Have a little faith, Rev Kate Bottley

REVIEWER: Peter Crumpler

Have a little faith

BOOK: Have a Little Faith: life lessons on love, death and how lasagne always helps

(Penguin Life Hardback, 2023) 230pp, hardback

You can learn a lot by listening to your hairdresser. That’s one of the lessons from this book by Kate Bottley, the ‘TV vicar’ who regularly presents ‘Songs of Praise’ and ‘Steph’s Packed Lunch’ and co-hosts a Sunday morning show on BBC Radio 2.

Kate was having her hair cut, ahead of taking part in a debate about women bishops. ‘Nice,’ the hairdresser said, then asked ‘What’s a bishop?’

Preaching lessons

There are lots of lessons for preachers in these 230 pages, including the vitally important one of not assuming that your congregation or audience – or the person cutting your hair – will know what you are talking about unless you explain it.

Kate, arguably the UK’s most well-known Church of England priest, sets out to connect with people who come to church only for weddings, funerals or christenings – if at all. She talks in a language that they would understand about things that matter to them. Another lesson for us preachers. So she writes about success, love, strength, conflict, confidence, loneliness and grief. Tough, challenging subjects often – but topics that can bring deep emotions to the surface. Kate explains ‘A big part of my job is curating a space for others to be vulnerable, to allow themselves to open up and feel fully supported by me.’

To that end, she provides down-to-earth advice for people who would never describe themselves as ‘religious,’ but have a sense of the spiritual that they find hard to articulate in our increasingly secular society.

Of success, Kate writes ‘Success to the dying is measured by love, who they loved, what they loved and how they loved.’ Of love, ‘God is Love is, at its core, a fierce and powerful act of defiance against the notion that someone, anyone, is without worth.’

Of her own faith, Kate writes with disarming honesty: ‘I grow, I change, I question. I come to deeper or different understandings.’

This book is rooted in Kate’s deep faith in Christ, and her desire to follow him, and to do so, not predominantly as a ‘media celebrity’ but rather as a priest. She is also willing to speak out on controversial issues, including supporting same-sex marriage in church. The cover price may put off some readers, but the book would make an excellent gift for anyone thinking of looking deeper into faith – and wanting an honest ‘fun’ friend to go with them on that journey.

Reviewer: Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister, and a former communications director with the CofE.