Welcome to Westminster Abbey. Daily prayer has been offered in this place for over a thousand years, and your participation in today's service is warmly welcomed.

The service always includes one or more psalms. These ancient prayers, taken from the Old Testament, reflect the full range of human emotions and experiences; from the depths of anger, resentment, and abandonment to the heights of ecstatic joy and praise. They were used by Jesus, and have always been at the heart of the Church's daily prayer.

Please join in saying the words and singing the hymns printed in bold type.

The church is served by a hearing loop. Users should turn their hearing aid to the setting marked T.

Photography, filming, and sound recording are not allowed in the Abbey during services. Please ensure that mobile telephones and other electronic devices are silent.

Following the service, a collection will be taken; the money from today's services will divided equally between The Children's Society and the work of the Abbey. The Children's Society provides specialist support that empowers young people to make positive changes and rediscover their hope.

Order of Service

All stand as the clergy enter

The officiant says a Sentence of Scripture

All remain standing for the Responses

O Lord, open thou our lips
and our mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Praise ye the Lord.
The Lord's name be praised.

All sing the Hymn

Blest are the pure in heart,
   for they shall see our God,
the secret of the Lord is theirs,
   their soul is Christ's abode.

The Lord, who left the heav'ns
   our life and peace to bring,
to dwell in lowliness with men,
   their pattern and their King;

still to the lowly soul
   he doth himself impart,
and for his dwelling and his throne
   chooseth the pure in heart.

Lord, we thy presence seek;
   may ours this blessing be;
give us a pure and lowly heart,
   a temple meet for thee.

Words: John Keble (1792–1866) and others
Tune: Franconia 341 NEH, William Henry Havergal (1793–1870), adapted from Johann Balthasar König's Harmonischer Lieder-Schatz, Frankfurt 1738

All sit to say Venite exultemus Domino

All remain seated to say Psalm 80

Hear, O thou Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep :
shew thyself also, thou that sittest upon the cherubims.
Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasses :
stir up thy strength, and come, and help us.
Turn us again, O God :
shew the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole.
O Lord God of hosts :
how long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth?
Thou feedest them with the bread of tears :
and givest them plenteousness of tears to drink.
Thou hast made us a very strife unto our neighbours :
and our enemies laugh us to scorn.
Turn us again, thou God of hosts :
shew the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole.
Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt :
thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
Thou madest room for it :
and when it had taken root it filled the land.
The hills were covered with the shadow of it :
and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedar-trees.
She stretched out her branches unto the sea :
and her boughs unto the river.
Why hast thou then broken down her hedge :
that all they that go by pluck off her grapes?
The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up :
and the wild beasts of the field devour it.
Turn thee again, thou God of hosts, look down from heaven :
behold, and visit this vine;
and the place of the vineyard that thy right hand hath planted :
and the branch that thou madest so strong for thyself.
It is burnt with fire, and cut down :
and they shall perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand :
and upon the son of man, whom thou madest so strong for thine own self.
And so will not we go back from thee :
O let us live, and we shall call upon thy name.
Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts :
shew the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

All remain seated for the first Lesson, Song of Solomon 5: 2–end

I slept, but my heart was awake.
Listen! my beloved is knocking.
'Open to me, my sister, my love,
   my dove, my perfect one;
for my head is wet with dew,
   my locks with the drops of the night.'
I had put off my garment;
   how could I put it on again?
I had bathed my feet;
   how could I soil them?
My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,
   and my inmost being yearned for him.
I arose to open to my beloved,
   and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh,
   upon the handles of the bolt.
I opened to my beloved,
   but my beloved had turned and was gone.
My soul failed me when he spoke.
I sought him, but did not find him;
   I called him, but he gave no answer.
Making their rounds in the city
   the sentinels found me;
they beat me, they wounded me,
   they took away my mantle,
   those sentinels of the walls.
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
   if you find my beloved,
tell him this:
   I am faint with love.

What is your beloved more than another beloved,
   O fairest among women?
What is your beloved more than another beloved,
   that you thus adjure us?

