Episode 3 Class Clips

I'm Peter Owen Jones, I'm a vicar from the Church of England

and I've taken a year off from my parishes to see for myself

the richness of faith across six continents.

I'm going to witness rituals never seen before, making people's journeys from birth to death.

I'm going to encounter strange and beautiful faiths,

expressing people's deepest hopes and fears.

How can you say such things?

My biggest hope is to understand humanity's timeless fascination with the divine.

Am I dreaming?

Excuse me ma'am,

we're doing a quick survey to see how people feel

religion impacts their city.

Here in the Bible Belt, if feels that religion is in the blood,

and that's because faith has been shaped by great historical waves

of Evangelical fervour and mass conversion.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will inherit eternal life.

Give me five.

There have been four of these so-called "awakenings"

in the last three hundred years,

and I'm in America just as reports announce that another is unfolding.

God apparently is pouring out His spirit here.

People are being healed, there's miracles taking place.

It's even being said that people are being raised from the dead.

What's happening is that this is the heart and soul of a revival.

I've journeyed further south through the Bible Belt to Lakeland

to witness a phenomenon called The Florida Outpouring.

SINGING

Revivals are fuelled by the belief that

the supernatural is breaking into the world.

Followers believe that the Holy Spirit gives the gift of tongues,

a divine language spoken by the first disciples at Pentecost.

People pray in many different ways.

In this church, people believe that the Holy Spirit is taking them over.

What's happening now is that everyone is beginning to pray.

Some people are praying in tongues.

What I'm impressed with is that people seem to be prepared to let go.

Just feel that tonight.

Here we go.

You really want that lightning?

You really want that lightning of God tonight?

You want that fire of God?

Tonight's preacher, Evangelist Frank Seamster,

has a reputation for "slaying people in the spirit",

a dramatic act of renewal

where followers believe they are physically touched by God.

If you want a fresh touch by God, I want you to come up right now.

I want to lay hands on you.

I want to pray for you. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!

Frank, the preacher, claims he can channel God's power

to perform miraculous healings.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

Oh! Oh, Jesus, Jesus!

In the name of Jesus, fire!

I hear somebody that's having problems with your prostrate.

I'm telling you now right now, God...

God wants to release a miracle right now.

Right now, if you just come up.

There you are. In the name of Jesus.

The FIRE of God now!

Burn it off!

Oh, oh, oh! Oh!

Although we didn't witness any miracles, many people claim to have been cured of Frank's services.

How does what Frank claims to do

relate to stories about Jesus in the Bible?

I know we will have those preachers who will say, "Well, God is love."

Revivalism is all about preaching. Frank's vision for American faith is uncompromising.

He boils the Bible down to its essentials - Heaven or Hell, saved or damned.

Here in Jerusalem there are so many different ways to God,

every single different religion believes it has the Holy Grail.

For Christians this is a big day in Jerusalem, Good Friday.

The day Jesus was sentenced to death.

I want to understand how Christians interpret their historical connection with this place.

Thousands of pilgrims have arrived from all over the world to recreate

the journey Jesus made to be crucified on Golgotha.

Many Christians feel they can know God better by travelling

to the places where the stories in the Bible are believed to have happened.

For this family from the Philippines, Christianity's roots in Jerusalem remain vital.

It's knowing him better.

If you've been to the place where he's been, he's died, he was born, everything that

surrounds his life, to be there exactly, physically be there, is really very important.

I think it's like for the Muslim,

for them, at least once in their life, they have to go to Mecca.

For us also, as Christians, I think we have to visit the Holy Land at least once.

For some pilgrims, it's important to get the right props to get the full idea of what Christ went through.

This is really a sort of... miniature version.

It's not that heavy.

It's not heavy enough actually.

To many of the people taking part, these are serious rituals.

-I just wondered what part you are playing today?

-I'm playing the apostle John.

-The apostle John?

-Yes.

-Hello, I'm John

-I thought he was John?

No, that's my name.

-I'm playing Simon of Cyrene.

-Simon of Cyrene.

