Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

The St Bride’s Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Sunday 17th December at 5:30pm is a wonderful opportunity to hear the full range of readings in the form of service devised by Eric Milner-White for King’s College, Cambridge in 1918.

The congregation takes a full part in the service by singing Christmas hymns ranging from Once In Royal David’s City to O Come, All Ye Faithful and we also have the opportunity to hear a number of contrasting pieces from wide repertoire of Advent and Christmas music which St Bride’s Choir sings.

The service is open to all, ticketless and free to attend. Pre-registration for this event is now closed. At least 75 seats have been held for those who turn up on the day without registration. Doors open 30 minutes before the service starts.

Music at this year’s service will include Gustav Holst’s Lullay mine liking, which has not been heard at St Bride’s for many years, alongside several pieces by living composers including John Byrt’s lively setting of All and some composed for the Schola Cantorum of Oxford in the 1960s and Stephen Jackson’s idiosyncratic arrangement of the French carol Noel nouvelet.

We will also be singing the latest Christmas composition The Christ-Child Lullaby by Gareth Treseder, one of our deputy tenor singers. The work is dedicated to Alastair Putt who was another of our regular tenor deputies who tragically passed away in 2022. In accordance with the wishes of Alastair’s widow, the wonderful American pianist Anyssa Neumann, all proceeds from this carol will go to The Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain.

Download Order of Service (pdf)

A pre-recorded version of this service will also stream online on this page at the same time as the service in church, and on our pages at Facebook, YouTube and SoundCloud.

You can also find and subscribe to this service released as a podcast on itunes, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts.