On Christmas Eve in 1918, Eric Milner-White, Dean of King's College, Cambridge, offered a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols to the city of Cambridge. The service has since become a worldwide holiday tradition. The success of the Christmas Eve service prompted Milner-White to craft a service of Advent Lessons and Carols for the first Sunday of Advent in 1934. Our own service is adapted from this form, and it calls to mind through word and song the joyful expectation of Advent.
The Lessons and Carols service was for many years a staple at Church of the Redeemer, and we hope, as we return to this beautiful service, that it will become once again an annual tradition for our entire parish and for the city of Cincinnati.
Listen in during the week before Christmas and meditate on a series of carols, hymns, readings, and the seven great "O" Antiphons, one of the great Medieval inheritances of the Church. O come, Emmanuel!