I'm just wondering where you got the nails from...

Believe it or not, a hardware store in California.

I've been confused about the invitation to follow Christ.

Is it moral, spiritual or physical, or all three,

do we find the spiritual by taking the physical path?

Make way for the Nazarene!

Move it! Move it!

But there's something compelling about the experience.

I think it might really have been like this, a total, chaotic total scrum.

The pilgrimage ends at the Church Of The Holy Sepulchre,

which is supposed to be built on the very spot where Christ was crucified and laid to rest in a tomb.

THEY SING A HYMN

Thousands of pilgrims from all over the world come here to kiss the spot

where the cross stood and to reflect on Christ's suffering.

To actually take the route on the day that he was crucified

involves you in that narrative, it involves you in that story,

so it's a powerful experience if you let yourself into it...

You'd be pretty hard hearted if it didn't touch you in some way.

'Christianity arrived in Ethiopia in the fourth century.

'I'm heading to a place where one of the oldest forms of Christianity in existence is practised.

'To see how such a long and difficult history has shaped

'the beliefs and practices of today's Ethiopian Christians.'

Somewhere up there is a rock-hewn Ethiopian Coptic church.

Let's get out there!

'The Church of Mikael Imba was built on the top of this rocky outcrop

'over 1,000 years ago.

It's been in continual use ever since.

'The celebration is for the annual feast of St Michael,

'the patron saint of the church.

'One early arrival has come to be healed

'in a tank of holy water hewn out of the rock.'

BELL RINGS

'The festival begins with a prayer service for the priests.

'The head priest, Father Hailom,

'invites me to join them in the church.

'The roof of the church is at ground level.

'The whole building is hewn out of the living rock of the mountain.

'Father Hailom is understandably proud as he shows me round.

THEY CHANT

HE CHANTS

'The chant is in the archaic Ethiopian language of Ge'ez,

'and the rhythms date back to the sixth century.

'Fortunately, one of the young deacons does his best to teach me.

'Ethiopia has suffered many famines over the years.

'In the 1980s, over a million people died

'in one of the worst famines the world has ever seen.'

'As we pray, much-needed rain begins to fall.

'I know it's something they've been praying for,

'but I'm wondering how Father Hailom keeps his faith

'in such a harsh environment.'

What people have experienced here over the last 30 years,

I would assume would have tested someone's faith to the absolute limit.

'As the congregation gathers from the surrounding farms and villages,

'Father Hailom and the deacon invite me to join them for bread and beer brewed from honey.

'It's the one time of the year when drinking is approved,

'as long as you don't get drunk.

'The church beer is strictly rationed.'

'The meal is an important part of the festival,

'especially as people are going to be up all night praying.'

THEY CHANT AND DRUM

'Hundreds of villagers crowd into the church,

'much as they have done for over 1,000 years.'

'As the sun comes up, the priests lead out of the church.

'By now they've been praying for 18 hours.

'Father Hailom ushers me to a place of honour near the front.

'A 10th-century cross, sacred manuscripts,

'and a painted icon belonging to the church

'are brought out to bless the congregation.

'This is the only day in the year when anyone can see these objects.

'Their age gives them great power.'

THEY CHANT

'By African standards, Christianity is quite a new religion,

'but among the villagers worshipping on the hilltop,

'I feel as close to glimpsing man's earliest connection with the divine

'as I have felt anywhere on my journey.'

HE CHANTS IN GE'EZ LANGUAGE

'For this community, a love of God is at the very heart of their identity.

'In these merciless conditions,

'their faith is what breathes life into their existence.'

What an extraordinary answer. Extraordinary.

Salaam, salaam, salaam.

'For people to share what little food they have with you

'is an inspiring and a humbling experience.

Thank you.

'The sacred relics are packed away and it's time for me to leave.'

Salaam, salaam.

'South Africa used to be controlled by a white minority

'who followed Calvinism -

'a branch of Christianity that taught them they were chosen by God.

'Now they no longer rule the country for themselves,

'I want to ask what future their God has in store for them.'

