Nine Lessons and Carols is a beloved tradition in the St Columba Anglican School, Port Macquarie calendar.
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Each year it allows the school and community to pause and celebrate the importance of beauty, stillness and music.
This year has not been without its challenges and an imposed limit of five singers in a school choir meant the event had to be adapted.
Under the guidance of St Columba Anglican School's vocal coordinator Marie van Gend and school chaplain Paul Hodge, students busily filmed choristers singing, edited footage, designed artworks, recorded readings and created animations to bring the event to life.
Nine Lessons and Carols has been held at St Columba Anglican School since 2012, and is a ceremony inspired by the centuries-old service of the same name at King's College Cambridge.
The traditional festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is performed every Christmas Eve in the Chapel of King's College and marks the beginning of Christmas.
The service is based around nine Christmas lessons mixed with a selection of secular poetry and prose.
Readings are interspersed with several congregational carols, this year recorded by senior school choirs divided into groups of five and edited together by the SCASTV student media club. All this takes place to the backdrop of animations, artworks and a beautiful 'passing of the light' candle ceremony.
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