HeartEdge | 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 Professor Reddie was appointed Professor Extraordinarius in the Department of Philosophy, Practical and Systemic Theology at the University of South Africa.

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, teacher, writer, speaker, curating projects for various non-profit organisations and a member of the Curation Team of the Lanecia Rouse Tinsley Gallery of Holy Family Houston, Texas. 

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. 

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 you had a permit... a police officer, they are not going to question a white person who has a gun, they are just going to assume they have a permit. It's when a young black person has a gun that may well have been permitted properly that all hell breaks loose, and people feel threatened and kids get shot... This new law... black young men are going to continue to be targeted..." Kim, Azariah and Winnie on permit free gun laws, voting laws, the return of black American disenfranchisement, "holding your place in line" and finding hope. Kim works to bring the diverse voices of her district to the Capitol: immigrants, refugees, and people living on the margins. As the Vicar of the Church of the Common Ground, Kim co-creates Church with people who are experiencing homelessness in downtown Atlanta.

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..." 

Winnie 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, death and remembering "You note the lives of these icons and wonder if we're doing them justice, if there is another generation emerging in the same way..." 

"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 God and race with Winnie and Azariah.

"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 stories of an embodied Jesus, and contextual and Dalit theology from the margin.

"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 generation parishioners... "If you can model some level of honesty and integrity then you allow other people to do that... that is what will help dismantle the unhelpful structures we have in place – more honesty, more integrity and more vulnerability from those who are in power…".  Jarel is a theologian and Assistant Curate at St Botolph's-Without-Aldgate. Prior to full-time ministry Jarel studied classical music as a pianist and organist at the London College of Music, and privately in Paris. 

“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…" A former consultant for urban congregations on community organising in congregational development, Glenna joins Azariah France-Williams and Winnie Varghese to God, race, community organising and extending grace.

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! 

“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. We hold each other up because of those differences. Some things are not going to be easily translated.…” Mihee Kim-Kort is the author of ‘Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith’.

"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.  

(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!

"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 church, being angry... and dodgy haircuts... 

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.

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?