good morning and welcome on this 25th of august welcome to the dinery garden it's a really blowy and soaking wet day and i've taken shelter inside this covering marquee which has been put up for outdoor outdoor conversations at a social distance which can happen without masks and it's a great blessing at this time of pandemic but this morning it's a great blessing because it gives me a bit of shelter from the driving rain and also the wind so welcome wherever you are in the world um i was interested to read in sylvia plath's journal this morning a sentence or two about the sense of the year turning at this 25th of august she wrote august rain the best of the summer gone and the new fall not yet born the odd uneven time yet in fact although it feels like that it is a day full of amazing anniversaries anniversaries of so many new beginnings to begin with and one thinks of um first of all galileo demonstrating his first telescope as they look out into the stars and and all that is above them in venice in 1609 was a frightening discovery for some one thinks of james cook and joseph banks the great botanist setting out in 1768 on this day on a voyage to the pacific from which banks would return with so many specimens to make up a great foundation of the collection at the botanical gardens in queue one thinks also of inventions um one things of michael faraday and all his work with the safe use of electricity one thinks of the spacecraft voyager 1 entering into space and leaving the heliosphere for the first time in 2012 and all those things are beginnings some things also are endings and we remember on this day and i'll think about that in our reflection that the council of nicaea ended on august the 25th in the year 325 from which came our nicene creed uniting the church at that time and said by us ever since and we remember to the liberation of paris in 1944 and give thanks for that and the sign of the beginnings of an ending of that enormous conflict we look to at the beginnings of the national parks in the united states in 1916 with woodrow wilson's eco act at that time and we give thanks for all those great spaces but we remember so many of them being threatened by fire in california at this time and think of those fighting fires there so many beginnings so many endings amusingly this is the day when the wizard of oz was first shown in 1939 and there's that wonderful moment when black and white cinema turns into color and there were gasps across cinemas i'm sure before my time but the wizard of oz is still a very popular kind of film so let's think of all those things and many others here we remember also that this day was the day on which the duke of kent prince george was killed in active service in the royal air force in the second world war in 1942 just weeks before he had come here to stand on the green court with my predecessor hewlett johnson known as the red dean as the dean showed him the appalling damage that had been done in the huge baideca raid on canterbury the night before the remains of the library are joining the cathedral great chunks of stone all across the green court houses destroyed the city in ruins and prince george standing there sympathizing with the dean it's a most moving photograph one remembers how soon afterwards the present duke of kent's father was to lose his life so let's think of all those things but bring our own concerns to our prayers on this particular day as we say our morning prayers oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the true the only light banish all darkness from our hearts and minds blessed are you sovereign god creator of all to you be glory and praise forever you founded the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands in the fullness of time you made us in your image and in these last days you have spoken to us in your son jesus christ the word made flesh as we rejoice in the gift of your presence among us let the light of your love always shine in our hearts your spirit ever renew our lives and your praises ever be on our lips blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind does we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and amen our psalm this morning is a section of psalm 119 and on this 25th morning of the month that begins at verse 33 teach me o lord the way of your statutes and i shall keep it to the end give me understanding and i shall keep your law i shall keep it with my whole heart lead me in the path of your commandments for therein is my delight incline my heart to your testimonies and not to unjust gain turn away my eyes lest they gaze on vanities oh give me life in your ways confirm to your servant your promise which stands for all who fear you turn away the reproach which i dread because your judgments are good behold i long for your commandments in your righteousness give me life so we turn to our regular reading of the acts of the apostles and i'm going to cheat slightly today because sin bartholomew caused us yesterday with the lesson we read to leave out chapter six it's that that i'm reading this morning and then later in the week we can look at since stephen's speech but chapter six is rather important to us so let's begin there now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number a complaint by the hellenists arose against the hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution and the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of god to serve tables therefore brothers pick out from among you seven men of good repute full of the spirit of wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word and what they said pleased the whole gathering and they chose stephen a man full of faith and of the holy spirit and philip and prokhoros and nyqueno and tyman and parminas and nicholas a proselyte of antioch these they set before the apostles and they prayed and laid their hands on them and the word of god continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in jerusalem and the great many of the priests became obedient to the faith and stephen full of grace and power was doing great wonders and signs among the people then some of those who belong to the synagogue of the freedmen as it was called and of the cyrenians and of the alexandrians and those from silesia and asia rose up and disputed with stephen but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking so they secretly instigated men