good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of saturday the 16th of april it's holy saturday the eve of easter day and in church terms it's a day of quiet and a day of a pause before easter itself yesterday good friday was full of action and then the hours when jesus hung on the cross and finally the uh tragic sense of his death for his followers who had observed all this going on and now we come to the sabbath and also the feast of passover the meal would have been eaten um last night after sunset and uh also the paschal full moon is in full shine at the moment and the jewish feast of passover is happening at the same time as our christian easter this year we've come together to say our prayers quietly on this morning and we've chosen to come out into this space fletcher and i were out here very early as the light just began to dawn with a mug of tea it's a favorite place to come and it is absolutely beautiful this morning in the garden it couldn't be a better spring morning on this day of pausing and of quiet as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the feast of easter but also reflect back to yesterday good friday the day of the cross and the passion of our lord so as we say our prayers of course the people of ukraine are are really in our hearts and minds as are so many suffering in different ways from pandemic and from the climate change of flooding in durban in south africa all of those things which threaten the fragility of human life on our planet at present some of those most of them caused by humankind's carelessness or in bad intention towards each other all of those things we shall think about pray about on this day of quiet and reflection we've come to this part of the garden we've been here before but things are blossoming wonderfully and there are so many birds around singing in the the trees we've seen so many and i think you'll see quite a few coming down onto the bird uh food behind us but at the same time we've chosen this time to keep russell and the guinea fowl and ducky just in their their shed while we say our prayers together so that you don't get the rhythmic sound of the guinea fowl i'm sure they think their song is very beautiful but it can be quite disturbing so we're just leaving that and you'll hear russell crying for the morning and the moment we finish they'll be out in in the in the air again they're not sadly out of their lockdown because of the avian flu in other parts of the country so let's say our prayers on this day this holy saturday o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon earth your saving power among all the nations blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief your only son was lifted up that he might draw the whole world to himself may we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight declaring your love for all the world 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 as 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 forever amen our psalm on this 16th morning of the month is the shepherd psalm 80. here o shepherd of israel you that led joseph like a flock shine forth you that are enthroned upon the cherubim before ephraim benjamin and manasseh stir up your mighty strength and come to our salvation turn us again o god show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved o lord god of hosts how long will you be angry at your people's prayer you feed them with the bread of tears you give them abundance of tears to drink you have made us the derision of our neighbors and our enemies laugh us to scorn turn us again o god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved you brought a vine out of egypt you drove out the nations and planted it you made room around it and when it had taken root it filled the land the hills were covered with its shadow and the cedars of god by its boughs it stretched out its branches to the sea and its tendrils to the river why then have you broken down its wall so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes the wild boar out of the wood tears it off and all the insects of the field devour it turn again o god of hosts look down from heaven and behold cherish this vine which your right hand has planted and the branch that you made so strong for yourself let those who burnt it with fire who cut it down perish at the rebuke of your countenance let your hand be upon the man at your right hand the son of man you made so strong for yourself and so will we not go back from you give us life and we shall call upon your name turn us again o lord god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved it's the sound for the morning the 16th morning of every month one of the four but at the same time it's very very apt for this holy saturday for here is a psalm crying out to god to give understanding of what has happened here o shepherd of israel this is actually crying out to the lord god the creator as the shepherd who called a people and now when this psalm was written has totally separated them and sent the ten tribes of the north off into exile and when verse 2 is said shine forth you that are enthroned upon the cherubim that's a vision of heaven before ephraim benjamin and manasseh well now iframe and manasseh are two northern tribes who've gone into exile benjamin one of the two southern tribes still there in the holy land with jerusalem as their capital turn us again oh god if it's anything to do with our sin turn us again that's the refrain all the way through turn us again oh god show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved but the turning is really the same word is repentance and penitence and those things which cause us to have a complete change of heart and be turned that is the refrain except on one occasion but for the moment as the psalm goes on there's a sense of the lord's anger at his people's prayer and they're being fed with