good morning and welcome to morning prayer wherever you are in the world feel welcome we are in the City of Tyler in East Texas and we've come to the Rose Garden because Tyler is one of the great Rose growing centers of the United States the Roses here in this Garden are past their first flush of flowering uh but there's still some flowers as you see around us and these banki roses on each side have lost their flowers now but you see what an enormous Garden this is it spreads right out into into the distance and at a particular time of year there's a Rose Festival but we've got someone here who later on will help us understand this Rose Garden a little and speak about the cultural life of the City of Tyler but Meanwhile we're going to say our morning prayer in this window between the Feast of Pentecost the giving of the Holy Spirit and the Feast of the Holy Trinity which completes really the the sequence of really special things before we enter ordinary time so this morning there's this lull between Pentecost and Trinity and we'll look at the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles telling that particular story but for the moment let's begin our morning prayers in the normal way in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit if then you have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Canticle is from the first song of Isaiah surely it is God who saves me I will trust in him and not be afraid for the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense and he will be my savior therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing from the Springs of Salvation and on that day you will say give thanks to the Lord and call upon his name make his deeds known among the peoples see that they remember that his name is exalted sing the Praises of the Lord for he has done great things and this is known in all the world cry aloud inhabitants of Zion ring out your joy for the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel glory be to the father and to the son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever amen the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind as we rejoice in the gift of this this new day so may the light of your presence oh God set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our Psalm this morning on this Tuesday morning is Psalm 23 and I'm using the King James version of that very favorite psalm for so many the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in Green Pastures he leadth me beside the Still Waters he restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth over surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever glory be to the father and to the son and to the Holy Ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be World Without End Amen our lesson naturally enough comes from The Acts of the Apostles chapter 3 this is after the day of Pentecost but there is seemingly A Lull in the hostility towards the friends of Jesus as they begin to proclaim the good news in the city of Jerusalem and the regularity of their presence in the temple is made clear here so this is Chapter 3 of The Acts of the Apostles and we are reading up to verse 16 now Peter and John were going up to the temple at The Hour of Prayer the ninth hour and a man lame from birth was being carried whom they laid daily at the Gate of the temple which is called the beautiful gate to ask arms of those entering the temple seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple he asked to receive alms and Peter directed his gaze at him as did John and said look at us and the man fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them but Peter said I have no silver or gold but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and he took him by the right hand and raised him up and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and leaping up the man stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them walking and leaping and praising God and all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for arms and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him while he clung to Peter and John all the people utterly astounded ran together to them in the ptic Co called Solomon and when Peter saw it he addressed the people men of Israel why do you wonder at this or why do you stare at us as though in our own power or piety we have made him walk the god of Abraham the god of Isaac and the god of Jacob the god of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of pilate when he decided to release him but you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and you killed the author of Life whom God raised from the dead to this we Are Witnesses and His Name by faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know and the fath faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all Peter giving the good news it's wonderful to hear that sound in the background I'd know I was in the United States the moment I heard the train sounding it's one of the great sounds as a train passing by in the distance here Peter and John at that time regularly worshiping in in the temple at The Hour of Prayer 3:00 in the afternoon the 9th hour just as we read in St Luke's gospel that Jesus went to sinagogue as was his custom there's a regularity of public Worship in all this in the same way as there is much uh preaching of the good news in the open air outside amongst the crowds and this rhythm is something that we have CT up too so we are saying our morning prayer according to to the prayers of the church and at the same time we're out in the open air this morning doing that in this beautiful place this city of Tyler normally we've we've looked to see what kind of dates gave us an anniversary on this day and today's a rather interesting one because there are four dates of significance there are many more but I've chosen four dates of significance to help us in our understanding the first one is the fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May the 22nd 1859 he's born in Edinburgh and Conan Dole of course is is known as a