In self-isolation at her new home in Virginia, former BBC religious affairs correspondent Jane Little reflects on whether the coronavirus pandemic could be a portal to a new world: one in which the poor and marginalized will finally get their fair share.
With churches closed and the coronavirus lockdown firmly in place, the UK faces a very different Easter this year. More and more people each day experience the sudden loss of a friend or family member. Others fear deeply for loved ones who are elderly or vulnerable. So how does the Easter story of death and resurrection help at this traumatic time, indeed does it help at all? Emily Buchanan talks to two remarkable women who have survived terrible sudden bereavement.
Among the saddest stories to come out of the coronavirus crisis so far is that of 13-year-old Ismail, who died without seeing the loving faces of his family around him. In this short reflection, Mark Dowd, a Catholic, considers the importance of seeing a loving face when you are close to death. Even Jesus on the cross saw his mother Mary standing and gazing up to him in his agony. So what hope is there in the Christian message this Easter time, with the families of the sick in lockdown?
Former BBC correspondent Mike Wooldridge has reported first hand on many of the world’s worst disasters of the last few decades, from the famine in Ethiopia to the AIDS epidemic in Uganda. In this short reflection, Mike draws his own lessons for the coronavirus pandemic: we should place the African concept of Ubuntu – a strong sense of our common humanity - at the centre of our response.
It’s there on almost every Christmas card featuring the scene of Christ’s birth, and in almost every school Nativity play: the donkey, or ass. But look at the gospel accounts of Christ’s birth, and you may be surprised: there is no donkey! So how has this much-loved seasonal character entered Christmas lore, and why has the donkey remained a Christmas favourite ever since? Jane Little goes in search of the Christmas donkey and its real-life descendants today.
“Mindfulness” seems to be everywhere these days. It’s often promoted as a way dealing with some mental health issues and reducing burnout. But with origins in Buddhism, how well does it sit with other faiths? And what caused Tim Stead to leave his calling as a Church of England priest to pursue a career in mindfulness teaching? To find out, Mike Wooldridge visits Tim’s “meditation barn” at the back of his house in Oxford.
For two weeks in October, members of the Extinction Rebellion movement are attempting to disrupt life in London and elsewhere to draw attention to what they say is an impending climate catastrophe. Among them are Christians of all ages who are camping out in the rain and risking arrest to make their point: that it’s their God-given responsibility to take care of the earth. Rosie Dawson meets some of them.
Concern over the environmental and welfare aspects of the meat and dairy industries is on the rise, but what about the world of fish farming? For those who want to protect the world’s oceans from deep sea trawling and over fishing, farmed fish seem like the ethical solution. But this may not be the case...
Former Lord Mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid is joined by a team of fasting veterans to answer your burning questions on Ramadan – including the fasting rules, spiritual highs, spiritual lows, veganism and moon-wars.
In the midst of a ferocious thunderstorm, Joe and Nick, two no-nonsense Irishmen, are carrying a body into a cave for burial. But their relief at getting out of the rain is short lived, when an earthquake traps them inside. Father Ted star Jim Norton stars in new Irish playwright Brendan Devitt’s drama from CTVC.
Not long after Christmas last year, Abbi Banks died of leukaemia. With the grief still so raw, how can parents Tim and Liz and sister Debbie hang on to the Christmas message of hope as the festive season comes round once again?
Shaunaka Rishi Das, an Irish-born Hindu priest reflects on his wife’s suicide and its aftermath. In her mid-50s and suffering from depression, Shaunaka’s wife Keshava took her own life, with questions over the medical response leading to a traumatic two-day inquest. Shaunaka tells the story publically for the first time, reflecting eloquently on death, mourning and letting go from a Hindu perspective.
After years of mental illness Guy Stagg embarked on a walk from Canterbury to Jerusalem, spending ten months on a 5,500 km medieval pilgrim route, a journey to the centre of the three Abrahamic faiths. And all this despite having no faith or belief in God. He joins Mark Dowd in Canterbury, retracing the footsteps of where it all began, to discuss why as a non-believer, he hoped the extraordinary adventure would heal him.
Mango cake and chocolate brownies might seem a world away from politics and rising levels of anti-Muslim feeling. But Great British Bake Off contestant Ali Imdad is on a mission to counter negative stereotypes with desserts from the Muslim world. All with the aim of bringing people together through a love of food.
Things Unseen travels through space and time for a close encounter between science fiction and faith. Steering the ship will be the writer and broadcaster Natalie Haynes, with crewmates Beth Singler, research associate with the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, and Robert Shearman, a writer whose work has often focused on the fantastical, and the man who brought the Daleks into the 21st century.
How does belief influence the way people approach death? Why don’t those who believe they’re going to heaven seem that keen to go? And how is belief changing, in an age where tweets continue to address the dead, and many who say they have no faith believe in an afterlife. We hear from Rick, who has a motor-neurone condition with a terminal prognosis, about how his faith affects his approach to death. Katie Harrison from ComRes shares their research into UK patterns of belief. In the studio we're...
It’s hard to think of an issue which has seen a more profound change in attitudes over the last two or three decades. Nearly thirty years after the introduction of Section 28, the law which forbade the promotion of gay rights in schools, gay marriage is now firmly established in the western world at least. Mark Dowd talks with Mobeen Azhar and Ajeet Jugnauth to share Christian, Muslim and Hindu perspectives from inside the gay community.
