BBC One’s Songs of Praise was hosted on Sunday April 26th from St Michael & All Angels Church, Bedford Park. Presenter Sean Fletcher, who lives locally, recorded his links last month before churches were required to close their doors to the public. The programme is now available on BBC iPlayer.

The theme is Christian Pilgrimage and Sean introduces highlights of the programme’s travels to ancient and sacred places of pilgrimage. He looks back at his own journey – walking barefoot across the sands – to the abbey of Mont St Michel in Northern France and discovers why it has been one of Europe’s most important sacred sites for well over a thousand years.

Further south in France, there’s another chance to see Rev. Kate Bottley joining the six million pilgrims that visit Lourdes each year. There will also be hymns and songs recorded in other churches before the current restrictions, celebrating the theme of pilgrimage.

Fr Kevin Morris, the vicar of St Michael & Angels, recorded a prayer for the programme and said the church was pleased to help the Songs of Praise team, when its normal recording schedule was disrupted by the COVID-19 lockdown. Photo left: Fr Kevin with Sean Fletcher in the church.

He said: “We have been streaming our own services on Facebook and we’ve been delighted how many people shared in our Easter worship from all over the UK and overseas. I love the way in which distance is crossed in this way, bringing individuals together in common purpose, still participating and contributing to community life.

“We’ve just announced that Green Days and the Bedford Park Festival, our annual church fete and arts festival, will be going ahead online – and we hope that in this way we can help bring the community together at this difficult time.”