Girls will form part of the choir performing at the Christmas Day service at St Paul’s Cathedral for the first time in its 900-year history on Wednesday.
The choir, which is made up of adult and child choristers, will perform on Christmas Day under the dome of the cathedral in central London. Choir rehearsals took place on Monday.
Lila, 11 and Lois, 10, were the first two girls to become full choristers in June. Before becoming full members of the choir, the pair had to pass their probation and undergo specialist training.
At the time, Sarah Mullally, the bishop of London, said: “It is a great joy to welcome Lila and Lois into the cathedral community. It was profoundly moving to see the culmination of their hard work, and God-given gifts on show, at the service on Sunday evening. I hope that Lila and Lois can be an inspiration to other young girls as to what can be achieved, in what is a huge milestone in St Paul’s 900-year history.”
The cathedral first announced that girls would be admitted into its internationally renowned choir in 2022. Salisbury was the first Anglican cathedral in England to permanently offer girls places in its choir, 33 years ago. Many others, including York Minster, Durham and Exeter, followed suit.
Some traditionalists want to maintain all-male voice choirs. The Traditional Cathedral Choir Association is a charity that supports the “gloriously unique heritage” of choirs of men and boys.
On its website, the association calls all-male voice choirs “a hugely significant part of our heritage with a history stretching back to the Reformation and for centuries beyond”, adding they are “widely regarded as spiritual, cultural and musical jewels their unique sound – in particular that of the boy treble and countertenor – spans the centuries with an immediacy that only music can provide”.
The association says that, in recent times, “a myriad of pressures has seen many of our historic traditional choirs lost”.
Last month, King Charles III gave St Paul’s Cathedral three Christmas trees from Windsor Castle to mark the beginning of advent. It marked the 90th year that the monarch has donated trees to the cathedral.
The royal tradition began in 1934 when King George V gave three large trees from his royal estates to the cathedral to enhance the festive atmosphere.
St Paul’s, an architectural masterpiece, was designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the previous building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London.
