BBC Religious programmes for Easter and Beyond.
Saturday 11 April 2020
On Easter Sunday, our new and increasingly popular Reflections at the Quay (BBC One Scotland, 11.15AM) will feature the Rt Rev Colin Sinclair, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and the Most Reverend Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh. Future programmes will reach to other faith communities and contributors.
And we are currently finalising arrangements around a televised broadcast of an Easter Sunday Mass with Fr. Michael Kane from St Augustine’s in Coatbridge.
That day, BBC ALBA will broadcast Ar N-Aran Làitheil (Our Daily Bread) from Kyle Church of Scotland (6.50PM), as Alleluia! brings a mix of hymns, psalms and readings led by Father Seumas MacNeil and Rev Donald Michael MacInnes (7.30PM).
For radio listeners, Radio Scotland will continue to feature Thought for the Day within the Good Morning Scotland news programme each weekday. Every New Sunday has moved forward an hour to a new slot of 7.30AM and Sunday Morning with Cathy Macdonald will continue to feature conversations with guests from across all faith groups.
On Good Friday, the station features Tree of Life, a reflection on how nature can provide a path through pain, at 6.00AM, and Shadows and Half- Light, at 6.30AM, will reflect on how compassion can help us overcome adversity.
For Gaelic listeners, Radio nan Gaidheal celebrates Easter Sunday with Deanamaid Adhradh (Let’s worship) at 9.03AM, repeated again at 3.00PM and a broadcast of the Easter Alleluia! special at 9.00PM.
Looking forward, on Sunday 19 April, the BBC Scotland Channel features Priest School. Narrated by Scots-Italian actor Daniela Nardini, this distinctive observational documentary gained unique access to the inner workings, personnel, seminarians and history of the oldest Scottish institution abroad, Il Pontificio College Scozzese - The Scots College in Rome.
And on the same day, April 19, BBC ALBA will feature Sorchar nan Reul (The Lightener of the Stars - spiritual music) and a new series - Slighe Anndra (St Andrew’s Journey – the story of the Church of Scotland in Europe) - from 31 May.
Across the BBC, our network services will include live worship and virtual church services as well as special new content on the BBC’s flagship religious strands on TV and radio, as well as providing content to mark the major festivals of worship. There’s much more detail to be found on the BBC website, at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2020/easter and at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2020/religion-coronavirus
BBC Scotland’s Religious Advisory Committee, of which Interfaith Scotland Director Maureen Sier is a member, has been enormously helpful in providing advice and assistance to us as we have sought to shape our schedules to meet the needs of Scotland’s faith groups. We hope you enjoy our programmes.
Please stay safe and well over the weeks to come - and if you would like any additional information, on any of the above please don’t hesitate to get in touch, at ian.small@bbc.co.uk
Regards,
Ian Small
Head of Public Policy & Corporate Affairs