Christian leaders have joined forces to praise BBC Radio Stoke's weekly broadcast act of worship, In Praise of God, which this week celebrates it's 40th anniversary.

In Praise of God is thought to be the longest running weekly act of broadcast worship on local radio and shares its anniversary with Radio Stoke, having been broadcast every week since the station opened.

On 12 March church leaders and Christians from different denominations returned to the site of the very first broadcast - the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent - for a special anniversary act of worship which will be broadcast on this Sunday (16th March).

The Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill, Anglican Bishop of Lichfield, said: "BBC Radio Stoke is the only local radio station committed to a weekly act of broadcast worship - and we celebrate together this important milestone.

"At this 40th anniversary I look back on all that has been achieved and congratulate BBC Radio Stoke and their staff down the decades for their commitment to In Praise of God, for the many awards they have won for their religious programming; for the many successful Lent Courses they have produced and for the Songs from the Aisles competition which recognises high standards of congregational broadcast worship"

In addition to the Bishop of Lichfield, BBC Radio Stock was also praised by the Rt Rev Peter Forster, Anglican Bishop of Chester, The Most Rev Vincent Nicholls, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, Rev John D Walker, Chair of Chester and Stoke-on-Trent Methodist District and the Rev Elizabeth Welch, Moderator of the West Midlands' Synod of the United Reformed Church.