the bread of tears well on this holy saturday all those years ago when our lord was crucified the day before his own people are fed with the bread of tears this is a day of weeping and mourning for those who love the lord and have seen him die on the cross and now cannot be active for the sabbath is insisting that nothing nothing is done you give them abundance of tears to drink you've made them the derision of their neighbors all those around laughing at them now that jesus the one that they trusted in is dead to all intents and purposes dead you brought a vine out of egypt back we go to the psalmist thinking of how the lord led his holy people and likening them here's the metaphor again so often a metaphor of creation this time of a vine and remember how we were talking about how jesus and his disciples crossing the temple courtyard in william temple's imagination were the the great golden vine which was incised on the wall and decorating the porches of the temple shining in the paschal moonlight as jesus led his disciples towards the garden of gethsemane but stopped to teach them in the temple courtyards and around them shone in the moonlight that golden vine symbol of israel symbol of the lord's people you brought a vine out of egypt you drove out the nations and planted the vine in you made room around you cared for it now not as the shepherd but as the gardener the vine and jesus as they'd walked through on the evening before his crucifixion i am the true vine and all of that being remembered here as this psalm is said it stretched out its branches to the sea to its tendrils to the river why have you broken down its wall now we come to a refrain again but it's not the same refrain three times in this psalm near the beginning in the middle and right at the end the refrain is turn us again o lord god of hosts now in verse 15 it's turn o god of hosts meaning o god please in your mercy you turn and face us with the same mercy that you showed at the beginning of leading your people like a vine out of israel and planting them in a fertile nation protecting them tending them as the creative gardener which jesus himself has an image of i am the true vine you are the branches and now this prayer which let your hand be upon the man at your right hand the son of man you made so strong for yourself that title that representative title of our humanity which our lord loved to use about himself and is encapsulated in the beginning of the fourth gospel from which we'll read in a moment but the very beginning the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth the humanity of the son of man our representative of humanity in showing us that which is divine and of which we are capable with the graces of the kingdom of heaven as we pray thy will be done thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven that simplicity of the prayer that jesus teaches his followers to say whenever they meet together in prayer and finally once again at the end of the psalm turn us again give us a change of heart o lord god of hosts share the light of your countenance and we shall be saved a beautiful sound for this morning of holy saturday let's turn then to a very short reading this morning from the gospel of saint john we read nearly all yesterday of chapter 19 but there's just a little bit left which we're going to read this morning and as we read it we sense a completion of what the world thought was the end of the ministry of jesus of nazareth i am it's verse 38 of chapter 19 and this event is taking place the night before this day of solemn pause just before sunset so that the work being done is not breaking the sabbath law verse 38. after these things joseph of arimathea who was a disciple of jesus but secretly for fear of the jews asked pilate that he might take away the body of jesus and pilate gave him permission so he came and took away the body of jesus nicodemus also who earlier had come to jesus by night came bringing a mixture of mer and aloes about 75 pounds in weight so they took the body of jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices as is the burial custom of the jews now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid so because of the jewish day of preparation since the tomb was close at hand they laid jesus there we imagine that they are the two secret disciples of jesus perhaps one might say why weren't they brave enough to declare themselves earlier they were members of the council their voices had not prevailed in the fever of yesterday's anxiousness of caiaphas to get this job done so that the body would be off the cross by sunset and the passover meal might be eaten and through the passover day which is a sabbath a high day all things might return to tranquility and the law would be fulfilled and the old law kept it's actually ironic really that everything that caused controversy with regard to jesus in the beginning of his ministry in all of the gospels seem to have connection with his sense of breaking the sabbath and jesus talking about the fact that these laws were made for the benefit of humankind to be interpreted flexibly and jesus constantly stressing that in the way that he has compassion with people and heals them on the sabbath day the strictest of laws and even in the synagogue he heals someone on the sabbath day because this is more important than a written law and the son of man is lord of the sabbath says jesus in one of his his teaching statements very early on all these things become tremendously important now but the old law reasserts itself at this moment and ribbons are always wonderful for cats so we'll just take playtime away from our friend here for the moment um as it reasserts itself it causes this pause a cessation of all activity on this high day this feast of the passover which was the sabbath and as that happens then everyone stops the old sabbath law reasserts