Leaving Egypt Podcast

• EP#45 A Church Listening for the Spirit with Avril Baigent

  In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair meet again with Avril Baigent. In an earlier episode (#05) of Leaving Egypt, Al and Jenny discovered Avril’s involvement with the movement known as Synodality. This is a process initiated by the late Pope Francis across the Catholic Church, enabling Catholics at all levels of the Church to come together in processes of listening to one another and to the Holy Spirit. Centred on an ancient method called “Conversation in the Spirit”, Synodality is slowly enabling fresh spaces within the Church for discerning how the Spirit is calling us to join with God. Sharing real stories of deep transformation through her own experience of this global movement, Avril is clear that this process is no “add water and stir” quick fix for ailing parishes. It takes time. This process takes us deep into encounter with one another and has the potential to resolve difficult decisions, overcome power imbalances and resolve painful conflict. And not only within the Church, it also takes us into deep, listening relationships with the people in our neighbourhoods and local communities. It is in these engagements that discernment emerges as we hear the Spirit through the other.Avril Baigent is co-director of the School for Synodality where she promotes the ancient Catholic practice of 'walking together with the Holy Spirit’. In addition, as Director of Pastoral Development at the Diocese of Northampton, she is embedding synodality in the life of the diocese, promoting lay vocations and helping local Catholic communities to imagine their futures together. Avril has also recently completed her PhD youth ministry at Durham University, and helps out in her parish as a musician and children’s liturgy leader.We hope that you are enjoying Leaving Egypt. We would invite you to join the Leaving Egypt community on Substack by becoming a paid subscriber: https://leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribeLinksFor Avril Baigent:https://www.schoolforsynodality.org.uk/https://pastoralministryoffice.org/home-copy/staff/https://northamptondiocese.org/chaplaincy/https://www.linkedin.com/in/avrilbaigent/?originalSubdomain=ukFor Alan J Roxburgh:http://alanroxburgh.com/aboutFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetworkBooksForming Communities of Hope in the Great Unraveling: Leadership in a Changing World (with Roy Searle)Joining God in the Great UnravelingLeadership, God’s Agency and DisruptionsJoining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our TimeFor Jenny Sinclair:Website: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclairLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-sinclair-0589783b/Twitter: https://twitter.com/T4CGFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TogetherForTheCommonGoodUKInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/t4cg_insta/ Get full access to Leaving Egypt at leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

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• EP#44 - A New Kind of Humanism with Susannah Black Roberts

  In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Susannah Black Roberts about the need for a new Christian humanism. Susannah is a journalist and an editor whose imagination is shaped by her life in New York City. With infectious curiosity she guides us to ask questions about what it means to be human and proposes we respond, in the growing shadow of AI, by making and doing rather than consuming. From Aristotle to Aquinas, from CS Lewis to Alasdair McIntyre and Tim Keller, Susannah’s influences lead her to resist modernity’s dehumanising tendencies with simple human practices that can easily be lived out, even in the big city. At the heart of her spiritual imagination is the creativity of God’s relational life, present in us as we participate in creation for the common good, rooted in praise and worship as communities of blessing.Susannah Black Roberts is Senior Editor at the international magazine Plough Quarterly and an editor at Mere Orthodoxy and has written for many publications including First Things, Front Porch Republic, and The American Conservative. A native Manhattanite married to an Englishman, she lives between New York and the West Midlands in the UK.Our work is only possible with your support. Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to enable us to continue with the podcast.LinksFor Susannah Black Roberts:https://www.plough.com/en/authors/qr/susannah-black-robertshttps://mereorthodoxy.com/author/susannah-blackhttps://x.com/suzania?lang=enFor Alan J Roxburgh:http://alanroxburgh.com/abouthttps://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburghTwitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetworkBooksJoining God in the Great UnravelingLeadership, God’s Agency and DisruptionsJoining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our TimeFor Jenny Sinclair:Website: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclairLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-sinclair-0589783b/Twitter: https://twitter.com/T4CGFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TogetherForTheCommonGoodUKInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/t4cg_insta/ Get full access to Leaving Egypt at leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

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• EP#43 - A Spirit-filled Parish for the City - with Jo Gilbert

  In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Jo Gilbert about discipleship and parish life in a fast-changing city. Jo works within a large and dynamic church community, and with students across the city, creating opportunities for formation, community events and local civic partnerships. Jo was raised as part of a Benedictine lay community and this, along with her other gifts, brings an openness to the Spirit into the life of the local church. The vitality and witness of this parish and their growing connections into the city are striking, not least their humility as they learn to walk with young adults for whom Christianity may be new. This is a conversation full of life and insight into living out the Gospel in community.Jo Gilbert is part of the leadership team at East Brighton Catholic Parish, a group of churches in the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton on the south coast of England. Made up of clergy and laity, the team is focused on serving the communities of a growing city with a shifting demographic and a large student population. Jo is also co-ordinator of the Catholic Student Ministry Team serving Brighton and Sussex universities and has worked with students and young adults for 20 years.LinksFor Jo Gilbert:https://www.eastbrightoncatholic.org.uk/leadership-teamhttps://www.facebook.com/StJosephsBrighton/?locale=en_GBhttps://www.eastbrightoncatholic.org.uk/catholic-student-and-young-adults-grouphttps://catholicstudents.org/about/For Alan J Roxburgh:http://alanroxburgh.com/abouthttps://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburghTwitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetworkBooksForming Communities of Hope in the Great Unraveling: Leadership in a Changing World (with Roy Searle)Joining God in the Great UnravelingLeadership, God’s Agency and DisruptionsJoining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our TimeFor Jenny Sinclair:Website: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclairLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-sinclair-0589783b/Twitter: https://twitter.com/T4CGFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TogetherForTheCommonGoodUK Get full access to Leaving Egypt at leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

