Merry Christmas friends, from us and ... a surprise guest!!

One of the wild things about the Creed is we go right from Jesus’ birth, via Mary, to his death, at the hands of Pontius Pilate. And yet, even wilder still, is that our God in Christ suffered death. The crucifixion – a death used by the Roman Empire to terrify and suppress enslaved people who rebelled – and the resurrection – are at the epicenter of Christian faith. What does it mean that Jesus died this way? What does it mean that on the third day, he rose? We are delighted and amazed to welcome to the podcast the inimitable Rev. Dr. Canon Kelly Brown Douglas, whose enormous work as priest, preacher, teacher, and writer, has long explored these questions.

The Virgin Mary is a powerful force in Christian imagination – meaning, whether you venerate her or are suspicious of folks “praying to” her, whether you grew up celebrating the many apparitions of Mary or vaguely only heard her referred to around Christmas, her role in Jesus’ life and our lives communicates what we believe about motherhood, virginity, women, and Jesus’ incarnation. So why is she included in the Creed? What about her presence, consent to bear the Christ child, and reproductive status made her significant enough to be the only human being referenced besides Pontius Pilate? Join Mary devotee (Rev. Lizzie), Mary skeptic (Rev. Laura), and our guest, Mariology expert (Rev. Dr. Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones) as we unpack these questions and more.

What does it mean that God takes on human flesh? In our Nicene Creed series we're tackling these next lines: "Through him all things were made. / For us and for our salvation / he came down from heaven" ... and we're talking with dear friend, mentor, and fellow church planter Rev. Lisa Yebuah, the lead pastor of Southeast Raleigh Table. We tackle the myths around the human body being a divine problem, what it means for our God to suffer and live as one of us, and why the incarnation has a robust meaning in our current political, spiritual, and theological landscape.

In our Nicene Creed series we're tackling these next lines: We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, / the only Son of God, / eternally begotten of the Father, /God from God, Light from Light, / true God from true God, / begotten, not made, / of one Being with the Father.

Ok, so if God is not a sky daddy, nor actually gendered at all ... why does our definitive statement of faith say God is our "Father"? Why is God the Father, the Almighty? And what do two women who are priests and devout Christians and feminists have to say about all of this language? Does this 1700 year old prayer still hold up?

Ok look: we agree. Jesus IS the reason for the season. We're on the precipice of tHe HoLiDaYs and all the madness therein. It's so easy to get sucked into the capitalist machine of Christmas and miss ... Christ. But so much of the energy around "Jesus is the Reason" also feels treacherously coded. How do we navigate this ourselves? And how do we teach our kids that Jesus is the reason, while keeping a sense of wonder and magic alive? How do we do so in a way that engenders respect for people of other faiths and none? We pose these questions with the wonderful Pastor Meredith Miller, expert in raising kids with a faith they don't need to heal from.

The Nicene Creed is the definitive statement defining Christianity for most Christians, around the world, throughout most of time. Love it or hate it, the Creed binds us together. And since our entire project at And Also With You is reclaiming an ancient Christian faith for modern Christian life, we thought it time to dive deep into this Creed -- to show how this 1700 year old prayer holds up and how we are following it still today. And it opens with a banger: We believe in One God. But in... three persons? What does that mean, exactly? How does faith in the Trinity inform our life? Like, does it matter that we say this? (It clearly does, we say it a lot but ... why?)

The Nicene Creed is *the* definitive statement of faith for what Christianity is for most Christians, around the world, throughout most of time. Love it or hate it, the Creed binds us together. And since our entire project at And Also With You is reclaiming an ancient Christian faith for modern Christian life, we thought it time to dive deep into this Creed -- to show how this 1700 year old prayer holds up and how we are following it still today. But the fact that we HAVE a creed (other religions don't really do this) and that is came from these series of big ol' committee meetings is actually a really fascinating thing to unpack, for for our first of twelve episodes exploring the Creed, we're delighted to welcome Dr. Hannah Black, Ph.D. to orient us to the Creed as a historical and spiritual document.

Just in time for Halloween, we're talking about the spookiest thing of all: HELL. Or better yet - a belief in hell. Christianity's obsession with hell has us missing out on love, freedom, connection, and justice without punishment. We're joined today by bestselling author Brian Recker to talk about hell, how we unravel its chokehold on our faith, and what life can look like free from this fear.

