Mess, grace and glory: The Anglican Church in fiction as in life

It is said that stories make us what we are. If that is true, then perhaps creating stories about ourselves may help us to see more clearly who we are and who we want to become. Fictional author of the Lindchester Chronicles, Catherine Fox (Wilcox) joins the podcast to talk about the power of story and the way characters can become real and help us embrace even the messiness of our lives with empathy and compassion. These are stories that make us laugh and cry, but, beyond that, offer the possibility for making peace as we see perspectives different from our own, and perhaps foreshadows the possibility of grace. The narrator of these tales from Lindford says it better than anyone; “Escapist Anglican nonsense? Perhaps, but like travellers on a train who see the sun bouncing off puddles and distant windscreens, readers may get a glancing reflection of some bright truth from the lies fiction tells.” The Lindchester Chronicles are often described as a twenty-first century answer to Trollope’s Barchester, and are written in real time, sharing contemporary events through the lens of the characters who live and work in the Diocese of Lindchester. Catherine Fox is an established and popular author. She has a degree in literature and a PhD in Theology and lectures at Manchester Metropolitan University.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.