“While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks”

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.

Luke 2:8

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“While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks” is a Christmas carol that ‘s over 300 years old. Published in 1700, it “was the only Christmas hymn to gain official approval in the Church of England until Charles Wesley’s hymn “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” was added in a 1782 edition of the New Version.”¹

Over the years lyrics have changed and been added, and it has been sung to numerous tunes.²
Because of its British heritage I’ve posted this version sung by the King’s College Choir of Cambridge:

“A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is the Christmas Eve service held in King’s College Chapel. The service introduced in 1918 to bring a more imaginative approach to worship. It was first broadcast in 1928 and is now broadcast to millions of people around the world…

“The annual televised service from King’s College, filmed a few weeks before Christmas, is broadcast in the UK on Christmas Eve and is available for international viewers to download.”³

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Featured Image: Annunciation to the Shepherds: Adam Pynacker, Public Domain.
Image: Supplement to the New Version of Psalms (London: J. Heptinstall, 1700). “While shepherds watched their flocks by night,” at Hymnology Archive.
¹Celebrating Holidays, “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks.”
²Chris Fenner, “While shepherds watched their flocks by night,” for Hymnology Archive, 28 November 2019, rev. 11 December 2019
³King’s College Chapel, “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.” The video download for international viewing will be available to purchase on Christmas Eve.