All Things Considered

Do we get the leaders we need, or do we just get the leaders we deserve, with all the character flaws that we ourselves may possess? Trust in politicians is low, and standards of behaviour in public life not always of the highest. And yet, is it reasonable for us to expect flawed human beings like ourselves to be perfect? Jonathan Thomas discusses the issue of contemporary leadership with a panel of guests: Dr Thomas Prosser, Reader in European Social Policy at Cardiff University and author of a book exploring self-interest in voting; Rev Catherine De Souza, Senior Leader at City Church Cardiff and national leader of Kyria Network in Wales, devoted to promoting the interests of women in leadership roles; and Dr Iwan Russell-Jones, a lecturer in Christianity in the arts.

For many Christians the second Sunday in July is Sea Sunday; traditionally it’s the day when many churches remember and pray for all those whose working lives are spent on the ocean waves.

About 90% of the world’s goods and fuels are transported around the globe handled by an estimated 1.6 million seafarers. At sea, working conditions can be tough at the best of times but the pandemic has had a number of knock-on effects on their lives, as has the war in Ukraine.

In this programme Roy Jenkins finds out about the difficulties of working and living on the high seas, and about the way in which faith is practised among crews who are often multi-national and multi-faith. We learn about the work of port chaplains, and join them as they visit a ship in port. We also drop into a seafarer centre – also known as Flying Angel Clubs. The chaplains and the volunteers provide practical and emotional support to seafarers – many of them from Ukraine, Russia, China and the Philippines who can expect to be away from home for months on end.

Our guests.

Ros Downs

A retired naval architect and now a volunteer Ship Welfare Officer, Mission to Seafarers based in Newport.

Revd Mark Lawson-Jones.

Port Chaplain South Wales, Mission to Seafarers.

This Anglican charity operates in 200 ports all over the world. www.missiontoseafarers.org

Peter Morgan

Regional Port Chaplain, Stella Maris, Bristol Channel Area which includes S Wales.

This Roman Catholic charity (formerly known in the UK as the Apostleship of the Sea)operates in 54 countries. www.stellamaris.org.uk

Adam Oliver

A former seafarer and now Ship Visitor, Mission to Seafarers based in Milford Haven & Port Talbot.

Professor Helen Sampson.

Director, Seafarers International Research Centre. (SIRC)

The centre has carried out research into life on board for seafarers, and the insecurity of their working conditions. The centre has also studied how faith is practised at sea, and is now conducting research among women seafarers who account for 2% of the global seafaring workforce. www.sirc.cf.ac.uk

Music used.

“Sailing by” by Ronald Binge. It is used before the late-night Shipping Forecast broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Extracts from “Dawn” and “Sunday Morning” from Sea Interludes by Benjamin Britten.

On Monday, Bishop Mark O’Toole of Plymouth was installed as Archbishop of Cardiff. In Swansea three days later, he was also made Bishop of Menevia. With those two positions, he became leader of most of the Catholics in Wales, and in the county of Hereford. Roy speaks to Archbishop Mark, to find out more about the man, his appointment, and his hopes for the challenging task that lies ahead.

Roy Jenkins and guests explore how attitudes to nuclear weapons have changed since the end of the Cold War. It’s more than thirty years since the prospect of nuclear conflict cast a shadow over world peace; prompting massive demonstrations and feeding fierce debate. When the Cold War ended we all moved on, and largely forgot the cloud which had once loomed so threateningly. Until the first week of the Ukraine invasion, when Vladimir Putin openly placed his strategic nuclear weapons forces on high alert and assumptions about peace in Europe were rocked.

The panel discuss whether nuclear weapons make the world a safer place, whether a deterrent actually deters, and with committed Christians on both sides of the debate, how do they square their different positions with their faith?

Joining the panel is Ruth Harvey, Leader of the Iona Community, an intentional Christian community working for justice and peace. She has a background in church ministry and as a mediator with Place for Hope, a charity working in mediation with faith-based organisations. Major General Tim Cross is a retired army officer. He served in the first Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been an adviser to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee. Jane Harries is Peace Education Coordinator at the Welsh Centre for International Affairs. She’s a Quaker and a key figure in Cymdeithas y Cymod, the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Martyn Gough is National Chaplain to the Royal British Legion. He was previously Archdeacon for the Royal Navy and Chaplain of the Fleet.

