Voices of the CofE

The Church of England and Premier Radio have joined forces to feature some of the people who are part of today's Church of England via a series of new monthly podcasts.

Demonstrating the diversity of the Church of England, the series features interviews with priests, trainee priests, staff, coordinators and volunteers.

Voices in Boxes: Revd Richard Coles, chaplain, Royal Academy of Music

"It was very exciting and very rewarding but it was a sort of three, four, five-year blip in the otherwise blandness of my life," muses the Revd Richard Coles on his time playing keyboards at the top of the charts on 80s' Communards' hits Don't Leave Me This Way and There's More to Love. "I'm not the same person now at 45 as I was when I was 25 I suppose, and life is kind of bigger and richer and more exciting and more challenging than I thought it was then – and I suppose that's why I do what I do now."

Voices in Boxes: Jo Pollard, Support Services Coordinator

"My job is to ensure that staff at Lambeth Palace can work safely and healthily in all situations. I also work on disability facilities throughout the whole National Church Institutions," says Support Services Coordinator Jo Pollard, who is happy in her work at Lambeth Palace in London, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury: "Bearing in mind what was coming my way - my diagnosis with Secondary Progressive MS for instance - I really couldn't have been anywhere better."

Voices in Boxes: Christian Selvaratnam, church planter in York

"Our hunch was that there were many people who were turned off the idea of a traditional expression of church," leader of café church G2, Christian Selvaratnam, says, appropriately being interviewed in a York city centre café. "They still wanted to find out, they had questions, they wanted to explore faith - but if we could get the environment right, then they would come along and engage with that."

Hear the full People and Places – Voices of the CofE interviews online at www.cofe.anglican.org/podcast