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| Title | Commemoration of Benefactors |
| Details | The Governing Body and the Head Master of Westminster School request the pleasure of your company at a Service for the Commemoration of Benefactors in Westminster Abbey at 7.30pm on Friday 22 November 2024 By kind permission of the Dean and Chapter And afterwards to a reception within the School Dress: Lounge Suit Doors will open at 6.45pm, and all guests are asked to be seated before 7.15pm Entry will be by e-ticket only. Deadline for ticket applications – Friday 8 November. Pressure on space means that each OW may only book a maximum of two tickets. E-tickets will specify a seating zone within the Abbey, by House affiliation. About Commemoration of Benefactors The Service of Commemoration of Benefactors takes place in the Abbey on Friday 22 November. It is the most important moment in the school calendar at which, every other year, on the Friday following the anniversary of the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, we give thanks for her re-foundation of the school and Abbey under new statutes in 1560, and for the gifts of all our other benefactors in the years since, whose generosity has helped the school to grow and flourish. We have, at Westminster, no great Founder's Day or Speech Day, and no public prize giving as at other schools; instead, 'Commem' takes that place as our central institutional celebration. The Head Master's address plays a key part in the service, but the real narrative of the event is the 'journey' of the roses from the Great West Door of the Abbey to the tomb of Queen Elizabeth in the north aisle of Henry VII's Chapel, where they are laid by the Captain of the King's Scholars, as a symbolic act of collective gratitude. This journey involves representatives of all parts of the school (the Heads of School, a Westminster Exhibitioner, an Under School boy, the Presidents of the Common Rooms of both Great School and Under School), and is accompanied by prayers, thanksgiving and music, in stages to mark the movement eastwards through the Abbey. Uniquely, and under the terms of a special clause in the 1662 Act of Uniformity, much of the service is sung, and prayers are said, in Latin (although with English additions); this is an example of the school exercising its ancient privileges and living out its traditions, just as we do each week at Latin Prayers up School. The form of service we still follow, with modifications, is from the nineteenth century, but the tradition in its broadest sense is much older than that, and we have records from the seventeenth century onwards of the Scholars offering thanks to Queen Elizabeth on the anniversary of her accession. The School Choir will be singing the Introit and Te Deum, and leading the congregation in its hymns and psalm, in collective thanksgiving, while the King's Scholars, as they process, will offer chants reminiscent of the great Benedictine tradition of the Abbey in the Middle Ages; a tradition which was of course the origin of education on this site, and thus of the School itself. Commem is a great occasion, and something all members of the School community should experience. The service itself starts at 7.30pm (though we ask that all guests be seated by 7.15pm), and it lasts about an hour; receptions follow within the School, by House. |
| Date | Friday 22 November 2024 |
| Time | 7.30 pm |
| VenueIn-Person Event | Westminster Abbey, Dean's Yard, London SW1P 3PA |
| Cost | Free |
| Dress Code | Lounge Suit |
| RSVP Date | Friday 8 November 2024 |