Angels, Churches and Omicron and Dorothy Day

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 largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in western Europe and they are objecting to a planning application asking for six military grade training grounds to be built on surrounding land. Amina Ahmed talks to us about her husband, Mubarak Bala, President of the Humanist Association in Nigeria and a human rights activist. He was arrested last year in Northern Nigeria and accused of blasphemy but, after 19 months in detention, he is still awaiting trial. A centuries old way of life for Gypsies and Travellers is under threat of being criminalised under proposals in the Government's Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill currently making its way through Parliament. Dorothy Day the campaigning journalist, socialistl activist and advocate for the poor moved one step closer to Sainthood this month as the diocese of New York sent evidence of her good works off to the Vatican. We explore who she was and why, in life, she hated being described as a saint. And do you believe in Angels? They’ve become a symbol of hope during the past year and perhaps we all need one in our corner right now. This week Sunday asks what angels look like. Do they resemble us? Or is the Biblical representation of angels something entirely different?