大象传媒

In the second of this year's Lent Talks, author Alexander McCall Smith considers how you can feel abandoned by society, as you grow older.

The Lent Talks feature six well known figures from public life, the arts, human rights and religion, who reflect on how the Lenten story of Jesus' ministry and Passion continues to interact with contemporary society and culture. The 2013 Lent Talks consider the theme of "abandonment". In the Lenten story, Jesus is the supreme example of this - he died an outcast, abandoned and rejected by his people, his disciples and (apparently) his Father - God. But how does that theme tie in with today's complex world? There are many ways one can feel abandoned - by family, by society, by war/conflict, but one can also feel abandoned through the loss of something, perhaps power, job or identity. The Christian season of Lent is traditionally a time for self-examination and reflection on universal human conditions such as temptation, betrayal, greed, forgiveness and love, as well as abandonment.

Speakers in this year's talks include Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC, who considers what it means to abandon being human; Loretta Minghella, Director of Christian Aid, who considers the abandonment of self and the need to face who we truly are; Imam Asim Hafiz, Muslim Chaplain and Religious Adviser to HM Forces, who has just returned from Afghanistan and who explores the total abandonment experienced by both sides as a result of war; Benjamin Cohen, journalist and broadcaster, who reflects on his own personal story of religious rejection through being gay, and Canon Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James's Piccadilly, who explores the relationship between abandonment and betrayal.