'I'm visiting an Afrikaner family near the Groot Marico River.

Like all Christians, Calvinists believe that Jesus will one day return to Earth,

'though not all Christians agree about when he might come.

'I want to find out why these people think his return will be very soon.

'Every week, the family gather with their neighbours

'for a prayer service.'

You're welcome to sing in Afrikaans also!

I'll try, I'll try, I'll give it a go.

Let's trust him to help us in these days.

The last days before the Lord Jesus comes.

# What a friend we have in Jesus... #

'For over three centuries, the Afrikaners have held on to their Calvinist beliefs.

'Their European hymns, prayers and way of life.'

# ..In His arms He'll take and shield thee

# Thou wilt find a solace there. #

How much of being Afrikaans is about having a strong Christian faith?

Look, our history takes us back as being also a Christian nation,

as you would find with the Americas or other nations that have their roots, similar roots like that.

But I think with us, we have been for many years because of our views on apartheid,

which we trace to the biblical sense of meaning Holy,

because that is, the Hebrew word of Holy, actually,

you can tie that to apartheid or being set aside.

We still believe that God's hand has placed us here

to spread the gospel to different peoples and different countries in Africa.

I get the feeling that there's quite a lot of expectation

in this room that Christ is... Christ is coming, that...

Christ is King and we expect the Second Coming.

That is... We are all very convinced about that.

Because the Bible says when crime is on the increase, and rumours of wars,

we can expect his soon return.

May I ask how many people in this room expect Christ to come soon?

-All of us.

-2020.

-2020?

-By 2020,

it's all gone.

-By 2020?

-2020.

What will the world be like with the return of Christ?

-We have to wait and see.

-Sodom and Gomorrah.

Earthquakes.

Water, which is...

Droughts. ..droughts...

famine.

Illnesses. Where's HIV coming from?

Well, what a conversation.

I wasn't expecting that!

I can understand with the end of apartheid,

with the end of a way of life that had existed essentially for centuries,

that that could be interpreted as...

..really the beginning of the end.

Looking at Biblical passages, but I wasn't expecting everyone in the room to stick up their hands.

It must be quite a strange position to be in mentally,

because the world is coming to an end as they know it.

'The Philippines was named after the great Spanish Catholic king Philip II

'in the 16th century, and remained a Spanish colony for over 300 years.

'Today, 80% of Filipinos are Catholic.

'I'm going to two of the biggest Filipino Catholic festivals.

'The first is in the farming town of Pulilan.'

MUSICIANS PLAY

This is where everyone is going to celebrate the

culmination of a nine-day festival, nine days of prayers.

And the people of Pulilan and the surrounding villages are

just pouring into this town to celebrate their harvest festival

and to honour the patron saint of farming, San Isidro.

Really very different from the harvest festivals that I'm used to!

'In the UK, a church harvest festival parade might be a pretty small event,

'but here, religion is such an important part of life

'that it seems everyone is here on the streets

'joining in to celebrate the harvest.'

This is absolutely crazy!

What astonishes me is that the church organised this.

This is a church festival, but done with 100,000 people.

How great is that?!

'With barely time to draw breath, I'm on to the next festival,

'a few kilometres away in the fishing village of Obando.

'This is a fertility festival.

'The tradition is that if you want to have a baby

'or find a husband or wife, you join the parade and ask the Catholic saints

'to help you out.'

Well, really I'm a little confused here.

I thought that the women who were going to be dancing were those that actually wanted to have children,

but most of them were of pensionable age, let's say.

Are you dancing for fertility?

You believe it was the dance that helped you fall pregnant?

Are you in the parade because you want to have a wife?

-Yes.

-You haven't met anyone yet?

Not yet. Maybe later, in the church.

Are you allowed to find a girlfriend in church?

-Yes. After the parade, it will be ended at the church.

-Yes.

-The band will play at the altar and all the folks and people will dance inside the church.

-Great.

'The parade wasn't quite what I expected,

'but I have been told that the church service is worth checking out.'

