The Revd Canon Dr Charlotte Bannister-Parker on BBC Radio Oxford
The Revd Canon Dr Charlotte Bannister-Parker joined Fleur Ostojak at BBC Radio Oxford on Sunday 15 May after being installed as an Honorary Canon at Chirst Church Cathedral, Oxford.
Journeys2Faith: Why creation care matters.
The Revd Charlotte Bannister-Parker, Associate Priest at the University Church and founder of Hope4Creation Foundation, in conversation with Janie Bickersteth.
Why do I, as a Christian, care so much about our natural world?
I grew up in a privileged place; my earliest memories of engaging with the land was in the sloping veg garden of our home - an ugly vicarage in the Medway Towns. Privilege meant that we had land that we could grow food on. My father would have been a farmer if he had not felt called to become a vicar - he had a deep passion for the natural world - so we all did too. His belief in God was reinforced daily by witnessing the wonders of Nature - a swallow in flight, a tiny primrose, a stormy sky; ‘All things bright and beautiful" was the first hymn I remember learning off by heart, as he often used to sing it to us as we went to sleep.
I feel that my calling to alert Christians to the environmental crisis is as his successor. Nature and God are equally unbelievable and extraordinary; the more I witness the intricacies of the natural world, the more my faith is strengthened. I am dismayed that we are trampling over this beautiful world - this gift from God that he asked us to care for.
Janie Bickersteth 4.5.21
Journeys2Faith
All my life I have been fascinated by how people come to believe in God and what sustains their faith during dark and troubling times. ‘Journeys2Faith’ asks Christians to recall how come they came to belief in God, what shapes that belief, and how it sustains them in dark times. 2020 is an extraordinary year to have such conversations and I will be asking peoples faith has helped them through these changing times and how it define their future hopes and actions.
Our discussions give personal and intimate window into the lives of extraordinary individuals focusing on their conversion to Christianity and what factors influenced their journey. How do they see their vocation as people of faith. How is that translated into their daily life: Each interview touches on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the journeyer’s belief system and in the widest sense and whether it has changed their faith perspective or approach to their daily life.
At the heart of the conversations in Journeys2Faith each interviewee reveals how their belief and its healing power translate into actions practical for transformational change: on the front line of social change, in the fields like healthcare, sustainability, peace, and inter-faith dialogue. Please join me in reflections shared by people who are seeking God in all things and have been surprised by what they find as they travel their pathways.
It is a privilege to open the series with the champions, Revd Dr Dave Bookless, Director of Theology for A Rocha International. Dave speaks of his relationship with God, encountered both as creator and sustainer of the universe and what role has faith and religion plays in his life. He shares the story of his ecological conversion, his understanding that the Earth is part of the created universe brought into being by a loving God, and his belief in the power yet fragility of the interconnectedness systems that sustains life on earth.
Diocese of Oxford: Church at Home during the pandemic
The Revd Charlotte Bannister-Parker is Associate Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford and the person behind our weekly Church at Home services during lockdown. BBC Radio Oxford talk with her about the challenges and opportunities churches are facing as church moves online. Join us at 10am each Sunday here on Soundcloud, YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook. Details and orders of service to download here on the website: www.oxford.anglican.org/livestream
Fiction and Gospel Truth: Can Novels Tell Godly Stories? Sarah Meyrick & George Pitcher
Charlotte Bannister-Parker hosts a conversation with three novelists, The Revd George Pitcher, Sarah Myerick and Iain Pears. In the first part of the event, Sarah Meyrick talks about her career as a journalist and her novel Knowing Anna (2016), while George Pitcher reflects on the pitfalls of writing godly stories and reveals the idea behind his first novel A Dark Nativity (2017).
Recorded at the Old Library of the University church of St Mary, Oxford, 9 February 2018
Fiction and Gospel Truth: Can Novels Tell Godly Stories? In Conversation with Iain Pears
In the second part of the event, Charlotte Bannister-Parker interviews art historian, novelist and journalist Iain Pears. He previously penned a series of art history mysteries, featuring art detective Jonathan Argyll. Iain talks about his bestselling book, An Instance of the Fingerpost (1997), and his recent novel Arcadia (2015). He is then joined by George Pitcher and Sarah Meyrick who discuss overcoming genre constraints in the modern literature, narrative techniques and humour in the Bible.
Recorded at the Old Library of the University church of St Mary, Oxford, 9 February 2018
Press and Pressure: Bill Heine
Charlotte Bannister-Parker sits down to interview the long-time radio presenter for BBC Radio Oxford who is also responsible for the shark sticking out of his roof in Headington, Oxford. He has a reputation for entertaining, insightful and sometimes provocative interviews with the likes of Tony Blair, Richard Attenborough and Richard Dawkins.
Recorded at the Vaults & Garden Café, Oxford, 26 January 2017
Press and Pressure: John Simpson
In the second episode of the series, Charlotte Bannister-Parker speaks to the foreign correspondent and world affairs editor of BBC News John Simpson CBE. He began his career as a BBC reporter, moving on to become a political editor, diplomatic editor and then world affairs editor of the BBC. He has reported from more than 120 countries, including thirty war zones, and interviewed many world leaders.
Recorded at the Vaults & Garden Café, Oxford, 2 February 2017
OxPeace 2012: Law, Human Rights, Theology and Religion in Peacebuilding
Conference themes included exploring different aspects of the field of peace studies: the relationship between academic research and the practice of peacemaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping; the skills needed for these practices; the way in which established academic disciplines feed into our understanding of peace and peacebuilding; and the emerging discipline of peace studies itself. Charlotte Bannister-Parker gave a talk on theology and interfaith encounters.