Shows
HeartEdge | Grace18. Anthony Reddie: "Professor Reddie, I can see why Azariah quotes you all the time... I will too!"Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture, Professor Anthony Reddie joins Azariah France-Williams and Winnie Varghese for more tantalising cross-Atlantic conversations in this final episode of Grace.
Professor Anthony G. Reddie is a participative educator and liberation theologian who specialises in undertaking action-research and participative observational work with predominantly poorer Black communities in the UK. The author of 17 books, numerous journal articles and editor of Black Theology: An International Journal, Professor Reddie is renowned for his innovative and engaging teaching and facilitating style. He is one of the foremost Practical Black theologians in the world. In 2015 ...
2023-03-0642 min
HeartEdge | Grace17. Lanecia Rouse Tinsley: “I wanted to create a table where people could fully show up as themselves and experience the life, the joy, the healing…”US multidisciplinary artist Lanecia Rouse Tinsley joins Azariah France-Williams and Winnie Varghese for more transatlantic conversation about God and race - and home, art, and the possibility of creative partnerships. Director of Justice and the Arts with projectCURATE and co-founding Creative Director for the ImagiNoir Equity Group, a global alliance and equity group of black activists, artists, writers, scholars, philanthropists, and educators. “Part of my falling in love with a place is to immerse myself in the culture and the daily rhythms… The camera provided a way to document that falling in love.” Lanecia is an abstract painter, photographer, teache...
2022-10-1940 min
HeartEdge | Grace16. Augustine Tanner Ihm: "People who decide to come to your church... you've got to give them good food."UK based Augustine Tanner Ihm is an assistant curate and Student, Mission and Outreach Director at St. James and Emmanuel Didsbury in Manchester in the Church of England - a writer, minister, speaker and facilitator. "Good stand up comics are good story tellers..." Augustine joins Winnie Varghese and Azariah France-Williams to talk finding home, and finding your voice - the craft of preaching and the gift of stand-up comedy to communicate the hard stuff. Augustine is a Doctoral Student in Transformational and Cultural Leadership and Practical Theology at Bakke Graduate University based in Dallas, Texas.
2022-09-2351 min
HeartEdge | Grace15. Jeff Chu: "Our hope is not for ourselves…”“Those of us who feel a little bit of hope have a responsibility to share that. Our hope is not for ourselves…”
US based Jeff Chu - writer, reporter, and editor and Teacher-in-Residence at Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan – joins Winnie and Azariah for conversations about God and race. “I’m not seen unless I’m useful to the white folks. I’m often not valued unless I’m prepared to bring them a blessing…” Jeff co-hosts with Sarah Bessey, Evolving Faith – a podcast for the wounded, the misfits, and the spiritual refugees, and a community where the wand...
2022-07-2442 min
HeartEdge | Grace14. Kim Jackson: "The work of the gospel is beyond the walls of the church..."US Senator and Episcopal priest Kim Jackson in conversation with Azariah France Williams and Winnie Varghese. "The work of the gospel is doing the work beyond the walls of the church... Jesus calls us to do this work of... preaching the word of liberation, or setting the captive free, of bringing good news to the poor... The only way to this was in the political square. I have taken this to heart carrying this into the Georgian legislation..." Kim is Senator for Georgia State Senate District 41, representing portions of Dekalb and Gwinnett counties. "You can carry a gun if...
2022-04-2546 min
HeartEdge | Grace13. Natalia-Nana: "To embrace difference - that's costly, sacrificial, uncomfortable..."This episode rich and candid conversation about God, race and racial justice in church and society with educationalist and activist Natalia-Nana, "You're dealing with institutions who don't want discomfort... My emancipation my liberation is actually expanding my view of God I see race work as spiritual as mental as social as economic and that's really hard..." Straight talking and honest discussion about finding solidarity in white majority institutions... "I find the conversation we're having frankly so hopeful in that its telling the truth..."
