Goodbye Ernie Rea and Thank You!

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Can it really be 20 years? Or even 21, as the man himself said?

The man in question is Ernie Rea, who today signed off as presenter from the Radio 4 programme Beyond Belief for the last time.

Launched in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist atrocity - with its association with Islamism and President George W Bush's subsequent call for a 'crusade' - the aim of Beyond Belief has been to explore the way faith motivates people and events for good and ill.

Launched in January 2002, the first programme examined Martyrdom. The 500th edition explored Poetry, the Language of Religion, with Catholic poet Michael Symmons Roberts, one of the guests at the Contains Strong Language Poetry Festival in Coventry, City of Culture, 2021.

Throughout all this time, the mission of Rea and his team has been to increase our understanding of religion and the many religions across the world. 'A banquet of rich food' indeed and one which helps us better understand culture and society.

Today's valedictory edition was titled 'Two Decades of Change' and was clearly about taking stock. Dialogue has been at the heart of the programme and today's guests were an Anglican bishop, a Muslim, a Sikh and a 'humanist'. Rea was, as ever, courteous and inquiring, not shying away from the hard facts and questions: why is religious practice plummeting in the UK? Is religious literacy improving or is ignorance more entrenched?

It was a shame there was no Catholic voice on Rea's swansong but in truth, Rea, who is also a Presbyterian minister, has always been scrupulous in seeking out fair representation. Catholic subjects have, moreover, been given generous consideration. Examples include Ignatian Spirituality and the College of Cardinals. Professor Tina Beattie was on hand to discuss the Virgin Mary, while, in an episode on Boxing, we learned about a book entitled: Rosaries and Rope Burns: Boxing and Manhood in American Catholicism. Benjamin Britten preferred the singing of Vespers at Westminster Cathedral over Anglican choral evensong we learned in an exploration of Britten's Ceremony of Carols (itself inspired by medieval devotional music).

Beyond Belief has been an indispensable guide for better understanding our world and its plurality of cultures through a religious prism.

If literature's your bag, you can investigate The Handmaid's Tale, Harry Potter, Jane Eyre and Dante's Inferno. Or perhaps you might like to consider Beethoven and faith, or Religion and Soap Opera.

Discover if the Devil does get all the best tunes in an episode on Satan. Learn about the divine feminine force within Hinduism; about vodoo, and African spirituality. Explore ritual; strictures around feminine 'modesty'; and autism and faith.

The recent Atoning for Slavery was an excellent edition exploring the reparation movement and Anglicanism's imperialist collusion with the slave trade. It discussed the promulgation of a 'Slave's Bible' which removed passages which denounced or referred to the iniquities of slavery and which might encourage uprisings.

Further recent editions on Iran, the Uyghurs and Putin's Religious War have all been crucial listening for those seeking to understand essential dynamics within these stories of woe and suffering.

The programme will continue but, without the softly spoken, always polite, always incisive Rea, former head of Religious Broadcasting at the BBC, can it ever be quite as good?

Farewell Ernie Rea and thank you. I will miss you and your sage, benevolent presence.

Visit the Beyond Belief Radio 4 website to discover a world of fascination and edification, suffering and beauty, grim reality and noble idealism.

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Beyond Belief downloads: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s6p6/episodes/downloads