Saint Luke’s Lessons and Carols for Advent

One of the great seasonal traditions at Saint Luke’s is the service of Lessons and Carols for Advent, held on the first Sunday in December each year, which this year will be the Second Sunday of Advent, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m.
 
In addition to Old Testament readings, the service includes Advent hymns and carols.

Among the performances will be “A Tender Shoot” by Goldschmidt, the traditional carol “People Look East”, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” by Vaughan Williams, “Ave Maria” by Malcolm Archer, “We Wait for thy Loving Kindness” by McKie, and “E’en So Lord Jesus” by Paul Manz as well as a chorale by Bach.

The combined choirs of 19 adults and 17 youths will be under the direction of Neal Campbell, director of music. The organist will be Charles Dodsley Walker, artist in residence at St Lukes.

HISTORY:

Lessons and carol services have their origin in England, the best known of which is the very popular Festival of Lessons and Carols for Christmas sung on Christmas Eve in King’s College Chapel in Cambridge which began in 1918, and has been broadcast annually since 1928.  It was devised by Eric Milner-White, who was just 34 years old and fresh from a stint as a military chaplain in World War I when he assumed the deanship of King’s.  He felt that an innovative service was needed in the post war years and he drew up the service which has been handed down to the present time in essentially unaltered form.

Based upon a simple service E. W. Benson (later Archbishop of Canterbury) devised for use at an outdoor crèche service, the nine lessons tell the story of our first disobedience in the Garden of Eden, continuing with the Christmas story, the appearance of the Magi, and finally St. John’s Gospel account of the incarnation and redemption.  Following each lesson are one or two carols sung by the choir or congregation.  The Bidding Prayer, Lessons, and opening hymn stay the same each year, while the carols are different, and display a wide variety of musical styles.  In that it is broadcast live from King’s College Chapel at 3:00 their time—10:00 over here—many people like to listen to it while preparing for their own Christmas observances via our PBS stations.

What is remarkable about the Christmas Eve service is that it is intended to serve the city of Cambridge (and now the entire worldwide community) and not the college itself, which is not in session during Christmas.  The choir assembles from their vacation to sing on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  In 1934 Dean Milner-White devised an Advent Carol service of similar proportions specifically for the benefit of the college before it dispersed for Christmas vacation.  The lessons, carols, and prayers center upon the Advent themes of prophecy, preparation, watching, and waiting, and is therefore of a slightly less warm character compared with the overt joy of the Christmas carol services.  It is this service after which Saint Luke’s patterns its annual Advent carol service.