itself and jesus had lived his life under that law but at the same time had shown that the laws were made for the benefit and welfare of people and would confront those who were saying this law must be kept by saying if you have an ox or an ass which is valuable to them which has fallen into a pit do you wait till the next day when it will be dead or do you do it on the sabbath and of course he knew they did it on the sabbath of course they did and at the same time he then turned to the ones whom he's healing and saying and should not these children of abraham who have borne this infliction in their humanity for so many years be released in the same way on the sabbath day of course they should for the sabbath is a day for healing the law must be used in that way and the son of man is lord over the sabbath he said the same in the cornfields when they accused his disciples of working by plucking ears of corn in order to blow away the husks and chew on the ears of corn as they went along a walking picnic for the disciples on a particular journey all of those things we remember as the sabbath law reasserts itself on this holy saturday and before that before sunset joseph of arimathea goes to pilate he is influential enough he's a rich man and influential enough to go straight to the roman governor and the fact that he's not made himself a known disciple of jesus is now to the benefit of what is about to happen tenderly to the body of jesus he asks if he might take away the body of jesus and give it a decent burial and pilate thinks that jesus is dead it's a compassionate thing to do for this influential man whom he probably knows and thinks of as one of the not only respectable but but more tranquil citizens of jerusalem with whom he can actually do business so joseph goes and asks for that and when pilate gives him permission he then goes away now traditionally it's thought that this tomb is one that joseph had had created for himself in a garden which belonged to him that's not said here it simply said near the place that jesus uh was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb absolutely ready a new tomb and now another influential member of the jewish council who himself was also a secret disciple of jesus we know that because he comes to jesus by night early in saint john's gospel and sits with him and jesus uh almost teases him in the conversation that they have when nicodemus is finding it really difficult to talk on the two levels that we've spoken about all the way through saint john's gospel in our reflections on that gospel and and jesus teases him and says what you a scholar of the jews find it difficult to understand this there is a nice relationship between nicodemus and jesus and jesus understands the position of joseph of arimathea and of nicodemus and here is nicodemus now finding the courage as with joseph because the eyes of caiaphas the high priest have now turned to all the liturgical activities of the feast of passover and everything that he must do as high priest on this feast day they're not looking at joseph varamasia and and nicodemus they've always been political enemies because these two men are pharisees and the the high priestly family are sadducees and the sadducees and the pharisees are normally bitter opponents of each other so all the activity because all they're dealing with now as far as caiaphas is concerned is a dead body i doubt he even notices what's happening and uh so here are joseph of arimathea and nicodemus nicodemus bringing an immensely costly gift of spices and linen cloths and no doubt they have servants who are helping them with this task in all ways as they and the servants simply do their masters bidding and they go to the garden and reverently and decently perform the customary burial rites with the spices and wrap the body of jesus lay it in the tomb and no doubt the servants push the heavy stone against the door of the tomb and there in this gospel that the matter rests so because of the jewish day of preparation since the tomb was close at hand they laid jesus there pause and there ought to be a long pause or a space as the gospel is written out because there's no and the next day because that actually doesn't happen in this gospel we have to wait till the day after the first day of the week for the next day is the seventh day of the week the sabbath when no one can do anything and it's that pause we're registering today so we give thanks for the ministry of joseph of arimathea and of nicodemus as secret disciples but clearly known about for the evangelist is writing of them and setting the story through this gives us a chance to see how this gospel works itself through and i'm going to use the uh the date that i want to use today to illustrate what i think is this is the special um quality of this gospel i want to talk about the film producer and director david lean who was born on the 25th of march 1908 but died on this day 16th of april in 1991 one of the most influential film directors of all time but was born to a family in croydon in surrey here in england who were strict quakers and he therefore had a very strict upbringing and never saw a film until he was 17 years old because that was not the customer of the family to look at films and from his strict quaker parents and his upbringing he was sent to a quaker school at leighton park in reading and was known to be only half-hearted in his scholarship and a rather dreamy boy who was called a dud by so many of his academic school masters and when he left school joined his father's accountancy firm and found it cripplingly boring and not to his taste and then shockingly in 1923 his father the strict quaker suddenly deserted the family left his wife went away to form another relationship and that shock was very great for the young person who had been brought up as a quaker and no doubt had a respect for both his