The Opening of Year Service 2017

The Opening of Year Service took place, yesterday, Wednesday 27 September 2017 at 13.10 in 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 and most significant services in the King's year. With an academic procession and a distinguished visiting preacher, senior university Officers and the President of the Students' Union all attend. Every year King's invites a visiting preacher who often reflects on the university'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 was the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, Bishop of Southwark, who preached about the importance of wisdom in the purposes of a university. You can read the Bishop's sermon in full here. Past preachers have included King's alumna, the Rt Revd Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of Crediton and former Chief Nursing Officer for England; 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).