The Chaplain, Adrian Stark-Ordish, is responsible for the Spiritual and Religious Life of College. He is there to help the whole community explore spirituality and seeks to be a visible and approachable presence across the breadth of school life.
About the Chaplaincy
Chaplaincy at Wellington is about exploring spirituality and building community. This happens in lots of parts of College life and particularly in our beautiful Chapel.
Gathering together is an important expression of the community’s connection both with those around us and previous generations of Wellingtonians, and singing together helps connect us to each other. The beauty of Chapel and the words and music offered
within it lift our hearts and spirits to all that is best about the human character, inspiring us to delve deep into what is most important for each of us as we seek to serve and help shape a better world.
The Chaplaincy is complemented by a number of religious groups and societies, such as Open Door, and pupils also have access to a multi-faith space.
Each year, pupils from any year group may be prepared for Baptism and Confirmation in the Church of England.
Chapel Services
Chapel services during the week and on Sundays remain a significant manifestation of the collective life of the community. The School gathers in Chapel every Wednesday and Thursday morning for Midweek Chapel (a short service lasting 20 minutes, with hymns, a talk, and reflection), and on Sunday Evenings for College Evensong. Rooted in the beauty and solemnity of the Anglican tradition and seeking to engage mind, body and soul, Chapel plays a vital part in promoting the College values and in shaping the moral and spiritual development of all, whatever their culture or religious background. Major points of the Church and School year are marked and celebrated; the Festival of Lessons and Carols for Christmas – a liturgy composed by the first Master, The Right Reverend Edward White Benson – is always a great favourite at the end of the Michaelmas Term. Speech Day, Remembrance, and Graduation services are among the other high points.
Whatever a student’s faith or worldview, Chapel gives them somewhere to pause and reflect in the busyness of life and is somewhere the community can, together, look to find and make meaning in our common experience of being human.
Each House in College takes a turn as the ‘Duty House’ at Sunday Chapel, with a special role in reading lessons, serving, welcoming guests, and taking the collection. Parents are welcome at Sunday Chapel services, particularly those led by their son or daughter’s House.
Accessibility
There is a lift and a short ramp to enable all guests to access the Chapel.
Wellington College Chapel Music List
Summer Term 2026
Lent Term 2026
Michaelmas Term 2025
Michaelmas Term 2024
Lent Term 2024
Michaelmas Term 2023
Chapel Choir
The Chapel Choir and Schola Cantorum sing at the school’s weekly services, accompanied by the fine three-manual Harrison & Harrison organ of 1921. In addition to this and the various other special events (Remembrance, Christmas, Easter, etc.) throughout the year, they give regular concerts at Wellington and in London. Other recent highlights have included services at Westminster Abbey, St John’s College, Cambridge and Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, tours to Bruges, Lisbon and Paris, regular collaborations with Rupert Gough and the Choir of Royal Holloway, and a recording of Sunday Worship for BBC Radio 4.
The Chapel Choir and Schola Cantorum are open to Music Scholars and Choral Scholars, as well as to all other pupils by audition. Alumni of the choirs are currently Choral and Organ Scholars at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and a number have become distinguished soloists of international repute.
The History of the Chapel
When Wellington first opened in 1859, no chapel had yet been built, and services were held in the empty Orange dormitory. The first Master, Edward White Benson, made the construction of a permanent chapel one of his highest priorities, and energetically sought donations to help pay for it. The foundation stone of the chapel was laid by Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, in 1861. Two years later, on 16 July 1863, the Chapel was formally opened. The building was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, a leading architect of the Victorian Gothic Revival, with much influence from Edward White Benson. Benson was concerned with every detail of the Chapel, from both an aesthetic and a symbolic point of view, choosing the subjects for decorations such as the stained-glass windows, mosaics and carvings.
For the first hundred years, all students attended chapel every morning and twice on Sundays. The original building was much narrower than it is now, so to accommodate a growing school population, extensions first on the north and then the south side were added under the direction of architect Sir Arthur Blomfield. By 1900, the floor plan was as it appears today. In the early 1920s the old organ in the North Aisle was replaced by the College’s impressive war memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, while an organ loft and the present Harrison organ were installed above the entrance. During the Second World War a bomb destroyed most of the original Victorian windows, so most of those visible today are post-War. Behind the altar and in the antechapel are particularly fine examples of 1950s windows, designed by Old Wellingtonian Hugh Easton, while the most recent windows date from 2015. Memorials to former teaching staff and pupils have been added throughout the Chapel’s history. In 1985 an underground Crypt Chapel for quiet and personal worship was opened next to the Chapel.