This Sunday (19 July) at 08.10 hrs the BBC Radio 4’s flagship Christian worship programme, Sunday Worship, will be presented by Fr Michael Hall, Parish Priest at St Joseph’s Brighouse and St Patrick’s, Elland, and who also celebrates Mass in the Extraordinary Form at St Joseph’s, Bradford. The preacher will be Fr Henry Longbottom (ordained yesterday!) who is at present ministering in the East Leeds Parish of St John Henry Newman.
The programme features the presenters’ own moving and personal reflections, illustrated with well-known hymns and choral music on CD from the Choirs of Leeds Cathedral. It will examine Catholics’ relationship with the Holy Scriptures: the subject of the Year of the Word (‘The God Who Speaks’) initiative jointly being promoted by the Catholic Church across England and Wales and Bible Society, for which Fr Henry is the Co-ordinator for our Diocese.
One of our online events for the Year of the Word is St Matthew’s Gospel Unlocked with Voices from Across the Diocese of Leeds – now available as a podcast – featuring 150 members of laity and clergy of all ages and accents from across our parishes, each reading a part of St Matthew’s Gospel.
Four of those excellent readers – Stella, Ben, Lucy and Maisie – feature in the prayers and readings in Sunday’s BBC programme. The Parishes of Holy Redeemer (Huddersfield), Mary Mother of God (Bradford) and Our Lady of Kirkstall (Leeds) have cause to be very proud of them – as do Ben’s, Lucy’s and Maisie’s schools: All Saints’ (Huddersfield), St Bede’s and St Joseph’s (Bradford) and St John Fisher (Harrogate) – for showing (as encouraged by Bishop Marcus) that youth is no barrier to leadership as confident young Catholics, proclaiming their faith through the Gospel.
Fr Michael is a regular presenter of the BBC’s Daily Service, and so this will be the latest of several BBC programmes he has recorded from his presbytery in Brighouse during the ‘lock-down’. Fr Henry is known for his Three Minute Stay Safe Homilies on You Tube; he was Ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on Friday 17 July and later this year will be taking up the post of Assistant Priest at St John Mary Vianney Parish in North Leeds.
The programme has been recorded by each contributor individually from the safety of their own homes and edited together by the BBC producer, Miriam Williamson.
The broadcast is at 8.10am on Sunday 19 July: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000l1w9
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