Heart and Soul

In this final programme of a special Heart and Soul series for the BBC World Service, the journalist John McCarthy brings back together those who have been sharing reflections and insights on faith during the Coronavirus crisis.

We hear how they’re coping now. How have their attitudes to rituals, compassion, solitude and community, changed in the last six weeks? What are their personal thoughts on moving forward, and through, this pandemic, now that many countries have lifted, or have left, lockdown?

We’ll hear how personal faith has been challenged, changed or strengthened during the dark days of Covid-19.

Presenter: John McCarthy

A man finds himself by chance in the country he fled as a political prisoner as the virus spreads and he is trapped. An atheist looking for peace in lockdown. A writer looking for a way to stay united with her community. Very different people, with very different beliefs, united in prayer.

In a special Heart and Soul series for the BBC World Service, amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, the journalist John McCarthy brings together reflections from people of faith around the world. In this fifth programme, John hears how people are reaching for prayer at this time - in an age old response to such a crisis. Prayer can be a repeated phrase, a daily ritual, a casual conversation or a cry for help and it is not just people of conventional faith who are doing it.

Sanderson Jones does not believe in God, but the stand-up comedian says he has found something akin to prayer whilst pushing his son in a buggy in his allotted daily exercise. Mario Aguilar is a hermit who lives a life of quiet contemplation. But he was on a short visit in his native Chile when lockdown began. Order, discipline and simple prayer have carried him through what he admits has been a tough time.

As the world faces the prospect of many months of lockdown we hear how prayer and meditation can bring comfort and calm.

Presenter: John McCarthy

In this fourth programme of a special Heart and Soul series for the BBC World Service, amidst a global pandemic of Coronavirus, the journalist John McCarthy hears how the notion of community has changed as many people continue to be denied the chance to gather for religious practice.

Across the world the way people live their daily lives has radically altered. What new communities are emerging? Whether online, in our family or households, or simply a new relationship with neighbours, we hear reflections on how faith communities are changing and perhaps becoming deeper in their spiritual practice during this global crisis.

While people are keeping their distance, a sense of community is growing. People of faith and no faith are reaching out to support others. There seems to be an urge to share something more profound than just being together physically or clapping for nurses and doctors.

Hiba Siddiqi works for the Islamic Relief charity in Pakistan; Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is an award winning writer who lives in Abuja, Nigeria, Reverend Julian DeShazier is in Chicago; Tarunjit Singh Buttalia is a science professor, originally from India but now living in Ohio, USA; Sister Rachel Denton has led a life of quiet prayer alone for decades and Sanderson Jones used to be a stand up comedian. He doesn’t believe in God, but he does believe in community. So much so, he set up an alternative Sunday Assembly.

Presented by John McCarthy

In a special Heart and Soul series for the BBC World Service, amidst a global pandemic of Coronavirus, the journalist John McCarthy brings together reflections from people of faith around the world.

In this third programme, John hears how isolation and solitude can be an opportunity to develop a deeper spiritual practice. When the mind throws up challenges – doubt, fear – what comfort and opportunities does faith provide?

Solitude is often sought after and even craved by many people of faith, but the chance to share the energy of worship with others enhances their closeness to their deity.

The Buddhist devotional dancer Prumsodun Ok, has to step back from his busy teaching schedule in Cambodia but he sees this as a chance to slow down and re-connect with the spiritual aspect of his dance. We hear from round the world solo rower Roz Savage who describes herself as having faith rather than a religion and a pastor who’s new to solitude but thinks he might like it. Reverend Julian DeShazier works at the busy multicultural University Church in Chicago, USA where he is also an advocate for his community. He’s also an Emmy award winning musician and songwriter who goes by the name of J.Kwest . He’s turned to bible stories to help him through lockdown.

As the world faces the prospect of many months of lockdown we hear how faith and religion can bring comfort and succour to those living in solitude.

Presenter: John McCarthy

As coronavirus crisis unfolds, with its confusion and heartbreak, John McCarthy brings together reflections from people around the world. In this programme he hears stories of compassion. Most religions teach that compassion is what allows us to understand the suffering of others, but you need no faith to give or receive it. Compassion nurtures kindness and charity, both sorely needed now.

We hear from Bernard Gabbott, an Anglican minister in rural Australia. His community has suffered years of drought. The rains have only recently arrived. And now they face further hardship as farm machinery and seeds coming from China are delayed due to the virus. How does he balance compassion for his community with the needs of his young family?

