Salford Cathedral’s annual Midnight Mass will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 this year! BBC Radio 4 have broadcast Midnight Mass from cathedrals and churches around the UK for many years. We’re honoured to have been given this opportunity to share Salford Cathedral’s talented singers and exquisite acoustics with people across the nation.
Midnight Mass is a beautiful service, a celebration to ring in the birth of Christ and an opportunity for us to pray for peace to all mankind. We’re proud that this will be heard by many thousands of listeners.
Alex Patterson, our Director of Music, had this to say:
The first Mass of Christmas is always a special occasion and we’ve pulled together a mix of old and new carols for 2021, with ‘Noel: Verbum caro factum eat’ by Tamsin Jones and Becky McGlade’s moving setting of the beautiful ‘In the bleak midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti. We will also have traditional congregational carols, including: ‘O come, all ye faithful’, ‘It came upon the midnight clear’, ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Hark! the herald angels sing’.
Midnight Mass will take place in Salford Cathedral as normal, government policy permitting. If you choose to join us in person, please arrive no later than 11pm, as the BBC have to set up their equipment for the broadcast. The broadcast will begin at 11:30pm. You can listen to it live on BBC Radio 4 (92-95FM) or tune in at the BBC Sounds Website.
