good morning and welcome to the january garden at canterbury cathedral on this sunday the 25th of april the fourth sunday in easter tide you're looking at a wallaby pine and before 1994 no one in the world would have been able to look at one of these because they were only known from fossil records and then suddenly in 1994 in an area of rainforest wallamy pines were discovered and since then they have been able to be grown in different parts of the world we'll think about them in our reflection later on in this service of morning prayer but we're showing it and i'm sitting at this end of the path by the fern garden because this is anzac day and our thoughts are with all those in australia and new zealand and australians and new zealanders and people from that area of the world living in other nations on this day because with them on this anzac day we pray for the peace of the world as we remember the gallipoli landings in the first world war on april the 25th 1915 since then anzac day has been kept in hyde park this morning at dawn there will have been a service a very limited service this year people attending to remember and to pray for peace and also in westminster abbey data again a very limited service because of all the kovid restrictions but meanwhile we can remember with the vegetation around the garden and some things here which we'll talk about see the pine and the rosemary and we should have red poppies but they don't grow at this time of year so we brought some red tulips and uh fletcher at the end has cheated with some pictures of red poppies for the the end of this film which he'll put on to remind everyone that they were filmed last summer to remind everyone that this is a day of remembrance and of prayers for peace but also about giving thanks for all those who live in that part of the world which sent people so far to gallipoli and lost so many of their members at the same time of course this is a day of remembrance for the people in turkey too because it was a battle there so let's uh let's remember all that in our reflections but for the moment we are going to say our prayers i'm sitting here under the magnolia tree and i want to say that yesterday was wendy white thompson's funeral at the village of y where she and her husband ian who'd been the dean here lived for many years in retirement from 1976 right through uh ian died in 1997 but wendy had her funeral yesterday and again very limited attendance in the parish church but outside so many of the people of y came and gathered at a safe distance around as we came out after the service and sang as we're allowed to in the open air at distance all sang together tell out my soul the glory of the lord which is one of the hymns that wendy would have wanted sung by all at her funeral if those restrictions weren't in place so we give thanks on this day for any whom we have known and loved and lost who have gone on into greater light and especially we remember all those on this anzac day in the hearts of those from australia and new zealand at this time so let's say our prayers on this very special sunday morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice hallelujah blessed are you lord god of our salvation to be praise and glory forever as once you ransomed your people from egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your risen son may we the first fruits of your new creation rejoice in this new day you have made and praise you for your mighty acts 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 and 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 the 25th morning of the month is a section of psalm 119 which is broken up into sections because it's such a long psalm and this morning psalm 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 let's say 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 sunday morning so the special lesson from the lectionary this morning not sin matthew's gospel but a portion of the gospel of saint luke which we read it morning prayer and it's part of luke chapter 24 we'll set it into context in our reflection about it but it's part of the story of the stranger who walked beside the two who were sad on the evening of the first easter day as they walked from jerusalem to emmaus and the lesson begins at verse 25 when they are saying don't you know what's happened and we can't understand it because we thought this was going to be the beginning of something really new with this person jesus of nazareth verse 25 and he said to them o foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken was it not necessary that the christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and beginning with moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself so they drew near to the village to which they were going he acted as if he were going farther but they urged him strongly saying stay with us for it is towards evening and the day is now far spent so he went in to stay with them when he was at table with them he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight they said to each other did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road while he opened to us the scriptures just that little section you might call it a snippet taken out of of context like some of the really ancient fragments which one has but this story we have in full and we know it well the story of the emmaus road of the two disciples one of them called cleophas the other unnamed going to their village at the end of a sad day and an immensely tiring day and their steps are slow and they're joined on the path on the road by the stranger stranger for them because everything that they are going to experience is at that time unbelievable incredible which is what that word really means totally unbelievable so their minds are shut and their eyes also those seeing the path before them and seeing the fact that they've reached their own front door are not open to what's going on around them but what they do know is that they want the stranger to stay with them and in an act of hospitality they invite him in and he goes in with them and there at the table his hands his wounded hands take the bread and bless the bread and break the bread and then begin to give the bread to them and their eyes are opened so that they in fact recognize for the first time what is happening and not only their minds but their hearts and their spirits explode with wonder that's what is given to them just a glimpse because then they are seated alone but the two of them can't keep this information to themselves and new energy comes to them and instantly they go back to jerusalem did not our hearts burn within us and we weren't realizing it as he talked to us and unfolded the scriptures and those scriptures that jesus was unfolding were the scriptures in which he had been brought up those scriptures that he keeps quoting through his human ministry and showing that everything being done is a fulfillment of prophecy we said this is a