Research from St Mary’s University’s Centre for the Art of Living and Dying Well played a central role in the national celebration of the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, held at St Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham.
The event, led by Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham and Bishop Patrick McKinney of Nottingham and Lead Catholic Bishop for Interreligious Dialogue, brought together faith leaders and communities from across England and Wales to celebrate six decades of dialogue, reconciliation and cooperation.
Research on End-of-Life Care
The celebration featured a panel discussion titled "Dying to Live," moderated by Associate Professor Maggie Doherty, Lead at the Centre for the Art of Living and Dying Well. The session presented findings from the Centre's new community-based participatory research into ethnically diverse faith perspectives on death literacy and end-of-life care, co-created with participants from the Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian communities, alongside Lancaster University and the Royal Marsden.
Panel members Ruth Jacobs (Jewish community), Shamim Merali (Muslim community), Harr-Joht Kaur (Sikh community), Shobha Sharma (Hindu community), Christina Ronayne (Christian community), and Simon Romer (Buddhist community) shared personal insights into their faith traditions' approaches to dying, death, and bereavement.
Key Findings from the Research
The research has identified essential practices that matter most at the end of life across faith traditions: sacred texts and prayers are vital across all faiths; holy water holds significance at the moment of death for several communities, body placement matters greatly before and after death and post-death practices differ significantly between traditions.
It has also revealed challenges faced by ethnically diverse faith communities in hospital and healthcare settings, including: hospital wards being too noisy for prayers and rituals; insufficient space for families to gather at the bedside of loved ones, long delays in obtaining death certificates, bodies not being released quickly enough for burial, concerns about autopsy when religions discourage it and bodies being handled inappropriately according to religious requirements.
The study has also explored how communities discuss death: Muslim workshops on death are well-attended; Hindu families are discussing organ donation, communities teach members how to wash and prepare bodies - bringing families closer to the process - and death committees pool resources to support grieving families.
Recommendations for Healthcare Settings
The research has put forward key recommendations: inviting community members to teach staff about religious rituals; creating better spaces for families and prayer, speeding up the death certificate and body release process, and inviting healthcare workers to visit places of worship to understand death rituals.
Associate Professor Doherty highlighted: "the core message from our work together is simple: we need dialogue and connection between healthcare and faith communities, education about different practices and enhanced death literacy so that everyone can have these conversations."
Bishop Patrick McKinney praised the research, noting the panel provided "a very rare and very valuable set of insights into how each of the faiths approach dying, death, and the mourning period afterwards," noting both the specific practices unique to each faith and "a very interesting number of similarities between the approaches taken."
He also drew attention to the importance of ongoing religious literacy in hospitals and the National Health Service, and praised the work of hospital chaplains who offer interfaith support during times of crisis.
Connection to Nostra Aetate
Nostra Aetate, first proclaimed by Pope Saint Paul VI on 28 October 1965, was a call to reject prejudice and embrace the universal dignity of every human person as created in the image and likeness of God. It paved the way for a new era of understanding, particularly in Catholic-Jewish relations, and it promoted respect for all religions.
Explaining the connection between end-of-life care and the anniversary celebration, Bishop McKinney quoted from Nostra Aetate: "Men and women expect from the various religions answers to the hidden enigmas of the human condition... What are death, judgment and retribution after death? What finally is that final, unutterable mystery which gathers up our existence from which we take our rise and towards which we move?"
He added: "All of us in our various faiths are preoccupied with approaches to dying and to death. And so it has been so good and so valuable that we take that close look at the research that has been going on."
A Dialogue for Our Times
Archbishop Longley welcomed attendees to "such a wide and diverse group" coming together, sharing that: "our friendship and dialogue with one another continue to bear much fruit through a mutual understanding and appreciation of the gifts that we share and of those truths we hold in common."
Bishop McKinney emphasised the continuing relevance of the declaration: "In a world scarred by religious extremism, cultural polarisation and conflicts often fuelled by misunderstanding, this dialogue is a moral imperative. As we would all recognise, it requires humility, openness, and a commitment to active listening so as to ensure that differences enrich the dialogue rather than divide."
The celebration, held within the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year with its emphasis on hope, provided the Catholic Church in England and Wales with an opportunity to express gratitude to colleagues from other religions for the warmth of the interreligious dialogue and the close working relationships that have been built up over those years.
Interfaith Reflections
The celebration continued with Sung Vespers, the Evening Prayer of the Church, which included reflections from representatives of different faiths exploring shared values:
Hindu Reflection on compassion (daya) and non-violence (ahimsa): "Compassion, or daya in Sanskrit, means to understand the suffering of others and to have a heartfelt feeling to help them. Compassion is an essential element of the principle of ahimsa or causing no harm to others in thought, word or deed."
Sikh Verses from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib: "All faiths proclaim the very same message: That when we disconnect from Naam, the Divine Name - From the infinite energy and wisdom God's true, eternal presence - Everything in life becomes fake and shallow."
Muslim Reflection by Imam Mohammad Asad MBE of Birmingham Central Mosque: "We have more in common than what is known to most. We acquire lessons from the same Prophets that are mentioned in our holy books, believe in the same one God, the divine source of the holy scriptures, the Angels, including Archangel Gabriel."
Christian Reflection by The Rt Rev'd Dr Michael Volland, Bishop of Birmingham: "When asked, 'who is my neighbour?' Jesus spoke of a man who went out of his way and used his own resources to assist an enemy in need and distress. Jesus' famous parable of the Good Samaritan taught us that a true neighbour is the one who shows mercy."
Jewish Reflection by Yvonne Stollard: "Hope is a very Jewish value. It is embedded in our Torah, our Talmud, our culture, and our traditions, from the Exodus story where the hope is to build a world free of oppression, to our messianic hopes that keep us committed to the task of repairing the world even in times of despair."
Buddhist teaching from the Dhammapada: "Hatred is, indeed, never appeased by hatred in this world. It is appeased only by loving-kindness. This is an ancient law."
Hope and Commitment
Bishop McKinney reflected: "This 60th anniversary is celebrated within the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year with its emphasis on hope. Over the past sixty years interreligious dialogue has shown itself to be a powerful means of healing wounds, preventing conflict and building bridges of harmony in a fragmented world."
The celebration concluded with the Universal Peace Proclamation, spoken together by all present: "Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth. Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace. Let peace fill our heart, our world, our universe."
The event took place in St Chad's Cathedral, the first Catholic Cathedral erected in Great Britain in 1841 following the Reformation of the 16th Century, designed by the great Gothic Revivalist Augustus Welby Pugin. Canon Brian McGinley, the Cathedral Dean, welcomed all to the celebration. Choirs from English Martyrs' Catholic School and St Paul's Catholic School participated in the event.