who said we have heard him speak blasphemous words against moses and god and they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council and they set up false witnesses who said this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law for we have heard him say that this jesus of nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that moses delivered to us and gazing at stephen all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel we come to an interesting time in the acts of the apostles as sid luke begins to show not only the development of the church but the way in which in any community as it grows and grows divisions are bound to occur and this division begins with a complaint and the complaint is the fact from greek speaking jews that those who mostly spoke in aramaic and read their scriptures in the hebrew as opposed to those of the dispersion who spoke greek which was the official language of the roman government in palestine and between them they began to fall out because they said their widows were not getting their rightful share of all the common property and distribution that this community which held all things in common was giving out for those in need so that the twelve the apostles call everyone together and they say as did moses in the book of numbers we haven't time with our duties of prayer and serving the word to deal with this ourselves we therefore intend to appoint seven others who traditionally have been seen as the first deacons in the ministry of the church because of the serving verb which is being used here and deacons are those who serve it's quite clear that since stephen certainly didn't limit himself to serving at tables he actually was a fine preacher in his own right as we shall see in the next few days but the division had been established and the seven shall we call them deacons for now were then ordained in a way that we recognize and put that on there so it's not going to move around too much now monkey has moved and they're ordained by the laying on of hands to set them apart another activity which is developing in the life of the early church the apostles lay hands on those who are to be deacons serving the needs of the people and a unity is established by these seven who will look after the needs of the hellenists the greek speakers as well as those of those who spoke aramaic so all of that becomes part of the life of a community and we're used to that very often ways of change begin with grumbles and all the things that have been causing people to grumble are for the moment hopefully set right it won't be the last time this occurs we shall see in the acts of the apostles how the life of this growing community develops i'm so much reminded of a time when i was in juba in the southern sudan soon after the ending of great phases of terrible civil war i was the guest of the archbishop of the sudan elena and working with him at that time and every morning these supplies which were being sent in of food and proper resources the church was helping to give out and people would arrive and they would come to collect their sugar ration or the the ration of of millet or maize and always they would say to the people giving out may we go and greet the archbishop remember the archbishop saying if i spent my time greeting people individually there will be no time to do anything else and it was a desperate time the same thing is happening here the apostles say we've no time to do this just as moses said we've no time to do this and so a special device was used in order to just help them continue with the work in that particular way the acts of the apostles are going to be a time of learning not only about what goes on in jerusalem but also learning about what goes on across the mediterranean region and there is an interesting anniversary today as well the um pliny the elder uh who was a roman commander was in the bay of naples at the time of the eruption of vesuvius and his nephew young pliny said goodbye to his his uncle as the uncle went across the the bay saying fortune favors the brave i must go and try and rescue people from this dreadful eruption we know he never returned and so it was pliny the younger who wrote the account of the death of his uncle but also in that eruption perished drusilla who was the daughter of herod agrippa and she married felix the procurator of syria at that time and what i'm saying is that it connects us and we'll come to that later in the acts of the apostles with the history of what was going on because she and her son who was another agrippa died in the vesuvian earthquake at pompeii as well so let's uh uh the the enormous shower of dust and and everything else burying the the people who were there so that we'll come back to that later in the acts of the apostles let's for now though um say our prayers for this day we're remembering in the anglican communion the oh the diocese of olo in south sudan and praying for tandema obey day and the bishop there and his people and the diocese of busan in korea and onesimo dongsen park the bishop there and the diocese of kagazi in uganda and george bergamohander the bishop there and his people also we remember archbishop justin and bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lambeth and the chaplains of the area around the sandwich deanery all those exercising chaplaincy ministry there within schools uniformed organizations residential care communities and so on it's a good thing to remember as so many of these organizations are beginning to open up again after the after the lockdown so bringing your own prayers together let's uh let's pray now and remember the needs of our world here's the prayer for today oh god you declare your almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace that we running the way of your commandments may receive your gracious promises and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure through jesus christ our lord amen so as you bring your own prayers let's say together the prayer which jesus taught his disciples to say and taught us to say whenever we meet together in whatever language you normally use 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 amen and in this boisterous and very wet morning we keep silence for a moment to say our own prayers 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 the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always amen you