Marcus Walker

The Revd Marcus Walker is Rector of the Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, London.

How China bought Cambridge

41 min listen

What level of control does China have at Cambridge University? (00:48) Also on the podcast: Will the Church of England’s new plans for modernisation leave us with an institution we even recognise? (10:26) And finally let’s talk about Streaking, indecent exposure or proud British pastime of joy and humour? (27:26) With Ian Williams author of

Is this the last chance to save the Church of England?

I am a key limiting factor. That’s a new one for a clergyman of the Church of England. We’ve traded under parson, cleric, priest, minister, padre and even pie-and-liquor, but never before have I heard us described as ‘key limiting factors’. That this phrase was used during the announcement of a new C of E-endorsed scheme —

Holy Relic: What will be left of the Church after the pandemic?

34 min listen

Are parish churches about to be devastated by bureaucracy and mismanagement? (00:55) What’s the story behind the UK’s vaccination efforts? (07:55) Has an intransigent union stopped firefighters from helping the Covid response? (21:55) With church volunteer Emma Thompson; Rector of Great St Barts Marcus Walker; The Spectator‘s deputy political editor Katy Balls; senior project manager

The misguided priorities of church authorities

This has been a tough year for everyone. Death, mental collapse, grief, unemployment. In my church we’ve lost people to Covid — one of the earliest victims was a regular at our 9 a.m. Communion. We’ve lost people to mental health — one of the homeless men who came to our services, and who used

The tragedy of this year’s Remembrance Sunday

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them. This Remembrance Sunday will be like no other, but one thing will stay constant: these lines, by Laurence Binyon,

If anything is essential, it’s worship

That the Church of England shall be free, and shall have all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable. There are few clauses of Magna Carta that are still in force today. Most have been whittled away by the stultifying hands of generations of bureaucrats. But one clause still stands in its in 800-year-old majesty: that

Don’t erase Jesus’s Jewish identity

‘So when did your family convert to Christianity?’ asked an American General early on in the occupation of Iraq. ‘About two thousand years ago,’ replied the Iraqi. The Middle Eastern culture and context of Christ is something that the Western Church seems happy to forget. That Jesus was very specifically a Jew is something we