Heart and Soul

What does it mean to ask "God to keep you safe" in the time of a pandemic? What is the meaning and scope of divine protection?

The belief in divine protection is a significant feature of the Christian response to the pandemic particularly within some of the African and Caribbean Churches in the UK. On the one hand, all churches offered prayers for divine protection over individuals and the nation. On the other, some Christian groups, went further than offering prayers and promoting the sale of special protection kits, "guaranteed to ward off Corona Virus." Tragically, some believers in Britain, believing God is protecting them, didn't seek medical help when they were sick and passed away.

In this programme, Professor Robert Beckford sets out to discover the meaning of 'divine protection' within his own Pentecostal Christian tradition.

Producer: Rajeev Gupta

By day Dr Jamasp JamaspAsa, works in the UK as a cancer surgeon, but now, due to the passing of his father he has a new role, the High Priest of the Zoroastrian faith in a Mumbai Fire Temple.

Lipika Pelham meets the High Priest as Zoroastrians, or Parsees, celebrate the most auspicious days in their calendar. The “All Souls Festival” is when they believe ancestors visit them. She is curious whether his medical skills as a doctor make him a 'holy warrior', fighting to stop the work of evil, by keeping his patients alive.

Far from being just a sombre memorial of the dead, “Mukhtad” is a festive occasion. With a feast of consecrated food, flowers, and lamps that are constantly kept alight, Zoroastrians welcome the “farohars”, the spirits of dead relatives, who come to help the living to celebrate life, which is the work of God, against the evils of death.

Lipika will explore the faith’s most distinguishing feature, which is the religious duty of every Zoroastrian to prolong and focus on life, even at the time of death.

Producer and Presenter: Lipika Pelham

Community is one of main features of religion - but coronavirus has disrupted that. Religious institutions are going through significant changes in response to the coronavirus. But what of these changes will remain and what will organised religion look like post pandemic? Could the virus change the future of worship?

Produced by: Athar Ahmed and Nalini Sivathasan

(Image: Karanjee Singh prepares for his first visit to his Sikh Gurdwara since the Coronavirus meant it had to close / Credit: BBC)

New York funeral director Clive Anderson has been struggling to keep up the sheer volume of new Coronavirus cases coming to his small funeral home in Pelham, New York. Normally he would average four funerals a week, now he is doing six a day.

Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. It was taught by the Buddha more than 2,500 years ago as a universal remedy for universal ills. The practice died out in India, but survived in Burma, and is now a growing movement around the world.

To learn the technique students complete a 10-day silent retreat, which includes 10 hours of daily meditation. There is no eye contact, no communication, no exercise, no reading or writing, no technology. No distraction from the journey inwards. They must try to overcome the habit of reacting to sensation. By doing so, over 10 days students train themselves to stop reacting to the vicissitudes of life and experience the interconnectedness of all living things.

It is notoriously difficult, but what insights does it afford? What difficulties, both physical and emotional, are faced along the way? We hear the experiences of people who have made it through 240 hours of silence.

Vipassana was popularised by S.N. Goenka, who learnt the technique in Burma from his teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, and in 1969 travelled to India to conduct the first Vipassana course in this tradition outside Burma. There are now around 200 Vipassana meditation centres around the world, attracting people from all walks of life. The course is free, and non-sectarian.

Producer: Eve Streeter

How did the Ethiopian King, Haile Selassie - who lived a life of luxury whilst his country suffered a deep famine - become the god for the Rastafari community? To millions he was a leader, to many others he was an oppressor, but to a small worldwide community known as the Rastafari he is divine and the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Now, 70 years after Haile Selassie was crowned as leader of Ethiopia, Dr Robert Beckford explores the religious, political and social dynamic that propelled a whole community to worship Selassie as a living god.

But for many Rastafarians, bestowing sainthood on their spiritual leader won’t change anything. He is, to them, simply the messiah. But how did this adoration come to be?

Image: His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia (Credit: BBC)

When Gábor Iványi was a young Protestant minister back in the 1970s standing up to Hungary’s totalitarian Communist regime he promised to stop shaving as a sign of protest. Communism is long gone in Hungary but Ivanyi’s beard keeps getting longer. He fought the Communists side by side with the student leader Victor Orban. He supported Orban and even accompanied him spiritually. Ivanyi is godfather to Orban’s first two children and performed the religious wedding ceremony for Orban.

Image: Viktor Orban (Credit: Zoltan Mathe/EPA)

In this special American Impendence day program, presenter Martin Bashir brings together Ilyasah Shabbaz - the third daughter of Malcolm X, Joshua DuBois - President Obama's former spiritual advisor and Lama Rod Owens - a Buddhist Black radical thinker to discuss the nature of the Black Lives Matter movement. They discuss the objectives and methods of the movement and interrogate if the use of violence is a necessary evil in search of equality.

The three guests draw upon their own respected faith traditions as well as the experience of being African American in modern day America to share their views on how best to achieve equal rights.

Presented by Martin Bashir

(Photo: Black Lives Matter protest, June 2020. Credit: Jo Holland/BBC)

The sight of dozens of surfers circled together and floating beyond the breakwater will always mean one thing - that another surfer has died. A paddle-out is a way of honouring someone who’s had a love for the ocean. It’s a practice which has become entwined with surf’s cherished culture.

On the coast of Cornwall we meet a gathering of surfers who have come to pay homage to their friend Riccardo, who has recently died from cancer. We join them as they prepare to paddle out with flowers around their necks. They join hands in the water and share stories, memories and songs.

Big wave rider Clyde Aikau, brother to legendary surfer Eddie Aikau, describes the first ever paddle out in 1978, when his brother was lost at sea and drowned. After Eddie died, thousands of people gathered to paddle out from his favourite surf spot at Waimea Bay to celebrate him. It was a defining moment, and surfers around the world still paddle out to mark the anniversary of Eddie’s death each year.

In Cape Town, we also hear the voice of Mikhail Thompson, a surfer and mentor who has administered a number of paddle-out ceremonies during his lifetime. He describes the profoundly spiritual experience of surfing waves, and how losing someone from the close-knit surfer community leaves a void. And we hear him reflect on a special moment in the paddle-out ceremony, when the whole party erupts in hoots and cheers, splashing the water and throwing flowers into the air.

Producer: Sarah Cuddon

Image: Riccardo (Credit: Salvador) and Eddie Aikau (Courtesy of the Eddie Aikau Foundation, Credit: David Bettencourt)

In Philadelphia, husband and wife George and Mimi Limbach sit down in an old warehouse with 15 men who have recently been released from prison. Surrounding them are hundreds of old computers, which these former inmates will soon recycle as part of a rehabilitation programme underpinned by the couples Christian faith. They feel by offering these former offenders work they are keeping true to values such as forgiveness, love and second chances. “No one is here to judge. We are all on the same level,” George tells the young men.

In this programme, Colm Flynn travels to the computer recycling centre in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Philadelphia to meet some of the former inmates who are building a better future "one computer tower at a time." We hear their raw stories, and hear why George and Mimi feel these people deserve a chance despite their past crimes.

Presenter: Colm Flynn