parents but at the age of 10 his uncle had given him a brownie box camera and in his dreamy way he had learned really well how to use the brownie box camera some of you remember brownie box cameras to develop the films and to make beautiful pictures still pictures uh and this was this was rare to give a boy of that age a brownie box camera normally it was sort of 16 or 17 before you got something as expensive and wonderful as that but the uncle gave it to him and now an aunt when his father went away said to him you loathe this job you're doing why for heaven's sake why didn't you go and get a job that you like doing and by then he had begun at the end of his day in the uh the accountant's office to go to the cinema and became a compulsive watcher of black and white films in those days and that was what called him he went to be a tea boy at the gomont studios and then became a clapper boy one of those who came and said take two or whatever it was take sixty when they were snapping down the clapperboard and gradually he rose by diligence because he was fascinated in all that was going on and dreamt a dream of what he could be doing he wrote rose to be a third assistant director low down on the list until suddenly he made a creative partnership with the playwright nell coward and realized that some of coward's plays would make really excellent films and he could do it so four films were made by nell coward and uh david lean at that time several of them were actually um what you might call morale boosters fought this was in the middle of the war for the english nation and they went around the world in in that way sort of showing that we could be courageous although a small island 1942 the film in which we serve 1944 this happy breed then quite different 1945 nell cowards uh play blythe spirit which is full of fun of course uh with the the wife who has died coming back to make trouble for the new wife of the husband there sort of echo actually of his father going away with someone else i imagine but one remembers that blight spirit for the wonderful portrayal of madame cartie by margaret rutherford and she she's probably my ideal madame carty but then 1945 here the magic suddenly opened out with the film brief encounter which was actually taken from a small play by nell card i remember it being performed by sherman school for girls when i was in sherburne as the vicar there and watching them perform cowards still life which takes place entirely in the station buffet the cafe then and nothing else and the conversations are between uh the person who is is then played by celia johnson in the film and the person played by trevor howard the doctor just that but lean saw the capacity of making this into a really fine film and he did and used the music of rachmaninoff's second piano concerto to give us that amazing film which is still up there amongst the most popular films of all time made here in england uh and uh it it is whenever lists of the hundred best films are there it's there at the top of the list it was the the earliest success of of a massive kind and we still remember it of course but the vision to place those scenes in this context went on so if one looks through very quickly the films which he then made 1946 great expectations the dickens film 1948 oliver twist black and white the the dickens film um and both starring alec guinness as did 1957 the bridge on the river kwai all these real top sellers but then in 1962 something quite quite different on a major major screen and that is lawrence of arabia with peter o'toole and that the canvas of that with omar sharif and and alec guinness is there again in that film he tends to like going back to the actors he knows and trusts um and then in 65 and i remember seeing this amazingly um uh good morning mr robin hello how are you you've arrived hi happy holi saturday you you're right your baby's getting on well very beautiful in the morning sun um 1965 dr zhivago another canvas a real canvas film with julie christie and omar sharif again see how david lean comes back to actors that he he knows well and then in 1970 many more films but i'm just going through the big ones 1970 he made the film ryan's daughter which i actually love it was made in ireland and the beautiful landscapes of ireland and the tragedy of the officer coming back from the trenches and suffering from all of that with john mills as the person who's called at that time the village idiot and uh once again uh the sense of trevor howard being there much much after what's that how long was that afterwards 1940 about 25 years later that that this is using trevor howard again as the parish priest though and one sees him in a completely different way i like this film i think it gives an amazing and tragic way that a small community can behave towards towards someone there there are awful things going on but although it was a box office success and lean was really by then a very very respected film director the critics for some reason panned it and lean wanted to know why and he invited a selection of them from the national society of film critics to a lunch in the algonquin hotel in new york and they sat around the table and in two hours they tore ryan's daughter to shreds said terrible things about it the critic of the the new yorker was that the critic of time magazine was that the film critic and david lean said in an interview afterwards they took my film to bits it really had such an awful effect on me for years you begin to think maybe they're right about you why on earth am i making films if i don't have to it shakes one's confidence terribly and in desolation he stopped everything that the whole world knew he was was destroyed in two hours by these people around a lunch table and still the shy boy from leighton park school whom nobody noticed was there again sitting at the table and not the internationally