We are part of a famous church. We’d like to think it’s because we’ve been involved in walking alongside people experiencing homelessness for a hundred years. We imagine it’s because the Academy of St Martin in the Fields is the most-recorded orchestra in the world. We suppose it’s because everyone’s been to Trafalgar Square, and many have stopped by for a concert or an apple crumble. Or it’s the influential architecture. Or because we’re just marvellous.

But the truth is, it’s because of the radio. In January 1924, St Martin’s hosted the first live broadcast act of worship anywhere in the world. Dick Sheppard and Lord Reith were chums, and they hatched the plan over lunch at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand. By 1951, a third of the population listened to the Sunday evening service from St Martin’s – and a good number of Commonwealth countries received the broadcast, too. We were the fifties equivalent of viral.

For around 30 years, the focal event of the BBC Radio Religion and Ethics year has been the live Ascension Day service from St Martin’s. In my time it’s been an exuberant occasion with brass or jazz or strings, and when there’s 800 members of the public singing full-throatedly it makes for a stirring experience. For obvious reasons BBC Radio 4 chose not to mark the centenary in January, but to celebrate at Ascension Day instead. So Thursday 9 May at 8pm will be a rousing occasion for the BBC and for us. We expect it to be busy, so to ensure you get a seat, please be in touch – sherryann.taylor@smitf.org.

Ascension Day is a curious day for a celebration. In some ways it announces that Christ’s work is complete. But in another way it marks a departure that the disciples must have found very difficult – and the ten-day gap before Pentecost can put us in touch with a profound experience of the absence of God. Nonetheless, in a world of much gloom, this is a day to give thanks for the gift of broadcasting, and the way it’s turned St Martin’s from a parish church in Westminster to a parish church for nation and world.

Revd Dr Sam Wells