Less high profile is Radio 4's 'Prayer' for the Day. As I have got older I have tended to wake earlier. Naturally my first action is to turn the radio on, and if there is no cricket being played, it will be tuned to Radio 4. For some months now my waking up has been about 5.30am, which gives me the chance to catch this 'prayer'.
The slot lasts for 3 minutes and is normally presented by a female vicar or a male bishop . You may have noticed that I have put inverted commas around 'prayer.' This is because, from my recent experience as a new listener, Prayer for the Day does not actually consist of a prayer.
Rather there will be an earnest homily which gently tells us what damage man is doing to the environment (the rain forests feature at least once a month), the urgent need to build more wind turbines and - delivered in a sad sounding voice - a gentle condemnation of the Government for its attempts to control spending on welfare.
If the speaker is from the Church of England then the Bishop will also mention an incident from last weekend's premiership football, while the female vicar will refer to the lyrics of a rapper none of us will ever have heard of. They normally do not have the time to mention Jesus obviously, but will always make sure that some reference is made to the goodness of an icon of another religion (Gandhi and the Dalai Lama are particular favourites).
Right at the end of the 3 minutes we finally get the prayer, usually something along the lines of "Dear God, please help us to stop being beastly to people from the third world, Amen"
Update 19 February - this morning's Prayer for the Day was classic in the genre. Alison Murdoch simply delivered a 3 minute lecture about climate change. She may be right on the subject, she may be wrong, but how on earth is this a prayer?
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