Rabbi Neuberger to deliver 2011 Tyburn Lecture

Baroness Julia Neuberger

Highly topical issues surrounding the end of human life will be confronted by Baroness Julia Neuberger when she delivers the 11th Tyburn Lecture at Tyburn Convent, Hyde Park Place, London, on 23 June 2011.

Rabbi Neuberger will address issues around preparing to die well, choosing where to die and who is to be present, deciding when one wants no further treatment, saying a proper goodbye, and leaving an ethical will. She will also look at issues around how we support people who are grieving, and ask whether our religious rituals are sufficiently supportive for people who are grieving, or whether we could, and should, do more.

The Tyburn Lecture was inaugurated by the Tyburn Nuns more than a decade ago to aid informed debate across a wide range of topics of national interest. Baroness Neuberger, a Liberal Democrat life peer, will be the first Jewish religious leader to deliver the esteemed lecture at the world famous convent.

The first Tyburn Lecture was delivered by Charles Moore when he was the editor of The Daily Telegraph. Speakers have since included Gyles Brandreth, the author and broadcaster; Cherie Booth QC; George Weigel, a biographer of Blessed Pope John Paul II and a leading Catholic commentator; Lord Patten of Barnes; Professor Chris Woodhead, the former Chief Inspector of Schools; Peter Sutherland, the chairman of BP; General Sir Michael Jackson, the former head of the British Army, and Niall FitzGerald, the deputy chairman of Thomson Reuters.

Mother Xavier McMonagle, the Mother General at Tyburn Convent, said: “We believe that the Tyburn Lecture 2011 will certainly offer a refreshingly vigorous input as well as timely challenges to us all as this is the first time we have invited a Jewish rabbi – Baroness Julia Neuberger. We are confident that from her vast experience from within the Jewish community as well as from her dedicated involvement in social and charitable spheres of public life she will stimulate our consciences to make a fresh appraisal of pressing public issues of freedom, justice and sheer humanity. We are honoured to have Baroness Neuberger as our speaker in 2011.”

Baroness Neuberger said: “Dying well, and leaving a legacy. We know a great deal about how some faiths help people to face their own mortality, and how others help people to grieve in a structured way. What can different faiths learn from each other about dying well, grieving well, and leaving a legacy in spiritual, moral and intellectual terms?”

  Admission is free. The evening begins at 6.30pm.