On the podcast this week, Fr Alex Frost — parish priest, best-selling author, and host of  The God Cast — talks to Madeleine Davies about the Church of England’s problems connecting with people from working-class settings.

Fr Alex has written a comment article in this week’s Church Times which argues that the C of E needs to remove barriers that make it harder for working-class people to respond to a call to ordination or lay leadership.

“I heard examples of intelligent and highly capable individuals from urban working-class settings who had struggled to break through the pomp and procedures of the Church of England,” he writes. “And of individuals dismayed by the Church and its approach to training and developing leaders who happened to drink Vimto more than they did Vin Mariani. . .

“I could relate to this. In my own journey to ordination, I had many advocates; but, for every advocate I had, there were dreadfully high hurdles put in front of me to demonstrate whether I might be worthy of fulfilling my authentic and genuine call to ordination.”

The Revd Alex Frost is the Vicar of St Matthew the Apostle, Burnley, a member of the General Synod, and host of the podcast The God Cast. His book, Our Daily Bread: From Argos to the altar — a priest’s story is published by Harper North (Books, 11 November 2022). 

Madeleine Davies is Senior Writer for the Church Times.

Click the play button above to listen to this podcast. You can also listen to the Church Times Podcast on the Church Times app for iPhone and iPad, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast platforms. Music for the podcast is by Twisterium.