow in faith. She also works part-time supporting the pastoral life and community at the parish of St. Joseph Brighouse and St. Patrick’s Elland. After gaining her degree in Theology at Leeds Trinity University, when she also served in the diocesan youth team, she taught RE in the North East of England, where she also served in her local parish.

For Sophie Taylor

https://www.dioceseofleeds.org.uk/education/welcome/meet-the-team/

https://www.dioceseofleeds.org.uk/new-eve-faith-formation-day-celebrating-womens-call-to-holiness/

https://www.dioceseofleed…
EP#64 A Priest to the People - with Fr John Armitage

30 april 2026 · 1 uur 18 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet Fr John Armitage. These days, there is much talk about the challenges for leadership and what it means to be church in a post-everything society. Anxious questions abound: Is revival coming, or are we sliding into an even more uncertain season? Yet when listening to Fr John, a completely different response emerges. Amid what he describes as the great emptiness of modern life - the worship of idols, the loss of community – here is a wise, seasoned leader who carries a quiet sense of joy, anticipation, and delight in the work God has given him right where he is. What’s the secret? First, he is deeply rooted in place. When asked about himself, he begins with the story of where he grew up. It’s as if he’s saying: if you want to know who I am, you need to know where I was planted. The relational character of working-class culture has shaped his life. Second, he is firmly rooted in the Catholic tradition; the ordered rhythms of the Church have formed him. There is no fancy strategy to what he does, no new thing that makes the parish successful. But there is this deep rooting in the Gospel. These realities give him the grounding to be present with people, to enter their everyday lives in a way that lets them know they’re being met by someone held by a bigger story. This is a man in love with his neighbourhood, his life in God, and therefore with the people around him—core elements, it seems, in being a kingdom people in Egypt.

Monsignor John Armitage is the longstanding parish priest at St Margaret’s Church in Canning Town, his lifelong East London home. Fr John is an inspirational retreat leader, speaker and mentor to clergy and has held senior roles in the Diocese of Brentwood, including Vicar General. For five years between…
EP#63 - Stewarding a Christian Imagination for a Just World - with Melanie Rieback

16 april 2026 · 1 uur 18 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet Melanie Rieback. Melanie’s faith journey is as unexpected as her professional journey. Her extraordinary story, from computer hacker to systems thinker, from a secular Jewish upbringing to the Catholic tradition, is filled with creativity and paradox. She incubates steward-ownership business models and loves the ancient liturgies of the Church. She is a leader in cutting-edge redemptive business and finance who likes Thomas Aquinas. She works with European governments as her life is shaped by Edith Stein. She retells parables to ground new economic ideas in ancient biblical wisdom. She builds bridges between the political left and the Christian right. Melanie is involved in an amazing journey of encountering the reality of God. The story of her conversion was told in another podcast (linked below). In this episode of Leaving Egypt, she reveals how her journey continues to unfold, including baptism into the Catholic Church. What stands out most about Melanie’s vocation is that, even in a highly technical field, her primary question is: “Lord Jesus, where do you want me?” Her surrender, through moments of crisis and awakening, is to a powerful calling: to gather and empower people to create a more just world, for the sake of the other, in God’s name.

Dr. Melanie Rieback is a computer scientist and social entrepreneur, CEO and founder of a cybersecurity company - Radically Open Security - that gives all its profit to charity. She is also founder of a “Post Growth” startup incubator, Nonprofit Ventures. Inspired by Catholic Social Teaching, she is involved in the Francesco Collaborative where she mentors young entrepreneurs and practitioners the non-extractive business space. Formerly, Melanie was Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Free University of Amsterdam, and head researcher in the CSIRT at ING Bank, where she spearhead…
EP#62 Embracing the Charism of Shared Leadership - with Mark Lau Branson

2 april 2026 · 1 uur 18 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet for a second time with Mark Lau Branson about how his church is working out the nature of leadership.

A small, multicultural congregation in Los Angeles, they comprise a cross section of America - from university professors to immigrant day workers. Following the catastrophic urban wildfires of 2025 and amidst ongoing immigration issues that confront them daily, this community is undergoing a profound reorientation. Embracing a new imagination, they are allowing the gifts that the Spirit has given them through one another to shape them as a people. Shifting from an inward focus on the life of the church, towards the outward-facing question of how to join with God in their broken and shattered communities, they are seeing a more “bottom-up”, shared leadership emerging, and from this, meaningful relationships of solidarity in the neighbourhood. In the context of Luigino Bruni’s episode #60 it is clear that what is happening here is the discerning of “charism” among the people. Mark’s story describes a form of leadership quite different from the usual approaches of those with oversight of a congregation. Rather than “vision casting” and “strategizing” from above, this empowering, shared approach is about listening, prayer, and discernment, calling forth, naming and supporting the gifts of the people in liturgy, formation and worship - and especially outside church in their communities.

Mark Lau Branson has been the Homer L. Goddard Senior Professor of the Ministry of the Laity and has taught at Fuller since 2000. His current work focuses on Ph.D. students. Ordained at San Francisco Christian Center, an African American Pentecostal church, he has served on the pastoral teams in United Methodist and Presbyterian churches an…
EP#61 An Economy of the People - with Rob Stewart

19 maart 2026 · 1 uur 20 min
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In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet with Rob Stewart, a true pilgrim grounded in the hope of God’s kingdom. Rob recognises that modern economies are not only unjust but also deeply harmful, isolating people and working against the grain of humanity. Rob is convinced that another way is possible. Believing that human beings are “hard-wired for connection,” a moment of metanoia led him to leave behind a thirty-year business career and embark on a journey into relational economics. He went on to establish a solar energy cooperative which not only provides clean, affordable energy but also invites people into a shared story of participation. Rob’s pilgrimage has been shaped by highs and lows, inspired by contemplative prayer, and guided by a humble surrender to the will of God. Lees meer

Rob Stewart is the Founder and Executive Director of Collective Power Boroondara, in Melbourne, Australia - a community energy cooperative advancing an equitable transition to a sustainable economy. Linked with others in the field of relational economics, he participates in the Francesco Collaborative and other international networks focused on ethical business practices. Formerly, he studied for the priesthood but things took an unexpected turn when he met his future wife. He went on to serve in the family retail business, a company founded by his father on the basis of Catholic Social Teaching principles. He lives in Melbourne with his wife and three adult sons.

Links

For Rob Stewart

https://collectivepowerboroondara.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-stewart-a0b2551ab/

https://francescocollaborative.org/

Also mentioned in the episode:

A Personalist Manifesto by Emmanuel Mounier

https://www.cpa.coop/

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Books

Forming Communities of Hope in the Great Unravelling: Leadership in a Changing World (with Roy Searle…
EP#60 - Beyond Business - the Church’s Response to Crisis - with Luigino Bruni

5 maart 2026 · 1 uur 13 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair welcome back Luigino Bruni for a second conversation, this time exploring how churches and religious orders confront crisis. An economist and scholar of organisational life, Bruni reflects on what is at stake when Christian communities lose confidence. Attentive to the extent that the methods of management culture have become defaults for many church systems, he observes how communities are losing touch with the core of what it means to be God’s people. At the heart of a Christian community is the presence of Jesus among the people of God, and the task of those entrusted with care and oversight is to help their people discern the movements of the Spirit, both among them, and in their local communities. Bruni counsels that this is not the work of outside consultants bringing business models into the church. He cautions that outsourcing can lead to confusion and weaken the heart of communal life. Instead, he believes that in the midst of our great unravelling, churches and communities facing difficulty have a special calling. He insists that “crisis itself has precious things to teach”, and that at such times, the work of a community is to embrace practices of discernment that are rooted in the confidence that Christ is among them making all things new. Lees meer

