Bread and Rosaries

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In this episode of Bread and Rosaries, Jonny, Ben and Adam ask a simple question: what is Lent actually for?

Has it become too individualised? Is it more about self-improvement than transformation?  How have practices like fasting and “giving things up” shifted over time, and what might be lost when Lent is detached from justice, community and repentance?

Along the way, they also get into questions of forgiveness, accountability and power, asking what genuine repentance really looks like when the performative apology seems to be everywhere.

Link to the poem Foolish Men Who Accuse: https://poets.org/poem/you-foolish-men

Link to Jonny’s lent reflection: https://www.methodist.org.uk/for-churches/resources/videos/lent-2026-bible-studies/

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Everything Bread and Rosaries does will be free for everyone forever, but it does cost money to produce so if you wish to support the show on Patreon, we'd love you forever!

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This week we’re joined by Jonty Langley, editor of Shibboleth magazine and host of the Beer Christianity podcast, to tackle Shibboleth's latest topic: evangelism. Is evangelism inherently manipulative? Why do leftist Christians often seem more comfortable evangelising for politics than for Jesus? Does Christianity really have anything distinctive to offer? What happens to evangelism when eternal damnation is off the table? What might evangelism look like on the other side of deconstruction? These are all questions that exist. We'll be damned if we know the answers!

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Everything Bread and Rosaries does will be free for everyone forever, but it does cost money to produce so if you wish to support the show on Patreon, we'd love you forever!

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Ben and Adam are joined by Erica Dunmow of the Urban Theology Union to talk about what it really means to do theology where you live. They explore urban theology, liberationist praxis, and the legacy of John Vincent.

Urban Theology Union Website

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Everything Bread and Rosaries does will be free for everyone forever, but it does cost money to produce so if you wish to support the show on Patreon, we'd love you forever!

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Adam speaks with Chris Howson, chair of Sunderland City of Sanctuary, about lies in Reform UK's recent campaign leaflets and about what a Christian response to scapegoating and hostility should look like. They also discuss one man's unusual excuse for not obtaining planning permission. 

BBC article on Chris' challenge to Reform

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Everything Bread and Rosaries does will be free for everyone forever, but it does cost money to produce so if you wish to support the show on Patreon, we'd love you forever!

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Adam has, for the delectation of the listeners, foolishly bravely subjected himself to yet another video recording of right-wing faith hobbyists making asses of themselves. Now it's Ben's turn. Join the lads as they head off to St Michael’s, Cornhill, in the City of London, for the launch of the Reform Christian Fellowship.

What’s on the menu?

 🍿 Sermon breakdown
 📖 Bad Theology
 ⚡ And, of course, the ever-present "cancel culture"

Along the way, they Mindgrapes 🍇 the Church of England’s Living in Love and Faith announcement and stumble across a familiar-yet-unfamiliar dragon-murdering Saint of the Week 🐉✝️.

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Everything Bread and Rosaries does will be free for everyone forever, but it does cost money to produce so if you wish to support the show on Patreon, we'd love you forever!

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It's finally here! The annual (probably) awards ceremony people actually care about! Who will win the coveted Best Christian and Best Church gongs? And who can claim to be the first ever recipient of the biggest prize around - the Bread and Rosaries Piece Prize?! Listen now to find out in this bumper awards edition of the greatest UK based leftist Christian podcast released on a semi-fortnightly basis!

The Bird Who Sang the Trisagion by Robert A Kitchen and Glenn Peers

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Everything Bread and Rosaries does will be free for everyone forever, but it does cost money to produce so if you wish to support the show on Patreon, we'd love you forever!

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The Church of England Is Now Investing in Arms. Cool. This week, Ben, Jonny and Adam talk pigs, peace prizes, and the slow spiritual death of the Church of England. Adam reflects on finding more joy at a winter fair than in most churches, Ben explains (again!) why liberals can’t be trusted, and Jonny questions what ‘Prince of Peace’ actually means when the C of E decides weapons are a sound investment strategy. Plus, our first Hussite Saint of the Week!

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Everything Bread and Rosaries does will be free for everyone forever, but it does cost money to produce so if you wish to support the show on Patreon, we'd love you forever!

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This week, Adam and Ben dive into yet another baffling episode of the Evangelical Alliance’s Cross Section podcast, where the hosts calmly explain that Zack Polanski’s Green Party and Tommy Robinson’s merry band of fascist grifters are basically two sides of the same extremist coin. Yes, really.

The guys listen and respond as the sensible moderates of Cross Section:

• warn churches about the rise of “extremes”
• frame mild social democracy as radical and dangerous
• talk with straight faces about “the transing of kids”
• insist Jesus wouldn’t support state welfare
• suggest Tommy Robinson may be experiencing a Holy Spirit awakening
• argue that abortion rights, LGBT dignity, and bodily autonomy are signs of moral decline

But remember folks, they're the sensible moderates.

So join Ben and Adam as they complain, like only mediocre white men can, about theology, politics, civility rhetoric and historical amnesia. 

Cross Section episode

The Class Struggle and Christian Love by Herbert McCabe

Adam's article in S(h)ibboleth Magazine

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Everything Bread and Rosaries does will be free for everyone forever, but it does cost money to produce so if you wish to support the show on Patreon, we'd love you forever!

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For our final Rosaries Rewind of the series, please enjoy this episode from 2022. We will be back with new episodes very soon!

Adam is joined not by Ben, who got called into work at the last minute, but by the Rev'd Robin Hanford.  Robin and Adam return the podcast to the topic of Remembrance and ask if a radical Remembrance is possible.

Find Robin Hanford here:
Twitter – @RobinHanford
Web – https://hanford.me.uk/

"The Parable of the Old Man and the Young" by Wilfred Owen is read by Lauren Minto-Simpson.

We also use audio from the Imperial War Museum's interviews with Dr. Reginald Saxton available at https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80008531 used under IWM non-commercial licence ©IWM 8735

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Everything Bread and Rosaries does will be free for everyone forever, but it does cost money to produce so if you wish to support the show on Patreon, we'd love you forever!

Music credits at this link

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We're still on a break from recording so once again we've got an old episode for you. This time, it's a very early episode from 5 years ago looking at the celebration of Remembrance. Adam and I discuss our various problems with Remembrance and wearing poppies.

Support the show

Everything Bread and Rosaries does will be free for everyone forever, but it does cost money to produce so if you wish to support the show on Patreon, we'd love you forever!

Music credits at this link