Perhaps the most famous carol service is the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College in Cambridge, UK. The service was created and performed in 1880 by Edward Benson, who was the then-newly appointed Bishop of Truro (in Cornwall in the UK). Wherever the service is heard and however it is adapted, whether the music is provided by choir or congregation, the pattern and strength of the service, as Dean Milner-White pointed out, derive from the lessons and not the music. The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God …seen through the windows and words of the Bible. A Service of Lessons and Carols.
Lessons and Carols