Professor Luigino Bruni is an economist, an historian of economic thought and a scholar of organisational life. He is Professor of Political Economy at the Lumsa University in Rome, a public non-state Italian university formed on Catholic principles. Here he also coordinates the Phd Programme in Civil Economy. His scholarship of economics extends to biblical commentaries on the history of economic thought as well as to the religious nature of capitalism. Professor Bruni is involved in many grassroots projects devoted to developing a new economic paradigm: he is International Co-ordinator of the Economy of Communion project, a Board member of the Economy of Francesco Fou…
EP#59 Do Not Move Around From Place to Place - with Cam Roxburgh

19 februari 2026 · 1 uur 8 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Cam Roxburgh about his thirty-plus years forming the Neighbourhood Church in greater Vancouver. Cam’s story is one of faithful dwelling—listening to the Spirit and discerning what God is doing in the community. The conversation traces Cam’s journey as a church leader, marking his shift away from what he calls “the era of projects” towards an approach centered on practices rooted in prayer, discernment and local relationships. He challenges forms of church leadership that prioritise strategy, methods, and quick outcomes - the “just add water and stir” view of the world. Instead, Cam advocates for “doing life with neighbours.” His steadfast commitment to place, despite many obstacles, has borne remarkable fruit: deep community trust, transformed lives, and even a measurable impact on the local economy. Al and Jenny explore how God has used Cam’s long, patient journey to bring into being things no one could ever have imagined - a testament to his persistent patience and passionate desire to hear the Spirit even in the midst of real discouragement. Lees meer

Cam Roxburgh is Team Leader of The Neighbourhood Church in Burnaby, Vancouver. Here, he has been instrumental in transforming church property into a major affordable housing and community amenity development. He also leads Forge Canada and is Vice President of Missional Initiatives for the North American Baptists. Cam is driven by a love for the church and a desire to see people fulfil a Jesus-shaped life as disciples dwelling in their neighbourhoods. Cam is also co-founder and co-leader of the Commons Cooperative, a transatlantic group of pioneers and practitioners across denominations who have come together to “join in with God to form communities of hope” in the places people call home. Cam and his wife Shelley live in Surrey, British Columbia.

For Cam Roxburgh:

http://www.southside.ca/

https://forgeca.wordpress.com/

https://www.thecommonscooperative.com/about…
EP#58 This Cosmic Life - with Andrew Willard Jones

5 februari 2026 · 1 uur 21 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair speak with Andrew Willard Jones about how to live humanly within the empire of modernity. Andrew traces his journey, from a secular upbringing, to embracing the Catholic tradition and a deep commitment to family and community. An exceptional thinker among a new generation of Catholic theologians, he explores how modernity and its liberalisms have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the world and what it means to be human. But this is no retreat into religious or academic abstraction. Andrew lives and works daily in a growing community embodying a shared Christian life—an “other kingdom” that echoes Augustine in our age of unravelling. This conversation reveals a cosmic dimension to everyday life: a way of living shaped by the love of God has the potential to transform all of society. It also raises urgent questions for churches, parishes, and Christian communities in this post-liberal moment. If what’s at stake is humanity itself, then our response must be rooted in love and friendship, not power or control. Lees meer

Andrew Willard Jones is a political theologian whose work is primarily concerned with historical political theology and with the reconciliation of the post-modern with the pre-modern. He is currently Professor of History and Political Theory and Academic Dean at The College of St. Joseph the Worker in Ohio, a new college teaching students the Catholic intellectual tradition while training them in skilled and dignified labour. A founding editor of the journal New Polity, his writing is recognised as having broken new ground in Catholic political thought, and he lectures widely, in both academic and ecclesial contexts. The author of many books, Andrew holds a PhD in Medieval History from Saint Louis University with a focus on the Church of the High Middle Ages. He and his wife Sara are busy raising their eleven children in Steubenville, Ohio.

Links

For Andrew Willard Jones:

https://www.collegeofstjoseph.…
EP#57 African Christian Experience and a Changing West - with Harvey Kwiyani and Jide Ehizele

22 januari 2026 · 1 uur 28 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair bring together two former guests, Harvey Kwiyani (episode 20) and Jide Ehizele (episode 49), for a fascinating conversation about identity, migration, and spirituality. Jide, a second-generation British Nigerian from South London, brings grounded experience and deep reflection as a writer, thinker, and youth leader, offering unique insight into the UK’s cultural and spiritual landscape. Harvey, a Malawian missionary now based in Liverpool, works across the UK, Europe, and North America, and writes on African theology and God’s mission in the West. They sense that the Enlightenment’s legacy has weakened the West’s ability to comprehend the nature of the Spirit—while for much of African Christianity this is still instinctive. As we undergo this change of era, they see the UK wrestling with identity and a growing spiritual yearning presenting both a challenge and an opportunity for church leaders. Together with Al and Jenny, they discuss how the migration of African Christians to the UK may be the Spirit’s way of catalysing a sacramental spirituality that British culture has lost. Examining how guest and host can practice hospitality to each other, they explore how cultural barriers can be bridged to foster both a sense of belonging and an openness to encounter the Spirit in everyday life.

Harvey Kwiyani works for the Church Mission Society (CMS) in Oxford, UK, where he leads a study centre for global witness and human migration and a Masters programme in African Christianity. Harvey is also the CEO of Global Connections, a UK-based mission network, and a director of Missio Africanus, a think tank exploring the rise and role of the African missionary movement in world missions. Harvey has published several books and holds a Ph.D. in Missions and Leadership.

Jide Ehizele is a Christian thinker and writer focusing on faith, identity and cultu…
EP#56 Wrestling with Hope in a Fractured Age: The Understory - with Anne Snyder

8 januari 2026 · 1 uur 12 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Anne Snyder about the anxieties—and unexpected possibilities—of our volatile moment. Anne doesn’t stop at lament or analysis. As she wrestles with the tensions between plurality and unity in a fractured age, her desire to articulate truth in the written word is matched by an instinct for hospitality and the conviction of God’s grace underlying our daily lives. Inspired by the integrated witness of Dorothy Day, Anne not only writes and encourages other writers, but organises spaces where people of different perspectives can meet—and, through mutual vulnerability, encounter grace. In conversation with Al and Jenny, Anne reimagines Christian humanism as an “understory” beneath the surface of our divides: a story of local, hidden movements where building, healing, reckoning, and reconciling are the components essential for the common good.

Anne Snyder is the editor-in-chief of Comment, a magazine of public theology for the common good and a developing ecosystem of conversation and community. Rooted in the Christian humanist tradition, Comment now encompasses a growing podcast network, gatherings that span grassroots to institutional settings across North America and the UK, and a three-day festival at the Washington National Cathedral. Anne also hosts The Whole Person Revolution podcast and co-edited Breaking Ground: Charting Our Future in a Pandemic Year (2022). The author of The Fabric of Character (2019), she writes widely and delights in weaving worlds together—in print, around the table, and across different sectors and ways of knowing.

