by Dan McKinley
Minister of Music/Organist & Choirmaster
Chapel of King’s College Cambridge, England
Christmas Eve in the 15th century Gothic chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, England: The organist finishes softly the prelude. A moment of silence occurs in the darkened, candlelit church. Then, in the back of the church, one boy soprano sings unaccompanied: “Once in royal David’s city / stood a lowly cattle shed / where a mother laid her baby / in a manger for his bed.” The choir of men and boys joins quietly on stanza 2, and the congregation adds its voice on the remainder of the hymn as the choir processes, ending in a swell of glorious sound. Thus begins the Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols as it has for nearly a century.
King’s Choristers
If you can’t get to King’s this year, join us Sunday, December 18, at 5 p.m. for our Festival of Lessons & Carols, which also starts with “Once in royal David’s city,” sung by boy chorister Joey Powers. He has more advance warning than the King’s boy, who’s told only moments before singing that he’s “it,” and who also knows that millions are listening worldwide via the BBC.
(You can hear King’s live at 10 a.m. EST Saturday, December 24 — and every Christmas Eve — online at BBC Radio 4, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06s9rzt. Further information about the service, including the program booklet which can be downloaded: http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/events/chapel-services/nine-lessons.html) (As of press time, neither of these websites had been updated with the 2016 information, but they should have it soon.)
Our festival follows closely the King’s liturgy, which began in 1918 just after the end of the first world war. The chapel dean adapted it from an earlier format at Truro Cathedral, and he intended it to give hope after the worst war yet known. It isn’t a choral concert but a worship service, structured around nine Scripture readings that recount God’s plan of redemption from the fall of Adam & Eve to the birth of Christ, and the music is chosen to complement the lessons.
The prophecies remind us that the Savior didn’t appear out of thin air — his coming was predicted ever since the Fall, when God told the serpent that he would be defeated by a descendant of Eve. The Old and New Testament readings relate not a fairy tale but a true story, that the Son of God humbled himself for our salvation and is Lord of all, alive and relevant today.
The Choir of Christ the Redeemer and the Seraphim Choir will sing great, enjoyable music by John Bell, Anton Bruckner, Harold Darke, Paul Edwards, John Gardner, George Frideric Handel, Morten Lauridsen, Robert Leaf, Arvo Pärt, Dale Wood. The congregation will sing Christmas carols. Violins, brass, percussion, and organ will help to lead the festive occasion.
The service provides good opportunity to invite and bring family, friends, and neighbors. May our music in worship point to the great wonder of God With Us: Jesus Christ.
Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church © 2016
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