Sunday

For the fist time, Muslims in Blackburn will be able to celebrate Eid-al-Fitr at their local football ground. Blackburn Rovers will be hosting Eid prayers on their Ewood Park pitch. The town has a growing Muslim population and, as he tells our presenter William Crawley, the club's Integration and Development Manager Yasir Sufi hopes this new initiative will inspire a new generation of fans to be a...

Today voters in France go to the polls in the final round of the country's presidential election. The incumbent Emmanuel Macron is being challenged by Marine Le Pen. As in previous elections, immigration and religion have been among the campaign issues. We consider how important public attitudes to Islam have been in the campaign and how the candidates have negotiated the issue. After many weeks o...

Following last week’s dramatic tale of how some sacred Sikh scriptures were rescued from a gurdwara in Ukraine, Emily Buchanan went to see them in their new home at the National Sikh Museum in Derby. Patriarch Kirill is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church who is backing President Putin and supporting the war in Ukraine. He reportedly has historic KGB links and a liking for expensive watches, b...

How should religious leaders respond in times of war? The primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill has been severely criticised for endorsing his country's invasion of Ukraine. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, a leading scholar of eastern Christianity, tells us how he feels about Kirill's failure to even call for a ceasefire. Also, it's forty years since the...

Perhaps not since the Second World War has a conflict been so readily characterised as ‘good vs evil’. Is that helpful? What do we mean by 'evil' and how might we view it in the context of the Ukraine war? Girls’ secondary schools in Afghanistan were due to open last week but the Taliban reversed its decision at the last minute, saying a ruling is still to be made on the uniforms that girls must w...

There is a long history of religious images being used during wartime, to support propaganda. During the current conflict in Ukraine one image, created to help raise money for the country, has gone viral. Mary Magdalene is depicted clutching an anti-tank missile. Her halo and gown are in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag. The image, known as "St Javelin" has been widely circulated on socia...

The Vatican lead on refugees and migrants, Cardinal Michael Czerny, tells us why Pope Francis sent him to Hungary and Ukraine to meet people fleeing war. Presenter William Crawley asks why why the Pope has not denounced the Russian President Vladimir Putin. And Vatican analyst Christopher Lamb gives an insight into the faith diplomacy going on behind the scenes. While faith leaders around the worl...

There are growing calls for the Russian Orthodox Church, led by the Moscow Patriarch Kirill, to condemn the Russian President Vladimir Putin for his decision to invade Ukraine. Earlier this week, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church called on Patriarch Kirill to urge the leaders of the Russian Federation to ‘immediately cease the hostilities that threaten to turn into a world war’. And...

As Russia invades Ukraine and the country’s government and citizens weigh up the value of continuing resistance, we’ll ask whether Just War theory can offer them any guidance. We speak to church leaders including the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who joins us to discuss the unfolding crisis as well as Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski, who is the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in this count...

A pair of media-savvy nuns in Boston, USA, have attracted over 15 million views to the videos they’ve posted on social media. The Daughters of St Paul have more than 156,000 followers on TikTok. Their posts give an entertaining insight into life in a convent, depicting dance routines, pranks and funny takes on popular culture. They’re an unusual comedy duo, but the sisters tell our presenter Emily...

On this weekend’s Sunday programme, our Presenter Edward Stourton explores President Putin’s ambitions towards Ukraine and whether religion plays a significant role, with Marat Shterin, Professor of Religion at King’s College London and Co-Editor of the Routledge Journal ‘Religion, State and Society’. Islanders from the British Overseas Territory of St Helena in the Southern Atlantic Ocean are mak...

A new statue has been created honouring a medieval Jewish businesswoman thought to have been a victim of 13th century hate crime. Licoricia of Winchester was a money lender whose wealth contributed to the building of Westminster Abbey and helped bankroll three English kings. She was murdered at a time of widespread anti-Semitism and campaigners hope a new statue in her hometown will serve as a pow...

As tensions rise in Ukraine we explore the religious context and find out how far the split in the Orthodox church in Ukraine reflects the current political crisis. We hear about a plan to change how the Archbishop of Canterbury is selected and we take you to visit an exhibition of icon artists. How does an artist create a piece of work that's both an image and a prayer? The social media and tech...

What is the purpose of religious images and why have some of them caused controversy over the centuries? These are two of the questions addressed by the classics scholar Professor Mary Beard in a two part BBC2 series called ‘Mary Beard on Forbidden Art’. Mary joins Dr Fozia Bora, Associate Professor of Islamic History at the University of Leeds, to discuss some of the themes and ideas in her new d...

As the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill continues its passage through Parliament, our Presenter Edward Stourton explores why the proposals on Protest are such a contentious issue, with Paul Parker, Recording Clerk for Quakers in Britain. Chaplains are appointed to work in all kinds of places outside the normal life of the Church, from hospitals to care homes, to schools, we hear from some...

What kinds of faith-inspired statues, sculptures and murals might we see in the future on Britain’s streets and public spaces? Faith groups are among those that have been encouraged to apply for part of a £1 million ‘untold stories’ grant from the Mayor of London which closes on Wednesday and aims to better represent the capital’s communities. The funding follows heated debate in the last few year...

Following the death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bishop David Walker remembers the life and legacy of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who helped end apartheid in South Africa. Actor and activist Michael Sheen tells William about the transformative encounters that led him to give away a large chunk of his earnings and turn himself into a social enterprise - a not-for-profit actor. Champion baker Davi...

This week Sunday hears from churches how they’re adjusting to the Government’s Plan B in light of rising cases of Omicron. Carol concerts are cancelled, Christmas services face restrictions, and clergy are becoming frazzled and weary. Buddhists at a monastery in Scotland say their silent retreats are being disturbed by gunfire. The Samye Ling Tibetan Centre at Eskdalemuir in Scotland is the larges...

Steven Spielberg’s remake of the musical West Side Story has hit the big screen and with it there is renewed interest in its origins as a story of two lovers divided by religion. The man behind the screenplay for the new version, award winning writer Tony Kushner tells Edward about the film's Jewish roots. In a candid interview with Edward, the former Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones talks about h...

Pope Francis is in Cyprus this week where he said that "walls of fear" and nationalism were slowing down Europe's progress. As he moves onto Greece, another country on the frontline of the migrant crisis, we'll hear how this visit is being greeted on the ground. In the aftermath of the crisis of 2015, when thousands of asylum seekers arrived in Greece, the government there toughened its stance on...

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...

In 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 impl...

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...

The 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...

“I feel like you almost need to perform to prove you are a Muslim” says makeup artist Zainab Hassan as a survey by Muzmatch confirms the discrimination many Black Muslims feel within some Muslim communities. Imam Rakin Niass and Imam Qari Asim discuss how to tackle this. 19 out of 20 of the most popular Christian American pages on Facebook were fake. Karen Hao tells Edward about the troll farms se...