'To the biggest cheers of the afternoon, the priest introduces some of the little success stories.'

'What's happened here

'is that the Roman Catholic church has absorbed ancient local festivals

'and over the years, they have become Christian.

'The way Christians celebrated Christmas in the UK came about in a very similar way.'

I have come to Jerusalem

because I want to find out more about Judaism,

one of the world's oldest monotheistic faiths.

I want to try and understand why it is that followers of Judaism

believe that God gave the land that we know as Israel exclusively to them.

I'm praying for peace at last in this beautiful land.

The tradition is that you write the prayer, you fold it up tightly and then you stick it in the wall.

The Western Wall, or Wailing Wall, is all that remains of the Jews'

Second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans.

The Bronze Age tribe of the Israelites was one of the first tribes on earth to replace a belief

in many pagan gods, with a belief in one God.

Their religion became known as Judaism and this is the site of the temple where they believe God dwelt.

Judaism's long history is rooted in this land.

Tonight, at Jerusalem's main Synagogue, Jews are celebrating

one aspect of that history in a festival called Purim.

Purim commemorates the time when the Jewish people living in Persia

were saved from extermination by the courage of a young Jewish woman called Esther.

Following the Jews' escape, 75,000 Persians were massacred in retaliation.

The Rabbi reads an account of these events from the Book Of Esther.

The congregation dress up as characters in the story

and make a noise whenever the name of their enemy, Haman, is read out.

It's meant to be a rowdy and entertaining occasion.

They're celebrating their survival as a people.

You all come here, you bring rattles and crackers and whistles

to drown out the name of a man who wanted to kill them all.

The celebration of their survival continues in the hall next door.

It's about maintaining the narrative of faith,

maintaining the narrative of a religion, and all religions have it.

It was genocide that Haman was planning to perpetrate against the Jewish people.

Here in Jerusalem 3,000 years later, the celebration seems all the more potent because Israelis still feel

themselves threatened by their neighbours.

The Purim celebration continues throughout Jerusalem over the next three days.

The final part of the Purim celebration takes place in an Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva.

For the rest of the year this is a place of serious and sober religious scholarship.

But for one night only it's given over to festivity.

This is about deliverance, the Jewish people being delivered from their enemy at the time.

It's celebrating the safe passage to the present moment.

Here we are in this room, we're together, we've survived.

To a certain degree, yes, it's a show of joy.

But it's also a show of strength.

My experience of Purim has shown me the strength of these people's

connection with their history and with this land.

I'm keen to discover what the origins of that connection are.

Here in the Middle East, religious beliefs are impossible to separate from political realities.

To understand the politics means looking at the origins of those beliefs,

and the history of the conflict.

When most of the Jewish people were exiled from Palestine 2,000 years ago,

they became scattered around the world.

In the 19th century, the idea of a homeland for the Jewish people started to spread.

Eventually the state of Israel was formed in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Jews have been coming to live in Israel ever since.

I've come to visit a settlement called Efrat built on Palestinian land occupied by Israelis.

HE SPEAKS HEBREW Pleasure to meet you.

'The leader of the community, Rabbi Riskin, came here from Brooklyn.'

This whole area has been a no-man's-land for 2,000 years,

since we were here at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple.

The Bible is very specific. It's Genesis, chapter 15.

"And God entered into a covenant with Abraham,

"and God said to Abraham, 'Your children will be an eternal people.

"'And they will have an eternal relationship with this land.'"

Now likewise, the Bible does not in any way justify

our pushing people who are innocent people off the land.

What the Bible does say is, however, we have a right to be here.

Well, thank you.

It's been a pleasure.

The belief that this story, written over 2,000 years ago, gives all Jews a right to come and live

on this land is disputed,

particularly by Palestinians who lost their homes when Israel was founded.

The belief that a story written down over 2,000 years ago

gives all Jews a right to come and live in the Holy Land

has caused much conflict between Jewish and Palestinian peoples.

But why are people prepared to kill themselves and others in the name of religion?

