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press release
FROM CHURCHES TOGETHER IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND
AND BBC RADIO 4
PRESS RELEASE
19 FEBRUARY 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE USE
BBC Radio Preachers for Lent announced
The BBC and Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) have announced details of the BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship programmes for Lent, which will explore Sense Making Faith through six human senses. As well as running on BBC Radio 4's Sunday Worship (0810-0850), the themes will be reflected in the Daily Service (Mon-Thurs 0945-1000 BBC R4 LW), and on BBC Local Radio religious output.
This is the second consecutive joint BBC/CTBI project to help people make their six-week Lenten journey to Easter. This year, Sunday Worship and supporting materials will explore meeting Jesus through the senses of sight, imagination, smell, touch, taste and hearing. The resources are designed for group and individual use in association with or separately from the radio programmes.
1. SIGHT
On 1 March, St David's Day and the first Sunday of Lent, Sunday Worship will come from the National Botanic Garden of Wales, the first national botanic garden to be created in the new millennium. The preacher will be Dr Anne Richards, whose book Sense Making Faith is the inspiration for the overall Lenten theme. Dr Richards is mission theology adviser for the Church of England. She will explore the sense of sight, and reflect on the time when Jesus restored sight to Bartimaeus. The Revd Canon Joanna Penberthy will lead the service.
2. IMAGINATION
The Revd Roy Searle will consider the gift of imagination on the second Sunday Worship of Lent, 8 March. Mr Searle is a former president of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, and now a leader of the ecumenical Northumbria Community, a geographically dispersed network of Christians exploring a new monastic spirituality in a changing post-modern culture. The service will come from St Cuthbert's Church in Carham, Northumberland.
3. SMELL
On Sunday 15 March, the third Sunday in Lent, Sunday Worship will come from St Peter's Cathedral in Belfast. Father Hugh Kennedy, the cathedral's administrator, will take as his theme the sense of smell, and the reading from John's gospel will be the story of Mary anointing Jesus with expensive perfume. Father Kennedy works with Catholic parishes in the Lower Falls area of Belfast.
4. TOUCH
On the fourth Sunday in Lent, 22 March, which is also Mothering Sunday, Dr Paula Gooder, a freelance writer and lecturer in biblical studies, will reflect on the sense of touch. Dr Gooder will tackle the implications of the time Judas kissed Jesus in order to betray him. The service will come from St Alphege's Church in Solihull.
5. TASTE
On Sunday Worship 29 March, which is Passion (Suffering) Sunday, the Revd Dr Kevin Franz, Lead Mental Healthcare Chaplain in Greater Glasgow, will be the preacher. Dr Franz, who is a former general secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland, will explore the sense of taste within the context of the last meal that Jesus ate with his disciples before he was executed.
6. HEARING
Finally, on 5 April, which is Palm Sunday and the last Sunday of Lent, the Revd John Macaulay, minister of Upper Clapton United Reformed Church in East London, a community which has undergone considerable transformation in one of the most disadvantaged parts of London, will preach on the sense of hearing.
Further details of the programmes are at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sundayworship, http://www.bbc.co.uk/dailyservice, and http://www.sensemakingfaith.org.
The Sunday Worship programmes will be available to listen to again in their entirety for seven days after broadcast - and the sermons for a longer period - from the Sunday Worship website.
In her book Sense Making Faith, Anne Richards says, "In meeting Jesus through the senses we will find that we are drawn to the feast with him, to respond to him, to become involved in acts of love, to worship."
CTBI contact: The Revd Peter Colwell, Secretary for Church Life and Inter Faith Relations, tel: 020 7654 7216.
Note for editors
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland helps the Churches to think, work and pray together, and serves them on their shared journey towards full visible unity. It is the official ecumenical body that brings together Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant and Pentecostal traditions, and is the direct successor to the British Council of Churches. Churches Together in Britain and Ireland works closely with the 'Churches Together' bodies that focus separately on England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. See www.ctbi.org.uk.