American evangelist Franklin Graham is Roy Jenkins' guest, ahead of his 'God Loves You' preaching tour of the UK, which will include a meeting in Newport.

Franklin Graham is the elder son of the late Dr Billy Graham, the world’s most celebrated Christian evangelist of his day. It’s a tough act to follow, but for more than 20 years he’s headed up the global evangelistic organisation which bears his father’s name, preaching to more than 8 million people. For 40 years, he’s also led the related relief and development agency Samaritan’s Purse, which works in more than a hundred countries. These have long been multi-million dollar enterprises, and they give him significant influence in the United States, and take him to many places where humanitarian aid is desperately needed – most recently he was supporting teams in Ukraine.

Franklin Graham is also a controversial figure, not least because of his support for Donald Trump, and certain well publicised statements on sexuality and on Islam.

In this candid conversation, Roy Jenkins probes Franklin Graham's views on these and other issues, and also finds out what life was like growing up in the Graham household, with a father who could sometimes be away from home for as long as six months at a time.

Roy Jenkins speaks to the Most Reverend Andrew John, the fourteenth head of the Church in Wales, to find out more about the man, and some of the challenges facing the Church he now leads.

Deafness gets a pretty bad press in the Bible. But as the current series of Strictly Come Dancing demonstrates, deaf people can and do achieve great things regardless of their disability. In this programme Roy Jenkins reports on some of the remarkable members of Wales' deaf community, as they negotiate their way around Christian worship and some occasionally unwelcoming churches. We hear from Lauren Francis, a Salvation Army band member, who is progressively losing her hearing; and we hear from Rev Pat Collins, who is profoundly deaf, but who has found a voice in the hearing community through her friend and signer Liz Peters. Adam and Maria Guichard talk about setting up Deaf Church West Wales, while Rev Dr Hannah Lewis comments on deaf liberation theology. It is above all a story of ability, not disability. As Lauren Francis comments, 'I don't believe we hear only with our ears, we also hear with our hearts'.

This programmes was first broadcast in December 2021.

The Penrhys Pilgrimage Way begins at Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff and ends in Penrhys, connecting two very different communities. Over the years the Penrhys Estate has been associated with poor planning decisions, crime and deprivation, but today residents would tell another story. Rosa Hunt visits the Llanfair Uniting Church at the heart of Penrhys, and hears from Sharon Rees and Paul Harrison about the work they do and what they value most about their community.

Rosa walks the pilgrimage path and hears how a team of volunteers have revived the 21-mile route. Rosa hears from Helen Lloyd Jones about why March would have been an important time for medieval pilgrims to visit the statue of the Virgin Mary in Penrhys. Iain Tweedale explains the history of the statue, and why pilgrimages are enjoying a growth in popularity today.

Earlier this year doctors at the University of Maryland performed the world’s first complete transplant of a genetically modified pig’s heart into a human being. It’s a major breakthrough in the science of Xenotransplantation; using animal organs for transplant to humans. There is a chronic shortage of organs in the UK and currently there are around 7000 people on the transplant waiting list. But how realistic is it to think that pig organs could be a viable way of reducing these waiting lists? Is it ethical to use other living creatures in this way? And what might advances in medical technology mean for what it means to be human?

Joining Azim Ahmed to discuss the issues are Dr Mansur Ali, Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Cardiff University and a qualified Imam. His current research is into what the Islamic tradition says about organ donation. Dr Trevor Stammers has been a GP for 30 years and also chair of the Christian Medical Fellowship. He is currently the editor of New Bioethics and his particular interest is in Xenotransplantation. Anna-Louise Bates founded the charity, ‘Believe’ in 2015 to promote and support organ donation in Wales.

Mary Stallard explores silence, asking what those who embrace it are looking for and whether we have enough of it in our lives.

This programme was first broadcast in October 2017.