Sunday 24th December, Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Eve, our choral Christmas preparations will reach their climax.
On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, the Dean of Belfast will conclude his 2023 Black Santa Sitout for local Charities.
Then at 8.00pm on Sunday 24th December, we look forward to a packed cathedral for the ever popular Christmas Eve Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. The service will feature festive music which has been prepared by the Master of Music and the Cathedral Choir for this year’s service. The choir will sing Anthems and Carols for Christmas, we will hear again the familiar Nine Lessons of Christmas Eve, and join in congregational carols which will set the scene for Christmas. All are invited, and all are welcome.
On Christmas Eve at 11.00pm we expect the cathedral being packed once again, as we gather in the candle light for The First Communion of Christmas.
Bishop David McClay, the Bishop of Down and Dromore will be the preacher, with the Dean as celebrant. With soaring music and prayerful silence the cathedral choir and gathered congregation will greet the birth of the baby of Bethlehem into a world in sore need of God’s peace and the Christ’s hope. Do join us for one of the highlights of the liturgical year.
Christmas morning, Monday 25th December
At 11.00am all are invited to share in our cathedral’s Festival Eucharist for Christmas Morning, led by the choir of the cathedral, with Bishop Trevor Williams as celebrant and our Deacon Intern, the Revd Cameron Mack as our Christmas morning preacher. Whether visitor to Belfast for the season of Christmas, someone who has returned to the province to be with family or friends, or a regular member of the Cathedral family, all are invited to place the worship of the Christ Child, born in our midst, to be at the very centre of our Christmas Day.
New Year’s Eve - Sunday 31st December, 2023
Marking the ending of the old year, the cathedral’s Sunday morning worship will continue with a Cathedral Eucharist at 11.00am led by the Dean.