This week the first part of our service is patterned after a long-standing tradition that comes to us from King's College and will also include our chldren's Christmas Pageant.

In 1918, King’s College in Cambridge, England, began performing the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols each year on Christmas Eve, and with only one revision involving rearrangement of the lessons in 1919, has continued to this day.  The service has always begun with the hymn 'Once in Royal David's City'.  In almost every year some carols have been changed and some new ones introduced, but the backbone of the service, the lessons and the prayers, has remained virtually unchanged. It 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.  Each year, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 on December 24 at 3pm (10:00 EST).  In the United States the service is broadcast by around 300 radio stations, including American Public Media and its affiliates (Minnesota Public Radio and WNYC-New York, for example).   

(adapted fromhttp://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/)