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A big welcome to Roz as our conversation partner for this December podcast! Roz is Assistant Chaplain at the University of Glasgow and she joins Holly and Darren to discuss all things Adventy – it’s that time of year, folks.

Their starting point is Rachel Mann’s new Advent book, Do Not Be Afraid: The Joy of Waiting in a Time of Fear, which is the Archbishop of York’s Advent Book for 2024. Rachel Mann is an Anglican priest and (as faithful listeners will remember) a former smallVOICE podcast guest. We chat about Christmas services, Carols in general – the best AND the most problematic – and the strange intersection of nostalgia and incarnation at this time of year.

Before delving in to Advent, we also wanted to have a short tribute to Tony Campolo who died at the end of November. Tony Campolo was an influential Christian writer, sociologist and Baptist preacher and the co-founder of Red Letter Christians, an organisation focused on the words and example of Jesus and which promotes social justice.

We end our podcast, as has been our tradition these last few years, with fantastic Scottish singer Hannah Rarity and her specially-recorded version of Silent Night.

Go well, people, and we’ll see you in 2025.

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We love hearing from you! You can leave a comment on this website or get in touch on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our Substack email and chat with us there.

This podcast was recorded on Thursday 5 December 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App.

Duration: 58’22 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.

Our latest small voice feature – where we seek out people and organisations which are small but make a big difference – finds Margaret getting a fab tour of Bridgend Farmhouse on the outskirts of Edinburgh. It’s a community-owned and run charitable organisation with a mission to ensure their renovated farmhouse is a “sustainable community-owned centre for learning, eating and exercise, where all can learn, work and grow together to develop a flourishing community and place.”

Have a listen as Margaret chats to team members Jo and to Khalid to find out more about the work that is done there, and what a difference a safe, outdoors spot can make to individuals. Oh, and what doing the”cool voodoo things with microbes” might be.

Margaret had a great day out and she says, “I even came home with a bottle of apple juice which was enjoyed by all round our table…”

Duration: 18’56 minutes.

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We’d love to hear what you think … You can leave a comment on this website or get in touch on Facebook. Perhaps you have a suggestion for a ‘small voice’ who we can feature?

You can also subscribe to our Substack email and chat with us there.

The smallVOICE podcast is available from Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App.

OK, so we need to start hoping for some hope. Holly & Darren recorded this podcast on 7 November just after the US Election result and with a prior decision to reflect some more about Israel and Gaza (one year after we last made the war the main focus of a podcast – it has had several mentions throughout the year). We ask: “What can you do when you can’t do anything?” Find out if there’s an answer to that and where, individually, and collectively we might find some hope….

We recorded on Darren’s birthday but how much cheer could he manage?

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We’d love to hear what you think about the issues in this podcast … You can leave a comment on this website or get in touch on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our Substack email and chat with us there.

This podcast was recorded on Thursday 7 November 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App.

Duration: 38’16 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.

“Connecting People to Change Lives.”

Neil Graham and Fiona Jardine were among a group that set off from Scotland to Tanzania in August this year to get on with the fetching and carrying which enable more homes to be created. They talked to Margaret about their experiences.

To find out more about the Vine Trust’s work and expeditions, go to www.vinetrust.org.

This podcast is available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Length: 25’13 minutes. All photos are copyright the Vine Trust.

This month, Darren and Holly have been reading We Solve Murders, the first novel in a new series by the omni-talented Richard Osman. How well has the Whodunnit been done? Is a bit of Cosy Crime the best antidote to … er, thinking about the US Election? Which we also do in this podcast. Quite a few things to tease out, especially with Darren not long returned from a trip to America’s Deep South. Not least: how do so many American evangelical Christians justify supporting a man like Donald Trump?

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We really enjoy hearing from you! You can leave a comment on this website or get in touch on Facebook . You can also subscribe to our Substack email and chat with us there.

This podcast was recorded on Thursday 3 October 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App.

Duration: 42’36 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.

We’re delighted to welcome back Laura to chat with us for September’s podcast! Regular listeners may remember that she is a hospice chaplain and spoke with us before about spiritual practices. For this podcast, Laura joins Holly and Darren, to help us navigate the concept and practice of lament. What are the processes of lament and what are the practices or techniques that might help us? Do we just need to read the book of Psalms? What could churches do better to support individuals or act corporately?

