A Carol Service at Westminster Abbey — A Story of Community, Care, and Christmas

12 Dec 2025

On Friday 5th December 2025, I was invited to attend a very special Christmas Carol Service hosted by Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales at Westminster Abbey.

It was one of those moments where you pause and think, how on earth did I end up here? The Abbey was filled with music, candlelight, and a gathering of people from many walks of life, including familiar faces such as Kate Winslet, Katie Melua, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and others whose names, I confess, have already escaped me.

By now, you may be wondering how a Unitarian Minister from Liverpool found himself at such a prestigious occasion.

The answer lies much closer to home.

For the past four years, Ullet Road Church has opened its doors on Christmas Day to support a remarkable charity called Liverpool Care Leavers. The charity works with young adults who have left the foster care system and often find themselves navigating adulthood without the family networks many of us take for granted.

From the very beginning, it felt important to me that the church should be a place of welcome on Christmas Day, not just in words, but in action. That first year, we opened the doors, gave our time freely, and made space for something simple and deeply human: care, warmth, dignity, and belonging. Since then, that commitment has quietly continued, year by year, with many hands and hearts involved.

Liverpool Care Leavers do extraordinary work, providing food parcels, practical support, and connection at a time of year that can be especially difficult. Earlier this year, I was able to write a letter of support that helped the charity secure a grant. As a result of that work, the charity was offered places at the Westminster Abbey Carol Service, and they kindly invited me to attend with them.

At first, the invitation simply mentioned a carol service. I assumed it might be at another church in Liverpool and thought, that would be a lovely evening. A second email followed shortly after: “Oh… I forgot to say… it’s at Westminster Abbey.” Well… that certainly changed the scale of the evening.

The service itself was deeply moving. One moment, in particular, made me smile. The first reading was given by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who read ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’, better known as ’Twas the Night Before Christmas’. The author, Clement Clarke Moore, is usually described as Episcopalian in the records, yet some accounts argue his personal theology leaned Unitarian.. and I am going to run with that! I quietly enjoyed that unexpected thread of connection.

Yet for all the grandeur of the Abbey, what stayed with me most was not the setting, nor the celebrity, but the reminder that meaningful work often happens far from the spotlight.

I want to take a moment to offer heartfelt thanks to Viki Goulden, Caroline Shipton, and Ian Smith, who generously give their time to be present in the church when the volunteers of Liverpool Care Leavers use Ullet Road Church as a base for organising food parcels. Their quiet, faithful presence, opening doors, making space, ensuring everything runs smoothly, is the kind of service that rarely draws attention, but without which none of this would be possible.

It is steady, unseen kindness like this that holds communities together.

The full Carol Service will be broadcast on television on Christmas Eve, ITV1. If you happen to be watching, keep an eye out, you might just spot a bald-headed Unitarian Minister wearing a red scarf, looking slightly amazed to be there.

If you do, remember this: the moment does not belong to one person. It belongs to a community that chose to open its doors, to give time freely, and to show up for others… especially when it would have been easier not to.

And that, perhaps, is the truest song of Christmas.

Below is a link on the BBC website 

Catherine joined by stars and charity heroes for Christmas carol concert - BBC News