My beloved is all radiant and ruddy,
   distinguished among ten thousand.
His head is the finest gold;
   his locks are wavy,
   black as a raven.
His eyes are like doves
   beside springs of water,
bathed in milk,
   fitly set.
His cheeks are like beds of spices,
   yielding fragrance.
His lips are lilies,
   distilling liquid myrrh.
His arms are rounded gold,
   set with jewels.
His body is ivory work,
   encrusted with sapphires.
His legs are alabaster columns,
   set upon bases of gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon,
   choice as the cedars.
His speech is most sweet,
   and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved and this is my friend,
   O daughters of Jerusalem.

Here ends the first lesson.

All stand to say Te Deum laudamus

We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting.
To thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein.
To thee Cherubin and Seraphin continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth;
heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory.
The glorious company of the apostles praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee.
The noble army of martyrs praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee,
the Father, of an infinite majesty;
thine honourable, true, and only Son,
also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.

Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ;
thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man, thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father.
We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants, whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with thy saints, in glory everlasting.

O Lord, save thy people, and bless thine heritage.
Govern them and lift them up for ever.
Day by day we magnify thee,
and we worship thy name ever world without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.
O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in thee.
O Lord, in thee have I trusted; let me never be confounded.

All sit for the second Lesson, 2 Peter 1: 1–15

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ:

May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants in the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is short-sighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

Here ends the second lesson.

All stand to say Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he hath visited, and redeemed his people;
and hath raised up a mighty salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets,
which have been since the world began,
that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hands of all that hate us;
to perform the mercy promised to our forefathers,
and to remember his holy covenant,
to perform the oath which he sware to our forefather Abraham,
that he would give us,
that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before him
all the days of our life.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest;
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation unto his people
for the remission of their sins.
Through the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us,
to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

All face east to say together the Apostles' Creed

The Lord be with you.
And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.

All kneel or sit to say the Lesser Litany; the Lord's Prayer and the Responses

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done,
in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

O Lord, shew thy mercy upon us.
And grant us thy salvation.

O Lord, save The King.
And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

Endue thy ministers with righteousness.
And make thy chosen people joyful.

O Lord, save thy people.
And bless thine inheritance.

Give peace in our time, O Lord.
Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God.

O God, make clean our hearts within us.
And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

The officiant says the Collects; of the day, for Peace, and for Grace

Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Lord, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day; defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The officiant says the Prayers; for the Royal Family, and for the Members of the Order of the Bath

Almighty God, the fountain of all goodness, we humbly beseech thee to bless our most gracious Sovereign Lord King Charles, Queen Camilla, William Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and all the Royal Family: endue them with thy Holy Spirit; enrich them with thy heavenly grace; prosper them with all happiness; and bring them to thine everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

God save our Gracious Sovereign, and all the Members of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath living and departed. Amen.

All say

All stand to sing the Hymn

When morning gilds the skies,
my heart awaking cries,
   May Jesus Christ be praised:
alike at work and prayer
to Jesus I repair;
   May Jesus Christ be praised.

The night becomes as day,
when from the heart we say,
   May Jesus Christ be praised:
the pow'rs of darkness fear,
when this sweet chant they hear,
   May Jesus Christ be praised.

In heav'n's eternal bliss
the loveliest strain is this,
   May Jesus Christ be praised:
let air, and sea, and sky
from depth to height reply,
   May Jesus Christ be praised.

Be this, while life is mine,
my canticle divine,
   May Jesus Christ be praised:
be this th'eternal song
through all the ages on,
   May Jesus Christ be praised.

Words: Beim frühen Morgenlicht, in Katholisches Gesangbuch, Würzburg, c 1744, translated by Edward Caswall (1814–78)
Tune: Laudes Domini 473ii NEH, Joseph Barnby (1838–96)

All remain standing for the Blessing, to which all respond Amen.

Those who wish to may sit for the remainder of the organ voluntary

Sunday Lunch

Come and enjoy Sunday lunch at the Cellarium

Enjoy a traditional lunch with a selection of starters and desserts. Open from noon. From £20.00 per person.

If you attend worship at the Abbey regularly, you may like to add this page to your home screen for easy access to our orders of service.

Hymns covered by Christian Copyright Licensing (International) Ltd are reproduced under CCL no 1040271 and MRL no 1040288. Common Worship (Church House Publishing, 2000), material from which is included in this service, is copyright © The Archbishops' Council. Scripture Readings are from the New Revised Standard Version.