Bishop Karen on the radio

The service celebrates the journey of the wise men to the babe at Bethlehem and in the service the Bishop reflects on being a 'seeker and a searcher' and what that might mean in these very difficult times.

Speaking about preparing to record the service in her own Dorset home, she said:

"Doing this remotely and making sure an advance recording is up-to-date has been challenging.

"It was a privilege to have been asked and great that something local can be heard across the whole of the country. For many people, 8.00am on a Sunday morning on local radio has been important to their own faith during this last year, including my own mother."

The national broadcast was produced and is being led by Canon Tim Daykin, formerly the Producer and Presenter of Religious Programmes at BBC Radio Solent and now a Canon and Chapter member of Salisbury Cathedral.

Talking about the broadcast, Tim said:

"A service for the radio has to focus on a hugely diverse audience - much more so that one would get in church. It has to be short and to the point, with great music.

"It needs to be ‘of the moment’ so listeners, especially those on their own can feel, that was just for me. Good radio is not about broadcasting to 100s of 1000s of people but about broadcasting to one person 100s of 1000s of times."

And his most memorable moment from the recording?

"We didn’t manage it all in one take, so I needed to work out how to say to a Bishop: ‘Can we do that again please?’"

The hymns include 'As with gladness men of old' sung by the choir of Salisbury Cathedral, 'In the beak midwinter' from a recording of the Chapel Choir at Canford School, and 'We 3 Kings' sung by Cantores Michaelis, the choir of St Michael’s Church in Southampton.

The service is broadcast on BBC local radio stations including BBC Radio Solent and BBC Radio Wiltshire at 8.00am on Sunday and then will be available on BBC Sounds afterwards.