2022-03-2144 min
HeartEdge | Grace12. "Prophetic and fearless... and deep solidarity..." Azariah and Winnie on Recent Loss and RememberingWinnie and Azariah on recent deaths and loss, remembering bell hooks; "She uses her grandmother's name... and doesn't capitalise her name... she decides to stand away from the institution that grant honour in different ways..."; Desmond Tutu, "his always outspoken support for LGBTQ people... his prophetic and profound commitment to justice, in ways that aren't what your PR consultant would recommend..."; and Harold Lewis, "Prophetic and fearless... and deep solidarity...", "He organised all of the funds... when our church still doesn't have that will, that bite, to provide what's necessary for people to flourish and thrive." Talking about life...
2022-02-1633 min
HeartEdge | Grace11. Bev Thomas: "I wasn't doing what they said I should do...""They chose to ban us from crossing certain lines because they didn't want us to be hurt. And I wanted to explore that and it got me into an awful lot of trouble... I wanted to explore the pain... and to understand what, 'every tribe, nation and tongue together worshiping' and all the people I saw in my local church all looked like me..." Activist, advocate, minister (and host of new HeartEdge podcast 'How...') Bev Thomas on "race", theology from a wider perspective, burning bridges, the legacy of Joel Edwards... and the best Christmas carol ever. Conversation about...
2021-12-1844 min
HeartEdge | Grace10. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith: “... If it’s not practical it’s not spiritual…"“You cannot expect to experience grace except through other people…” Actor Kobna Holdbrook-Smith - Wonka, (2023), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) and Doctor Strange (2016) - joins Azariah France-Williams and Winnie Varghese to talk God “… what can be more complex than the concept of the divine…” race, “... you learn very quickly to listen and adapt to your surroundings…” Plus the challenge of the peacock and the priest “… every actor imagines themselves to be the priest – the conduit for artistic excellence… the truth and character and story… but what it denies is this peacock… ” Lively conversation digging deep into faith, moving towards the good, being sub...
2021-11-1938 min
HeartEdge | Grace9. Anderson Jeremiah: "If we don't understand God in our context, God cannot be relevant...""You don't have to justify your place. This is your voice. And you have all the right to talk about God the way you want to talk..." Lecturer in Theology and Politics at Lancaster University and Church of England minister - Anderson Jeremiah joins Azariah and Winnie to talk God and race, home, 'Lament to Action', being black and outsiders in the Church-of-England and becoming fully engaged in structural change. "Many of those critical recommendations that we suggested that could have facilitated swift change... once you give in to recommendations you have to follow up with actual work." Plus...
2021-10-1532 min
HeartEdge | Grace8. Jarel Robinson-Brown: "Grace is something we all participate... we are all able to share...""I can’t separate the black part of me from the gay part pf me, from the British part of me. It’s all one part of me…" Theologian and activist Jarel Robinson-Brown joins Azariah France Williams and Winnie Varghese for lively conversation about God and race - ((G)race). "It’s not possible to compartmentalise parts of me… I can’t compartmentalise faith from gender, from sexuality, from class, from race… that’s my life. That makes sense of me..." Here, Jarel talks Methodism, African and Asian origins of Christianity, intersectionality and exile, finding James Baldwin, and older black Windrush g...
2021-09-0946 minHeartEdge | Grace7. Glenna J. Huber: "Organising people and money creates change…"“I was being introduced to organising before I knew what was organising… I organised a movement to make sure students had a voice… I believe that organising has implications for how we do church…” Glenna J. Huber is Rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Washington DC and previously Vicar at the Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Baltimore. "I remember the fight to get the bus service… We would go to churches… if they were prominent black churches… you got buy in… you make change happen... You gotta be in relationship with the earth… with the people… listening… Organising people and money creates change...
