Prayer for the Day – BBC Radio 4

Oops, nearly forgot to post this.

I was doing Prayer for the Day this morning on Radio 4. You never lose a sense of excitement at the thought of the nation dropping collectively to its knees.

This is what I said:

Good morning.

I’m speaking from a studio which is just a few yards from the River Clyde in the city of Glasgow. The land all around where I am now was once an area teeming with ships. A busy place with boats coming and going from here to the farthest parts of the earth. Goods and people arrived here and were exchanged for cargo and passengers leaving for far-flung destinations. This was, no doubt, a place of many joyful greetings and many sad goodbyes.

This evening, one year will slip into the next as we bid goodbye to the old and welcome in the new.

Here in this place, there used to be a sound which represented the New Year coming in which people still talk about. It was the sound of the boats on the Clyde and the all the shipyards sounding their horns and hooters at midnight. People now speak of waiting up for the Bells to see in the New Year but the cacophony and din from the river sounds a good deal more exciting to me.

I’ve no idea what sound you will hear at midnight tonight. Maybe it will be Big Ben. Maybe the sound of the gun fired from Edinburgh castle. Maybe the sound of people partying. Maybe the hooting of horns. Or maybe just the stillness and peace of a time for reflecting on the New Year by yourself.

Whatever sound you hear tonight, I hope that you are blessed with love, joy and peace not just as the year turns tonight but every day of the year that is to come.

Eternal God, bless us through this day and bless us through tonight and fill us with hope for tomorrow. Amen.