A Joyful Celebration

Annual Nine Lessons and Carols at Westminster College, Fulton

As you see elsewhere in this issue of the Messenger, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin Aldermanbury in Fulton will hold an Advent service of Nine Lessons and Carols.  Grace will hold its annual Christmas Lessons and Carols service as usual on the Sunday following Christmas.

      Nine Lessons and Carols has become famous round the world because of the BBC’s annual broadcast of the Christmas Eve service from the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, every year since 1928.  King’s College held its first such service in 1918.  The order of service was revised slightly the following year, and ever since King’s begins its service with a solo boy soprano singing the first verse of “Once in Royal David’s City” before being joined by choir and congregation.

      Nine Lessons and Carols developed from what is thought to be an original order of service for Christmas Eve 1880 in the cathedral of Truro in Cornwall in southwest England.  The service was planned by E.W. Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury.  His son recalled, “My father arranged from ancient sources a little service for Christmas Eve – nine carols and nine tiny lessons, which were read by various officers of the Church, beginning with a chorister, and ending, through the different grades, with the Bishop.”

      This Advent and Christmas season we invite you to join in our own service of Nine Lessons and Carols on December 28, but you might also want to attend the Advent service in Fulton and listen to the BBC’s broadcast from King’s College at 9:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve.  The broadcast has been carried in this area for many years by KBIA, 91.3 FM.