I want to try and understand what drives someone to become a suicide bomber.

OK, this is Jerusalem. We'll be driving south to Dheisheh Refugee Camp.

I set off to a refugee camp called Dheisheh, where Palestinians

who were forced out of their homes have been living for over 60 years.

We're just coming up to an Israeli checkpoint.

Just be generally well behaved.

We arrive in the refugee camp of Dheisheh.

At the main mosque, I meet Samir.

Samir's a Sunni Muslim.

On Fridays he brings two of his grandsons to the mosque to pray.

The mosque is a focal point for the community.

Muslims believe in the same Old Testament God as their Jewish and Christian neighbours.

They regard their prophet Muhammad not as the founder of a new religion,

but as the restorer of the original faith of Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

Many Muslims also believe Muhammad himself ascended into heaven from

Jerusalem and that's one element of their territorial claim to the city.

I want to ask Samir about his views on the conflict.

From his house you can see the Jewish settlement of Efrat up on the hill.

Is this a conflict about religion or is it about land?

Samir has lived in this refugee camp all his life and has brought up his family here.

In 2002, Samir's 18-year-old daughter, Ayat, detonated a bomb in an Israeli supermarket.

She killed two Israelis and injured 28 more.

She became the youngest ever female Palestinian suicide bomber.

I'm struggling to understand, was that

as an act of radical Islam?

Or was that to say,

"We are landless, we are rootless"?

All the Israelis have told me, "Look, ours is a God of love."

And you have explained that yours is a God of love.

Can we not begin talking on that basis?

One of the victims of Ayat's bomb was a teenage Israeli girl.

We're on a typical Moscow street, in the middle of January,

and there's a Hare Krishna procession coming towards us.

Hare Krishna is a branch of Hinduism.

Devotees believe that chanting the Hare Krishna mantra brings about a higher state of consciousness.

I haven't quite got the walk, it's sort of...

They believe they have a duty to spread their message across the world.

Is it possible to be spiritual and noisy at the same time?

So much more movement, so much more open-heartedness

than the stiffness of Russian Orthodoxy. What do you think?

You can look at it and you can say, um...

no meat,

no gambling,

no intoxicants, no alcohol, no caffeine, no nicotine,

no sex at all unless you're married and you want to have children.

And on the surface of that, that seems like a pretty dour, dowdy religion

but to be in the midst of it doesn't seem like that at all, doesn't feel like that at all either.

Hare Krishna!

Religion has been making the most remarkable comeback here in Russia.

1,000 faiths imported by missionaries from all over the world.

All struggling to gain the heart and the soul of new Russia.

What has become of the atheist ideals of Communism in the motherland?

Moscow is not only the capital of Russia, it is also home to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Before the Bolshevik revolution in 1917,

the Russian Orthodox Church had 80,000 places of worship

and 100 million adherents.

But then the Soviet Union became the first state officially to purge religion.

Believers were persecuted, atheism was taught in schools

and churches were confiscated.

And yet today, the Church is thriving.

This is St Saviours, the biggest Orthodox cathedral in the world.

But it isn't the original. That was blown up by the Communists in 1931.

This exact replacement was only finished in 2001.

This is really a statement about the power of the idea of eternity

and the power of the idea of everlasting life

and the power of the idea of the victory of goodness over evil.

These are powerful ideas and this creation speaks

about the victory of those ideas over, really, atheism.

CHOIR SINGS

To come in out of the cold, grey mist of Moscow

in to here...

Not only is it warm but it is sensuous, sensual, full of colour.

And if this was happening underground

while the Communist regime was in power,

no wonder it survived here.

SINGING

The churches across Moscow are packed today

because of the feast of Epiphany, commemorating the baptism of Christ

and today, holy water is the big theme.

Soon the priests are throwing it around.

To be drenched is to be blessed.

We all were blessed by the water. Wonderful chaos.

Hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Christians across Russia

are queuing for bottles of holy water to take home with them.

They believe that it can cure all manner of ills.

Water is a purifying agent.

