16 March 2018
Methodist Church launches podcast
The Methodist Church has launched a monthly podcast Ð a shortradio programme available on the Internet. The podcasts areavailable directly from the Methodist Connexional website, orthough audio software such as iTunes.
The Methodist Web Radio service launched in October last year witha range of features and interviews. It has since includeddespatches from the Methodist Conference, as well as speeches fromthe President and Vice President. The Podcast is an extension ofthat service, allowing people to subscribe to a free monthly showthat aims to be informal, informative and entertaining.
Although there are other podcasts by Methodists available, and manymore by other Christians around the world, the Methodist Podcast isthought to be the first by such a large British church.
Dave Webster, Electronic Communication Officer for The MethodistChurch, says 'we add new features like this to the Methodistwebsite whenever we can to broaden communication between the Churchand the world at large. A quick glimpse at lists of the mostpopular podcasts shows that a lot of people are interested inreligious subjects. Hopefully the Methodist Podcasts will reach anaudience of people unconnected to the Church as well as Methodists.The topics under discussion will reflect that, in that they willhopefully be relevant to anyone interested in what Christianity hasto offer. One of the great things about this is that people canhear about British Methodism anywhere across the globe, and we canrecord interviews anywhere in the world.'
Toby Scott, who features in the first Podcast, was inspired to trya podcast after he was interviewed by an American podcaster earlierthis year. 'We already had all the kit for use in our ISDN radiostudio,' he says, 'and the editing software from when we launchedthe Web Radio service last year. We're in the process of developingour skills so that it sounds as much like professional radio aspossible, but in this experimental phase we hope listeners welcomeit as another way to find out about the Church and the Methodistpeople.'
Future podcasts will feature interviews with senior leaders of theChurch, as well as other people from around the world: 'there's nolimit on where we'll look for interesting material for ourprogrammes,' says Toby Scott. 'We will pick interesting people andtopics and fit them into a short show each month.'