Froi Legaspi and Tash Jesson talk to Fr Angus Ritchie about the Fair Energy Campaign, which has emerged from community organising at St John's Hoxton

Podcast notes

We discuss how church life is going now we are into the long haul of this pandemic - and emerging plans for Advent under lockdown

How does the process of organising identify and develop leaders in the congregation and neighbourhood? Angus Ritchie is joined by Graham and Sara Hunter from St John's Hoxton and Paul Amuzie from Citizens UK to talk about discipleship, prayer and organising - and then Rev'd Erin Clarke from St Matthew's Bethnal Green talks about their first steps in organising around a new food bank.

In this podcast, Angus speaks with Shermara JJ Fletcher and Charnelle Barclay about what the wider church can learn from Black-majority Pentecostal and Baptist churches about acting for racial justice and developing leaders and disciples. Then, Josh sat down with Graham and Sara Hunter to hear more about how St John's Hoxton has grown in number and deepened in discipleship over the past ten years.

Are you too busy to think about starting something new at church? Angus Ritchie talks with Vanessa Conant and Graham Hunter about how they have found that involvement in community organising and its practices of leadership development helps build capacity rather than drain resource. Shermara Fletcher from the Open Table initiative then joins Angus to talk about working with homeless people for justice, rather than just acting for them.

In this episode, Josh and Angus from the Centre for Theology and Community talk with Revd Graham Hunter and Revd Vanessa Conant about ways their churches are thinking about moving out of lockdown and reaching local people before being able to fully reopen. Angus then speaks with his colleague Fr Richard Springer, Rector of St George-in-the-East in Shadwell, about the impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities.

Josh and Angus are joined by community organisers Froi Legaspi and Paul Amuzie to talk about churches acting for justice in the pandemic through the practices of community organising, which helps churches engage with their neighbourhoods more effectively. We then hear more from Vanessa Conant about her church in Walthamstow and how organising has helped shape the way she leads. Go to theology-centre.org for episode notes.

Churches are reaching out to local communities during lockdown - but how can we help those in our community who want to make a journey into church life at this time?

East London vicars Vanessa Conant and Graham Hunter share what they've learned with Angus Ritchie and Josh Harris from the Centre for Theology and Community.