The Bishop of Washington, DC, the Rt Revd Mariann Edgar Budde, made headlines in January when she preached before President Trump at the traditional post-Inauguration service of prayer for the nation, in Washington National Cathedral. She pleaded with him directly to be merciful to migrants and LGBTQ people (News, 24 January, Features, 5 September).
Bishop Budde was a speaker last month at the Festival of Preaching, organised by the Church Times and Canterbury Press, in Southwark Cathedral. The theme of the festival was “Preaching Truth to Power”. On the podcast this week, there is a chance to hear the sermon that she preached at the festival eucharist.
“I wasn’t speaking only to the President and his supporters gathered at the cathedral: I was speaking to and for those listening around the country,” she said. “One of my favourite homiletics professors used to say ‘Sometimes, we speak to the people; other times, we speak for them.’ But I didn’t feel like a prophet: I felt like a pastor, speaking to and for a country that I loved. . .
“The task isn’t to preach to those who aren’t listening, but to those who are, who are trying to make sense of what’s happening. . . We have the sacred duty to give voice, yes, to factual truth, as best we can discern it, but also a moral truth rooted in the teachings of Jesus and the prophetic tradition of our faith.”
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The Bishop of Washington, DC, the Rt Revd Mariann Edgar Budde, made headlines in January when she preached before President Trump at the traditional post-Inauguration service of prayer for the nation, in Washington National Cathedral. She pleaded with him directly to be merciful to migrants and LGBTQ people (News, 24 January, Features, 5 September).
Bishop Budde was a speaker last month at the Festival of Preaching, organised by the Church Times and Canterbury Press, in Southwark Cathedral. The theme of the festival was “Preaching Truth to Power”. On the podcast this week, there is a chance to hear the sermon that she preached at the festival eucharist.
“I wasn’t speaking only to the President and his supporters gathered at the cathedral: I was speaking to and for those listening around the country,” she said. “One of my favourite homiletics professors used to say ‘Sometimes, we speak to the people; other times, we speak for them.’ But I didn’t feel like a prophet: I felt like a pastor, speaking to and for a country that I loved. . .
“The task isn’t to preach to those who aren’t listening, but to those who are, who are trying to make sense of what’s happening. . . We have the sacred duty to give voice, yes, to factual truth, as best we can discern it, but also a moral truth rooted in the teachings of Jesus and the prophetic tradition of our faith.”
On the podcast this week, Francis Spufford discusses his latest novel, Cahokia Jazz, with the Dean of Southwark, the Very Revd Dr Mark Oakley. The conversation was recorded at the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature, which was held in Winchester in March (Features, 7 March).
Set in an alternative America in the 1920s, Cahokia Jazz is “a detective novel with noir tendencies” which is “as inventive and unpredictable in its setting as it is in its thrilling plot”, Dr Oakley wrote in a review in the Church Times.
Cahokia Jazz is available in paperback from the Church House Bookshop. https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780571336883/cahokia-jazz
Francis Spufford’s first novel, Golden Hill, won the Costa First Novel Award 2016; his second novel, Light Perpetual was longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. He has also written five highly praised works of non-fiction, including Unapologetic: Why, despite everything Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense, which was shortlisted for the 2016 Michael Ramsey Prize.
Picture credit: Harvey Mills
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The Church Times Podcast
The Bishop of Washington, DC, the Rt Revd Mariann Edgar Budde, made headlines in January when she preached before President Trump at the traditional post-Inauguration service of prayer for the nation, in Washington National Cathedral. She pleaded with him directly to be merciful to migrants and LGBTQ people (News, 24 January, Features, 5 September).
Bishop Budde was a speaker last month at the Festival of Preaching, organised by the Church Times and Canterbury Press, in Southwark Cathedral. The theme of the festival was “Preaching Truth to Power”. On the podcast this week, there is a chance to hear the sermon that she preached at the festival eucharist.
“I wasn’t speaking only to the President and his supporters gathered at the cathedral: I was speaking to and for those listening around the country,” she said. “One of my favourite homiletics professors used to say ‘Sometimes, we speak to the people; other times, we speak for them.’ But I didn’t feel like a prophet: I felt like a pastor, speaking to and for a country that I loved. . .
“The task isn’t to preach to those who aren’t listening, but to those who are, who are trying to make sense of what’s happening. . . We have the sacred duty to give voice, yes, to factual truth, as best we can discern it, but also a moral truth rooted in the teachings of Jesus and the prophetic tradition of our faith.”
