Dr. Gavin Ashenden joins Peter to explore Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17 and why the Catholic Church uniquely preserves the one Church Christ founded through apostolic authority, the Mass, and Petrine headship.
He contrasts this with Protestantism’s proliferation of denominations and reflects on his own journey into Catholicism in 2019.
The conversation turns to the upcoming March for Life UK, the Catholic Church’s unbroken opposition to abortion from the earliest Christian writings, and Gavin's personal awakening to the scale of terminations in Britain.
They also discuss righteous anger, the muted Christian public witness in the UK, demographic and cultural change, the loss of shared Christian memory, and why only a coherent, unified Church can effectively confront today’s ideological pressures.
Gavin Ashenden began life intending to become a lawyer but was instead ordained as an Anglican priest, serving ten years in London parishes. After postgraduate work in the Psychology of Religion, he spent 23 years as a university chaplain and senior lecturer, with a PhD on the Oxford Inklings, teaching literature, psychology, and monotheistic mysticism.
In the 1980s he smuggled Bibles and medicine to dissident Christians behind the Iron Curtain, including Catholic seminarians in Czechoslovakia, and endured arrests by Communist security services.
He served on the Church of England’s General Synod for twenty years, was Chaplain to the Queen for nine years, and presented a BBC Faith and Ethics radio programme for four years.
He became a Catholic in 2019 and served as Associate Editor of the Catholic Herald. Influenced by recusant English Catholics, St John Henry Newman, and G.K. Chesterton, he has written for The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, and other outlets, and spoken at conferences across Europe and America.
Connect with Gavin...
𝕏 @gavinashenden https://x.com/gavinashenden
SUBSTACK https://drgavinashenden.substack.com/
Connect with Hearts of Oak...
𝕏 x.com/HeartsofOakUK
WEBSITE heartsofoak.org/
PODCASTS heartsofoak.podbean.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA heartsofoak.org/connect/
SHOP heartsofoak.org/shop/
*Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast.
Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on 𝕏 x.com/TheBoschFawstin