acclaimed film director as these people tore his work to shreds and the sense of wanting to create evaporated you feed your people with the bread of tears must have been a bit like this for the friends of jesus on this day that everything everything had been destroyed and now they sat in silence what was it worth anymore apart from joseph of arimathea and nicodemus reverently committing the body for burial and observing the rights of the old law which jesus had been trying so hard to reinterpret for the sake of humankind with the gifts of the kingdom of heaven when things have david lean when on that day the food he was has setting before them must on his own plate have congealed to coldness i doubt he had any appetite to eat then or for many days afterwards or to sleep or do anything for he felt himself to be condemned to a sense of no creativity it took 14 years for him to come back from that pause and then he determined that he would do something again but he could trust no one say that in the film that he set out to make in 1984 a passage to india e.m foster's book which was a huge success and is regarded as one of his best films they're in popular terms brief encounter still heads the list but the passage to india became his turning again and coming back with the creative gifts of god and the shy quaker boy then releases again all his gifts of creativity but no one else is trusted he is listed in the credits of that film as writer editor director everything he'd asked others and then was dissatisfied this had to show him and the gifts that god had given him in the best possible way with full integrity but it had taken 14 years of that after that destruction of everything he was to heal itself for him to be turned again and feel that he could still do it even though people had destroyed his confidence and one remembers that classic performance hello robin you're back that classic performance by peggy ashcroft dame peggy ashcroft as mrs moore and so many of his old friends appear in this but he had his hand over everything and there must have been still that nervousness of the shy boy who'd been given a brownie box camera at the age of 10 and had then found his own creative gifts and had them destroyed at the algonquin hotel in new york i always think of that in when we go past the algonquin and there are others who do wonderful things in that film but for david lean it was the last thing of that type he did before he died it was made in 1984 and he was knighted in 1984 and became sir david lean and no night was was better deserved yet that long pause was part of the life when he must have been saying turn me turn me again and help me let let your light shine once again from me a good person to remember on this pause of holy saturday when we think of those who are observing the old law and thinking that all the brightness of the new dimension of creativity with jesus has been giving them using the old law to the best advantage and now here they are again with the sabbath putting an iron grip on them on this holy saturday as they simply sit weep and no don't look at one another and don't have any words at present so on this holy saturday morning let's say our prayers together and we are using the collect which is special for this day lent is over now we don't have the lenten connect anymore we have this colic which is special for the day and we have also on our list to pray for the diocese of kutigi in the church of nigeria the lakoja province pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for emma bishop at lambeth and the diocese have simply given us general prayers for the whole diocese so we make those prayers for the diocese of canterbury you will be making prayers for all those that you have concerns for and your own communities of christian communities or your own communities who support you wherever you are in the world here is the colic for today so bring your own intentions grant lord that we who are baptized into the death of your son our savior jesus christ may continually put to death our evil desires and be buried with him and that through the grave and gate of death we may pass to our joyful resurrection through his merits who died and was buried and rose again for us your son jesus christ our lord amen so we pray the prayer our savior taught us the simplicity of that prayer striking us to the core as we say it on this holy saturday morning in whatever language you like to 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 lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen so we have a time of reflection now on this day of pausing and pray that we ourselves may never be guilty of destroying someone's creative work by insensitivity as david lean found himself utterly destroyed and taken to pieces by those around the table at the algonquin hotel on that dreadful day for him and we think of the dreadful mourning of the friends of jesus on this day and at the same time of those who are mourning for so many different reasons around our world and pray for them pray for ourselves that we may be turned still to be those who are able to give the gift of the kingdom of heaven and the grace of the kingdom of heaven in all its bright glory to one another [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] yes [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] ah [Music] during this silence veteran i have been praying for some friends of ours the reverend noah van neal who's a priest of the episcopal church in the states and his wife melinda and his boys arthur and vincent uh noah has just moved to a new parish in christ in st luke norfolk virginia he'd come from chapel hill where he's served and there he'd be looking after two other friends of ours peter lee who for many years was bishop of virginia and also the chair of the friends of canterbury cathedral in the united states peter and his wife christy peter is is uh very ill at the moment and and christie is is looking after him and we pray for them daily but i remember back in probably 2002 or so uh meeting them for a meal at the algonquin hotel so i was reminded of that this morning in in new york but we pray for for peace and for christie as well and finally uh our great friend who was one of peter's ordinance matthew corken himself in need of of healing and we pray for matthew and his family at this time matthew was the chair of the friends of of canterbury cathedral for a while after peter and so that uh has been on our mind this morning on this holy saturday morning christ crucified draw you to himself to find in him a sure ground for faith a firm support for hope and the assurance of sins forgiven and 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 now and always are men so we come to our our riddles just to cheer the morning um i asked you today i am a ring but i am square what am i and the answer is a boxing ring which is of course square but is a ring and 38 uh i am heavy forward but backward i'm not and that is the word a weight measurement ton because spelt backward it's not which is that's just making an awful face at that one so now here are two more for this morning i work when i play and play when i work what am i and then i am drawn by everyone without pen or pencil what am i leave you with those two they're still in the simple category and we come to the lovely book of lost words and let's go on from the newt of yesterday and today we find what hang on can't make the page open there we are ah otter one of our favorite favorite creatures wonderful the otter so here we are does that show good we'll go down the acrostic down the side otter enters river without falter what a supple slider out of hult and into water this shapeshifter's a sheer breathtaker a sure heart stopper but you'll only ever spot a shadow flutter bubble scheme and never almost never actual otter this swift swimmer is a silver miner with trout it's ore it bores each black pool deep and deeper delves up currents steep and steeper turns the water inside out then inside outer ever dreamed of being otter that utter underwater thunderbolter that shimmering twister run to the riverbank otter dreamer slip your skin and change your matter pour your outer being into otter and enter now as otter without falter into water well it's a fine poem because the otter is uh a game player and we've watched otters particularly at the smithsonian zoo in in uh washington now the smithsonian let's get the page the next day oh yes look these are wonderful this just shows them playing and they do play just for fun we watch them actually sitting lying on their backs but resting on a a rock and with their with their paw uh tossing a stone into the air catching it just by themselves tossing it catching it tossing it catching it playing just as we would or a child would with a ball game and playing with each other and chasing round and round always in clean water but there's swift swift so we'd love to go and watch them now the smithsonian zoo opens very very early none of the cafes there or any of the facilities are open but you can go in take your own coffee and walk along and it's the best time of day especially in summer when the days are long and you can go in and uh the the sleep is still in your eyes but then soon the creatures themselves who are quite lively in the mornings in their wonderful enclosures and the otters are among the best ones to watch but we remember an occasion this is this is a cruel occasion really of walking through the paths of that beautiful smithsonian zoo and with all its grounds and gardens and coming to an enclosure which had a pond which then the glass allowed us to see deep into the pond and in the sunlight of the morning lots of little fish of all different kinds of colors were they're swimming around and we thought this is just lovely and uh we were drinking our coffee we looked at them through the glass and the glass went down below the water to the stream bed and around was a very very large enclosure and and then all that beauty thinking got these lovely little fish it's lovely sipping our morning coffee the the uh a sound of a door being opened uh was had and in ran an excited company of young otters and what followed was complete carnage for what what we'd come to was actually breakfast time for the young otters and the otters at that moment of course just tore the fish to pieces it was a terrible thing to watch but it it it stays in our minds of of thinking how a scene can change completely and these otters just enjoying breakfast time it with the with the fish um but we've seen them on many different occasions just behaving innocently and playing games and their best it's sliding on a mudslide down a slope and enjoying it into the water and then going to the top again and sliding down again they are wonderful creatures and have great similarity with cats they're almost like water cats and the way that they play is the same when so let's think of our joy with otters and so let's know that we can we can play with our cats in a way that otters wouldn't allow us to although if you know that bright ring of water so a ring of bright water story you will know that otters actually can be tamed and that too is a tragic story as you probably remember but here's tiger who's come this morning as our land otter and has the same capacity to play with ribbons particularly in my prayer books so all of you have a a quiet holy saturday no bells will ring here today and no communion is celebrated until we get to the sense of darkness continuing at the easter vigil tonight when the brazier is lit and then we go into the cathedral to read the lessons leading up to the proclamation of easter when in the middle of the night that resurrection event is proclaimed so enjoy this quiet day