The Sudan-raised novelist Leila Aboulela thought she would spend Ramadan this year with her mother and she looked forward particularly to the joy of breaking their fast together. Now her mother is instead completely isolated in Cairo.

Kindness to others might be at the heart of all faiths, but it is not always practised. How can faith guide the conversations that need to be had with families as we all face the prospect of illness? Are there words to ease the fear of not being able to say goodbye intimately to a loved one? How do we show compassion to children or young people who see this as injustice and maybe even a sign that God has abandoned them?

Presenter: John McCarthy

Rituals are at the heart of many religions, they are vital to the practice of faith giving structure, comfort and focus.

The best-selling Indian writer Amish Tripathi sees daily yoga practice as central to his Hindu faith. He loves the calm and balance it brings. But with the virus bringing fear of respiratory problems he newly appreciates the breathing techniques which ease anxiety. Miriam Camerini is an Italian trainee Rabbi who is stranded in Canada, unable to travel home. She is heartbroken to hear of sick friends, but comforted by new online connections with Jerusalem. And a Pastor used to non-stop cross-border travel to look after Mexican and US parishioners finds strength in bible passages he never had time to sit and study before.

With much of the world in lockdown the rituals and sacraments of conventional religion are impossible. Journalist John McCarthy hears how people are finding new ways to live out their faith in retreat.

Joshua Wong has been the poster boy of the Hong Kong democracy movement for over five years, despite being only 23 years old. An evangelical Christian, he continues to do what he sees as the right thing in his fight against Beijing’s influence, despite the personal hardship involved. Mike Wooldridge hears from Joshua, and about concerns in the Hong Kong church around the actions of some of his followers.

(Photo: Joushua Wong)

Senegalese twins Marieme and Ndeye were born sharing much of their bodies, and doctors advised that an attempt to separate them would be fatal for Marieme. But Marieme’s heart condition put both twins in danger. Mike Wooldridge hears from Ibrahima, now in the UK, who had to face an impossible dilemma - whether his daughters should be separated.

(Photo: Ibrahima with Marieme and Ndeye)

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought religious practice to a halt in much of the world. Religious leaders, a large part of whose life’s work is to get people to come to church, mosque or synagogue are urging them to stay away. The church, defined by Jesus as wherever people gather together in God’s name, has been suspended. The gestures that carry much of the meaning of the faith – for Christians, the exchange of the Pax Christi, for example, or the taking of Holy Communion – were banned in many countries even before the general population was ordered into isolation. Now, in lockdown France you are allowed to go to work (if you do not have the possibility of working from home), you can go and buy what you want at the supermarket, but you are not allowed to attend a funeral.

But what is shaping into the most catastrophic pandemic of modern times is hitting a world that now has social media. Religious leaders, who may not have known their WhatsApp from their Facetime two weeks ago, are seizing social media as a lifeline.

(Photo: French Priests check camera for live Palm Sunday YouTube mass. Credit: BBC)

"Every time I tattoo someone, I feel the links of faith, blood and ink in an unbroken chain of thousands of pilgrims, going back hundreds of years" - Wassim Razoouk, 'The Jerusalem Tattooist'.

For some, it's a kind of baptism. To others, it's a very personal souvenir. For everyone, it's an indelible mark of pilgrimage to one of the holiest places on Earth: the Old City of Jerusalem. For more than 500 years, Wassim Razzouk's family have been tattooing the pilgrims to Jerusalem.

In this edition of Heart and Soul, we'll be hearing his story and the stories of the people who visit his tattoo parlour in the Christian Quarter of the city. Razzouk Tattoo claims to be the only remaining traditional pilgrimage tattoo business in the world. Seven hundred years ago, according to family lore, the Razzouks began tattooing fellow Coptic Christians in Egypt. They continued the practice after moving to Jerusalem, eventually offering their services to Christians of all denominations. Wassim's customers are joining the ranks of innumerable Christian pilgrims to be permanently inked in Jerusalem since the 16th century.

Today, almost all request religious designs, many featuring the Jerusalem Cross, a symbol of the Holy City and Holy Land first introduced in the 15th century by the Franciscan order. A tattoo is a very personal statement, and for some people, also a very profound one. Everyone has a different story, and while they're getting tattooed, we'll hear people explain the impact that Jerusalem has had on them, and their reasons for marking their pilgrimage with a tattoo they'll never forget.

Wassim says: "People come to us to be part of the history and tradition of the Holy Land. I feel the weight of carrying on and preserving this holy tradition. We are its custodians."

(Photo: Wassim Razoouk. Credit: BBC)