Students, faculty, neighbors, and friends are invited to gather in celebration Tuesday, December 13, 2022, for Taft's 86th Service of Lessons and Carols. Two services will be held in Woodward Chapel: the first begins at 6 pm, the second at 8 pm. A reception in the Chapel's undercroft will follow the 8 pm service, and feature refreshments and festive music performed by Taft's Jazz Ensemble.
The service will include Nativity readings by faculty, staff, and students, and seasonal music from Collegium Musicum, the Chamber Ensemble, and the Woodward Brass Ensemble, conducted by Bruce Fifer and T.J. Thompson.
Lessons and Carols services are celebrated throughout the world in anticipation of the holiday season. The best-known service features the renowned Choir of King's College, and is broadcast each year on Christmas Eve from King's College, Cambridge, England. The traditional format originated on Christmas Eve, 1880 in Cornwall England. According to the BBC, Edward Benson, then the Bishop of Truro (later the Archbishop of Canterbury), crafted the worship service as a means of keeping "men out of pubs on Christmas Eve."
All are welcome to share in this joyful celebration of the season.