Faith at the Fringe Podcast Series
Albert Bogle
August 06, 2022
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Faith at the Fringe
by Albert Bogle
During the Month of August Sanctuary First will be launching a new podcasting series ‘Faith at the Fringe’. Each week we will record and release 4 new podcasts speaking to artists, performers and creatives who are involved with the Edinburgh Fringe festival as we dive into the biggest international arts festival in the world looking for the crossing point where faith and art meet.
To help with this new project we will be setting up shop in Edinburgh with a new podcast recording studio in 121 George Street, the head offices of the Church of Scotland. This new studio and worshiping space will hopefully be a fantastic link between our growing digital community and a touching point to not only the festival, but the local creatives and Christian community in Scotland.
Faith at the Fringe is a Sanctuary First initiative seeking to engage with the Edinburgh Arts Festival. We are hoping to build bridges into the Arts Community that coalesces around the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Through a series of podcasts, released each week, we aim to explore with creatives their work, and to start constructing bridges that will make faith and art more accessible to those in search of beauty and truth.
The Edinburgh Arts Festival for many, gives glimpses into life and it’s meaning especially those who are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives. Comedy, plays, music, books, all can play a part in helping us become more self-aware and dare I say it God aware.
As people of faith, we believe that the Creative Arts needs to be welcomed back into the life of our churches. Perhaps even more so, we in the churches need to allow ourselves to be welcomed back into the lives and venues of artists and creatives. When this occurs a greater awareness of creativity as a spiritual journey often happens. For hundreds of years the artist was part of the church community.
We are delighted to be setting up a Sanctuary First Recording Studio in the heart of Edinburgh and indeed in the heart of the Church of Scotland’s main offices. From the 9th August, Sanctuary First will be making Faith at the Fringe a reality, by allowing the public as they pass by to get a glance through the window into a fully working studio, making a bridge between the church and the festival attender on the street. We hope to be able to partner up with Premier Radio, who will be taking live feeds and or recordings from our podcasts and encouraging their listeners to listen to our Faith at the Fringe podcasts. What makes our initiative authentic is the tremendous encouragements we’ve been having from church leaders. Here’s what Pete Sutton, minister of St Cuthbert’s, has to say about the podcasts he hopes to record.
As the minister of the parish church of Saint Cuthbert I have the privilege of looking after the souls of everyone who lives and works right in the heart of the city centre in a parish which lies around the castle rock. Most mornings I walk the boundary of the parish with my chocolate Labrador Winnie - this journey takes me through Rutland Square to Festival Square across the Lothian Road into McRae’s place by the Usher Hall, along Spittal Street and then up Castle Terrace to the entrance of the castle and then down the Mound, dropping into New College before I enter the Princes Street Gardens by the Floral Clock. Then, along Princes Street Gardens looking out over to the castle and then to the entrance of the Caledonian Hotel. Each morning I meet characters who live and work in this area. In this podcast I want to find out how their life changes when the festival comes to town and hear their stories about the work that they do in this amazing city. We will be meeting ‘Dave the Gardener’ who looks after the Floral Clock, the Sergeant Major who fires the 1 o’clock gun and the Concierge who sorts out people’s lives at the Caledonian Hotel.
What has all this to do with faith you ask? Well, that is the point - we have restricted faith to theological words and statements. Faith is not a collection of words put in the right order. Living faith is about living life and for the Christian, it is living life walking with Jesus. Since there are few fishermen on Pete Sutton’s boundary walk, we will listen to the gardener, the gunner, and the concierge. And we might also meet Jesus?
The ‘Faith at the Fringe’ podcasts will be available to watch and listen to on Sanctuary First’s Facebook page and in the ‘podcasts’ section of our website, and the Sanctuary First App. We will be releasing a full programe for the months podcasts shortly - Stay Tuned!
The First podcast will be released on Tuesday the 9th of August.
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