The Church Times Podcast

On the podcast this week, Dr Lucy Sixsmith is interviewed about her new book, When the Music Fades: Power, surrender and the Soul Survivor generation.

In the book, she reflects on growing up as part of the Soul Survivor generation, including attending its festivals, and she grapples with the big questions that she and others have been left with in the wake of revelations about its founder, Mike Pilavachi.

In September 2023, an investigation by the Church of England’s safeguarding team concluded that Mr Pilavachi had exercised an abuse of power and spiritual abuse (News, 7 September 2023). The following year, a review by Fiona Scolding KC concluded that the abuse of power had been enabled by a wholesale failure of organisational culture at Soul Survivor (News, 4 October 2024).

The book goes beyond Soul Survivor to the wider culture of Charismatic Evangelicalism in Britain in the 1990s and 2000s. One of the books aims, she says, was to try to evoke this environment, “to put out into the world: this is what it was like, this is what a lot of us who are now 30- or 40-somethings experienced as teenagers.”

An extract from the book is published in this week’s edition of the Church Times.

Dr Sixsmith is in conversation with Madeleine Davies, senior writer at the Church Times.

When the Music Fades: Power, surrender and the Soul Survivor generation is published by Canterbury Press at £16.99 (Church Times Bookshop £13.59); 978-1-786-22615-0. https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781786226150/when-the-music-fades?vc=CT201

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On the podcast this week, the Archbishop of Canterbury speaks to the editor, Sarah Meyrick. It is the Archbishop’s first interview since her enthronement last month.

Archbishop Mullally is asked about her hopes for her time in office. What will be distinctive about her archiepiscopate? What sort of leader will she seek to be? She also speaks about church growth, safeguarding, Living in Love and Faith, and her relationship with the Anglican Communion, among other topics.

“What I want to offer is a consistency: a calm, non-anxious leadership,” she says. “I see myself as a shepherd, as somebody who supports and provides pastoral care.”

Picture credit: BBC

Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

On this episode of the podcast, Malcolm Guite talks to Rachel Mann about his new book, Galahad and the Grail, part one of a planned four-volume poem sequence, Merlin’s Isle, a retelling of the tales of King Arthur.

In a review of the book in the Church Times, Dr Michael Wheeler describes Galahad and the Grail as “a poem of sacramental re-enchantment, grounded in the holy eucharist”.

Galahad and the Grail: Merlin’s Isle Volume 1 is published by Canterbury Press at £30 (Church Times Bookshop £27). https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781786227126/galahad-and-the-grail?vc=CT727

The Revd Dr Malcolm Guite is a Life Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge, and writes the weekly Poet’s Corner column for the Church Times.

The Ven. Dr Rachel Mann, also a priest-poet, is the Archdeacon of Bolton and Salford, in the diocese of Manchester. Her second collection of poetry, Eleanor Among the Saints (Carcanet), was shortlisted for the 2024 T. S. Eliot Prize (Books, 25 April 2025).

On this edition of the podcast, Peter Hitchens is interviewed by Church Times staff writer James Macintyre. Mr Hitchens is one of the most well-known — and well-travelled — columnists and commentators in Britain. He has worked in the journalism trade for almost 50 years, serving as a resident correspondent in Moscow, and in Washington DC, as well as an industrial correspondent and a political correspondent.

A practising Anglican and a “small-c” conservative, he is known as “controversial”: at once celebrated by his many admirers, and reviled by his opponents. Few people who have come across him have no opinion on him. He has a weekly column for The Mail on Sunday and also writes for the Daily Mail, among a range of other outlets. A regular broadcaster, his books include The Rage Against God, first published by Continuum in 2010.

Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

On this edition of the podcast, the Revd Dr Andrew Atherstone, Professor of Modern Anglicanism in the University of Oxford, is intereviewed about his biography of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which was published this week. The book, "Archbishop Sarah Mullally", draws on conversations with people who know her and archive material to tell the story of her childhood, her journey of faith, and her rapid rise through both the NHS and the Church of England.

Dr Atherstone also considers how her archiepiscopate might compare with that of Archbishop Welby’s, about whom he has also written a biography.

The book is published by Hodder & Stoughton at £22 (Church Times Bookshop £17.60); 978-1-3998-2878-9. https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781399828789/archbishop-sarah-mullally?vc=CT320

An extract is due to be published in next week’s issue of the Church Times (27 March), along with coverage of her enthronement in Canterbury.

Dr Atherstone is interviewed by Ed Thornton, Associate Editor.

Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to www.churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader