Page 22 - LOTN Autumn Issue 54 2023

FAITH AND CULTURE
Lessons and Carols

BY DR SHELAGH NODEN

elia Smith has famously said that she bakes her
mince pies on Christmas Eve to the
accompaniment of Nine Lessons and Carols
Dfrom King’s on Radio 4.
This service of Carols from King’s College, Cambridge,
broadcast live each Christmas Eve, is now a regular part of
Christmas for many people, but where did this service originate?
Not with King’s itself, it would seem.
For centuries carols, often secular in nature, were sung by groups
of singers, visiting houses and inns in their neighbourhood,
and not just at Christmas. There are Lent carols (such as O
mortal man, remember well) Easter carols (Now glad of heart
be everyone!), spring carols (The May-Day garland), autumn
carols (Sing to the Lord of harvest), even carols about food
(The Boar’s Head). In the Victorian period, as the use of hymns
became more popular in the worship of the Anglican and other
churches, efforts were made to incorporate carols into church
worship. At Christmas in 1878 the composer and organist Sir
John Stainer introduced carols into Choral Evensong at St Paul’s
Cathedral in London, taken from a booklet ‘Christmas Carols
New and Old’ which he had put together. Other Anglican
cathedrals followed suit, including Truro, where in 1880 the
first service called ‘Nine Lessons and Carols’ took place on
Christmas Eve. The Bishop of Truro, Right Rev. Edward White A caricature of the English composer and organist John Stainer
Benson, was keen to attract people away from pubs and into from "Vanity Fair" magazine [Wikimedia Commons]
church at Christmas, and in this he succeeded pretty well as and the service first appeared on television in 1954.
over 400 people attended the service. In 1883 Bishop Benson The format of Nine Lessons and Carols has not changed
became the Archbishop of Canterbury, and under his influence much from its original days. Traditionally it begins with ‘Once
the Nine Lessons and Carols Service rapidly spread throughout in Royal David’s City’, with the first verse sung by one of the
the Anglican Communion all over the world. In December choristers, who is only notified at the last moment, right before
2013 a re-enactment of Bishop Benson’s original service was the service starts. It always ends with ‘Hark! the herald Angels
attended by over 1,500 people in Truro cathedral. sing’, followed by the organist playing J.S. Bach’s ‘In Dulci
The service first took place at King’s College, Cambridge Jubilo’.
Although the music changes from year to year, the lessons
in 1918, building on the established choral tradition of the from Scripture remain the same.
college. The Dean, Rev. Eric Milner-White, a graduate of the
college, was a former military chaplain and wrote vividly of his 1.Genesis 3, God’s promise to sinful Adam
experiences in the First World War. ‘The nights are filled with 2. Genesis 22, God’s promise to Abraham
prolonged terror—a horrid, weird, furtive existence... Battle is 3. Isaiah 9, The promise of the Saviour
indescribable, unimaginable’. 4. Isaiah 11, Christ will bring peace
He wanted to make church worship more appealing and 5. Luke 1, The angel Gabriel greets the Virgin Mary
relevant to people, and he saw the carol service as a way of 6. Luke 2, The birth of Jesus
bringing them back to church and providing comfort after the 7. Luke 2, The shepherds go to the manger
horrors of the recent war. He said of the service; ‘The main 8. Matthew 2, The arrival of the Magi
theme is the development of the loving purposes of God ... seen 9. John 1, In the beginning was the Word…
through the windows and words of the Bible’. The BBC began
radio broadcasts of the carols from the college chapel in 1928 King’s College Nine Lessons and Carols only takes place
on Christmas Eve. Less well-known is the college’s annual
Advent Carol Service, which, as a Cambridge undergraduate, I
A copy of the first Nine Lessons and Carols service is on display particularly enjoyed. Held near the start of Advent, the service
at Truro Cathedral [Andrew Abbot, Wikimedia Commons] begins in darkness. Well-known Advent hymns such as ‘O
come, O come, Emmanuel’ and ‘On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s

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