“Hello!” I squeak, seeing a user enter my virtual meeting room.

Petra Bagust has been appearing on our screens for nearly thirty years, and now she’s appearing on mine in a private Zoom call.

She greets me warmly, and I can already feel my shoulders relaxing at the sight of her smile. 

I’ve been a fan of Petra’s since watching her present What’s Really In Our Food? in the 2000s, through to starring in that short Christmas video that every church played for years on end (“Star News Bethlehem”), co-hosting Breakfast for a bit and now hosting a couple of popular podcasts, including the award-winning Grey Areas. 

Petra also works as a media chaplain, supporting those in the industry who face public scrutiny and corporate pressure. She understands firsthand the unique challenges of being in the media.

I ask her what led her to that sort of role.

“I think there's something about me that's probably quite pastoral,” she reflects. “I really love people.”

I believe it. All of her work right now is centred around connecting with people and inviting them into open and honest kōrero.

One large part of the mahi that she’s doing stands out to me: Sunday Sanctuary.

Church on the radio

Petra had humoured her friend Josh Couch, creative senior producer, by letting him propose a show to Today FM with her as a host. To her surprise, they were open to it.

But only Sunday morning would work.

Petra realised she didn’t want to do a show on gardening, or movies, or books. Those shows are great – she just didn’t want to do one.

If we're doing a radio show on Sunday morning, she thought, why can't it be a sacred, safe place, a spiritual place? Could it not be church on the radio?

Sunday Sanctuary is based on the liturgy of a traditional church service. Each element has been broken down and reinterpreted for commercial radio. The call to worship is a welcome, and worship is a look at something that strikes awe or wonder. The examen is a meditative part of the show, where she guides listeners through some self-reflection. The homily becomes what they call “wānanga” – where ideas meet over the table. She often invites guests onto the show to speak about different themes of the week, like grief, gratitude or perfectionism.

“Liturgy has been a revelation to me, and I love it deeply. Imagine not having to reinvent the wheel every week,” Petra laughs.

When Today FM suddenly shut down, the Sunday Sanctuary team managed to keep it going as a fortnightly podcast.

What strikes me is how this show, rooted in traditional church liturgy, resonates so deeply with a wide audience of listeners.

The risk of being real

“I think you have literally restored my faith in faith,” writes one reviewer.

In Sunday Sanctuary, Petra beckons the seekers, the questioners and the restless souls, and offers them a safe place to rekindle their connection with spirituality. And this doesn’t compromise the ministry that Petra is doing. She’s open about her faith in Jesus, but her commitment to keeping it real means that there’s room for the honest, the uncertain, and the beautifully imperfect. Because, well, aren’t we all?

“By and large my chaplaincy is expressed most in the podcast,” Petra tells me. “Inviting people to come to themselves with compassion.”

I read her a review from another listener. “Your podcast is probably the most enriching and encouraging thing I’ve come across since actively leaving the church and travelling the deconstructed faith journey.” 

“Lots of people are deconstructing their faiths, and I can understand why they've begun on that journey,” Petra says. “My sorrow would be if the deconstructing was the end goal.”

It’s a bit of a buzzword, but the term “deconstruction” often talks about someone who’s been disillusioned by church, faith or religion in one way or another, and is in the process of breaking down and analysing what they believe, or believed. Petra says that, in any context, the act of deconstruction or dismantling is often done to pave the way for rebuilding, or “reconstruction”.

“It's the journey of the Psalms, isn't it?” she muses.

Some Psalms portray a world in harmony with a benevolent God, representing faith construction. Others question the goodness of God in the face of suffering, marking the phase of faith deconstruction. And still, there are Psalms that capture the struggle to reconcile doubts and disappointments with an enduring trust in God, exemplifying faith reconstruction. They don’t contradict each other – they hold tension and represent some of the mystery we find in the human experience in relationship with God.

“I think that I needed to be older to get there,” Petra says. “I needed to make space in my life for lament and mystery, sorrow, tension and not having all the answers. And that stuff can live alongside my hope, and my faith, and my joy, and my enthusiasm.”

It’s this journey that seems to drive Petra in everything she does. Her ministry is a gentle rebellion against a culture of pride and dogmatism. And it draws in droves of grateful listeners.

Petra sets a culture of vulnerability in both Sunday Sanctuary and Grey Areas, and it starts with her. 

“I share both the areas of my life where I am succeeding, and also where I have suffered, or where I am learning or growing.” It’s a risk, she says, but it’s worth it.

“The risk of being deeply real has been the most rewarding experience of my career one hundred times over. It's been profound.”

Petra embodies the power of being genuine in a world that’s getting fed up with false fronts and cheap answers. 

It’s in our vulnerability that God’s power is made perfect, after all.