MaryB. Safrit, a communicator, creator, coach and the host of the Found Family podcast, did the hosts of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” a favor in a recent broadcast, appearing as the guests of Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe on an episode of “A Matter of Faith” called “Knowing Ourselves (and Singleness).” Listen to their 67-minute conversation here.
Kaya Oakes’ new book “Not So Sorry: Abusers, False Apologies, and the Limits of Forgiveness,” which was published by Broadleaf Books, made her the logical choice to recently appear on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” to talk about forgiveness in faith communities.
Are there elements of community organizing that churches can learn from?
That was among the questions the hosts of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” had for the Rev. Dr. Aaron Stauffer, Director of Online and Lifelong Learning and the Associate Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at the Vanderbilt Divinity School during a recent episode. Listen to Stauffer’s 55-minute conversation with Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe here.
The Rev. Lee Catoe and Simon Doong, the hosts of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast,” opened their most recent installment with the voices of youth who’d attended a conference at Massanetta Springs Camp and Conference Center in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Catoe asked youth about what they want to see happening in the church today.
The authors of “Surviving God: A New Vision of God through the Eyes of Sexual Abuse Survivors” said recently during “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” that the very ways we use words to describe God can contribute to crimes being committed, including sexual abuse.
Already a pharmacist, Catherine Witte years ago went to seminary to be trained to be a chaplain serving the Indian Health Service. Witte recently joined the Rev. Lee Catoe and Simon Doong, the hosts of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast,” for a 48-minute conversation that can be heard here. Witte is introduced at the 1:26 mark.
Historically, Presbyterians “are used to being on a bigger stage and having what we say mean something,” the Acting Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Rev. Bronwen Boswell, said during a recent episode of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.” “We get caught up in that decline thinking rather than saying, ‘What is it we still have? What are the resources we have plenty of, and how do we need to look at the way ministry is going into the future?’”
Jamie Bruesehoff, a recent guest on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast,” recalled the first day her transgender daughter, Rebekah, came to church as herself. The one person whom Bruesehoff feared might cause problems for her and her husband, the pastor of the church, made a beeline for her following worship.
A queer psychotherapist who wrote a book about how people can rediscover their faith after a harmful church experience was a recent guest on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.” Listen to the 35-minute conversation that hosts Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe had with Matthias Roberts, author of “Holy Runaways: Rediscovering Faith After Being Burned by Religion,” by going here.
From Sarah Dianne Jones’ perspective, Christian education “is everything the church does.”
“The church teaches from the pulpit, at the table, at the font, through our actions and in our words,” Jones, program associate for the Center for Excellence in Christian Education at Union Presbyterian Seminary, told hosts the Rev. Lee Catoe and Simon Doong during an episode of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.” “When the church is behaving as the church should, everything is teaching.”