writer but especially he's known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes the detective With His companion Dr Watson it's a sequence of stories and when uh Conan do tried to stop writing them there was a public outcry and he had to recreate Sherlock Holmes whom he thought he had written his last story about and write some more I used to be fascinated by these detective St Tales When when I was young and I've got the the whole collected story of uh stories of of Sherlock Holmes in that way he created a world where you helped him solve the problem and all the clues were there in the stories as they went along he's the first of these anniversary dates which create a world into which we enter and when we're reading we know all sorts of facts about that world and at the same time are um helped to solve the puzzle by all the evidence given the next person who created a world for us in so many different ways is the actor Lawrence Olivier he was born on this day in 197 and he brought the stories of so many alive in films like weing heights where he plays heathcliffe or in films like Pride and Prejudice where he plays Mr Dary but at the same time so many Shakespearean roles which some of you may have have seen and certainly the films that he made of King Henry V are Classics of their type Olivier was someone who could create a world just as Conan Doyle did Olivier did it by his drama by his acting and by his command of the stage and we could enter into that in heart and soul and give thanks for Humanity's creative gifts enabling us to do just that the next person who was born today in 1813 was the composer and let's say mostly the opp opera composer Richard Vagner Vagner began by writing operas which were quite simple and in a smaller scale operas like rienzi or operas like the Flying Dutchman uh which are of a normal length for for operas and hugely enjoyable operas like loen grin but then suddenly he took to taking the folk tales of his country and creating huge operas and certainly the quartet of operas which form the ring cycle which are performed on all um major Opera House stages and particularly in byro in in in Germany in Bavaria um all of all of those are massive works and you're taken by the music into a different world it's a world similar to tolkien's World of The Lord of the Rings but this is Opera and the music carries you there instrumental music and also uh choruses and solos of grand Dimension the same with the enormous Opera the Meister singers of nurenberg telling the story of that Guild which had great music and a song festival each year just as this place has a Rose Festival in the same way so we give thanks for the the Magnificent music of Richard Vagner and that too by its music can take us into another world so we have Conan Doyle with his detective puzzles taking us into one world and we have Lawrence Olivier with his acting skills taking us into many worlds and Richard Vagner with his music causing us to know the the the wonderful capacity of entering into a world of mystery as well as of folktales and then suddenly we have the last one of these uh Victor Hugo he was not born on May the 22nd he died in May the 22nd in 1885 and we have um his uh various works the French think of him as a great poet we tend to think of him as uh a a a a writer of great stories and none more so than Le misera which oddly uh was taken um in was written rather on the island of gery in the Channel Islands because he was in Exile at that point as he had left France as he Mally disapproved of the government of the Emperor Napoleon III so at first he put himself in self-imposed Exile in Brussels wrote many things it's always said that every morning when he got up he would either write so many lines of of poetry or else 50 full scap pages of a novel and when he removed from Brussels to Exile on the Channel Islands and especially the island of gery where he went in 1855 and didn't return to Paris till I think 1871 at that time he wrote his most famous novel Le Miser and Le miserab now has become even more famous both as a film and as a musical and the film of the musical and London and um New York and many opera places across the world showing this in fact our own our own um uh school put this on in a magnificent way uh and and and played this as an as a show as an opera show in the playhouse in in Canterbury when we were there the story of of how the Police Inspector through one government after another will not let go of the justice that he's seeking to capture Jean Von uh and that story is is so dramatic it's become another world into which we enter so we give thanks for all of these we remember on the island of gery going to the the candy Gardens as they're called and on the island of of gery there's a statue given by the French government a statue of VTO Hugo looking out across those beautiful gardens at St petport and around is a flower bed and little quotations of Hugo's Works in English are set amongst the flowers as though flowering themselves um here are some of them uh to another person is to see the face of God or there is nothing like a dream to create the future or music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent and then have courage for the great Sorrows of life and patience for the small ones and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task go to sleep in peace for God is awake and lastly he who does not weep does not see all of those like little flowers blooming and still the house where Victor Hugo lived in St Peter Port oatville house is is there marked uh and he wrote One novel toilers to the sea in English which was a tribute to the citizens of G bery that island in the Channel Islands who looked after him and became his home during those years of Exile we remember well the librettist of the uh musical Le misera Herber ketma whom we met at the home of our friend uh philis sons and we were looking forward to conversations and working with him in a different way but sadly he passed away before that became possible we give thanks for him creating another world not just of the novel