´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Daily Service at 80
Introduction
´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Daily Service celebrates its 80th birthday on Wednesday 2 January 2008.
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To mark the anniversary, a special week of Daily Services will be broadcast on Radio 4 from Monday 31 December through to Friday 4 January 2008.
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Presenters include the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Rev Dr Rowan Williams, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster.
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These services will retain the essence of a normal Daily Service – broadcast for 15 minutes at 9.45am and including a Biblical reading and prayers – and will also explore the history and diversity of the programme over its 80-year history.
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The Series Producer of the Daily Service, Philip Billson said: "Everyone who works on the Daily Service – presenters, musicians, and producers alike – is conscious of the unique nature of this daily spiritual space to the many thousands of people who listen, and of the importance of serving this very valuable part of the Radio 4 audience."
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The broadcast of the Daily Service is largely due to Miss Kathleen M Cordeux who in 1926 began her campaign for a short religious service on ´óÏó´«Ã½ radio by writing to Reith, head of the ´óÏó´«Ã½, with the words: "How many are there who 'listen-in' who long to hear something daily of God and His love?"
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She continued her frequent correspondence with Reith until the first service was broadcast on Monday 2 January 1928 from a ´óÏó´«Ã½ studio in Savoy Hill, London.
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This, the first of an experimental series of "short religious services", was to last for 15-minutes a day, transmitted daily throughout January 1928 at 10.15am on Daventry 5XX only.
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Those who appreciated the service were invited to write in so that the response could be gauged.
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Within a couple of weeks, 7,000 letters had been received and so the Short Religious Service, or Daily Service as it soon became, gained a regular slot with a format which is very little changed.
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By December 1929 the service was being broadcast on all transmitters, presented anonymously – from a studio with a roaring log fire! – by The Rev H.L. Johnston.
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In 1932 the Daily Service moved with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ to the new Broadcasting House and to its own studio – 3E – which was specially consecrated.
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Four ´óÏó´«Ã½ Singers sang for the service and it was not long before the first service book – This Day – was produced to accompany the worship. The well known version with the title New Every Morning first appeared in 1936.
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A year later, the 100,000th copy was presented to Miss Cordeux, personally inscribed by Reith. Fifteen years later The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hymn Book appeared in print.
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Having been moved from London during the Second World War, first to Bristol and then to Bedford, the Daily Service returned to the capital in 1945 and to a studio in Broadcasting House (though not to studio 3E which had been badly damaged during the Blitz).
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However, the experience of broadcasting from a church during the war had persuaded the production team to continue this tradition in London.
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All Souls, Langham Place, with its close proximity to Broadcasting House, was chosen but, as this building had also suffered during the war, the Daily Service temporarily moved to St Peter's Church, Vere Street, just off Oxford Street.
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By the mid-Fifties the service was regularly coming from All Souls, despite some concerns from listeners about the traffic noise, a tradition which remained until the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Religion department moved to Manchester in 1993 and the Daily Service took up residence at Emmanuel Church, Didsbury.
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Since then, the service has continued to be broadcast each morning from 9.45 to 10.00am on Radio 4 Long Wave, and now on digital radio, from either Didsbury or, every few weeks or so, from a church in Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland, led by one of the team of about 25 presenters representing the many Christian denominations in this country.
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And, in recent years, the ability to listen online has given the "congregation" the added flexibility to hear the service in whichever country they happen to be "logged on" and at whatever time.
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There will be an anniversary reception on Monday 14 January co-hosted by the Controller of Radio 4, Mark Damazer, and the Rev Joel Edwards, Chair of the Churches' Media Council.
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The following schedule and themes are confirmed:
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Monday 31 December
The Church Of The Air: the history of the Daily Service
The Rev Dr Colin Morris (former Head of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Religious Broadcasting)
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Tuesday 1 January
Cherishing Traditions: the breadth of the Daily Service
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (Archbishop of Westminster)
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Wednesday 2 January
New Every Morning: the Daily Service expressing the faith of the living Church
The Rev Joel Edwards (General Director, Evangelical Alliance)
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Thursday 3 January
God's People: the Daily Service congregation
Christine Morgan (Executive Producer, Daily Service)
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Friday 4 January
All for Jesus!: the Daily Service providing ecumenical fellowship
The Most Rev Dr Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury).
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