The Knights of Columbus contributed $100,000 toward the production of an extraordinary musical event on public televisions stations throughout the United States. The new PBS special, The Birth of Christ, prominently includes the professional efforts of two individual Knights.

The program united Protestant and Catholic musicians in Dublin for the recording of a Christmas cantata composed by Andrew T. Miller, a Knight of Columbus from Seattle. The executive producer is Raymond Arroyo, a Knight of Columbus and host of EWTN’s international news magazine, The World Over.

The performers include the Christ Church Cathedral Choir and St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir – the choirs that George Frideric Handel used to unveil his Messiah in 1742 – and are joined by St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral Choir and the Christ Church Cathedral Orchestra, to produce Miller’s contemporary classical works, which are based on St. Luke’s Gospel narrative of the Nativity. The program is narrated by Academy Award-nominated Irish Catholic actor Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and The Chronicles of Narnia ).

“The Catholic and Protestant singers involved in this project put aside their differences for ‘One Blessed Night’ and raised their voices in unison around the central mystery of their faith,” said Neeson.

The CD and DVD are are available from Sony BMG Masterworks.