Links:

For Anne Snyder:

Comment Magazine

https://comment.org/contributors/anne-snyder/

The Whole Person Revolution podcast

https://annesnyder.org/about/

Breaking Ground

Books

The Fabric of Character: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Renewing our Social and Moral Landscape (2019)

Breaking Ground…
EP#55: With Christ in the Margins - with John Clifton

18 december 2025 · 1 uur 18 min
Afspelen

In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with John Clifton about his experiences as a Salvation Army leader among people in the margins. In a sense, this is what you would expect from a Salvation Army officer. But give this a careful listen: John is also a deeply informed thinker and theologian with vital insights for the church today. In Christian circles lately there is much being said and written about two contrasting conversations: the quiet revival of young adults coming to certain kinds of churches, and the confusion and fear surrounding the recent conversions of controversial figures like Tommy Robinson and others at the margins—people who have had little to do with church and Christian life. John has important things to say about what is happening here and about why we should listen to what the Spirit is saying from the culture to the churches. John calls the church to return to its working-class roots, for relational spaces where Christ is encountered in the powerless, for the fostering of solidarity, and for local economic renewal. Lees meer

Captain John Clifton is a Salvation Army officer, ordained minister, and theologian based in North Shields, North East England. He serves as the Divisional Commander for The Salvation Army’s North East Division, overseeing operations across the region, focusing on spiritual guidance, community outreach, and social services. His work emphasizes the Church’s engagement in public life and society, particularly supporting communities affected by debt, hunger, homelessness, and unemployment. He collaborates on initiatives for justice, reconciliation, and empowering local leadership through broad-based community organizing. Academically, John researches systematic theology, exploring the transformative power of compassionate acts and social encounters. His doctoral thesis was titled “Producing Christ in the World: a study of Christian action in terms of the Homeless Man as a Christological paradigm of powerlessness.” He …
EP#54 A passion for God’s justice - with Jenny Sinclair

4 december 2025 · 1 uur 12 min
Afspelen

In a departure from previous episodes, Al Roxburgh interviews his Leaving Egypt co-host, Jenny Sinclair. Jenny shares something of her early life: from growing up in the milieu of a significant church leader, to years of rebellion, to the awakening that came through a dark night of the soul, and finally to finding her home in the Catholic Church. Later, sensing signs of coming social instability, she was drawn by the Holy Spirit to follow a trail. Through her curiosity to understand what Christian witness in the midst of this unravelling means for the churches, there emerged for Jenny a new vocation in the form of Together for the Common Good. Amidst the animating energy of the Spirit, Jenny finds herself at the heart of an unfolding work, with many others involved. Seeking a constructive response to the social crises of our time she encourages Christians to participate in the common good - the heart of God’s work of reweaving a broken world. Lees meer

Jenny Sinclair is Founder and Director of Together for the Common Good, a UK charity. From its beginnings in 2011, T4CG works with Christians across the churches to cultivate an “outward-facing” posture that listens to both God and neighbour. Engaging leaders, churches, charities and schools, T4CG draws on the Catholic Social Thought tradition as the key theological imagination for addressing the social, spiritual, moral, economic and political crises of this moment. Jenny speaks and writes, and convenes gatherings of leaders to engage the key questions of our time. Alongside this work, Jenny is the director and co-founder of Leaving Egypt with co-host Alan Roxburgh. Formerly a graphic designer, charity worker and serial volunteer, Jenny is the daughter of the Anglican Bishop David Sheppard. She is mother to two adult sons and currently lives in Liverpool.

For Jenny Sinclair:

https://t4cg.substack.com/s/from-jenny-sinclair

https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclair

https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/ab…
EP#53 Building God’s kingdom in the city - with Tim Dickau

20 november 2025 · 1 uur 11 min
Afspelen

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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Tim Dickau about the ways he has lived out his work as a Christian leader in the city. Tim is one of those thoroughly urbanized people whose roots are in rural Alberta, Canada. Shaped by the rhythms of farming and the practice of hospitality, Tim’s unique blend of prairie populism shows up in his theology of place. Rather than starting with a plan or a project, he begins by asking, “What could grow here?” Deeply attentive to how God is already at work in people’s lives, he tills the ground in faith, trusting that something will emerge. His journey wasn’t straightforward. After leading a large church for many years, a season of burnout revealed for him a new way of being a leader. Sharing life across socio-economic divides reshaped his understanding of justice. This brought forth acts of resistance—addressing food insecurity and homelessness—and expressions of hope, such as repurposing church buildings for affordable housing. In the midst of all this, Tim is that detective of divinity, listening to what it is the Spirit wants to weave in the city, creating spaces where others can join with God in the restoration of the whole of life.

Tim Dickau is the Director of City Gate Vancouver, a charity that works with churches and social organizations across the city addressing social problems like displacement of refugees, food insecurity, poverty, and in particular affordable housing and the use of church buildings. He’s also a trainer in the Certificate in Missional Leadership, a one-year congregational cohort based program, at St Andrew’s Hall, the Presbyterian Church college at the University of British Columbia. For more than twenty years, Tim was the pastor of Grandview Calvary Baptist Church in the downtown east side of Vancouver. He lives in community as part of an extended family.

For Tim Dickau

https://citygatevancouver.org/o…
EP#52 Listening with God in the Forgotten Places - with Sarah Small

6 november 2025 · 1 uur 8 min
Afspelen

Join the Leaving Egypt community on Substack: leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com Lees meer

In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Sarah Small about living incarnationally in some of the UK’s most forgotten communities. It can take a church leader many years to discover what it means to “be with”, to love the other as a person, just for who they are, rather than as a “project” or as an object of training. “Incarnational ministry” can sound clinical and strategic, yet reflects a deep truth. Sarah, who is not ordained, has a naturally internalized desire to give her life to the people of her community. Sarah’s wisdom is beautiful in its humility; she and her family have been living it out for real in South Manchester. Bringing honesty with little romanticism, she acknowledges the hard edges of this calling, but also the deep joy in the ways God is present. Sarah’s community, like others in the Eden Network, are confronting the economic realities of their neighbours, and in the midst of poverty are discovering how to be the healers of walls and lovers of the broken. In this conversation, we begin to appreciate how Christ is working through the prayers and presence of ordinary Christian families seeking the shalom of the places to which God has sent them.

Sarah Small co-leads the Eden Network with her husband Steve. Eden is a movement of urban missionaries who live in some of the UK’s most deprived communities. She and Steve live with their three boys on a council estate (housing project) in South Manchester which has been home for 13 years. Eden is one part of the wider mission activity of The Message Trust, a global Christian charity sharing the good news of Jesus with the hardest-to-reach people and communities. Sarah read Religions and Theology at the University of Manchester. She also holds Masters degrees in International Politics and Theology.

For Sarah Small: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-small-73276340/?originalSubdomain=uk

https://joineden.org/
…
EP#51 - Reimagining the Purposes of God - with Alan Roxburgh

23 oktober 2025 · 1 uur 13 min
Afspelen

In a change-up from previous episodes, Jenny Sinclair interviews her Leaving Egypt co-host Al Roxburgh. Al shares about his journey, first, as a Baptist minister who knew how to renew and grow churches and, later, as a consultant on making churches “missional”. He talks about the significance of Lesslie Newbigin in launching a change in his thinking thirty years ago, a prompt that set him on a journey of reframing his understanding of God’s agency in the context of modernity. Changes in Al’s thinking and practice have continued over the last ten years—with an emerging clarity that we are living through a change of era. Amid signs of unravelling across the West, he has been drawn to engage with conversation partners around the relationship between church and society. This led him to revisit Catholic thinkers who examine political economy through the lens of the gospel, especially as the impact of economic systems on human flourishing became increasingly serious. Al describes how the Spirit has pushed him outward—away from a church-centric posture and toward a deeper awareness of God at work in the world, particularly in the local. His advice now for church leaders is not to focus on what makes the church work, but on what is going on among people in the places where they live. Through practices of discerning, dwelling, and listening, he urges us all to ask: What does it mean to be God’s people here, in this neighbourhood? Lees meer

