麻豆约拍

The party conference season is almost on us, and while political anoraks will be analysing every nuance, most of us will content ourselves with the headlines and try to get on with life.聽聽聽Unless, that is, there鈥檚 a speech which takes fire, captures hearts and imaginations, and announces the arrival of an orator with the authority of聽Winston Churchill or the passion of Aneurin Bevan.

Well, we may hope, because it鈥檚 often suggested that the big beasts of political rhetoric are long gone, an exti氓nct species, even.聽

It鈥檚 the same, some argue, with Christian preachers.聽聽 The glory days, when celebrity preachers could be guaranteed to pack any building across the land, have disappeared never to return.聽聽 At a time when much communication is by tweet or sound bite, or accompanied by a digitally produced image, some reckon that they must assume that even those who turn up to worship are often blessed with little more than miniscule attention spans.

So what is happening to preaching?聽 What is it for any more?聽聽 And does it have a future?

Joining Roy Jenkins in Llandaff are: Rev Dr. Peter Stevenson, Principal of the South Wales Baptist College, author of two books and many articles and lectures on preaching, and Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, Vicar of the city centre parish of St John the Baptist in Cardiff.聽聽In our Penrhyndeudraeth studio is聽Ben Thomas,聽pastor of Criccieth Family Church who鈥檚 a former television journalist, and the Rev Dr Densil Morgan, Professor of Theology, at Trinity St David鈥檚 University is in our Lampeter.