Turn your radio on this Christmas!
This Christmas, there is a great deal of excellent, and locally-flavoured religious broadcasting on the radio, for which we should, as Christians, be truly grateful, especially here in Northern Ireland.
Of course, the centrepiece of all Christmas broadcasting each year is the superb Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast live on Christmas Eve at 3pm on Radio 4, and repeated at 2pm on Christmas Day on Radio 3. I discovered this year that you can download the entire, and beautiful service booklet from the internet by clicking here. What better way could there be to prepare spiritually for Christmas than to sit down quietly for an hour and a half and listen to the story of our redemption in the Babe of Bethlehem, our Lord Jesus Christ - that is, if you can find a quiet place on Christmas Eve!
Interestingly enough, some of the other national Christmas broadcasting also has a local flavour. Bishop Alan Abernethy is providing us with a Prayer for the Day each morning on Radio 4 from 18-23 December, at 5.43am. Then, Sunday Half Hour on Radio 2 on Sunday 20 December is from St Peter's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Belfast, with Cappella Caeciliana, the 2009 BBC Young Choristers of the Year and, most famous of all The Priests, our own local heroes!
On Radio Ulster, those who cannot be in Down Cathedral on Christmas Eve at 7.30, for the fabulous Carol Service there, can listen in to get the atmosphere of our beloved Cathedral in its 400th Anniversary Year of the Charter, as Carols from Downpatrick are broadcast at 5.05pm on Christmas Eve, with the Grosvenor Chorale (repeated on Christmas Day at noon). Christmas Morning also brings our own local Noel Battye with an Act of Worship for Christmas Day at 9am, called The Happy Morn and that is followed by a little 20 minute exploration of the Wise men by Andrea Rea, in Wise Man from the East. The Sunday after Christmas brings the annual Sunday Sequence review of the year, which is always well worth listening to.
And in case you think I only listen to the BBC, I must say that this time of the year has me turning Stephen Nolan off in favour of Classic FM, which provides a wonderful selection of Christmas music, mixed in with popular classical music : Just the stuff to be listening to on a wet or snowy day in the car!
Good listening!
+Harold D+D