If you can sense that the Christian tradition, the Jewish tradition,

the Islamic tradition, have all emerged out of the desert essentially,

and therefore water is seen as an agent of life, an agent of purity.

So that is why, within the Christian tradition, we have Baptism,

and why water is regarded as a rejuvenator, a healer.

But not everybody in Moscow is celebrating Christ's baptism.

The spirit of the Bolshevik Revolution is still alive amongst some of its grandchildren.

I meet Alexander Novikov on the street outside the rebuilt cathedral.

Alexander's belief system is that there is no God.

He's an atheist. I am keen to hear what he makes of the religious revival, so I buy him a coffee.

Spasibo.

It's quite cold today, I would say -10, -13.

RUSSIAN IN TRANSLATION:

Communism sponsored atheism as the official creed of Communism.

We have been in three churches this morning - they're packed.

What's happening, what's going on?

But all movements, including atheism, have their own leaders.

Alexander told me about an atheist debating society meeting that evening.

'I was keen to know more about what contemporary atheism had to offer.'

I think this must be it.

'I wasn't expecting the grinding boredom that was to follow.'

RUSSIAN IN TRANSLATION:

To see the great idea of atheism and humanism

reduced to an upstairs room full of, what... 12, 15 old men?

I'm sure during the height of Communism they thought,

"This will last for ever, atheism will be here for ever and ever."

Ask someone in 1965 whether in 50 years' time

all the churches would be reopening in Moscow, they would have laughed,

they would have laughed at you.

The Buddhists...

perhaps have the answer, you know, "believe in permanence at your peril".

The tide of atheism may have receded here in Russia,

but I do know there are hundreds of millions of people worldwide who believe there is no God.

I'm travelling east to the town of Nanded to find out more

about a religion that is only 300 years old and yet has expanded

worldwide.

This faith has its roots in the big Muslim areas

of central and western India when three to four centuries ago,

many Indians were caught between a resurgent Islam

of the Mughal emperors

and a Hindu caste system they felt badly needed reforming.

The Sikh faith was begun by a man named Guru Nanak

and then developed by nine further gurus

during a period of time when people were often at war

and had to fight to defend their beliefs.

Since then, Sikhism has grown into the fifth biggest world religion.

Nanded is host to a massive festival.

The town is already packed with pilgrims.

In fact, whole villages have arrived by lorry from the Punjab,

the main centre for the Sikh faith.

Where have you come from?

IN TRANSLATION:

How long did it take?

Four days?

All the way on top?

HE BLOWS HORN

They've come to visit

one of the most important Sikh temples in India.

It's where exactly 300 years ago,

the tenth and last Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, was assassinated,

fighting to establish his new religion.

Everyone is here to pay their respects to his creation,

the Guru Granth Sahib -

the Sikh scriptures, which are being read continuously.

Sikhs are gathering from all over the world,

from London, from Toronto.

Before he died, Guru Gobind Singh decreed all spiritual authority

be invested in this book containing the writings of Guru Nanak

and some of the other gurus,

as well as extracts from Hindu and Muslim texts.

So the book became the Guru and the Guru became the book.

But, more astonishingly,

the pilgrims seemed to be giving equal reverence

to a room full of military hardware,

overseen by an image of the Guru himself.

I mean, you guys...

There's a lot of weaponry here.

-A lot of fierceness.

-It was needed at the time.

-It was?

-It was needed at the time.

-Why? There was fighting, conversions.

Islam wanted to kill all the Sikhs,

so we needed to defend the Granth Sahib

but we were not cruel defenders.

I asked myself what was so new about Sikhism 300 years ago

that made it worth fighting for.

Sikhism retained the same ideas of reincarnation and karma

to be found in Hinduism but had a single scriptural book, as in Islam.

One god? Just the one source of the divine.

-That's right, God is one.

-God is one.

Not like the Hindu pantheon.

No. He's the creator.

I love this idea within Sikhism that there's no caste,

we are all men, we are all women, we are all human beings,

-we are all equal.

-This is the words of our greatest guru.

