On the podcast this week, Elizabeth Fremantle is interviewed about her historical novel Disobedient, which is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. She is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. Natalie K. Watson has written this month’s book club essay about Disobedient. Disobedient is an enthralling historical novel that retells the turbulent life of the great Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi. As a young artist in Rome in the early 17th century, Artemisia outstrips her brothers and contemporary male artists in talent. Her initial struggle as a painter in a male-dominated society is nothing compared with the dramatic turn of events that occur when a handsome male tutor is employed by her father to teach her linear perspective. Her rage against the trauma that she experiences at the hands of her tutor and the way in which law and society then fail her is expressed through her art. The story centres on her motivation for creating the brutal painting Judith Slaying Holofernes — a critical point, at which her art takes a dark turn. Disobedient is published Penguin Books at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99). https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781405952811/disobedient?vc=CT203 Sarah Meyrick is a novelist. Her latest novel is Joy and Felicity (Sacristy Press, 2021). The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature. https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub Photo: © J. P. Masclet Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

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: https://www.youtube.com/@thegodcast5878 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. Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Emily Rhodes, who has written this month’s Book Club essay about the book, is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. The Beginning of Spring is a historical novel set in Moscow a few years before the Russian Revolution as political tensions mount. The story starts with the sudden unexplained departure of Frank Reid’s wife, Nellie. She boards a train heading west, leaving her husband and children behind. Frank moved to Moscow with his family to run his father’s print business. Unlike his rambunctious Russian neighbours, Frank is a repressed but honourable English gentleman — a man of reason. Frank is left to look after three small children, and, for him, the ensuing days are full of misadventure, poignancy, and wonder. This intriguing story, which doesn’t follow conventional plot lines, is set against the background of the great thaw in Moscow which heralds the arrival of spring. The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald is published by HarperCollins at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99); 978-0-00-654370-1. https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780006543701/beginning-of-spring?vc=CT405 Emily Rhodes is a writer and journalist, whose features and reviews have appeared in publications including the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Guardian, and the TLS. Sarah Meyrick is a novelist. Her latest novel is Joy and Felicity (Sacristy Press, 2021). The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature: https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader Subscribe to Church Times before 15 April, and you will also a receive a FREE three-month subscription to the bestselling app, Reflections for Daily Prayer

On the podcast this week, the Rector of St Andrew’s, Ramallah, the Revd Fadi Diab, is interviewed by Francis Martin. Fr Diab was in the UK last week, hosted by Friends of the Holy Land, an ecumenical organisation whose volunteer committee he chairs (News, 22 March). During the visit, he met the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, Fr Diab says, “stands firm in solidarity with the Christian community in the Holy Land”. Fr Diab also preached in Southwark Cathedral and was in conversation with the Dean, the Very Revd Dr Mark Oakley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zZNPBFNlCI&ab_channel=SouthwarkCathedral Fr Diab speaks on the podcast about how life in the West Bank “has turned upside down” since 7 October, after Hamas attacks on southern Israel. The situation in the West Bank, however, could “not in any way be compared to the amount of pain in Gaza”, he says. https://www.friendsoftheholyland.org.uk Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

On the podcast this week, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson talks about her new book, Reading Genesis, which has been described by Rowan Williams as “a work of exceptional wisdom and imagination”. Marilynne Robinson is in conversation with Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand, a Visiting Scholar at Sarum College in Salisbury and Vice-Chair of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations. Reading Genesis is published by Virago and is available from the Church Times Bookshop for the special price of £20: https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780349018744/reading-genesis/%20?vc=CT322 Photo credit: Alamy For the whole of March, we are asking our readers to spread the news of the Church Times among their friends, acquaintances, and fellow churchgoers (and non-churchgoers). To celebrate (and help with) this, our paywall has been lifted for the whole of March, meaning you can enjoy all of our content — news, comment, features, faith, cartoons, and our historic archive — FOR FREE. There’s nothing complicated about it. We simply want to let as many people as possible know about our latest subscription offer: You can try your first 10 weeks of Church Times for only £10. All new Church Times subscriptions received in March will receive a FREE additional 3 month subscription to the bestselling app, Reflections for Daily Prayer. www.churchtimes.co.uk/subscribe For print readers, there should also be a sample copy of our new promotional leaflet in this week’s issue. Will you order more copies to distribute in your church? Simply email [email protected], giving a name, postal address, and the number of leaflets you’d like (multiples of ten); or phone 01603 785911 with these details.

On the podcast this week, Mark Oakley reflects on “Love (III)” by George Herbert. This episode was first posted last year as part of the Church Times Poetry Podcast for Lent series. “Over my years of reading Herbert, I have come to see him as the poet who most expresses our relationship with God as a friendship,” Mark says. “Friendship requires courage enough to stop skating so quickly over our own thin ice in case we disappear through the cracks. Instead, we face the fact that we need support and connection and that, also, we have much to give as well.” The material in this podcast is taken from Mark Oakley’s book The Splash of Words (Canterbury Press), winner of the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing. The Very Revd Dr Mark Oakley is the Dean of Southwark. Artwork by Emily Noyce. For the whole of March, we are asking our readers to spread the news of the Church Times among their friends, acquaintances, and fellow churchgoers (and non-churchgoers). To celebrate (and help with) this, our paywall has been lifted for the whole of March, meaning you can enjoy all of our content — news, comment, features, faith, cartoons, and our historic archive — FOR FREE. There’s nothing complicated about it. We simply want to let as many people as possible know about our latest subscription offer: You can try your first 10 weeks of Church Times for only £10. All new Church Times subscriptions received in March will receive a FREE additional 3 month subscription to the bestselling app, Reflections for Daily Prayer. www.churchtimes.co.uk/subscribe For print readers, there should also be a sample copy of our new promotional leaflet in this week’s issue. Will you order more copies to distribute in your church? Simply email [email protected], giving a name, postal address, and the number of leaflets you’d like (multiples of ten); or phone 01603 785911 with these details.