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Books

Forming Communities of Hope in the Great Unraveling: Leadership in a Changing World (with Roy Searle)

Practices for the Refounding of God’s People: The Missional Challenge of the West (with Martin Robinson)

Joining God in the Great Unraveling

Leadership, God’s Agency and Disruptions

Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our Time

Also …
EP#50 - Deeply Local, Rooted in Listening with Bishop Philip North

9 oktober 2025 · 1 uur 2 min
Afspelen

In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Bishop Philip North about cultivating communities of God’s people in Blackburn in the North West of England. We encounter a leader responsible for shaping the life of the institutional church with a remarkable incarnational imagination. Bishop Philip’s journey has taught him the fundamental importance of listening to poor and working class communities and the imperative of going deeply local. He knows that this is how Christian life is lived vividly as a sign of love and justice on the ground. His passion for people and place is striking, as is his clear sense of calling to servant leadership. His simple desire is to form a people who are deeply invested in their local communities and liberated through being in love with Jesus. Rather than leading with strategies from the top, he understands that power must be shared and delights in empowering unlikely local people to lead. This is an encouraging witness to the ways in which the church can shine forth the wonder of Christ. Lees meer

Philip North is the Bishop of Blackburn in the Anglican Diocese which serves most of the county of Lancashire in the UK. He began ministry in the Diocese of Durham, serving outer estates Parishes in Sunderland and Hartlepool, and then spent six years ministering to pilgrims to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham as Priest Administrator. He returned to parochial ministry as Team Rector of the Parish of Old St Pancras, serving a large area of North-west London around Camden Town. He was consecrated Bishop of Burnley in February 2015 and translated to the See of Blackburn in 2023. He has a strong interest in issues around poverty and social justice and in the vitality of the urban church. He is a member of the Company of Mission Priests, a dispersed community who live to a rule in order to focus their lives on the mission of the church, especially amongst the poor.

Links

For Bishop Philip:

https://www.blackburn.anglican.org/bishop-philip…
EP#49 Local, Sacramental, Relational with Jide Ehizele

25 september 2025 · 1 uur 11 min
Afspelen

In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Jide Ehizele, a South London writer and thinker reflecting on the cultural and spiritual landscape of modern Britain. Formed by a lifelong encounter with Jesus, Jide is compelled to articulate a new moral imagination grounded in local community. A child of Nigerian immigrants whose lives were shaped in the deeply sacramental ways of African spirituality, Jide was given through them the gift of asking questions many of us would never imagine. He needed to understand, for example, how British institutional Christianity could “fit” into the spirituality within which his parents had been formed. In that kind of questioning it became clear to him that the relational aspect of life with God and with others was fundamental. This emphasis on relationality not only reflects the theology woven through his writing but also drives his work with children and young adults who are searching for purpose in a disintegrating society. His approach is undergirded by a spirit of self-sacrifice, bringing people together in mutual accountability to discover something bigger than themselves, revealing the nature of God and the spirituality of the sacred. Lees meer

Jide Ehizele is a Christian thinker and writer focusing on faith, identity and cultural renewal. In his Substack, Southeast London Psalms, Jide wrestles with faith, politics and community from the perspective of a Black British Christian living in modern Britain. Jide is an active member of St Peter's Church, Brockley, leading theology workshops and volunteering with children’s ministry. The son of Nigerian parents, Jide was born and bred in Lewisham, Southeast London, and his day job is as a specialist consultant in the economics and planning of railway operations.

Links

For Jide Ehizele:

https://x.com/OBEhizele

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jide-ehizele-ab28785b/

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/07/the-new-racism-of-the-british-right

https://substack.com/home/post/p…
EP#48 - Made to be With and For Each Other with Luke Bretherton

11 september 2025 · 1 uur 25 min
Afspelen

In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Luke Bretherton about the vocation of the church within the grounded, everyday realities of the local. Luke brings a rare breadth of learning to dilemmas so many are wrestling with, from the shaping of congregational life to how our common life became so atrophied and objectified in contemporary culture. Framing these big questions in ways that land in the ordinary, Luke explores memory, inheritance and place, and, unpacking the ancient democratic practices of the commons, he shows how these very commons became enclosed. Digging down into the impact of these trends, not only the loss of local power but also the crisis of institutional imagination in many churches, we explore what kinds of leadership and structures are needed to recover agency and to reimagine mission. This is a hope-filled engagement with how the Holy Spirit is calling God’s people on the ground into a story of civic and spiritual renewal. Along the way, we discover that “love fully realised” is not about providing services, nor about freedom of choice, but looks and tastes like communion. Lees meer

Luke Bretherton is Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Christ Church, Oxford, where he also directs the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life. Luke is also a Canon of Christ Church Cathedral and has duties as a Church of England priest. Until 2024 he was the Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Professor of Moral and Political Theology at Duke University in America. He has also been Visiting Professor at St Mellitus Theological College, London. Alongside his work as a theologian, Luke has long been involved in community organising and practical collaborations with churches, charities and mission agencies. He has written many books, most recently A Primer in Christian Ethics and Christ and the Common Life, and he hosts the podcast Listen! Organize! Act!

Links

For Luke Bretherton:

https://www.theology.ox.ac.uk/people/rev-canon…
EP#47 - Finding a Place of Belonging with Angie Allgood

24 juli 2025 · 1 uur 15 min
Afspelen

In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet Angie Allgood, a social worker whose family roots in the Bonny Downs community shaped her vocation. Her family's generational faith taught her to see Jesus as a friend. Together with the East End tradition of extended family living, this fostered a passion for working with young people and others struggling with life. A moment of transformation came when she was led by the Spirit, through Isaiah 58, to give up statutory social work and focus on those in need within her own community. It was then that she learned from a homeless man about the “proper” way to help: rather than material provision or doing for, real healing comes through belonging and purpose. NewWay, a charity with a distinctive approach, then emerged. The “new way” involves a commitment to mutuality and accountability and a readiness to be vulnerable rather than transactional. Angie describes this as the purest and most authentic form of church. Angie isn’t a theologian, hasn’t been to seminary and isn’t ordained. She simply followed the Spirit. Lees meer

Angie Allgood is the fourth of six generations to live in the same few streets of East Ham, in Newham, East London, UK. Angie has been a social worker for over 35 years, has founded two local charities and pioneered many community activities. Her current role is as the Director of a small local Newham charity she co-founded: NEWway supports single adults affected by homelessness, providing purpose, belonging and safety, joining with churches of all traditions and the people of Newham to restore lives affected by homelessness.

Links

For Angie Allgood:

https://newwayproject.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/angie-allgood-535732164/?originalSubdomain=uk

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Books

Forming Communities of Hope in the Great Unraveling: Leadership in a Changing World (wit…
EP#46 Forming Christian Life in the Rust Belt with Reuben Slife

10 juli 2025 · 1 uur 15 min
Afspelen

In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Reuben Slife about the challenges of Christian life within the realities of late modernity. Growing up in America’s Deep South and beginning in the United Methodist Church tradition, Reuben planned to teach theatre. However, his path took him, via GK Chesterton and the plays of the late St John Paul II, into full communion with the Catholic Church and to life in Steubenville, Ohio, a small town in the American Rust Belt. Reuben finds himself living within an emerging community of Catholic families drawn to building a Christian life together. Reflecting on the dynamics within the town, he describes his experience, both as a Catholic and through his work as an editor of political theology. Reuben explores both the creativity and the tensions around forming Christian life in the midst of a modern Egypt, recognising its harsh categories of self, the state and the market. Drawing on ways of thinking gifted to us from outside the modern West, Reuben is devoted to bringing forward traditions that were vital before the birth of the modern. Lees meer

Reuben Slife is the editor of New Polity Press, in Steubenville, Ohio. New Polity publishes essays, books and podcasts and is a think tank for political theology, dedicated to cultivating the Catholic tradition and fostering a movement to resist the cultural and political trends of the liberal state. Reuben edited and oversaw the translation of Rocco Buttiglione’s Modernity’s Alternative, on Latin America’s “theology of peoples” [teología del pueblo], and currently is working on America in the Mystery of Christ and the Church by David L. Schindler.

Links

For Reuben Slife:

https://newpolity.com/press

https://newpolity.com/

https://newpolity.com/podcasts

https://newpolity.com/magazine

Books mentioned in this episode:

Modernity's Alternative: How History Is Formed in the Depths of the Peoples by Rocco Buttiglione (Steubenville, OH: New Polity Press, 2025)

The Church Against…
EP#45 A Church Listening for the Spirit with Avril Baigent

26 juni 2025 · 1 uur 7 min
Afspelen

In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet again with Avril Baigent. In an earlier episode (#05) of Leaving Egypt, Al and Jenny discovered Avril’s involvement with the movement known as Synodality. This is a process initiated by the late Pope Francis across the Catholic Church, enabling Catholics at all levels of the Church to come together in processes of listening to one another and to the Holy Spirit. Centred on an ancient method called “Conversation in the Spirit”, Synodality is slowly enabling fresh spaces within the Church for discerning how the Spirit is calling us to join with God. Sharing real stories of deep transformation through her own experience of this global movement, Avril is clear that this process is no “add water and stir” quick fix for ailing parishes. It takes time. This process takes us deep into encounter with one another and has the potential to resolve difficult decisions, overcome power imbalances and resolve painful conflict. And not only within the Church, it also takes us into deep, listening relationships with the people in our neighbourhoods and local communities. It is in these engagements that discernment emerges as we hear the Spirit through the other. Lees meer

Avril Baigent is co-director of the School for Synodality where she promotes the ancient Catholic practice of 'walking together with the Holy Spirit’. In addition, as Director of Pastoral Development at the Diocese of Northampton, she is embedding synodality in the life of the diocese, promoting lay vocations and helping local Catholic communities to imagine their futures together. Avril has also recently completed her PhD youth ministry at Durham University, and helps out in her parish as a musician and children’s liturgy leader.

We hope that you are enjoying Leaving Egypt. We would invite you to join the Leaving Egypt community on Substack by becoming a paid subscriber: https://leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Links

For Avril Baigent:

https://www.schoolfors…
EP#44 - A New Kind of Humanism with Susannah Black Roberts

12 juni 2025 · 1 uur 13 min
Afspelen

In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Susannah Black Roberts about the need for a new Christian humanism. Susannah is a journalist and an editor whose imagination is shaped by her life in New York City. With infectious curiosity she guides us to ask questions about what it means to be human and proposes we respond, in the growing shadow of AI, by making and doing rather than consuming. From Aristotle to Aquinas, from CS Lewis to Alasdair McIntyre and Tim Keller, Susannah’s influences lead her to resist modernity’s dehumanising tendencies with simple human practices that can easily be lived out, even in the big city. At the heart of her spiritual imagination is the creativity of God’s relational life, present in us as we participate in creation for the common good, rooted in praise and worship as communities of blessing. Lees meer

Susannah Black Roberts is Senior Editor at the international magazine Plough Quarterly and an editor at Mere Orthodoxy and has written for many publications including First Things, Front Porch Republic, and The American Conservative. A native Manhattanite married to an Englishman, she lives between New York and the West Midlands in the UK.

Our work is only possible with your support. Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to enable us to continue with the podcast.

Links

For Susannah Black Roberts:

https://www.plough.com/en/authors/qr/susannah-black-roberts

https://mereorthodoxy.com/author/susannah-black

https://x.com/suzania?lang=en

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburgh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Books

Joining God in the Great Unraveling

Leadership, God’s Agency and Disruptions

Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Churc…
EP#43 - A Spirit-filled Parish for the City - with Jo Gilbert

29 mei 2025 · 1 uur 16 min
Afspelen

In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Jo Gilbert about discipleship and parish life in a fast-changing city. Jo works within a large and dynamic church community, and with students across the city, creating opportunities for formation, community events and local civic partnerships. Jo was raised as part of a Benedictine lay community and this, along with her other gifts, brings an openness to the Spirit into the life of the local church. The vitality and witness of this parish and their growing connections into the city are striking, not least their humility as they learn to walk with young adults for whom Christianity may be new. This is a conversation full of life and insight into living out the Gospel in community. Lees meer

Jo Gilbert is part of the leadership team at East Brighton Catholic Parish, a group of churches in the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton on the south coast of England. Made up of clergy and laity, the team is focused on serving the communities of a growing city with a shifting demographic and a large student population. Jo is also co-ordinator of the Catholic Student Ministry Team serving Brighton and Sussex universities and has worked with students and young adults for 20 years.

Our work is only possible with your support. Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to enable us to continue with the podcast.

Links

For Jo Gilbert:

https://www.eastbrightoncatholic.org.uk/leadership-team

https://www.facebook.com/StJosephsBrighton/?locale=en_GB

https://www.eastbrightoncatholic.org.uk/catholic-student-and-young-adults-group

https://catholicstudents.org/about/

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburgh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Books

Forming Communities of Hope in the Gre…
EP#42 - Living out of Control with Rodney Clapp

15 mei 2025 · 1 uur 14 min
Afspelen

In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Rodney Clapp about the state of Christian life in a time of profound change. Exploring what it means for Christians to live as witnesses to the Gospel in a radically changing world, Rodney looks at the recent history of the Evangelical Church in America, and the longing for a Christian nationalism that reasserts control over the cultural narrative. Rodney offers a radically different set of proposals, of humble practices rooted in a Biblical imagination, that eschew power and the need for control. Rodney is driven by a passion to call churches to rediscover their life and mission by learning to live without power and control. He believes that it is by living out of control that we discern the ways of God and live in anticipation of a new creation - of a healed earth and of a healed people. Lees meer

Rodney Clapp is an author, editor and social commentator. He was a former columnist for The Christian Century as well as a longtime associate editor for Christianity Today. Until 1999 he was the senior editor for academic and general books at InterVarsity Press. He was also an editor with Brazos Press and is currently an editor with Wipf and Stock. His latest book is Living Out of Control, an extended proposal for how, in a post Christian context, Christian life ought to be shaped amidst declining empire and in an age of profound change.

Our work is only possible with your support. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to enable us to continue with the podcast.

