Emma Sowden
After graduating in geography, Emma joined the Evangelical Alliance in October 2020 from the London School of Economics. Emma, who has volunteered within the international development sector, is passionate about the pursuit of social justice and seeing the diverse local and global church unified. As an unashamed people person, she is always up for a good old chat and loves random acts of affirmation. You can usually find her hitting up north London’s best green spaces or struggling up hills on her fixed-gear bike.
The spiritual practices: overly religious, self-care obsessed or a better way to live?
27 June 2024Probably their replies might have been characterised by a mixture of polite nods and more honest members of the group saying, “that sounds a little weird”, “boring” or “a bit too religious for me” … “but I’m glad you enjoyed it”. However, earlier this year after returning from staying with a small community of benedictine nuns, with no phone signal, basic accommodation, and the reciting of prayer from the Divine Office the only thing to keep me entertained, the response from my friends was…
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From Andrew Tate to #MeToo: can we bridge the battle of the sexes?
18 April 2024Ten years ago, it was not uncommon to find 15-year-old me in a heated debate with my 80-year-old neighbor. From Brexit to foreign policy to climate change, you name a subject, we probably disagreed on it. We would embark on lengthy – yet always friendly – debates over a cup of tea around the kitchen table. I would then show him how to use his computer and he would help me with my maths homework. What these kitchen table moments represented is the well-documented and long-understood generational…
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Romance is entering a new era. What might the church have to offer it?
2 February 2024Amidst our hyper-digital age, the tide appears to be turning on the reign of online dating. Despite radically changing the art of modern romance after exploding onto the scene in the early 2010s, today apps like Tinder, Hinge and Bumble are all reporting a steady decline in users. Branded as an efficient way to connect people, they sold a promise of dating minus the mess. But 10 years on, people have cottoned on to the reality that online dating carries its own set of messes and mishaps. Users…
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Reflections: why the Incarnation is the greatest revolution of all time
19 December 2023Well over 2,000 years ago, an even greater politically significant set of lyrics were sung by an ordinary woman carrying an extraordinary baby. Found in Luke 1 and sometimes referred to as the ‘Magnificat’, Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said: “The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn. It is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung.” A teenager with no status, significance, or wealth is told she is to carry the divine incarnate, God…
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The Asbury outpouring, remembering revivals and the prophet Habakkuk
24 February 2023Let me start by sharing three stories: It was August 1727, and a small community of Moravian refugees, troubled by their bitter divisions and disagreements, started a humble prayer meeting in an unassuming village in Germany. They began in groups of two or three for one-hour slots, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and they continued for a staggering 110 years. During this century of intercession, the community sent out missionaries across the world and famously, had a profound impact on the…
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“Integrity” – the buzzword of the season unpacked
21 July 2022In a recent YouGov poll, Conservative party members were asked what they are looking for in their next leader. Interestingly, although policy issues certainly featured, half of respondents gave answers which included themes around the leader’s personality, specifically using the words ‘integrity’ and ‘honesty’. And if we cast our minds back to those many resignation letters from members of Boris Johnson’s cabinet, those words also featured heavily. Clearly ‘integrity’ is having its moment in…
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Why are we so obsessed with the multiverse?
27 May 2022The what? Now, if any of you just rolled your eyes and began to click away for fear of science fiction nonsense, I encourage you to stick with me. The multiverse Two major films have graced our cinema screens this month. First, the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which takes superhero-ing to a whole new level as Doctor Strange jumps across universes to protect his reality from the villainous Scarlet Witch. At the same time,…
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What kind of Messiah?
14 April 2022And as we read the events of Holy Week, it is with this same excitement that the crowds eventually greet Jesus on His entry into Jerusalem. “Hosanna!” they shout, meaning praise –but simultaneously ‘Lord, save us’. The Jewish people had been waiting hundreds of years for a chosen one, a rescuer, and a deliverer, to save them. With expectancy levels climaxing, the people of Jerusalem saw before them a revolutionary leader, a victorious liberator sent by God to save His people from the oppression…
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Being Human: Does nature even exist?
2 November 2021My immediate thought: what a stupid question, closely followed by: how do I get my tuition fee back? I wasn’t spending three years of my life, burying myself textbooks, racking up debt, trying to answer pretentious yet seemingly obvious questions like this. Trees, grass, flowers, rivers… of course nature exists. The lecturer was introducing the idea that historically, society (or culture) has separated itself from nature. After European enlightenment, the western worldview and story ordered…
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England football racism: Am I guilty of ‘othering’ too?
21 July 2021I was worried about my safety. Travelling home that evening meant riding the tube through central London, where angry, intimidating and drunk groups of male football fans would be unavoidable. As a young woman I carry many past experiences of unwanted harassment at the hands of football hooligans, and in my mind, the England loss was only going to make this worse. I was worried about England players too. And as I anticipated, online abuse reared its ugly head just hours after the match…
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