He doesn't believe in caste.

I want to understand more about how Sikhs demonstrate

their devotion to God, so I head down to the river

to meet a group of Sikh holy men

who call themselves Nihangs.

They have devoted themselves to the armed service of the religion.

They spend much of their lives on the road

with their elephants and horses.

The Nihangs also run a langar, a vast canteen for the pilgrims.

For the next 40 days,

they have pledged to feed, without charge,

anyone who comes regardless of religion or caste.

This is an important feature of Sikhism worldwide

and follows the teaching of Guru Nanak.

All gurdwaras serve food, prepared and blessed as an offering.

This great act of giving is known as a prasad.

Quite literally a blessing.

And it is the blessing on those who give

and it is the blessing on those who receive.

In everything you do, in washing up,

in turning rotors, you are to think of God. All the time.

OK.

We have just landed at Addis Ababa.

Local time is ten minutes to eleven o'clock.

Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia

was once home to its last emperor, Haile Selassie,

who was also known as the Conquering Lion of Judah.

When he came to the throne in 1930,

he became the messiah for a whole new religion

that originated in Jamaica.

Before he became Emperor,

Haile Selassie was called Ras Tafari,

hence the name Rastafari.

About four hours' drive south of Addis, there's a patch of land

set aside by Haile Selassie

for Rastafarians who want to live in Ethiopia.

"Welcome home to Ethiopia." Rastafari!

We're about to begin our little service, you know.

In reverence, this time and give thanks to the Most High and Praised Selassie I...

-Hey aye!

-Selassie!

-Hey aye!

Selassie!

Rastafari started among the descendants of slaves

who believed they should repatriate to Africa.

Today, about 300 Rastas live here.

CLAPPING First king of iration, he's the alpha and the omega.

Beginning without an end, the first and forever.

HE SINGS, DRUMBEAT

THEY ALL SING

They believe they're one of the lost tribes of Israel

and that Ethiopia is their promised land.

To Rastas, Haile Selassie's coronation

fulfils the Biblical prophesy

that kings will come out of Africa.

To them, Haile Selassie

was actually the second coming of Christ.

By returning to Africa,

followers can put the horror of the slave trade behind them

and find peace and redemption.

Jah! Ras Tafari!

-Me...Bongo Rocky.

-Peter.

-OK?

-Yeah.

You ever hear about heaven? A man gone a heaven.

Me is like a man in heaven.

I'm a redeemed man out of captivity, OK?

450 years under colonial yoke. 450 years.

The greatest crime done to humanity is the slave trade,

and His Majesty is the man who come redeem us out of slavery and colonialism.

That's why we no say that Christ in the Second Advent. Christ come again!

-Christ is resurrected?

-Yes, yes, and we are living in the resurrection

and Christ is gonna bring judgment.

-Christ comes to judge Earth.

-How soon will this judgment be?

It is right now. the judgment is right now.

You are living in the judgment time.

Things are happening round about, you do not realise is judgment.

The wrath of God is pouring now on the world because of this wickedness

to humanity.

Brazil's futuristic capital is a global centre

for new age and esoteric faiths.

Here in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil,

there is a 21-metre high pyramid called the Temple of Goodwill.

People of all faiths and none are welcome

to use this sacred space.

I think I've got to take my shoes off.

Bare feet.

You walk into the centre of the spiral, along the black spiral.

At the top of the spire here, there is a big crystal

so when you get to the centre of the circle

you are bathed within the energy of the crystal.

You leave all your bad energy, your bad karma, there.

You are cleansed of it. And then you walk out along the white spiral.

I think that's what's going on.

'Everyone can come here - Christian, Buddhist, Muslim -

'and have their own experience.

'This is almost the end of an autocratic priesthood telling me what to believe in.

'It's inviting me to search my own soul,

'and then come back with the answers, but they are my answers.

'Those who belong to old religions, and I belong to a relatively old religion,'

have always criticised new religions.

Um, but my religion was a new religion at some point.

All religions were new religions at some point.

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