There is no freedom or feminism if it isn't for everybody -- so we are really excited to welcome two of our favorite dads to the podcast to talk about Christian parenting: our husbands! Join us for a tender and truthful conversation about why fatherhood is a vocation, a joy, and *not* babysitting your own kids.

Today’s episode is part of our Christian parenting mini-series we are offering on “Motherhood Taboos” and we are tackling a big taboo of finding out you're pregnant ... and you weren't planning to be. Our guests are both priests who found themselves unexpectedly pregnant and want to narrate the grief and the joy, the surprise and the wonder, and the challenge and hope of a blessing that can leave you limping from a worldview that supports women's autonomy, choice, and freedom.

Today’s episode is part of our Christian parenting mini-series we are offering on “Motherhood Taboos” and we've invited author, preacher, and friend The Rev. Teresa Kim Pecinovsky to talk with us about maternal images of God in Scripture. She's an expert because she wrote one of our favorite children's books, Mother God! While Scripture is PACKED with feminine and maternal images of God, you don't often hear those images highlighted in the pulpit or in the Christian book aisle. Rev. Teresa is one of our favorite preachers and writers working to change that for littles and grown-ups alike, and she talks about taking the approach of writing a children's book to dismantle oppressive images from infancy onwards.

Today’s episode is part of our Christian parenting mini-series we are offering on “Motherhood Taboos” - the topics that are on many parents' hearts and minds and yet are not discussed in public very often. Motherhood can be physically, emotionally, and mentally very demanding. These three things can snowball which can leave mothers feeling very isolated and alone. We are delighted to have a friend and Licensed Professional Counsellor, Tori Andrews on the podcast to discuss this taboo of maternal mental health with us!

In our Motherhood taboo series we are seeking to “fill the gap” between feminist, thoughtful, deconstructing/inclusive orthodoxy Christian content and the trad wife motherhood content online. Content warning: we will be talking about miscarriage and pregnancy loss in this episode. This week we are joined by two friends and colleagues, The Rev. Allison Caudill and The Rev’d Allie McDougall who have both navigated miscarriage in their ministry. Miscarriage is something many families experience and yet, it is considered a major taboo in our society. Our guests will share with us their experiences of publicly navigating loss and how their faith helped them through it. This was one of the most moving discussions we have had to date on the podcast and we pray it will be a blessing for our listeners.

There just is not enough content online about motherhood that speaks both to Christian faith and progressive, inclusive values. We're trying to change that discourse, one conversation at a time, in a mini-series we're calling "Christian Motherhood Taboos." Today we take an overview of why this matters, why talking about motherhood is ALWAYS talking about power, gender, economics, whose suffering counts, and humanity as a whole, and why this series is not "just" for moms ... but for any community striving to honor the dignity and worth of every human being.

Campy, funny, reverently irreverent -- we've all loved watching the Greedy Peasant's queer medieval fever dream unfold online. And we were thrilled when he said he'd come chat with us on the show! So join us for a fun, insightful, and moving conversation about art, playfulness, deconstructing from high control religion, and finding a path home to yourself.

The Most Rev. Sean Rowe is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, and in a time of fear in the US and abroad, not to mention religious decline, it's got to be a big job to have. So we were delighted that he agreed to come and chat with us about his vision for the church (very hopeful!), his recent op-eds and the Episcopal church emerging as an engine of resistance (very overdue), and what he has to offer for our dedicated And Also With You listeners.

We answer a few of your questions on the season finale of season two and look ahead to what will be coming up in season three! Thank you for all your support!!!

The mark of the beast. Signs and portents. A whole dang book about the "apocalypse" at the end of the Bible. What on EARTH do we do with Revelation? Is it a literal guidebook for surviving hell? Is it a wacky political cartoon we've overblown? Or is it ... something more? (Spoiler alert: it is much more. It is a book about the end of the world - but that's not what you might think it means). Join us with the fantastic Rev. Brian Fox, longtime friend of both of us and friend of the pod, as we do a deep and wide dive into this book and what good news it has for us as we face our own end times fears.