Interview with Sue Radford

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones

This article appeared in the Conference edition of the Church of England Newspaper on 21 September 2003 and is reproduced here with their permission.

Cold, exclusive and legalistic are complaints that have been levelled at too many churches for Sue Radford's liking. Whilst most people were planning their parties for the Millennium, she was spearheading a study to find how they could make themselves more welcoming.

Working as the director of a media agency, acting as a conduit for the big companies to the top models and actors, she is aware of what appeals and far too often it is not churches.

Not to have clerics who look like Hugh Grant or Liz Hurley may be one thing, but it's the long faces that she can't abide.

"I like to enjoy what I'm doing. God is a part of my life and I want to have an infectious faith. We should be joyful, but sometimes we are in danger of losing the joy and coming across as po-faced and serious."

She understands how Christians are perceived better than most as she is a presenter on Sky News as well as managing a company that is full of sceptics who have no intention of going to church.

Too many Christians may be cocooned in a world of fellow believers, but for Radford her environment is a constant challenge and test of her faith, simultaneously demanding that those asking the questions listen to the resonance of her answers.

"The people I work with have an impression of church as a place of rules and regulations. To what extent are we becoming Pharisaic?" she asks.

"They will talk about spirituality but not Christianity. Things like the homosexuality debate have convinced them that we're not compassionate." Announcing on Sky the news of the war in the Church over Canon Jeffrey John's appointment to be Bishop of Reading must have been hard for her, knowing the impact that it would have on the viewers.

"We were hanging our dirty laundry out by holding our debate in the public arena. Having such a public debate on the issue made us look divided and polarised." While some people will view the gay cleric's decision to step down from becoming a bishop as a victory, most will concede that it has done considerable damage to the Church.

Radford prefers to concentrate on some of the real success stories. In conversations with colleagues, she points to Wilberforce and Shaftesbury as examples of the profound influence that Christians can make. "We need to be compassionate in doing social justice."

The other area about which she feels particularly strongly is care for the Third World countries. In her job she is all too aware of the huge demand for beautiful models, but while there may have been an explosion of interest in celebrity and fashion, she despairs at how the West has become anaesthetised to the suffering of the desperately poor.

"The power of satellite television has maybe meant that we have lost the surprise factor and that we have become used to the pictures of starving children." Radford, however, hasn't, and she's fronting a video for the charity, World Vision, which she hopes will rekindle some interest.

"Post-modern culture says that so long as I'm alright that's all that matters, but that's not good enough."

Her Christian faith helps her to avoid being lured by the celebrity culture, which is driven by the ego, and instead she finds fulfilment in her faith. She also finds fulfilment in her marriage to James Catford, the Chief Executive of the Bible Society, whom she met when working on the book New Era, New Church.

They enjoy walking in the mountains, especially in the Lake District. "You get very close to God when you're up a mountain," she says, sounding rather like one of the Romantic poets.

When she gets back down from them again, and re-enters her hectic media world, she hopes that her faith might bring others a little closer to God too.

Read James Catford on the Tabloids in The Church of England Newspaper