The Opening of Year Service 2016
The Opening of Year Service will take place on Wednesday 28 September 2016 at 13.10 at the university’s Chapel on the Strand Campus.
The service is held annually on the first Wednesday of the new undergraduate term and has come to be one of the largest, significant services in the King’s year. With an academic procession and a distinguished visiting preacher, senior College Officers and the President of the Students’ Union will attend.
Every year King’s invites a visiting preacher who often reflects on the College’s Christian heritage and the place of this in the search for truth in Higher Education and is also a time to re-commit to working together as a university community.
This year’s preacher is the Rt Revd Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of Crediton and former Chief Nursing Officer for England. During the service she will formally welcome Sir Christopher Geidt FKC as the new Chairman of the College Council. Bishop Sarah is a King's alumna having trained at the Nightingale School of Nursing, which is now part of King’s as the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery.
Credit: Tim Ireland
Past preachers have included King’s alumnus, the Very Revd Dr David Ison FKC, Dean of St Paul’s, the Rt Revd Nicholas Holtam AKC FKC, Bishop of Salisbury (also a King’s alumnus and Fellow, who installed the Principal in his stall during the 2014 service), the former Principal Professor Sir Rick Trainor FKC (2013), the Most Revd Vincent Nichols, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster (2010), and former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams (2002).
Commenting on the service, the Revd Canon Professor Richard Burridge, Dean of King's College London, said: ‘The Beginning of the Academic Year Service is a momentous and important occasion, with the historic King’s College London Chapel filled with King’s representatives celebrating our commitments to working together as a community in higher education, acknowledging both our heritage and traditions and looking forward to our exciting future. This year we are welcoming our new Chairman at the Strand service and at Guy’s our new campus Chaplain. The Opening of Year Service is an event I always look forward to.’
Credit: Tim Ireland
The Opening of Year Service at Guy’s will take place on Thursday 29 September at 17.15. The visiting preacher at this service will be the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, Bishop of Southwark, who will also License the Revd Jim Craig as the new Chaplain to the Guy’s Campus. The service is also an opportunity to join together at the start of the new academic year, to pray and similarly to re-commit to being a community in work and in study.
Notes to editors
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For further information about King's visit our King's in Brief page.
Image: Greg Funnell