The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has stepped down after "serious and significant failings" in safeguarding. The Rev Trevor Gribben said "people have been placed at risk" due to the failings in its processes between 2009 and 2022. We look at the wider implications of the story and ask whether an outside body needs to lead the denominations safeguarding process.The COP 30 meetings in Brazil are at the end of the first week. Sinead Loughran from Trocaire updates us on how things are going.Closer to home what can we do to encourage sustainability in our food system. Audrey talks to Beth Bell from Belfast Sustainability Partnership and Louise Ferguson from The Larder Community Foodbank about small changes we can all make.And this Sunday is German Remembrance Day but commemoration of the war dead is much more complex because of its 20th Century history. Audrey talks to Hamburg based journalist Jenny Witt.
Zohran Mamadani made history this week when he was elected Mayor of New York City. The 34 year old is the first mayor born outside the US and the first Muslim.So how central was faith in the campaign and how important is it to him personally? Audrey talks to Professor Najam Haider from Columbia University.On Remembrance Sunday we look at the religious practice of silence with Jim Deeds, Rabbi Nicole Auerbach and Buddhist Prajnaketu.At a Mass in Rome last week Pope Leo XIV proclaimed Saint John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church. Andrew Meszaros from the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome tells us about his life and legacy. And the Book of Kells has traditionally been thought to have been written on the Island of Iona but new research suggests it was on the East Coast of Scotland or as it was known then Pictland. Author Victoria Whitworth is challenging the accepted wisdom.
Archbishop Eamon Martin reflects on the life and death of his predecessor Oliver Plunkett. Born 400 years ago this weekend, the saint's head is preserved in St Peter’s Church in Drogheda. Mark Devenport is joined by Dr Niamh Wycherley and John Thavis to discuss the role of relics in the 21st century.The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Africa correspondent Declan Walsh explains the background to violence and killings in south west Sudan.And on All Souls Day, grief bots and avatars promise to preserve our loved ones from beyond the grave. Dr Elaine Storkey, Dr Nathan Mladin and Professor Victoria Haneman discuss the ethical concerns to what some see as compassionate technology and others dismiss as a sinister intrusion into the painful process of bereavement.
Gaza priest Father Carlos Ferrero tells us how the ceasefire is holding and what difficulties his congregation are still facing.The Anglican Church is in the news. In Rome, King Charles becomes the first monarch since Henry VIII to pray with the Pope. Elsewhere the communion faces its biggest challenge as conservative Gafcon Bishops say they will no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury, in effect creating an Alternative Church. Audrey speaks to Madeline Davies from the Church Times.We also discuss the Enhanced Games – where athletes can use whatever they want to improve their performances. Is it actually fairer than mainstream competition? We discuss with broadcaster and former athlete Katie Kirk, Jonathan Pugh senior research fellow at the Uehiro Centre for practical ethics at Oxford University and Emily Ryall senior lecturer in the philosophy of sport at Gloucester university.
The United Nations will be 80 years old next Friday but is it thriving or dying?
Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza.
Dr Mohammed Mughaisib has spent the nearly two years working in hospitals in Gaza, in the midst of bombs, death and destruction. His family fled to Egypt in February of last year- he hasn't seen them since. He himself escaped to Dublin around three weeks ago.
After a UN Commission of Enquiry rules that Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza, where do we go from here?
The 6th century monastery of St. Catherine's and the tourist mega resort on its doorstep
Rev Izzy Hawthorne Steel and Rev Chris Bennett on how they dealt with church arsonists aged 10 and 11 and Carl Stauffer on restorative justice around the world.
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde recalls her sermon before Trump—a plea for mercy in Washington National Cathedral that sparked his outrage the morning after his inauguration.
On the 80th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell's powerful political satire Animal Farm, we hear about the author's motivations and the power of his storytelling from Professor Jean Seaton, director of the Orwell Foundation. Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov is perhaps most famous for his book Death and the Penguin. He lives and works in a war zone. En route from home in Kyiv to Edinburgh Book Festival, he spoke to Audrey Carville about the risks involved in writing political satire. Orwell Prize winner Sally Hayden (My Fourth Time We Drowned) and EU Prize for Literature winner Jan Carson (The Firestarters) discuss whether their writing is political and how books can change the world.
Fr. Carlos Ferrero on the bombing of his church and the starvation of the people of Gaza.
A new technique creates IVF embryos with DNA from three people to stop a genetic disorder
This weekend marks the feast day of Benedict- a 6th century monk who had his own rule, which has survived down the centuries. That rule emphasises moderation, work and prayer.Our journey this morning will begin in the Great Italian Monastery of Monte Cassino as we learn about the man himself and how he shaped monasticism in Western Europe. The Benedictine Order still exists across Europe- and we will hear three tales-first from Father Pere Basile, a monk who glorifies God through making wine at the Papal Vineyard of Pope Clement V in Provence in France.Then to Karol O’Connell, the Mother Superior at Kylemore Abbey in the West of Ireland leading an order of Benedictine Nuns who fled to Ireland after their monastery in Belgium was destroyed in the First World War. We finish our journey with Abbot Mark Ephrem of Holy Cross Monastery in Rostrevor in County Down - the first new Monastery built here for 800 years.
A special programme remembering the London bombings 20 years on. Audrey talks to two men connected by the explosion at Edgeware Road Station.David Gardner was reading the script of a Shakespeare play when the bomb went off. He lost a leg and the hearing in his left ear. 22-year-old David Foulkes was killed on his first work trip to London. He had accidentally boarded the wrong tube. His father Graham talks to Audrey about the enduring loss of his best friend.We also speak to two experts in trauma about the impact such an event can have on the human body and mind, and how people can be taught to deal with such trauma - Jo Dover is a specialist who works with victims of international terrorism and Sara Cook is a conflict response specialist.
Clinton Knight
I would love to see an episode on social contact theory.
Susie Claire PH
Often this podcast seems to be more about religion than ethics.