A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols – 12/24 @ 10am and 12/25 @ NOON
WBJC is happy to present you the 2012 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College Chapel, live on Christmas Eve day at 10am, and rebroadcast on Christmas Day at noon.
This program is made possible on WBJC by Winterthur.
The Service Booklet .pdf can be downloaded directly from their website.
History of the service
“[The King’s College Chapel] Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just been appointed Dean of King’s, after experience as an army chaplain which had convinced him that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship.
Chapel service, Christmas 1964
A revision of the Order of Service was made in 1919, involving rearrangement of the lessons, and from that date the service has always begun with the hymn ‘Once in Royal David’s City’.
The service was first broadcast in 1928 and, with the exception of 1930, has been broadcast annually, even during the Second World War, when the ancient glass (and also all heat) had been removed from the Chapel.
Sometime in the early 1930’s the BBC began broadcasting the service on the World Service. It is estimated that there are millions of listeners worldwide, including those to Radio Four in the United Kingdom.
In recent years it has become the practice to broadcast a digital recording on Christmas Day on Radio Three, and since 1963, a shorter service, which uses different music and readings, has been filmed periodically for television.”
There is also a more detailed history of the service located on the King’s College website.
Happy listening!