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• EP#42 - Living out of Control with Rodney Clapp

  In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Rodney Clapp about the state of Christian life in a time of profound change. Exploring what it means for Christians to live as witnesses to the Gospel in a radically changing world, Rodney looks at the recent history of the Evangelical Church in America, and the longing for a Christian nationalism that reasserts control over the cultural narrative. Rodney offers a radically different set of proposals, of humble practices rooted in a Biblical imagination, that eschew power and the need for control. Rodney is driven by a passion to call churches to rediscover their life and mission by learning to live without power and control. He believes that it is by living out of control that we discern the ways of God and live in anticipation of a new creation - of a healed earth and of a healed people.Rodney Clapp is an author, editor and social commentator. He was a former columnist for The Christian Century as well as a longtime associate editor for Christianity Today. Until 1999 he was the senior editor for academic and general books at InterVarsity Press. He was also an editor with Brazos Press and is currently an editor with Wipf and Stock. His latest book is Living Out of Control, an extended proposal for how, in a post Christian context, Christian life ought to be shaped amidst declining empire and in an age of profound change.LinksFor Rodney Clapp:https://wipfandstock.com/author/rodney-clapp/https://wipfandstock.com/contact-information/BooksFamilies at the Crossroads (1993) A Peculiar People (1996) The Consuming Passion (1998) Border Crossings (2000) The People of the Truth with Robert E. Webber (2001) Tortured Wonders (2006) Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction (2008) Naming Neoliberalism: Exposing the Spirit of Our Age (2021)Living Out of Control: Political & Personal Faith in Waning Christendom (2025)For Alan J Roxburgh:http://alanroxburgh.com/abouthttps://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburghTwitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetworkBooksJoining God in the Great UnravelingLeadership, God’s Agency and Disruptions Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our TimeFor Jenny Sinclair:Website: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclairLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-sinclair-0589783b/Twitter: https://twitter.com/T4CGFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TogetherForTheCommonGoodUKInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/t4cg_insta/ Get full access to Leaving Egypt at leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

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• EP #41 God wants us to be human again - With Samuel Luak

  In this episode Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair talk with Samuel Luak about what it means to be human. Born in Sudan, as a teenager he was confronted with the horror of civil war and experienced the loss of family and the longing for revenge. It was in the midst of hate and death that he came to know the reconciling love of Jesus. Forced to leave his own country, as a refugee he made a new life in Finland and then in the UK. An African Christian living in the West, Samuel is infused with the wisdom of the “we”, bringing a grace-filled countercultural challenge to the individualism that captures the Western imagination. We see its impact: from “having coffee” and the loss of the shared meal to the complete abandonment of our fellow citizens. This is a man whose life exudes the grace of God, whose own journey into love for human beings shapes the ministry he is now leading: the rehumanizing, life-giving exchange between refugees and UK congregations.Samuel is the Leader for Refugee Integration and Discipleship programmes at Welcome Churches in the UK. Raised in the Presbyterian Church in Sudan, Samuel is now a Finnish citizen. A trained lawyer and theologian having studied in Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon, Finland and the UK, he is an ordained minister, and has served as a lecturer and a schoolteacher, as well as fulfilling roles at the Finnish Bible Society, and for the Church Commission for Migrants in Europe. Since moving to the UK in 2017, he has worked with refugees and attends Woodside Church in Bedford, where he is actively involved in intercultural ministry, promoting engagement between diverse communities.LinksFor Samuel Luak:https://welcomechurches.org/https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-luak-413476133?originalSubdomain=ukhttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=869351222066791&id=100069757641603&set=a.284573637211222For Alan J Roxburgh:http://alanroxburgh.com/abouthttps://www.themissionalnetwork.com/author/alan-roxburgh/https://journalofmissionalpractice.com/alan-roxburghTwitter: https://twitter.com/alanjroxburgh?lang=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.roxburgh.127/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonsnetworkBooksJoining God in the Great UnravelingLeadership, God’s Agency and DisruptionsJoining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our TimeFor Jenny Sinclair:Website: https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/from-jenny-sinclairLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-sinclair-0589783b/Twitter: https://twitter.com/T4CGFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TogetherForTheCommonGoodUKInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/t4cg_insta/ Get full access to Leaving Egypt at leavingegyptpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

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