The Angel Gabriel goes rogue in a bid to deal with the over-commercialisation of Christmas. A fresh and irreverent look at the knotty issue of Christmas and shopping. The cast includes vocal virtuoso Kerry Shale as Santa, comic genius Philip Fox as Gabriel, and star of Radio 4’s ‘Hudson and Pepperdine Show’, Mel Hudson, as the put-upon Lori. ‘I have to confess’, says Lori in a prayer that frames the action, ‘...punching Rudolph in the nose was a low point’.
We like to think we don’t judge a book by its cover. But is that really true? Sally Phillips hears insights from Vicky Balch, a young woman who lost a limb in the Alton Towers roller coaster accident, but then chose to show her scars in a nude photo shoot. And Rev Joanna Jepson shares how growing up with a facial deformity has made her think deeply about inner beauty, outer beauty, and the fashion industry.
‘In Christ Alone’, co-written by Stuart Townend, has been sung around the world, from underground churches to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s enthronement. Alongside the musician’s favourite Bible readings, read for Things Unseen by David Suchet, Stuart Townend talks to Alison Hilliard about the loss of his father, gay marriage and his most controversial line on ‘the wrath of God’.
Babar Ahmad spent 8 years in UK prisons fighting extradition to the US. Having allowed his website to host articles supporting the Taliban he was eventually transferred to solitary confinement in the US, before pleading guilty to ‘providing material support to terrorism’. He was released shortly afterwards and returned to the UK. In conversation with Mark Dowd, Babar Ahmad talks about how he came to set up the website in question, and how he managed to mark Ramadan in the most difficult circumst...
Harris J has been dubbed the Muslim Justin Bieber. With 100 million YouTube hits, and over half a million followers on Instagram, he’s taken the global Islamic music scene by storm. Here he talks to Things Unseen’s Remona Aly about his music, his faith and how chewing gum is his Achilles heel when it comes to fasting. And he shares his newly released single, Save Me From Myself.
Former Tory Minister Baroness Warsi on balancing faith and fasting with life in the political arena and her views on multicultural Britain.
Carl Franklin is dead. But it’s not the end of the story. Broadchurch actor Joe Sims stars in Nick Warburton's drama which reflects the themes of the Easter story in a modern setting. The fictional story is told in documentary format, using interviews improvised by the cast, which also includes Emerald O’Hanrahan (Emma Grundy in BBC Radio 4’s The Archers). Cast in order of appearance: Charlie Hammond: Joe Sims; Joseph Masters: Sam Dale; Nat Martindale: Emerald O’Hanrahan; DI Frances MacLaurin: T...
One year on, what's the truth behind the West Trent tragedy? Broadchurch actor Joe Sims stars in Nick Warburton's drama which reflects the themes of the Easter story in a modern setting. The fictional story is told in documentary format, using interviews improvised by the cast, which also includes Emerald O’Hanrahan (Emma Grundy in BBC Radio 4’s The Archers). Cast in order of appearance: Charlie Hammond: Joe Sims; Joseph Masters: Sam Dale; Nat Martindale: Emerald O’Hanrahan; DI Frances MacLaurin...
Presenter Mark Dowd quizzes the team behind our upcoming Easter drama - writer Nick Warburton, producer Paul Arnold and Broadchurch actor Joe Sims, who plays the part of Charlie Hammond. Together they discuss the links between the Easter story and the drama, and Charlie’s ‘lightbulb moment’.
At this time of year, millions of Christians around the world turn their minds to the events that took place in the “little town of Bethlehem” over 2000 years ago. Yet few stop to consider what life is like for those born in Bethlehem today. In this Christmas edition, Mark Dowd meets two young people from Bethlehem who are united in their love of an ancient spiritual art: icon painting, or “writing”, as it’s known. Nicola and Noura have come to Britain to write two large icons for Lichfield Cath...
The writers of Channel 4’s Humans get together with Artificial Intelligence experts to plan the construction of our very own android, or ‘synth’. What rights should it have? Is it even a good idea in the first place? Can we baptise it? Or have sex with it? Our panel is made up of the Humans writers, Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley; Kate Devlin of Goldsmiths, University of London, researcher into robots and sexuality; and Beth Singler from the Faraday Institute for science and religion at Cambr...
Regarded by many as one of the world’s most influential living theologians, Stanley Hauerwas has always been opinionated and outspoken, not least on his pacifist convictions. On a trip from his native US to London to give a lecture at St Martin-in-the-Fields church, he shares his views on the perplexing, certainly to UK listeners, state of US politics at the moment. ‘I don’t think Trump has ever had a serious encounter with Jesus’, he says.
If you put together everything that the Bible records Jesus saying as he was being crucified, you find there are seven sayings, or ‘last words’. As well as finding hope in what Jesus said, the Anglican priest Lucy Winkett is also inspired by the fact that Jesus said anything at all. As a trained musician, she draws parallels between Jesus’ cries from the cross and the blues tradition of singing out your troubles, and shares her experience of singing the liturgy in a cathedral against considerabl...
