smallVOICE podcast – July 2017

Welcome to smallVOICE for the month of July … in whatever passes for summer round these parts. Our Thousand Words interview is a fascinating and honest one with hospital chaplain, Rebekah Sharp about her favourite image; we feature a Canadian businessman Jim Estill who is taking a lead to help Syrian refugees for our ‘small voice of the month‘ feature; in our media review, we review the new book from good friend of the show Dave Tomlinson, called Black Sheep and Prodigals; joining us live to sing in the studio, we’re delighted to welcome Colet Selwyn. If you’re a fan of The Voice UK you’ll might remember Colet’s amazing voice from last year’s series, and he sings some great old gospel tunes for us. Finally our Moral Mixdown asks: Is Big Brother watching us and why should we care?

Phew, what a scorcher! Presented by Darren, Anne and Margaret.

Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas

The podcast was recorded on Thursday 7 July. Duration: 58’33

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

6 Responses to "smallVOICE podcast – July 2017"

Catriona says:

July 7, 2017 at 7:47 pm

AH, I did enjoy that… sitting on my settee, listening on my smartphone… digital technology and all that jazz!

I love the mosaic image/metaphor almost as much as I love the kaleidoscope one, and I loved the way all the bits today created something beautiful and perichoretic (to use a posy, theological type word).

Sounds like another book (or two) to add to my growing collection of train journey reads.

So thank you yet a gain for my monthly dose of delight 🙂

Reply
Panda says:

July 9, 2017 at 4:51 pm

Ah, “perichoretic” …. “monthly dose of delight” …. we aims to please! Thanks for your thoughts & encouragement Catriona.

Reply
Bruce Gulland says:

July 28, 2017 at 2:25 pm

Hi guys, and thanks again for the mention, that always keeps me listening haha… not the main thing though of course 🙂
Hmm, so the book review has got me thinking. Last year I dipped quite extensively into Dave Tomlinson’s ‘Bad Christian’s Manifesto’, and indeed have just watched this 3 minute clip about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJrUBqBHCyQ .
I like Dave and sometimes hear him on Radio 2 early Pause for Thought. A humane kind & thoughtful man.
I have a bit of question and a challenge though. A great image I’ve heard of what the Christian faith is like is a tightrope or mountain ridge with steep drops either side. And I just wonder if Dave’s thinking and the fairly unanimous team agreement with him is in danger of falling down one side of that ridge. The other side being the rigid, brittle, narrow kind of religious certainty you plainly don’t like (neither do I!). For instance, whenever I hear criticism of ‘certainty’, I’m reminded of the verse that faith is ‘being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see’ Hebrews 11:1. And the New Testament is overall throbbing with the burning conviction that Christ is risen from the dead and the gospel is astoundingly, cosmic good news – and true. I just wonder where the wariness of certainty fits with this?
I was reading Ephesians 1:1-14 today, where Paul lays out these vast and glorious vistas of belief. It strikes me that perhaps God wants us to have deep powerful conviction about the greatest biggest ‘truths’ of the faith, and NOT get so hung up on less important matters.

I also wonder if in the quest to find ‘my own faith, that I’m comfortable with’, there’s a danger of giving insufficient attention to the transcendent authority of God that the gospel seems to communicate.

By way of postscript, there’s a natural skeptic in me too. I’ve often said to folk, “even when I don’t feel totally certain about the gospel, I remain passionate about the exploration”. I remain convinced it’s vital, can’t understand why people can give up on or be indifferent to it. But I also naturally tend toward embracing, or at the very least wanting to embrace, the New Testament conviction described above.

Enough for today. But I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Will keep listening 🙂

Reply
Bruce Gulland says:

July 28, 2017 at 2:26 pm

Ps forgive the Milton Jones wild hair look, don’t know what’s going on there…!

Reply
Darren says:

July 28, 2017 at 5:02 pm

Thanks for such a thoughtful comment Bruce – might see if we can pick up on this in our next podcast! We like the hair by the way…

Reply
1. Bruce Gulland says:
  
  August 2, 2017 at 12:43 pm
  
  Thanks Darren, yes would love to hear more of your thoughts on this in a podcast. I know there are big issues underlying the question, such as authority of scripture and experience for instance… yes, the hair, well at least that shot keeps me from taking myself too seriously!
  
  Reply

Leave a Reply to Bruce Gulland Cancel reply