Westminster College to Celebrate the 36th Annual Festival of Lessons and Carols

Westminster College will celebrate the 36th Annual Festival of Lessons and Carols at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury. Doors will open at 4 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

A Christian service, Westminster’s beloved, time-honored Lessons and Carols event is patterned after the original Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College in Cambridge, England.

The service includes the reading of nine biblical scriptures that pertain to the Christmas story. Holiday carols will be performed by the Churchill Singers and other area musicians.

The annual event traditionally takes place at Westminster on the second Sunday of Advent.

Chaplain Kiva Nice-Webb, Director of the Center for Faith and Service at Westminster, explains that Advent is a season of hopeful, expectant waiting.

“It allows us time to sit and reflect in the midst of all that is challenging and troubling in our world — to sit in a time when the days are short and the dark of night is long, and in that sitting, to bear witness to the hope that we have for a better world,” Nice-Webb explains.

She adds that Westminster looks forward to celebrating with the broader Fulton community.

“Come pause with us, and soak in some warmth in the midst of a busy season of life, whether busy with final exams or holiday shopping or just the day-to-day grind.”

The Festival of Lessons and Carols is sponsored by Westminster’s Office of Spiritual Life.

Located on the Westminster campus, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, is part of America’s National Churchill Museum (ANCM), which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The Church and Museum commemorate Winston’s Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech that was delivered at Westminster in 1946. To learn more about the College or Museum, visit Westminster’s site here, or go to the ANCM site here.