Miscellany: Plough, Protestants, Pastors, and Paedobaptism
Other things I've been up to recently
First: a welcome to new readers! There has been a steady stream of you coming in since I started my “Raise Against the Machine” series, and it’s been a joy to engage with some of you over those pieces.
This week, I’ve not been able to get together a fresh piece, and so I instead offer a round-up of some other things I’ve been up to over the last few of months.
Hopefully, if you’ve enjoyed my output here at The New Albion, these other bits and pieces will tide you over until my next proper post.
“Breakwater” in Plough Quarterly
This piece appeared in Plough Quarterly’s recent “nature” themed issue. It’s a historical-cum-reflective-essay on the breakwater in Alderney, the Channel Island which my dad’s family hail from. The breakwater is a half mile long Victorian jetty which tries to hold back the sea from a four by one-and-a-half mile island. It has loomed richly in my imagination since childhood and I was very glad to finally find a way to write about it.
A sample paragraph:
Alderney would become a “Gibraltar of the Channel” – a grand ambition. A few decades later, a critical French writer would say this was a name “which could only have been born at the bottom of a bottle of sherry.” He would be proven right. The bombastic, bellicose endeavor would, in many ways, be the death of the old Alderney. And yet, nearly two centuries later, its legacy is a lifeline for its modern inhabitants.
You can read the whole thing here. I also wrote for Plough last year about my hometown of Chessington.
“Practically Protestant in Every Way” on Cooper & Cary Have Words
This week, I joined James Cary on Cooper & Cary Have Words, subbing in for Barry Cooper whilst he convalesces. We talked about a big one: Protestantism. What on earth is it really? And why don’t many people who are Protestants actually feel like Protestants?
We talked about all that and more. It was in many ways a great chance to sum up a lot of my work at The Davenant Institute, especially our recent book Why Do Protestants Convert?
You can catch it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever podcasts are sold.
“Why Pastors Should Get A Family Wage” at Mere Orthodoxy
One of my most read pieces was “We’re All Muzzled Oxen Now”, back in January—a fairly long piece, inspired by an ad for a highly underpaid pastoral position, in which I tried to think about the question of pastoral wages in relation to the wider economy (and which led to conversations with some friends about whether we need to be investing in gold and which Red State has the most British climate in case we ever need to bail out of the UK).
Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy invited me to write a shorter, more focussed piece of the back of it, laying out a simple argument for paying pastors a family wage. You can read it here.
Also, if you have ever benefitted from the work of Mere O, they are currently in the midst of an urgent fundraising appeal. Do consider giving to support the important work the Jake and co have been doing for nearly 20 years. You can give here.
“Children and Baptism” on For All the Saints
Last month, I joined Paul Sutton on For All the Saints to talk about how I changed my mind on baptism, moving from becoming a credobaptist to a paedobaptist.
For All the Saints is the podcast of a forthcoming church plant, All Saints Exeter, which will launch later this year as part of the International Presbyterian Church (IPC) here in the UK. It was a particular pleasure to join Paul for this, as he is planting out of St. Leonard’s, Exeter, the church I attended as a student (and on the roof of which I proposed to my wife—but that’s another story (as is the fact that an Anglican church is planting with the IPC)).
You can listen on Apple Podcasts.