Saturday, December 6th - 4 p.m. and Sunday, December 7th - 4 p.m.
Thompson Memorial Chapel

No Admission Charge
Tickets are not required.

Sermon 2005 "Love and Fear"

Sermon 2006 "On the Boundary"

Sermon 2007 "Sanctuary"

The annual Christmas Service of Lessons and Carols at William College this year, will be held on Saturday, December 6th at 4 p.m. and again on Sunday, December 7th at 4 p.m. in the Thompson Memorial Chapel. The service will feature choral music, familiar carols, and the traditional reading of the biblical Christmas story.

The Williams Concert and Chamber Choirs, Bradley Wells, director, will perform an array of traditional arrangements as well as new settings of seasonal texts, under the direction of student conductors (TBA). Organist Edwin I. Lawrence will be joined by several organ students in playing the Prelude - and the Williams Handbell Choir will play the festive Postlude after the service.

Students and members of the community will read the traditional Christmas lessons and the Rev. Rick Spalding, College Chaplain, will deliver a meditation.  A free-will offering will be received at the conclusion of the service, for the benefit of the (TBA). In addition, all are invited to bring an item of non-perishable canned or packaged food for local emergency pantries.

The Christmas Service of Lessons and Carols has been described as one that "presents the Christmas story in an ambience of mystery, splendor, hope and joy." It was instituted at Williams College in the mid-1960's by the Rev. John Eusden, then Chaplain and Professor of Religion, in collaboration with Prof. of Music Kenneth Roberts. The service is modeled on the traditional Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, first held on Christmas Eve in 1918 at King's College Chapel in Cambridge , England .

For building locations on the Williams campus, please consult the on-line map at www.williams.edu/home/campusmap/. An outdoor map is also displayed between Hopkins Hall and Thompson Memorial Chapel on Hopkins Hall Drive, near the entrance to the Williams College Security Office.

(Photos below are from Lessons & Carols 2002) Photographs by Nancy Luczynski