but taking the story of the novel and making it into something which was understandable of people but also a joyful praise almost a prayer to God by the time one had finished this wonderful opereta but here we are in Tyler and so I'm going to ask someone who knows much more about Tyler than we do our friend Weston Jennings Weston come and join me on the on the seat here and uh say good morning to the Garden congregation good morning um we're staying with Weston at the moment Weston was a few years ago our organ scholar in Canterbury but now has a a massive life of of organ playing and knowledge about organs and at the same time you're a plantsman and a gardener yes tell us a little bit about the City of Tyler first to and why all these roses so the City of Tyler is really um a central part of Northeast Texas and East Texas in general it's the seat of Smith County and as we can see it's known so well for its uh Rose cultivation and production that really started in the 30s and I believe there was a a blight in one of the fruit crops and then they were uh looking for what they would uh develop next and they discovered that roses really love to live right here in Tyler and uh this particular site that we're at now was purchased I believe in 1912 and uh during the uh Works project Administration in the late 30s uh a grant was received to develop this site and um for a long time it was also the home uh to our East Texas fair just across the way there and so there's this has always been a a real Hub of activity here sure now tell us about your before you tell us about your garden at home tell us about your your role here so I am director of music and organist at First Presbyterian Church and uh First Presbyterian Church is one of the um older uh churches here in Tyler and uh just a couple of years ago we celebrated 150 years and uh I work with uh the largest organ in East Texas it's a beautiful instrument by we' had it I agree with that [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] um it's uh it's it's wonderful to be able to uh not only work with the instrument but the wonderful choirs and and different musical things that are going on and um you'll also hopefully get to hear a little bit of of the organ now definitely you will feter will make sure we get some of that I know uh at the same time you've always had an interest in organs ever since your early years yes yes uh I came to the organ a little bit on the later side I was almost 17 when I started playing the organ but I've been playing piano since I was quite young yeah and when I saw the different sound colors and the the capabilities of of the instrument I really just fell in love and uh since then uh it's it's taken me all over the world uh including the wonderful Canary Cathedral where where we met and um it's uh sort of carried me through my days indeed it's great to find you here with your your your own organ in that that Mighty and beautiful church and we received all the lovely Hospitality of your community yesterday and that was a a great event but at the same time you've always had an interest in growing plants and creating Gardens yes I have wait for the gardener to go past I I I have had an interest in in gardening and plants and so when I moved to the current home I'm in I am very fortunate that there's a a small yard and I have uh very strong ideas about Native plantings and uh companion plantings and all sorts of things like that I I have roses as well yeah ofes and very fragant roses and I just love the way that you can um have this image in your mind of how you might want to wander through the the garden and how you want it to affect you personally and and uh the different colors and the different Bloom seasons and um so it really keeps me me busy let me let me just translate the word yard for for people uh who are from England because in England we use the the word yard for should we say a concrete space yes and in America it can be the most beautiful garden and that would be your yard your backyard and you that's exactly what we're talking about there yes so that I think that that people then get that vision of of that tell us also about our perceptions of East Texas because we had thought that would be a Dusty sort of ranch fill thing with with cattle and no Greenery at all it's not like that a bit is it yes so a lot of people have this idea of all of Texas this great wonderful state that it's it's just covered with tumble weed and dust and and horse ranches and that sort of thing and uh that is really this this image of West Texas that Hollywood has has taken and run with and so we all have that Vision but here in East Texas we have we have grasses we have pine trees we have water uh we have uh Hills we have a slightly more temperate climate although today um uh is I would say we're getting really into the hot season now for me and then it becomes devilishly hot as we get into July and and by August yeah uh but there are there's a wealth of um of just rich soil here and it's different we're we're close to Dallas yeah but the soil changes dramatically right and uh here it's just so much better for all the plants that we love and we don't have to um be finicky about a amending the soil too much I mean you can amend it to your heart's content but so many of these plants as we'll look later the Chamas and the aelas particularly yes really love this environment yeah many of the house plants that we use and have to have shelter in England all the time are really fruitful here and flowering and as we came up from Houston driving up through we just passed so many green Landscapes with with beautiful trees and all along the freeways were were wild flowers growing and I think that was due to one of your president's wives yes ladyb Bird Johnson was was very responsible in uh getting the the energy behind that project and making these uh beautiful really beautiful um roads that are that are surrounded by these wild flowers they are and and many of the wild flowers are things that we would consider garden flowers only and and they grow in that way but here