King's Bye-Fellow Fiona Godlee will deliver the annual 'Sermon Before the University' in King's College Chapel this weekend. Fiona was – until recently – Editor-in-Chief of the British Medical Journal, and her address will bring together her longstanding concerns about public health and climate change, under the title of ‘Our Health, God’s Planet’.
The service will take place on Sunday 1st May at 10:30am with singing from the full Choir. Members of the public are welcome to attend and there is no need to book in advance.
About Fiona Godlee
Fiona is a medical doctor, editor, writer and campaigner. She has written, researched and lectured on a broad range of subjects, including the impact of environmental degradation on health, drug policy reform, academic peer review, open access publishing, and the need for transparency, integrity and independence in medical research, education and practice. From 2005 to 2021 Fiona was Editor in Chief of The BMJ (British Medical Journal) and she holds honorary fellowships with the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Faculty of Public Health, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. Fiona is a Trustee of the Eden Project, an ambassador for the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, and chair of the Youth Environmental Service.
About the Sermon Before the University
The 'Sermon Before the University' derives from the annual 'Lady Day' sermon, the requirement for which was written into the Founder's statutes. This was 'Foundation Day', an occasion when the dedication of the College to its co-Patron the Blessed Virgin Mary was recalled and celebrated with a sermon 'to the University' by 'one of the Society'. Preached for hundreds of years on Lady Day itself, March 25th, the first day of the year in the calendar being used when the College was founded, it moved away from Lady Day in the second half of the twentieth century and is now preached in Full Easter Term.