Before My Actual Heart Breaks by Tish Delaney is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Tish Delaney talks to Sarah Meyrick, who has written this month’s Book Club essay about the book. Before My Actual Heart Breaks is published by Cornerstone at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99); 978-1-78609-098-0. https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781786090980/before-my-actual-heart-breaks/?vc=CT601 About the book Against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Mary Rattigan’s dreams of emigrating to America are shattered when she finds herself pregnant at the age of 16. Mary’s strict Roman Catholic parents force her to marry a local farmer to minimise the shame that she has inflicted on the family. With flashbacks to her childhood, the story follows Mary’s marriage, one blighted by miscommunication, which is not helped by her lack of self-worth and past childhood trauma. Throughout the novel, the author’s prose captures the beauty of the sweeping countryside and farmland of Northern Ireland, and the use of the local vernacular adds authenticity to the book’s rural setting and to the raw emotions expressed. Tish Delaney was born in Northern Ireland and grew up during the Troubles. Leaving County Tyrone to study at Manchester University, she remained in England afterwards to work as a reporter and sub-editor on various magazines and national newspapers in London. Leaving The Financial Times in 2014, she moved to the Channel Islands to start a career in writing. Her debut novel, Before My Actual Heart Breaks, won the Authors’ Club’s Best First Novel Award. In June 2022, her second book, The Saint of Lost Things, was published. The author still lives on Alderney, which she often describes as mini-Donegal. Sarah Meyrick is a novelist. Her latest novel is Joy and Felicity (Sacristy Press, 2021). The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature. Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub For the whole of March, we are asking our readers to spread the news of the Church Times among their friends, acquaintances, and fellow churchgoers (and non-churchgoers). To celebrate (and help with) this, our paywall has been lifted for the whole of March, meaning you can enjoy all of our content — news, comment, features, faith, cartoons, and our historic archive — FOR FREE. There’s nothing complicated about it. We simply want to let as many people as possible know about our latest subscription offer: You can try your first 10 weeks of Church Times for only £10. All new Church Times subscriptions received in March will receive a FREE additional 3 month subscription to the bestselling app, Reflections for Daily Prayer. https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/subscribe For print readers, there should also be a sample copy of our new promotional leaflet in this week’s issue. Will you order more copies to distribute in your church? Simply email [email protected], giving a name, postal address, and the number of leaflets you’d like (multiples of ten); or phone 01603 785911 with these details.

On this episode of the podcast, Debbie and Stephanie Hayton talk to Sarah Meyrick. Originally a heterosexual couple, they met as students, trained as teachers, got married, and had three children. When he was in his forties, David (as he was then called) told Stephanie that he had been struggling all his life with the longing to be a woman. After a great deal of preparation, he transitioned in 2012, and underwent full gender-reassignment surgery in 2016. Debbie has, however, been criticised by some in the LGBT+ community for her insistence that, despite her transition, she is not a woman. She rejects as “a fantasy” and “false narrative” the notion that anyone is born in the wrong body. She tells her story and explains her views in her book, Transexual Apostate: My journey back to reality, which is published by Forum at £16.99 (Church Times Bookshop £15.29); 978-1-80075-309-9. https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781800753099/transsexual-apostate?vc=CT165 Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

Francis Martin, a reporter for the Church Times, was travelling last week with the Archbishop of Canterbury in Ukraine. On the final day of the trip, Francis interviewed Archbishop Welby, asking about what he had hoped to achieve, the differences he had noticed from his previous visit in 2022, and about tensions between the Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. They also spoke about the challenges currently facing the Church of England, and how the Archbishop divides his time. Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

Francis Martin, a reporter for the Church Times, has been travelling this week with the Archbishop of Canterbury in Ukraine. During the trip, Francis interviewed Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zoria), a prominent figure Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Church (OCU), which is led by Metropolitan Epiphany (Dumenko) and is independent of the Moscow Patriarchate. He spoke about how the OCU is supporting the struggle against the Russian invasion, how it is helping Ukrainians who have left the country, tensions with the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and why he believes that God is protecting Ukraine. Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

The Second Sleep by Robert Harris is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, Susan Gray, who has written this month’s Book Club essay, is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick. Robert Harris’s dystopian thriller is set in the 15th century, but, although medieval in tone and atmosphere, the date is misleading, as it is set 800 years in the future, because time has been restarted at the year 666. All traces of modern life, such as electricity and decimal currency, have disappeared. And the country is gripped by religious fundamentalism. The story begins with the young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arriving on horseback in a remote village in Exmoor to conduct the funeral of his predecessor, who met a mysterious death. Over the next six days, the young priest’s faith is tested as he uncovers the chilling truth. The Second Sleep is published by Cornerstone at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99). https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781787460966/second-sleep?vc=CT207 Susan Gray writes about the arts and entertainment for The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, and the Daily Mail. The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature: https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader