good morning and welcome on this 31st of october it's a saturday morning and it's the beginning of three very special days throughout the world for the church this all hallows eve and then all hallows tomorrow the feast of all saints and on monday the feast for many of all souls and in some calendars the remembrance of those who have been loved ones and heroes in our own lives in the past different cultures do this in different ways and we shall be thinking of just that as we go on but it's breakfast time for all of these and so we better just do that first because it's a saturday morning here we are come on hey here we go will keep a bit of a measure of quiet while we're just thinking about these things [Applause] so on our traditional saturday morning breakfast with the animals but at the same time thinking of certain things which are important in our world at the moment and we want to think of first of all those who have been caught up in the earthquake in turkey at ishmael and all those who have lost their lives and those who are acting in a rescue capacity at the moment you also think of so many nations beginning once again to go into a full lockdown in france and we were thinking of the people of france yesterday following the incident in nice and also in belgium and italy and other nations trying to fight this pandemic so bring your own concerns on this day this all hallows eve halloween in in in the ordinary language and and we see how that feast is kept this is a vigil as a a day of watchfulness before the feast of all saints itself and from the united states mostly the customs of uh halloween which have grown up in more recent times are connected massively with the pumpkin uh which is uh again a vegetable which has been brought across from the states we'll think about that and the way in which this particular day is remembered before all saints starts when all saints really starts with even song this evening and then on to all saints and and all souls day and uh the day of thanksgiving for all those whom we've known on on monday so let's begin our prayers this morning on this this eve of all hallows oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever our psalm on this last day of the month is psalm 145 and i'm reading some verses from that now i will exalt you o god my king and bless your name forever and ever every day will i bless you and praise your name forever and ever the lord is loving to everyone and his mercy is over all his creatures all your works praise you o lord and your faithful servants bless you they tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your mighty power to make known to all peoples your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom your dominion endures throughout all ages the lord is sure in all his words and faithful in all his deeds the lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all those who are bowed down the eyes of all wait upon you o lord and you give them their food in due season you open wide your hand and fill all things living with plenty the lord is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works the lord is near to those who call upon him to all who call upon him faithfully he fulfills the desire of those who fear him he hears their cry and saves them so as i said we're going to complete the letter of paul to timothy which we've been looking at through these days and i'm reading from chapter six and starting at verse three teach and urge these things if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our lord jesus christ and the teaching that accords with godliness they are puffed up with conceit and understand nothing they have an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy dissension slander evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth imagining that godliness is a means of gain but godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world but if we have food and clothing with these we will be content but those who desire to be rich fall into temptations into a snare into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierce themselves with many pangs but as for you a man of god flee these things pursue righteousness godliness faith love steadfastness gentleness fight the good fight of faith take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses i charge you in the presence of god who gives life to all things and of christ jesus who in his testimony before pontius pilate made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our lord jesus christ which he will display at the proper time he who is the blessed and only sovereign the king of kings and lord of lords who alone has immortality who dwells in unapproachable light whom no one has ever seen or can see to him the honor and eternal dominion amen as for the rich in this present age charge them not to be haughty not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on god who richly provides us with everything to enjoy they are to do good to be rich in good works to be generous and ready to share thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life oh timothy guard the deposit entrusted to you avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge for by professing it some have swerved from the faith and grace be with you let's see end of this extraordinary letter and in it we have to see a very different kind of writing from that which we are used to with paul at the same time let's just think before we we come back to that about these three days this day has become a day of enormous fun and pumpkins are sold in enormous measure to represent the way in which this halloween is celebrated in different cultures throughout the world in the northern hemisphere it is of course at the time of year when there become more hours of darkness in our 24 hours then of light and long before the christian gospel was brought to these shores there was a festival which marked the fact that evil prospered in darkness and light had to drive that evil away so that at this time of year the beginning of november bonfires were lit and a celebration of that was there to drive away darkness when the romans came here they added to that their feast of harvest time and we again as a christian church celebrate the bounty of god's gifts and the pumpkins celebrate the bounty of god's gifts in north america when the uh when when those traveled across to form what is now the community of the the new world and that becomes an important aspect of this the giving thanks to god for the harvests that are collected but essentially this is a day of preparation to celebrate tomorrow the feast of all saints which was established on november the 1st by pope gregory iv in the year 834 the feast of all hallows if that word is a a strange one to you remember we use it daily our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name the feast of all those who led holy lives of very different sorts to encourage us now and then on monday we remember all those who in our own lives have died and gone before us and remember them in that greater light but today let's think of the sense of evil in a dark world and the ability of the gospel to drive that evil away it's there in that letter to timothy paul is very clear of the dangers of people relying on riches or seeking gain in knowledge which is useless for them but the most important thing and we can get this from a well-known hymn is how he says to timothy train yourself in godliness you say bear well that's a word which is a favorite of this writer train yourself in godliness and it appears many times through the epistle but one has to say that that the list there and the way he speaks needs to be complemented by a a certain uh epistle of simple the epistles of the ephesians with that wonderful passage in chapter 6 and verse 12 about the the whole armor of god and also about spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places spiritual evil in the heavenly places it then goes on fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life and paul would say in his epistles receive that as a gift of grace for it's the only true armor against the wiles and temptations and insidious coming of evil into one's life in ways that you hardly recognize and paul is insistent that the only way that that this spiritual dimension of evil can be fought is by prayer and the acceptance of the grace of our lord jesus christ who is as we say it again and again at the beginning of our morning worship the light of the world it's a gift and the only temptation about halloween which is enormous fun is that we may be in danger of trivializing evil and that would be a great mistake in our own lives for evil comes in in insidious ways and all sorts of ways in temptations and we see that with our lord himself in the desert as evil tempts him with the words of god train yourself yes it's good those words are in this if it's all greek words used of the athlete or someone running a race or in competition training themselves but it's not enough the gift of grace has to be embraced in our prayers and in our asking for grace to notice what's going on in our human journey yesterday we remembered the voyage of saint francis strake sir francis drake across the world and the circumnavigation of the whole globe in the golden hind today is the anniversary of a particular event in 1999 on this day jesse martin a solo yachtsman returned from an 11 months of circumnavigating the globe solo and arrived in melbourne harbour after i think something like 228 days or it may have been longer but this young man who was 16 when he set out is certainly the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe in one journey solo and without assistance [Music] his yacht was called lionheart and the book he wrote about it lionheart i think it's called the story of a human journey well that's something which is an inspiration for us today with all the fun of halloween across the world but all the consciousness of spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places it's not just a human fight that we face that we train ourselves for it's an insidious fight that without the gift of grace we may not notice and without the whole armor of god and the sword of the spirit we will be useless in training ourselves for anything that's the message of the epistles of paul it's the message for this day of noting the darkness and placing against it the light whether of bonfires or the spiritual light of the gospel within us it's the message of tomorrow as we rejoice in all those who hallowed their lives the feast of all hallows all saints and it's the message for monday when we remember all of those in our own lives who have been important in giving us light as we face periods of darkness so let's say our prayers on this particular day and winston's come to join me here and let's think of those for whom we're praying across the world we're praying for the diocese of rio grande in the episcopal church of the united states the diocese and the bishop there michael vonno and his people the diocese of delaware also in the episcopal church and kevin brown and his people and the diocese of kuru nagala in the church of ceylon the anglican church of ceylon in sri lanka and the bishop there quiet siri fernando pray for justin our own archbishop and the darcy bishop of this diocese and then we pray for bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lambeth until and today for the wantsome group ministry that's the communities of minster saint nicholas at wade and moncton and chislett and we pray for richard brady the priestess in that group for vicky coneys michael darkins and sally willins in their ministry there and we think of all those um uh in that whole community and um we use for the very last time now this collect which we've learned to say in reflection of the strip of the scriptures and the word of god has a strong defense against evil blessed lord it was called all holy scriptures to be written for our learning grant that we may in such wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that by patience and comfort of your holy word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which you have given to us in your son our savior jesus christ our men so in our own languages we join together in saying 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 deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever are men moment of silence now as we say our own prayers on this day 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 love and upon those whom you would pray for today and always amen wow