Heart and Soul

The raven has featured in human culture for millennia, taking its place in a wide range of belief systems as a wily trickster and revealer of truths.

But on the islands of Haida Gwaii off Canada’s Pacific NW coast, the raven has always enjoyed an exalted status. The Haida Nation is divided into the Raven and the Eagle Clan. Both birds live among this indigenous people, who have inhabited the islands since the Ice Age.

Writer Joe Shute explores the Haida relationship with the Raven and finds a deep spiritual connection which has waned in Western culture. He hears creation stories in which Raven discovers the first men and steals the light from the gods for the benefit of mankind. He witnesses ceremonies honoring the raven and speaks to the Chief of the Raven Clan to understand how this mischievous, raucous, intelligent bird - whose “kronk” call can be heard all around the islands - acts as both as a vehicle between the human and supernatural worlds, and also as a mirror through which the Haida see themselves.

Image: Raven on Haida Gwaii (British Columbia, Canada) by Jags Brown

Many young Jewish people living in Israel feel religion has too big an influence over their private lives. Numerous aspects of life are governed by a council made up of orthodox rabbis called the Rabbinate. They decide who is and isn't Jewish and by extension who can and can't marry.

Supporters of the organisation say this helps preserve Jewish identity. Critics say it means thousands of people who are not deemed 'Jewish enough' can't marry each other, forcing couples to leave the country to have a ceremony that will be recognised by the authorities when they return home.

The religious monopoly on marriage also means Jews cannot marry non-Jews and as the council of orthodox rabbis rule on divorce for every married couple in Israel, many say this disadvantages women.

Tim Franks is with a live audience and a panel of guests to discuss whether the Rabbinate should be stripped of its monopoly, or whether the current rules protect the identity and values of the Jewish faith.

This special Heart and Soul Gathering from the BBC World Service is the third programme in a series of faith-based community discussions.

Produced by Louise Clarke-Rowbotham.

Photo credit: Jewish Wedding Ring - Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The laws around divorced Catholics receiving communion are both clear and strict. But recently Pope Francis has clouded the issue with a number of pronouncements, giving millions of divorced Catholics hope that they will be able to receive the sacrament at mass.

Catholics who divorce in civil law are still married according to the law of the church, and any relationship they enter into is adulterous. And as that's a mortal sin, they cannot take communion.

Adrian Chiles hasn’t married again after he divorced, but hasn’t ruled it out. He knows, though, that once that happens, he won’t be able to receive the most important element of his faith, and that bothers him.

Adrian begins by meeting Cristina Odone, a Catholic journalist who tells him how she cannot receive communion because she is married to a divorcee and how much this upsets her. He also meets two divorcees who face having to get an annulment of difficult marriages.

There are many Catholics who want the law upheld, and many others who have been given hope by the Pope. Adrian uses his own situation to explore this thorny subject which is causing division in his church.

Presenter: Adrian Chiles

Photo: A priest handing out communion during mass Credit: Getty Images.

Imagine being swept along the streets of Calcutta by a crowd of over three hundred thousand people all visiting fantastical temporary pandals which are built from clay, silt, wicker, and papier-mache by local artisans every year to celebrate the festival of Durga Puja.

Additional writing, editing and post production by John Wakefield.

(Photo: The street and houses leading up to the brothel pandal with dummies of sex workers. Credit: Amit Chaudhuri)

No carol encapsulates the beginning of Christmas like ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ which every Christmas Eve opens the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, in the candlelit Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. Around the globe, listeners to the BBC World Service tune into the service every year.

This is a story of last minute anticipation, as three or four boys are traditionally put on standby, and at the last moment one is chosen to sing the famous carol.

Its opening bars are part of Christmas for millions of people wherever they are in the world, who won't know that the chorister singing, unaccompanied, this famous carol was chosen for the role just minutes before

Programme Introduced by Richard Gowers

At the last UK Census in 2011 some 170,000 people registered their faith as Jedi. Easily outstripping any other kind of fictional religious faith. It’s a similar situation in many other countries. But what does this all mean? Clearly many are not serious but for thousands the light and the dark and the all powerful Force have real meaning. The Star Wars universe has been around so long it almost feels like an old religion, like The Force, everywhere and nowhere. For some it can be a path towards a better way of thinking or living.

The status and role of women in mosques in the United Kingdom is changing. Traditionally playing a secondary role, groups here now are training women to be more active in their religious communities and to help run mosques.

Samira Ahmed meets the young British Muslims who are taking on new roles to find out why they want to do it, and how it will alter religious communities.

She will meet the young Muslims from the Inclusive Mosque Initiative exploring their faith and the role of women in it, forming new ideas about their religion, on, they hope. their own terms.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

(Photo: Rukhsana, one of Leicester City's female Islamic centre manager)

***Listeners may find some of the material in this programme upsetting.***

Audrey Brown meets Mally, as well as her Pastor Smadz Matsepe, who have united to use their faith to fight cultural homophobia.

Eudy played soccer for the South African national team, the Banyana Banyana, and Audrey hears from her teammates as they watch the 2018 World Cup to find out more about the lives of young gay women in the townships, and to Mally about the role of God in fighting for justice in her daughter’s name.

Producer and Presenter: Audrey Brown

Photo: Eudy Simelane’s parents sat at the bridge named in their daughter’s honour Credit: BBC

John McCarthy meets the people who have had to confront their own beliefs while held captive.

Born into a Jewish family, but a committed atheist, Daniel Genis had an eventful life which led him to drug addiction, crime and then 10 years in one of Americas most notorious prisons. His time there meant he had time to explore his faith, plus the array of faiths of his fellow prisoners.

As he saw out his sentences he keenly observed the role religion plays in prison, how many prisoners adopted a faith, many were open to faith because of their situation. Priests, Rabbis and Imams were more than eager to try and help them.

In episode two of the series, he tells John McCarthy how his own ‘beliefs’ helped him, and how it shaped his idea of a God's role in prison.

Presenter: John McCarthy

(Photo credit: Daniel Genis)

John McCarthy meets people who have had to confront their own beliefs while held captive. John who was held hostage by Islamic radical groups in Lebanon, speaks to two Iranian women who risked torture in one of the world’s most notorious prisons after being convicted of apostasy for spreading the message of Christianity in their strictly Islamic home country.

Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh were known as the ‘dirty Christians’ in Evin prison where they suffered horrendous conditions and witnessed daily abuse. But this did not stop them from sharing the Gospel within the prison.

But what the authorities didn't know was that they had distributed approximately twenty thousand bibles they had given out before they were sent to Evin.

They now live in the US, and despite the daily horrors they witnessed, Maryam and Marziyeh see Evin as a church – somewhere they were placed by God to spread the word. But John will ask about their work now in a country where there is freedom to pray and preach.

Presenter: John McCarthy