Links

For Rodney Clapp:

https://wipfandstock.com/author/rodney-clapp/

https://wipfandstock.com/contact-information/

Books

Families at the Crossroads (1993)

A Peculiar People (1996)

The Consuming Passion (1998)

Border Crossings (2000)

The People of the Truth with Robert E. Webber (2001)

Tortured Wonders (2006)

Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction (2008)

Naming Neoliberalism: Exposing the Spirit of Our Age (2021)

Living Out of Control: …
EP #41 God wants us to be human again - With Samuel Luak

1 mei 2025 · 1 uur 16 min
Afspelen

In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Samuel Luak about what it means to be human. Born in Sudan, as a teenager he was confronted with the horror of civil war and experienced the loss of family and the longing for revenge. It was in the midst of hate and death that he came to know the reconciling love of Jesus. Forced to leave his own country, as a refugee he made a new life in Finland and then in the UK. An African Christian living in the West, Samuel is infused with the wisdom of the “we”, bringing a grace-filled countercultural challenge to the individualism that captures the Western imagination. We see its impact: from “having coffee” and the loss of the shared meal to the complete abandonment of our fellow citizens. This is a man whose life exudes the grace of God, whose own journey into love for human beings shapes the ministry he is now leading: the rehumanizing, life-giving exchange between refugees and UK congregations. Lees meer

Samuel is the Leader for Refugee Integration and Discipleship programmes at Welcome Churches in the UK. Raised in the Presbyterian Church in Sudan, Samuel is now a Finnish citizen. A trained lawyer and theologian having studied in Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon, Finland and the UK, he is an ordained minister, and has served as a lecturer and a schoolteacher, as well as fulfilling roles at the Finnish Bible Society, and for the Church Commission for Migrants in Europe. Since moving to the UK in 2017, he has worked with refugees and attends Woodside Church in Bedford, where he is actively involved in intercultural ministry, promoting engagement between diverse communities.

Our work is only possible with your support. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to enable us to continue with the podcast.

Links

For Samuel Luak:

https://welcomechurches.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-luak-413476133?originalSubdomain=uk

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=869351222066791&id=100069757641603&set=a.284573637211222

For Ala…
EP#40 - Wisdom in Disconcerting Times with Adrian Pabst

17 april 2025 · 1 uur 20 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Adrian Pabst. One of the big needs right now is the ability to comprehend this time of deep change unfolding across the West. Many people across the churches are struggling for some kind of foothold from which they can make sense of what is going on. Adrian provides that foothold, describing simply but profoundly the complexities that confront our societies. Both realistic and hopeful, he sets out a constructive pathway to renewal in terms of a common good political economy. He also proposes ways in which the local church can fulfil its role in this work of repair and rediscover its vocation. For Christians who wonder about what it means to be God’s people in this moment, Adrian offers wise guidance.

Adrian Pabst is Honorary Professor of Politics at the University of Kent and Deputy Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. An acknowledged expert in Catholic Social Thought and political economy, he is one of the leading figures in the post liberal movement developing a new politics of the common good. He is the author of several books on this subject, including Post Liberal Politics: The Coming Era of Renewal, and The Politics of Virtue: Post liberalism and the Human Future which he co-authored with John Milbank.

Links for Adrian Pabst:

https://niesr.ac.uk/people/pabst

https://www.kent.ac.uk/politics-international-relations/people/2270/pabst-adrian

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-pabst-4723385/?originalSubdomain=uk

https://x.com/adrianpabst1?lang=en

Articles and recordings

https://www.newstatesman.com/author/adrian-pabst

What is postliberalism now?

https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/leading-thinkers/how-christian-is-postliberalism

The Political Economy and the Good Life: The 2024 Postliberalism Conference (videos)

Books:

Postliberal …
EP#39 - The Investment Of Love with Bejoy Pal

3 april 2025 · 1 uur 14 min
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In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Bejoy Pal about the relational character of God’s love reflected in the Street pastor movement. Bejoy’s own journey into the Christian faith is a living witness to the value of giving encouragement to the young. His deep love for people has been shaped by being deeply loved in Christ by a series of wise and generous mentors throughout his life. In a time when the lack of community has created a vacuum, when the streets are unsafe, and as the young are tempted to focus on the self, Bejoy is focused on creating opportunities for intergenerational encounter that feel like family. Working across the pastor movements, Bejoy is helping volunteers connect with people in need of Christ-like love and care. His broader vision of the church is of a presence in local communities that brings the transformational message of Jesus’ Gospel through peace, hope, faith and love in concrete ways to those who need to see it, feel it, hear it and know it.

Bejoy Pal is CEO of the Ascension Trust, a charity that leads the Street Pastor movement and other pastor movements in the UK. Driven by a vision of a united church, the Trust’s approach is ecumenical in practice, with a minimum of four denominations in any working group. Bejoy has been part of the team for nine years overseeing the schools and youth work within the organisation. As a Street Pastor and a School Pastor himself, Bejoy has been involved in youth work and ministry for many years as well as supporting missions and projects in Moldova and nations across East and West Africa. His spiritual home is Christchurch Purley in South London, where he has been connecting with young people and the local community for over 20 years.

LINKS

For Bejoy Pal:

Website: www.ascensiontrust.org.uk

X - @ascensiontrust

Facebook/Meta: https://www.facebook.co…
EP#38 - God's Mission In The Rural With Sally Gaze

19 maart 2025 · 1 uur 22 min
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In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Sally Gaze. Sally is a creative leader in the midst of a church shaped by tradition, wrestling with the question of how to discern God’s directions, particularly in the rural context. Sally describes how forms of mission-shaped life are emerging in the Suffolk countryside. Working with small groups of faithful Christians who are finding creative ways to connect deeply in their local communities, she is inspired by the natural rhythms and practices of farming and gardening, sensing that God is calling the rural church to go with the grain of the natural world.

Sally is an Anglican priest, Archdeacon for Rural Mission in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Over the last six years, Sally has been Director of the Growing God in the Countryside project, funded by the Church of England Church Commissioners. As part of that she has helped to bring about the Lightwave Community, a charity that fosters small missional groups in rural areas. Over these years Sally has creatively engaged rural parishes in developing mission-shaped ministries. Formerly, Sally was Fresh Expressions Facilitator for the Diocese of Norwich and, in 2017, Dean for Rural Mission Consultancy in St Edmundsbury.

LINKS

For Sally Gaze:

Mission-shaped and Rural Growing Churches in the Countryside by Sally Gaze and Graham James

Canon Gaze appointed first Archdeacon for Rural Mission

Installation of Sally Gaze as Archdeacon of Mission

http://www.lightwave.community

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburgh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Joining God in the Gre…
EP#37 A new, yet ancient Christian imagination with Peter Aschoff

6 maart 2025 · 1 uur 14 min
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In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Peter Aschoff, a teacher, academic and pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. Peter currently serves a congregation in Nuremberg. For many years he wrestled with the question of how the Gospel communicates with those post war European generations who had become disconnected from the church. Peter was part of a network that established what came to be known as the “Emergent” church movement in Germany. Like its counterpart in North America, it sought to plant churches that could address those generations shaped by the postmodern turn in the West.

However, having reflected on those experimental years and the changing nature of German society, and following his awakening to the great treasure of traditional Christian spirituality, Peter chose to seek ordination in the state Lutheran Church. In this episode Peter recounts the reasons for this decision, and why he sees ancient practices - in particular Jesuit spirituality - as sources of hope at a time of great unsettling across German society. Peter has a deep conviction about God’s agency in this liminal moment. He believes that in letting go of the defaults to power and management, and by forming small, local communities of hope shaped by contemplative practices, we can anticipate and point to God’s bringing forth new ways of being church.

- Links -

For Peter Aschoff:

peter.aschoff@elkb.de

https://www.peregrinatio.net

https://wild-und-unaufhaltsam.de

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburgh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Joining God in the Great Unraveling

Le…
EP#36 The “Jazz” of God’s People with Brian Fraser

20 februari 2025 · 1 uur 13 min
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In this episode, Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Brian Fraser. Brian is attentive to the radical shifts in the relationship between church and society, and to leaders of congregations who are asking how to stop decline and how to connect with local communities. Al and Jenny hear how Brian has been forging relationships between his congregation and musicians from the local jazz community, and how this process of dialogical witnessing and learning is revealing the forgiving and reconciling love of God. His story is one of an imagination about being God’s people in a time of significant decline and loss, a journey which, like jazz itself, involves attending closely to the melodies and rhythms of our neighbours. By cultivating interaction between local musicians and members of his congregation, a way of being church emerges where they discover together a new way of listening to the Spirit.