2021-08-1342 minHeartEdge | Grace6. Sam Lindo: "Speaking truth to power was the path my faith led me on…"Singer and activist Sam Lindo joins Azariah and Winnie to talk God, race, and finding home. "I spent my whole school trying to minimise my difference..." This episode Sam talks connecting faith to activism, getting arrested and ending up in court. "I was asked to move, and I didn’t… I got to proclaim that truth… Speaking to power literally was the path my faith had led me on… " Stories and inspiration - including tips on cheeky, playful, non-violent resistance... and a song!
2021-07-0844 minHeartEdge | Grace5. Mihee Kim-Kort: "We hold each other up because of differences..."“You see us as perpetual foreigner…” Writer and Presbyterian minister Mihee Kim-Kort joins Winnie Varghese and Azariah France Williams for more inspired conversation about God and race ((G)race!). This time, anti-Asian violence and the response of the church; the 2017 Atlanta shootings, Rodney King and white policing … “… that’s what white supremacy does. It makes us enemies out of each other…” How do churches build diversity that go beyond ‘inclusion’, widening the communion table and deepening community? “We don’t stand in solidarity with each other because we have some common struggle… this ‘common experience’, but because of the complexity of our differences. W...
2021-06-1132 minHeartEdge | Grace4. Chine McDonald: "God is not a white man...""Our worship songs, the way that we do church are so wrapped up in this notion of Englishness..." Communicator and influencer Chine McDonald on home and Greenbelt, the power of personal story, redeeming white spaces, uncovering African spirituality and facing up to whiteness. Conversations about finding home, identity, God and race hosted by Azariah France Williams and Winnie Varghese.
2021-05-1445 minHeartEdge | GraceTrail New (G)race - now monthly!(G)race returns for conversation about God and race! Azariah France-Williams in the UK, Winnie Varghese in the US plus guests digging deep into identity, faith and life together. Now monthly dropping early every second Friday. Tell your friends and subscribe!
2021-05-1001 min
Recovering God: The ConversationsBeing Interrupted with Ruth HarleyIn this episode Ruth Harley talks about the need for us to consider where our power is and how we use it as individuals and as churches. She is the co-author (with Al Barrett) of “Being Interrupted: Reimagining the Church’s Mission from the Outside, In”, which challenges the status quo and encourages us to reconsider how we do church.Previously, she was a youth and children’s minister, with a particular interest in inter-generational church and is currently training at The Queen’s Foundation in Birmingham to be a priest in the Church of England. During t...
2021-03-0553 minHeartEdge | Grace3. Sharon Lewis: 'Afro-Futurism and recovering faith'"Your work, the spirit is pulsating through it... it's deeply spiritual..." Writer, director and award-winning film maker, Sharon Lewis in conversation about God and race with Azariah France-Williams and Winnie Varghese. "Black History Month perpetually keeps us in the past... in an iconography we're repressed... We did rebel! We did fight back! We survived and thrived! We were not decimated in terms of spirit... The very basis of Black Future Month is that we exist..." Sharon, Azariah and Winnie on Christianity colonised (and releasing colonial attitudes), coding the future, extending sci-fi, giving up Jesus and recovering Christianity and the c...
2021-03-0536 minHeartEdge | Grace2. David Neita: 'Barriers, boundaries and finding home'UK based poet and lawyer David Neita in conversation with Azariah France-Williams and Winnie Varghese. “I belong to the Lord – so this is my space…” How to build a space that is welcoming, diverse and hospitable. Plus, poverty, inequality and the importance of poetry to navigate the justice system… And birthing something creative into the world.
2021-02-2635 minHeartEdge | Grace1. Broderick Greer: 'Black imagination, white reactions'Broderick Greer Canon Precentor at Saint John's Cathedral in Denver, Colorado US in transatlantic conversation with Azariah France-Williams (UK) and Winnie Varghese (US). Talking God and race - on black resistance, black dignity and joy - and 'being the allies'. Plus the ravages of white supremacy and finding freedom. And how do you pronounce (G)race?
2021-02-1934 min