The Festival of Lessons and Carols

For 30 years, members of the Heathwood Hall Episcopal School community and the Midlands area have been coming to Trinity Cathedral to share in the school’s annual Lessons and Carols Service.

The service was developed from ancient forms of worship and adapted from a service which has been sung annually at King's College Chapel in Cambridge, England, since 1918. Through music and readings of Old and New Testament scripture, the Festival of Lessons and Carols explores the main theme of the development of the loving purposes of God as seen and understood through the words of the Bible.

During the service, Heathwood Hall choristers from all divisions sing carols appropriate to the season of Advent and Christmas after the reading of a lesson by a student representative from each grade in the Intermediate, Middle and Upper Schools. Through this worship opportunity, the School strives to remind all of the holiness of the season and to celebrate God’s presence and peace in the world.

From the entrance of the Cathedral, facing west, the crucifers, torch and standard bearers, choristers, readers, and clergy move in procession to the altar, towards the east. In doing so, the congregation is brought symbolically through the season of Advent to the Nativity, from darkness into light, the birth of Christ, the Light of the world. The readings and anthems direct attention to the expectation and waiting for the Messiah, and further, to the hope of the world to come. The Christian Church lives between these two points: the first, Christmastide with the Incarnation of the Son of God, and the second, His coming again to judge and to re-create His universe.

The doors open one hour before the beginning of the service, and student ushers are on hand to guide worshippers through the candle-lit cathedral to their pews. The use of cameras, camcorders, artificial light or flash, and recording equipment is prohibited during the time of procession and worship out of respect for the religious nature of the occasion.