Rev. Dr. Brian Fraser is a Canadian church historian who taught at Vancouver School of Theology at the University of British Columbia from 1985 to 2001. There, he was Dean of St. Andrew's Hall, the Presbyterian college associated with VST. His work has been focused on organizational development and leadership, especially in relation to the formation and reformation of institutional cultures. Brian has been involved in forming, leading and coaching nonprofit organizations for many years and in 2002, founded Jazzthink, a company that uses jazz to inspire and generate flourishing organizations. A Presbyterian pastor, in 2009 he returned to parish ministry part-time with Brentwood Presbyterian Church, Burnaby, BC, where he is helping to forge a unique relationship with the jazz community.

Links For Brian Fraser

https://www.rhythmchanges.ca/brian-fraser-brentwood-jazz-worship-ep-76/

https://www.facebook.com/bjfraser2/

https://www.jazzthink.com/w…
EP#35 An Economy of Love and Reciprocity with Luigino Bruni

6 februari 2025 · 1 uur 15 min
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In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Luigino Bruni. It is rare to hear an economist address political economy through the lens of love, the woundedness of relationship or the primacy of gift. These, for Bruni, lie at the heart of a healing form of economic life. His analysis of our neo-liberal time is that it has produced an inhuman system, and the “prudent man”, one who is orientated to take care of his own interests. But as a follower of Jesus, and through deep engagement with Scripture, Bruni is articulating an alternative, civil economy based on reciprocity, what we might call God’s economy. In this episode, we meet a man profoundly inspired by the Catholic tradition, who is relationally, academically and practically devoted to re-humanising our common life.

Professor Luigino Bruni is an economist and historian of economic thought. He is Professor of Political Economy at the Lumsa University in Rome, a public non-state Italian university formed on Catholic principles. Here he also coordinates the Phd Programme in Civil Economy. His scholarship of economics extends to biblical commentaries on the history of economic thought as well as to the religious nature of capitalism. Professor Bruni is involved in many grassroots projects devoted to developing a new economic paradigm: he is International Co-ordinator of the Economy of Communion project, a Board member of the Economy of Francesco Foundation and a member of the international Focolare movement. In addition, he is Editor-in-Chief of the International Review of Economics, an active columnist and author of many books.

Links for Luigino Bruni

https://www.luiginobruni.it/en/

https://francescoeconomy.org/eof-board/

https://lumsa.it/it/docenti/luigino-bruni

https://www.edc-online.org/it/header-pubblicazioni/luigino-bruni.html

https://www.luiginobruni.it/it/ec-…
EP#34 A Postliberal Response to the Unravelling with John Milbank

23 januari 2025 · 1 uur 14 min
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In this episode Jenny Sinclair and Al Roxburgh talk with John Milbank. Recognizing that no one can predict where this time of cultural and political unravelling is leading, John discusses how God’s people can respond and sees signs of hope. Central to his vision for social renewal is a Christian witness that engages rather than retreats from society. A key figure in the growing postliberal intellectual movement, he outlines their work in the development of a new political economy for the common good. Advocating the fundamental importance of the parish in these times, John describes how its liturgical, confessional and everyday rhythms of life bear a vital, countercultural witness to the true, concrete story of the world, over against all other claims to reality.

John Milbank is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham and co-founder of the Radical Orthodoxy movement. An eminent theologian in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, he is a philosopher, a poet and political theorist. His work crosses disciplinary boundaries, integrating subjects such as metaphysics, systematic theology, social theory, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy, political theory, and political theology. He has previously taught at the universities of Lancaster, Cambridge, and Virginia and is the author of many books. He lives in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, UK.

Links for John Milbank

https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2024/12/what-is-postliberalism-now

https://x.com/johnmilbank3

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vision/the-post-liberal-views-shaping-our-political-landscape

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/Humanities/Departments/Philosophy/People/john.milbank

https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/leading-thinkers/christianity-and-the-politics-of-the-common-good

Books

The Politics of Virtue: Post-Liberalism and the Human Future, with Adrian Pabst,

Theolo…
EP#33 - End of 2024 Review

19 december 2024 · 1 uur 6 min
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Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair review their Leaving Egypt conversations with guests over 2024 and explore the themes that have been emerging. From exploring what it means to listen meaningfully to the Holy Spirit, to the way political economy is impacting human life, they share their excitement about how God is at work and manifesting in so many ways. Al and Jenny also explore the grassroots stories coming from a variety of local places, each resonant, individual and particular to their own local community, while common in being the outcomes of listening to God in the neighbourhood.

- Links -

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburgh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Joining God in the Great Unraveling https://www.amazon.ca/Joining-God-Great-Unraveling-Learned/dp/1725288508/ref=sr_1_

Leadership, God’s Agency and Disruptions https://www.amazon.ca/Leadership-Gods-Agency-Disruptions-Confronting/dp/1725271745/ref

Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our Time https://www.amazon.ca/Joining-Remaking-Church-Changing-World/dp/0819232114/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2NHGW8KB7L0SQ&keywords=Alan+J+Roxburgh&qid=1687098960&s=books&sprefix=alan+j+roxburgh%2Cstripbooks%2C130&sr=1-3

For Jenny Sinclair:

Website: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclair

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-sinclair-0589783b/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/T4CG

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TogetherForTheCommonGoodUK

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/t4cg_insta/

Get full access to Leaving Egypt at leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribe
EP#32 – The Barmen Declaration - A Challenge to the Church with Rob Duncan

5 december 2024 · 1 uur 13 min
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Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Rob Duncan about the Barmen Declaration of May 1934, a confession of faith declared by pastors, theologians and lay leaders during the “German Church Struggle” in Nazi Germany. Reviewing the Declaration’s context and the involvement of theologians Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Rob explores its meaning and lessons for church and society in our own moment of geopolitical volatility. While Barmen is now an historical artifact, its fidelity to Christian witness has renewed significance now as multiple ideologies struggle to redefine the nature of democracy. Its insistence on confession and repentance as critical Christian responses to our own unravelling remains a prophetic challenge to the church.

Rob Duncan served for years as a Baptist pastor in the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec convention, having been ordained in Toronto in 1984. He has for more than a dozen years been an Anglican, in an official position in the Diocese of Niagara since 2019. Ordained a priest in 2023, he is now retired from parish ministry. His wider ministry focus remains spiritual formation at the local parish level. While deepening his own personal practice of spiritual disciplines, Rob continues to explore the intersection of spirituality and theology and provides training in spiritual formation to groups of lay people. Since February of this year, he has been working behind the scenes as a volunteer for Leaving Egypt from his home in Niagara Falls.

- Links -

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburgh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Joining God in the Great …
EP#31 Pastoral Faithfulness: Forming the parish as a community of hope with David Widdicombe

21 november 2024 · 1 uur 27 min
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Our work is only possible with your support. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to enable us to continue with the podcast. Lees meer

Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with David Widdicombe about his ministry as an Anglican parish priest in Winnipeg, Canada. Beginning with childhood on a farm on the prairies, David’s journey of formation led him to an encounter with “Red Tory” conservatism and its thoughtful Canadian nationalism. From long pastoral experience and deep theological curiosity, David speaks to the current decline in the church and society with intellectual precision and wisdom. Calling Christian leaders and congregations to commit for the long haul, he advocates for a rootedness of identity in Christ expressed in robust community, liturgy and joy.

