For Immediate Release

Princeton Seminary to Host Christmas Service of Lessons and Carols

Princeton, NJ, December 1, 2005– Princeton Theological Seminary will hold its annual Christmas service on Wednesday, December 14 in Miller Chapel at 6:30 p.m. A second, identical service will be held at 8:30 p.m.

The service is modeled after the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, which was developed in Cambridge, England, in 1918 by Eric Milner-White.

Milner-White, at age 34, had just become dean of King’s College after serving as a chaplain in the army. Seeing a need for more imaginative worship, he designed this service. Although slight revisions have been made, the foundation of the service, which consists of nine Scripture lesson telling the story of Christ’s coming, and prayers, has remained constant.

Following the advent of this new kind of worship, churches all over England began to adapt it for their own use. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began broadcasting the service overseas in the 1930s, and in 1963 a shorter version of the service was taped for television broadcast.

The Seminary’s service will begin with bell choir music and an anthem inspired by African music, and will include three dancers as the participants process into the chapel. The Seminary Chapel Choir will perform traditional and non-traditional hymns, and also more recent anthems composed including two by members of the Seminary community, Charles Bartow, the Seminary’s Carl and Helen Egner Professor of Speech Communication in Ministry, and Michael Hegeman, a doctoral student in practical theology. Students, faculty, staff, and administrators will read the lessons. The service will conclude on the Seminary’s quad with caroling by candlelight. The public is invited to attend either service free of charge. For more information, call 609-497-7890.