Listen to the conversation here. As ever, If you have any thoughts you’d like to share about any aspect of this podcast please do get in touch. It’s always great to hear from you and have you join the conversation too.

Remember you can keep up with us on Facebook and you can also interact via Substack.

Links from this podcast

This podcast was recorded via Zoom on Thursday 22 August 2024.

Lots of culture and deep thinking in this podcast, but, fear not, Holly and Darren will guide you through! They have been reading Naomi Klein’s latest book, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, the winner of the inaugural Women’s Prize for non-fiction. Very much a ‘pandemic book’, it is a deep exploration by Klein of truth in both politics and in life. Throughout, she is always accompanied by the ‘other Naomi’, Naomi Wolf.

Before that, Darren & Holly had met up in July for a couple of arty things… Firstly, they saw the only Scottish screening of the documentary film, It’s Only Life After All, directed by Alexandria Bombach. This is a look at the music, activism and lives of Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, who are the wonderful band, Indigo Girls. Then, Holly & Darren (and the whole smallVOICE team) went to Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, which is currently on (until mid August) in Glasgow. The blurb for the exhibition invited us to “go beyond the frame of Van Gogh’s work in an immersive showcase with over 300 of his paintings bursting into life around you”.

Is that enough? Lots to get in to! And, if you have read Doppelganger yourself, do let us know what you think about it – we’d be really interested. Such a rich book.

[Length 40’42 minutes]

Links from this podcast

If that’s not enough art ‘n’ stuff, Darren and Holly have some summer recommendations for you here on the smallVOICE substack.

Welcome to our latest small voice feature – where we find people and organisations which are small but make a big difference. We’re delighted that for this podcast, Margaret met up with Peter and Heidi Gardner who are artists – and much more. Their interactive installation, ‘Peacemakers’ is a huge circular wooden knitting loom, which they designed and fabricated themselves. It grew out of a sense of helplessness in the face of the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the work of ‘Peacemakers’ has continued ever since.

The installation offers a quiet and hospitable space, where visitors are invited to join them in the repetitive, contemplative, simple action of knitting on the loom and making peace through the sharing of many small actions and kind words. Heidi and Peter create special spaces for people – for listening, for talking, for creating together – where people are made welcome through doors that are kept open.

[Length: 29 minutes 59]

Gardner & Gardner bring ‘Peacemakers’ to St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland from Wednesday 7th to Wednesday 14th August and visitors are welcome to join Peter & Heidi in walking the loom. Visit https://www.stgilescathedral.org.uk/events-cal/peacemakers

Gardner & Gardner website

Photos copyright Heidi and Peter Gardner

The month of July finds Holly and Darren in a very peculiar twilight zone … They recorded this podcast on July 4th 2024 and they are still waiting for the UK election result! A great opportunity, then, to discuss thresholds, liminal spaces, waiting and hope. Staying with the timey-wimey theme, they also review the most recent series of Doctor Who starring Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson.

Have a listen and if you have any thoughts you’d like to share about topics raised in this podcast please do get in touch! It’s always great to hear from you.

Keep up with us on Facebook and you can also subscribe to our Substack email and interact with us there. As Darren & Holly say in this podcast, watch out for their Summer Recommendations dropping soon on Substack!

The Doctor Who series is available on BBC iPlayer in the UK and on Disney+ worldwide. Doctor Who photo/logo copyright BBC.

This podcast was recorded on Thursday 4 July 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 46 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.

Home 2 Hospital’s mission and strapline is “Supporting the community of Larbert and Stenhousemuir with free hospital transport service for people living with cancer”. A carefully-worded description which covers a well-organised support and an amazing relief for those in the area who receive a cancer diagnosis, and who face a weekly or daily round trip of 55-60 miles for treatment at a Glasgow hospital. A fine example of a ‘small voice’!

But it’s not a new idea. When Margaret spoke to June Kirkwood and Jean Geddes, who are on the committee of Home 2 Hospital, she discovered a story going back around 18 years to the origin of another, similar, organisation called Driving Force. Dr Bridget McCalister describes how that organisation has been serving a neighbouring community, inspired in turn by yet another group in Lanarkshire.

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Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App.

If you have any suggestions for a person or a group or an organisation that you think is a ‘small voice’ and want to highlight, just let us know!

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