they're all along the banks which is just wonderful to see speaking of flowers um every March there is um there are the aelia trails here and uh you've noticed that as we approach a First Presbyterian Church we go through our historic uh neighborhoods including the brick streets and all of those houses just have um beautiful array of aelas and there's a period of 2 weeks Every Spring that visitors flock here to enjoy uh the beauty of the aelas now they don't always get the dates right so sometimes they might have gone by the time the is happening theia but it's a really fun time really marks spring for us and it's it's beautiful and that's probably just before the first flush of roses come out right so it's a lot of a lot of flower going on here in the spring now your other skill in Coral singing you you gather groups of people together in the church there with full facilities for letting them sing and you've got something like that happening next week have you yes so uh next week is um the end of our Fine Arts season and so that's a series of concerts that uh that span from September through June and uh next week actually we have a chamber orchestra called new Texas Symphonia and they are performing Copeland's appach in spring with some other companion pieces as well by moo James lentini and um and cdge Taylor as well and just kind of putting that all together um and it it's really fun uh we have a great time and this one's particularly exciting because it is the end of a season that has really included some wonderful performances and uh but we've got Coral instrumental um brass organ whatever you desire early music it's all there and and I have the great pleasure of sort of compiling that and putting that together every year gosh the only thing I've ever had to sing of of colid Taylor was the song of high water oh okay which is a wonderful Coral piece on the way through and and and uh the the wedding uh songs and things of that sort just captures this area it is a set of four novelettes yes and we're performing the first one and it's for uh string strings and triangle I think right right it's a good combination it's really good to be here with you it's it's been quite a sort of catchup hasn't it in talking about how we've come through since the last time we saw you and your year was 2013 that sort of time was it I I arrived in canbury August of 2013 and uh stayed on in England for a second year and and you know happy with to return as as well and uh I try to every summer but uh sometimes it doesn't work out well we hope you can this year I'd love to Rose Festival yes tell us about the Rose Festival so once the uh they discovered that roses did so well here um there was sort of a a cultural um Festival that sprang out of that and that's been going on since the 30s and every October thousands of visitors flock to Tyler um and they gather in various places uh they gather in just here on the courtyard and there is a a crowning of the uh the rose Queen and there's a great history we were actually uh at a a location yesterday that had this Grand display of all the rose queens and here at the uh Rose Garden Center they have a museum uh to the festival and you can see all of the um the dresses the you know all the all the finery that they um Dawn for the festival and uh there are photos of the the the courts and the different um various roles that have to be filled every year um for this grand festival in October it's very good for cities like this to have Traditions isn't it and and and feel this is when we all gather then and people come to join them and and enjoy the atmosphere of the city and we've certainly enjoyed it even though it's not Rose Festival time it's it's been a really good time yes it's I I I'm I'm so glad that you could be here when you can we still get to see some of the roses that are in bloom and uh like I said we're just at the beginning of of the summertime for us and so it's not too hot we're able to sit here and still uh be in the Sun and not dying sure yeah we're not dying quite yet stay on and we'll just finish off our little service here and then um we'll Bless the people and and we can all go our way this is the collect the special prayer for today oh God the author of peace and lover of Concord to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect Freedom defend us your humble servants in all assaults of our enemies that we surely trusting in your defense may not fear the power of any adversaries through the might of Jesus Christ Our Lord amen say we say together the prayer Our Savior taught us Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deler Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen so we end our morning prayer here in Tyler and give thanks not only to Weston but for the hospitality of this Rose Garden so that we can say our prayers here and we pray at this time for all those who will spend this day in any kind of trouble or need those in situation of War and the Ukraine we think of we also think of uh Israel and Palestine and the and Gaza all those areas where peace is so desired and the solutions seem so hard we pray for all those who prepare to make political decisions about that today have in mind those you need to offer those of your friends in any kind of distress and Those whom you will remember who have gone on from this life but still bear such an influence in your life that we think of them with great Thanksgiving the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and Minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his son Jesus Christ Our Lord and the blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be upon you upon those whom you would pray for and Those whom you love today and always amen so thanks for your hospitality it be great to share morning prayer with you pleasure B [Music] [Music] for [Music] all [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] la [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] he [Music] n [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n a [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]