David Widdicombe was rector at St. Margaret's Anglican Church from 1992 to 2020, where, as he pursued a pre-Enlightenment vision of the parish church as a place of belonging and lay leadership formation, the congregation grew and flourished. Educated at the University of Manitoba and the Vancouver School of Theology, David later studied at Oxford University under Oliver O’Donovan and Rowan Williams.

- Links -

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburgh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Joining God in the Great Unraveling

Leadership, God’s Agency and Disruptions

Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our Time

For Jenny Sinclair:

Website: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclair

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-sinclair-0589783b/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/T4CG

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TogetherForTheCommonGoodUK

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/t4cg_insta/

For David Wid…
Episode # 30 Economics: the “Theology” of our Age? - with Sr Helen Alford OP

7 november 2024 · 1 uur 14 min
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Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk again with Sr Helen Alford to hear more about her vocation as a Dominican sister and as an economist. Sketching out the historical development of economics, Sr Helen describes how it became disconnected from human flourishing. She traces its devastating impact on the culture and relationships, as economic thought became “a kind of theology of our age.” She then explores some of the constructive approaches that individuals, businesses and churches can take to generate alternative, healthier economic structures. Setting out steps that we can all take, faithfully following our own vocations, she highlights ways in which we can all play our part to bring economics back into relationship with the common good.

Sr Helen Alford OP is Dean of Social Sciences at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas - known as the Angelicum - the Dominican Order’s centre of Thomist theology and philosophy in Rome. Last year she was appointed by Pope Francis as President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in the Vatican. Sr Helen teaches economic ethics, the history of technology, labour politics, and Catholic social thought. Originally from London, Sr Helen is a sister of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena of Newcastle, Natal. She is the author of numerous publications on management theory and corporate social responsibility and has been an advisor to Blueprint for a Better Business since 2012.

- Links -

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburgh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Joining God in the Great Unraveling https://www.amazon.ca/Joining-…
Episode #29 – Living a shared life: the Catholic Worker Movement - with Colin Miller

24 oktober 2024 · 1 uur 14 min
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Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Colin Miller about his book We Are Only Saved Together and his own journey into the vision of Dorothy Day and vocation of being a Catholic Worker in his hometown of Minneapolis. Colin talks about his Christian upbringing: raised as Lutheran, becoming an Episcopal priest and subsequent conversion to the Catholic Church. Out of his own experience of life in community with the poor, engaging with the gospel implications of Catholic Social Thought, Colin shares insights about the current breakdown in society and church and the alternative celebratory model of living the Sermon on the Mount in community with others.

Colin is the director for the Center for Catholic Social Thought at the Church of the Assumption (https://assumptionsp.org/ccst/) in St. Paul. Formerly a priest in the Episcopal Church, he became a Catholic eight years ago after discovering the Catholic Worker tradition of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. In Minnesota, he has co-founded a Catholic Worker house (

https://www.maurinhouse.com/

) devoted to common prayer, material simplicity and service to the poor. He lives there with his wife and five children.

- Links -

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburgh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Joining God in the Great Unraveling https://www.amazon.ca/Joining-God-Great-Unraveling-Learned/dp/1725288508/ref=sr_1_

Leadership, God’s Agency and Disruptions https://www.amazon.ca/Leadership-Gods-Agency-Disruptions-Confronting/dp/1725271745/ref

Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our Time https://www.am…
EP#28 The Corruption of Christianity: the life and work of Ivan Illich - with David Cayley

10 oktober 2024 · 1 uur 22 min
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Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with David Cayley about the insights of the Austrian Catholic priest, philosopher and social critic Ivan Illich (1926-2006). Through his work at the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) on the show “Ideas,” David came to know Illich personally and became one of his leading interpreters. David’s conversation with Al and Jenny outlines Illich’s main lines of thought. They discuss Illich’s insights into the negative consequences of modernity in terms of education, medicine, gender, technology and power, and his view of the West as a corruption of Christianity. What emerges is an introduction to the depth and richness of Illich’s thought as a significant resource in the face of today’s unravelling.

David Cayley has been a writer, broadcaster and documentary maker for more than 30 years. Known for documenting the philosophy of 20th Century Christian intellectuals, he has studied Ivan Illich, George Grant, and Rene Girard. He is the author of many books and has received many awards. David is the pre-eminent authority on his friend, the priest philosopher, Ivan Illich.

- Links -

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

X.com/Twitter: https://x.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetwork

Joining God in the Great Unraveling https://www.amazon.ca/Joining-God-Great-Unraveling-Learned/dp/1725288508/ref=sr_1_

Leadership, God’s Agency and Disruptions https://www.amazon.ca/Leadership-Gods-Agency-Disruptions-Confronting/dp/1725271745/ref

Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our Time https://www.amazon.ca/Joining-Remaking-Church-Changing-World/dp/0819232114/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2NHGW8KB7L0SQ&keywords=Alan+J+Rox…
EP#27 The Spirit and the Kingdom in Lincoln - with Sian Wade

26 september 2024 · 1 uur 12 min
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Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Sian Wade. Together, they explore her journey as a young pastor, which is characterised by a shift from doing “good things” to discerning what God is doing among the people in her neighbourhood. She talks about her love for people and how God has been leading her and her church to connect with very poor parts of the community, with those who have not thrived. Through this, she has discovered that being church is more about being with people and living an organic Christian life than running programmes. Discerning what it might look like to do “authentic church” led Sian to accept a recognition of brokenness - in our relationship with God, in ourselves, with each other and with the earth. She bears witness that authentic church is beautiful and messy and describes how she holds the tension between a prophetic posture alongside multiple partnerships with local statutory services. Bridge Church, aptly named, is practising a theology of unity with other churches and denominations, where, together as fellow Christians, they are praying and working for the transformation of their city.

Sian Wade lives in Lincoln, in the north east of the UK. She co-leads Bridge Church, part of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God. As Community Initiatives Lead, Sian has a heart for working with local people and has forged many partnerships, with local groups, other churches and with civic authorities. Discerning what God is doing, she believes that the church should be the hub of the neighbourhood. Sian is married to Dave, they have three children and she is also a registered foster carer.

- Links -

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburgh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=en

Faceb…
EP#26 Being Church in the Age of the Machine with Paul Kingsnorth

12 september 2024 · 1 uur 16 min
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Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Paul Kingsnorth about his spiritual journey from agnosticism, gnostic experimentation and Buddhism, to Christianity. He describes the ways in which the Orthodox tradition is shaping his engagement with the modern world and especially that of the “Machine”, the term he uses to describe the overarching colonization of modern life by technology. He describes how becoming a Christian has called him beyond the intellectual posture of his past writing to somewhere completely different, to a connection with spiritual reality and to right relationship with God. From these new centerings, Paul finds himself on a new path of discovery, recognising he is not in control. He believes that Christians need to regain what has been lost, namely the sense that we already know from our tradition what to do. He senses that the Orthodox Church has held onto an authenticity that will become increasingly compelling as the unravelling of our societies rolls on, and this gives him cause for optimism.

Originally from London, Paul Kingsnorth is a writer and thinker whose spiritual journey has become very public. His experience has brought him from agnosticism to Christian conversion, culminating in his baptism into the Romanian Orthodox Church in 2021. Before that, as an environmentalist, novelist and a poet, he had written many books. Since his encounter with Christ, Paul has been compelled to write and speak about the reality of God and the threat to human life of what he calls “the machine”. His message has gathered a huge following, with some describing him as a secular prophet. Paul is a smallholder in rural Ireland living on the land with his family.

- Links -

For Alan J Roxburgh:

http://alanroxburgh.com/about

https://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/

https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan…

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