Come and celebrate the season with this service of readings and music in the tradition of King's College, Cambridge. Led by the MOTET choir, this service is to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels, and in heart and mind go even unto Bethlehem to see this thing which is come to pass, and the Babe lying in a manger. Organ prelude starts at 2.30 pm. The Lessons and Carols service starts at 3 pm.
For planning purposes, please RSVP to indicate your intention to attend.
The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is traditionally associated with King's College, Cambridge, but its roots go back nearly 140 years to a small temporary wooden building which served as the cathedral of Truro. George Somerset Walpole, a future Bishop of Edinburgh ( 1854-1929 ), conceived of a carol service interspersed with Bible readings on Christmas Eve as a means to keep his parishioners from enjoying too much of the wrong kind of joyful spirit in the local pubs.
He proposed the idea to Bishop Edward Benson, whose son Arthur writes : '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 different grades, with the bishop.'
Around 400 gathered in the wooden building in Truro that served as Bishop Benson's cathedral for the Nine Lessons with Carols on Christmas Eve in 1880 at 10 pm. The service was well-received, yet, despite its early popularity it lay dormant for decades until Dean Eric Milner-White revived it at King's College, Cambridge on Christmas Eve 1918.
It is not clear quite how Dean Milner-White became familiar with the 1880 service. Possibly it was through Montague Rhodes James, who was Provost of King’s at the time, and who had spent Christmas with the Benson family in 1882. Or perhaps Dean Milner-White heard about the service from Arthur Benson himself. In any case, the year 1918 is significant.
Upon his return from the war, Dean Milner-White wanted to offer a Christmas service that was a 'feast of colour, warmth, and delight' that would appeal to a grieving generation disillusioned with faith in the horrors of the war. And so the service of Nine Lessons and Carols was born as it took its inspiration from the format devised by the Bishop Edward Benson.
Dean Milner-White re-arranged the sequence of the Lessons to create a more logical flow from the Old Testament prophecies of Christ's coming to the New Testament accounts of His birth. In Bishop Benson's 1880 order of service, Lesson 9 was Isaiah 11 ( the peace that Christ will bring is foreshown ). Dean Milner-White assigned this to Lesson 4. Also, the reading from St John was moved from Lesson 8 to 9, and The Annunciation to Mary was moved from Lesson 4 to 5.
His care in re-ordering the Lessons resulted in a mirrored, symmetrical format that is symbolically significant. In the over-all design, Lesson 5 ( The Annunciation ) functions as a central axis which reflects Lessons 4-3-2-1 in Lessons 6-7-8-9.
This structure has its root in the Greek letter chi ( Χ ) and has been used to symbolise the Cross as well as Christ's name by its initial letter. It relates to the significance of the Cross in terms of redemption and the narrative arc of salvation. Central in this chiastic structure is Lesson Five, 'The angel Gabriel salutes the Blessed Virgin Mary.' It reflects the profound mystery of God becoming man, the intersection of the divine and human realms, and the fulfilment of God's promise to redeem mankind.
Complementing this symmetry, the Lessons are framed by the opening and closing prayers. In his Bidding Prayer, Dean Milner-White movingly remembers those who have died : ‘…all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude whom no man can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom, in this Lord Jesus, we for evermore are one.’
The Bidding Prayer is wonderfully mirrored by the Collect and Blessing, echoing the truth of Lesson 5 – which is unique to the Christian faith – namely that God and man became one person in our Lord Jesus Christ for our redemption :
O God, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of Thy only Son, Jesus Christ : Grant that as we joyfully receive Him for our Redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold Him, when He shall come to be our Judge.
May He who by His Incarnation gathered into one things earthly and heavenly, grant you the fullness of inward peace and goodwill ; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you and remain with you always.
There is both an intellectual depth to the order of service as well as a simplicity : in Dean Milner-White own words, the main theme of the Nine Lessons is, 'the development of the loving purposes of God as viewed through the windows and the words of the Bible.'
Each of the lessons is interspersed with one or two musical selections : carols, which are sung by the choir, and hymns sung by the congregation. Both carols and hymns vary year by year, but there are three hymns that never change : 'Once in Royal David's City' is always the processional hymn, 'O Come, All Ye Faithful' is always sung after the Ninth Lesson, and 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing' always concludes the service. In the 1918 Christmas Eve Order of Service, Dean Milner-White included a comment encouraging the congregation to 'join heartily in the singing of the hymns and verses specially marked for that purpose.'
Thus, the Lessons, Carols, and Hymns invite us to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels ; in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, and the Babe lying in a manger. And to make this church glad with our carols of praise.
© 2024 Dr PJ Janson