WORSHIP NOTES
The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve 1918 at Kings College at Cambridge. This service was adapted from an order prepared by the Archbishop of Canterbury for a Christmas Eve service in 1880 by Eric Milner-White, a former army chaplain, who, at the age of 34, had just been appointed Dean of King's College. With the exception of 1930, the Cambridge Festival has been broadcast annually on the radio since 1928. (In Madison, the Cambridge Festival may be heard on Wisconsin Public Radio on Christmas Eve morning.) Although the anthems and carols change each year, the lessons read from the King James Bible and the prayers used in the service have remained virtually unchanged since 1918. Like Westminster, many churches have adapted the Cambridge Festival service for use in worship during the Advent and Christmas seasons.
Eric Milner-White described the Festival service in this way:
"Its liturgical order and pattern is the strength of the service; the main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God, from the Creation to the Incarnation, through the windows and words of the Bible: the scriptures, not the carols, are the backbone."
As with all worship services at Westminster, the faithful expression of God's word is our primary focus. The music--handmaid of the liturgy--is our response to God's word proclaimed. Through music dating from the 16th to the 21st centuries, we have an opportunity today to respond to God's word by drawing from a diverse and rich heritage of choral repertoire and carols.
As we worship, we know that God's promises of hope and love abide in Christ and, through him, also abide in each of us. Let us respond to God's word this morning with joy as we add our voices to the messengers who preach the gospel of peace.
