Countries around the world are racing to introduce travel bans and restrictions on Southern Africa to contain a new variant of Covid-19. With just ten per cent of Africans having received their first jab, Church leaders on the continent are calling for vaccine justice and faith leaders are working together to challenge vaccine hesitancy. Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town and President of the South African Council of Churches, tells us what new challenges the churches face. We hear the extraordinary story of how a rabbi and Kim Kardashian worked together to rescue girls from Afghanistan. And now that local councils are obliged to take in refugee children, we hear about the shortage of Muslim foster parents and how faith helped one young refugee settle into his new life in the UK. The Bible has been translated into many languages but now there is to be a new translation into BSL, or British Sign Language. What will this mean to deaf people? Emily Buchanan talks to Lord Bishop Sentamu of Lindisfarne as he takes over as the first African head of Christian Aid, and we hear how, for the first time, 'Spiritual Abuse' is cited as a definition in the draft statutory Guidance to the Domestic Abuse Act.Producers: Louise Clarke-Rowbotham and Jill CollinsEditor: Helen Grady
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Folge vom 28.11.2021The Bible in BSL, the Rabbi and Kim Kardashian, and Rev Dr John Sentamu
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Folge vom 21.11.2021Rumi: The Musical, Asylum seeker conversions, Mother-and-baby homes in Northern IrelandIn the wake of last weekend’s bomb attack in Liverpool, carried out by an apparent convert to Christianity, Emily Buchanan and guests explore the role of religious conversion in the lives of those seeking asylum in the UK.The Stormont executive has agreed to accept all the recommendations of a panel set up to investigate institutions for unmarried mothers in Northern Ireland. We consider the implications and hear the testimony of one survivor, Adele Johnstone.While sayings of the 13th century Sufi poet Rumi are hugely popular on social media, this week ‘Rumi: The Musical’ premieres in London's West End with the aim of getting to the human and spiritual heart of the Muslim mystic.Producers: Dan Tierney Olive ClancyEditor: Helen Grady.
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Folge vom 14.11.2021Europe's Best Cathedrals, FW. De Klerk's faith, and could Joe Biden be banned from Communion?With thousands of migrants stranded in freezing temperatures, we explore the humanitarian crisis unfolding on Poland's border with Belarus. Wojciech Wilk from the Polish Centre for International Aid gives the picture on the ground and journalist Jonathan Luxmoore explains local Church leaders' response. To mark Remembrance Day, our reporter Vishva Samani joins a group of British Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims as they uncover forgotten stories of sacrifice and valour from their own communities. Could the US President be banned from receiving Communion? Some Catholic Bishops are unhappy that Joe Biden, a practising Catholic, supports abortion rights and believe he and other Pro-Choice politicians should be denied the central sacrament of their Chuch. Will a new Church document agree? William explores the issue with Social Justice Campaigner Sister Simone Campbell and Ed Condon, Editor of the Catholic website ‘The Pillar’. FW. De Klerk was the last leader of apartheid South Africa and the man who freed Nelson Mandela from jail. Following his death this week, William asks if FW. De Klerk’s personal faith can help us make sense of his complex story. We hear from Saul Dubow, Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at Cambridge University and the Very Reverend Rogers Govender, Dean of Manchester Cathedral. And listeners share what makes their local Cathedral so special - from West Wales to Orkney - as we go on a journey through those magnificent structures that have withstood centuries and still provide focal points in times of national crisis and celebration. Simon Jenkins, Author of ‘Europe’s 100 Best Cathedrals’, shares his favourites too. Producers: Jill Collins and Louise Clarke-RowbothamEditor: Helen Grady
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Folge vom 07.11.2021Leonard Cohen's Spirituality; Is Faith Being Left Out Of COP 26?; St CuthbertThe singer Leonard Cohen, who died five years ago, tells the story that a friend once told him: "You never met a religion you didn't like". Listen in to our investigation of his spiritual life and we're fairly confident you'll never hear a Cohen song in quite the same way again. Though he fell out with the Montreal Jewish community he grew up in, his music fuses Judaism and Christianity as well as ideas from Zen Buddism. We hear Cohen's own views on faith from the BBC archive, talk to Harry Freedman author of Leonard Cohen: The mystical roots of genius and of course, hear those songs alongside their inspirations from the Talmud, the Kabbalah and the Bible.Is faith central to the debate about caring for the environment? This week the UK's Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said religious leaders were left to "scramble around" for the chance to make their voices heard at COP 26, the UN summit aimed at bringing climate change under control. As the conference enters a second week Edward Stourton talks to faith leaders about their experiences, what exactly they have to add to the debate and how they're going to make themselves heard in week two.Also in the programme: the young German Catholics attempting to get the church to spell God with a gender star. They say that the image of a male, white God is putting many young people off religion. And where's Cuthbert? This week York Minster replaced a window dedicated to the influential St Cuthbert. Its one of the largest surviving narrative windows in Europe and the only one telling the story of the saint who was a Medieval superstar. Edward finds out what the window tells us of the hermit and how to pick out Cuthbert himself from a window that is celebrated as a "Lancastrian who's who's".