day of remembrance and the church to remember that moment and to remember the moment at the last supper when he took the bread and then broke it and gave it to them and later the cup and shared it among them to remember that repeat those actions here in the cathedral we shall be repeating those actions very soon now this morning the bread will be taken and blessed and broken and then shared those four actions and the bread is a sign of life how life by those wounded hands of our lord and savior can be taken and blessed and broken and shared and finds its fulfillment in the sharing sometimes it's the totality of sacrifice which we remember and sometimes it's just an act of self-sacrifice given along the path and when that happens there's the opportunity for people's eyes and hearts to be opened in the sharing and feel their hearts burn within them as we've said this is anzac day and these little symbols of memory the rosemary with its very poignant and pungent smell and the the red of the flowers speaking of sacrifice poppies they should be and at the end you'll be reminded of poppies from last year when they were flowering and then the pines here sign together with everything around us like the wallaby pine of all of those with the fans of atr new zealand here and all the giving of those countries who sent their soldiers right across the world and now use this day as a day to pray for peace at in westminster abbey year by year the turkish ambassador reads the uh inscription which is on the monument back at the the site of the gallipoli landings and they are the words of mustafa kamal ataturk the first president of the turkish republic from 1923 to 1938 and he said about this day to you those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country therefore rest in peace there is no difference between the johnnies and the mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours you the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well it's a wonderful thought and we remember that in the battles at gallipoli the soldiers of the then ottoman empire many more were were killed than the soldiers of the allies and so there's an equal loss on both sides but that set that sense of one land receiving into its own earth those who had come so far from their own mother countries and you can say when the ambassador you can think when the ambassador is saying you the mothers it might mean the actual physical mothers of those who came but on the other hand it might mean the mother countries where they had grown up and known themselves to be at home and now this sense of nations coming together to make a home for all of us in this particular world as we think of all these things we are remembering also the dangers that beset any country at this time and they might be physical and natural dangers but our world is subject to enormous wildfires and unexpectedly we're suffering that in the united kingdom at the moment with the mourned mountains the beautiful moon mountains in northern ireland blazing with wildfires as people fight to put those fires out and uh here we've put ken the koala who was given to us by australian friends to remember let me pull him out and put him here to remember one aspect of all this that the habitat of koala bears is very very much the uh the the the place which is threatened by wildfires and they've always they've already suffered immense loss of the koala population but that will be so in any nation whether it be new zealand with its wonderful landscapes or australia or anywhere else in the world like the amazon rainforest which is suffering so much at the moment and places where fires break out or flood or tsunamis destroy those things we remember as we care for our planet and that too would be part of our preying on anzac day it's a day to bake anzac biscuits and uh when when we did that uh not last year on this day but when we were remembering i think australia and uh fletcher went to bake anzac biscuits and looked up the recipe uh he uh he put them in having followed the timings in the recipe and it gave a certain amount of time to to in his mind to bake them and we were preparing for the service so he went to have a shower and came down and found he'd given double the amount of time needed for the biscuits because the recipe had given it in two halves and said at this point of your timing swap the two over meaning one set will be done put the other one in which is a strange way of giving a recipe and that's how it came out and the biscuits came out really hard and and chewy and were very very popular with the work staff here for a long time afterwards because they kept well but i think this year when we bake them today we'll obey the the ordinary recipe and find a softer biscuit which is probably easier on the teeth and as we do so we can remember all our friends from the area of of the world that australia and new zealand and the polynesia all of those areas that we think of at this time but we're going in a moment to say the the prayers associated with that particular day i wanted though to remember the fire in the hospital in baghdad the hospital for covid sufferers which burst out when an oxygen cylinder exploded and then caused others to start a fire which grew out of control for a while and we think of the dangers that people are always in and how fragile human life is so we pray for all of those in baghdad and pray also continually for india and brazil and places where the pandemic has got a hold which is threatening the medical resources all these things we remember on anzac day and we remember the wounded hands taking life and blessing it and then causing it to be shared throughout the world as barriers break down let's say our prayers on this particular day as we remember anzac day and the wallamy pine which suddenly appeared in 1994 having not been known about except in fossils and now if you if you buy one because of the project which kew gardens and the place of the rainforest in australia have together you will find that you pay a bit more because a donation goes out to that piece of rainforest in order to protect the wallamy pine but if you go to queue or areas probably in your your own country you will find these wallamy pines now grow with great life to great height and so that has been recovered from the times of the fossils until suddenly being rediscovered and springing into new life a cheerful message on this anzac day let's uh think of whom we're praying for but we'll then say the prayer for anzac day and then the prayer for this fourth sunday in easter tide and we're praying in the anglican communion for the diocese of brasilia in the episcopal anglican church of brazil so nothing more apt on this day we pray for all the people there facing the pandemic and also attempting to save areas of natural beauty from the differing climate and from fires and also from deforestation that and we pray in this diocese for justin our archbishop but on this day too we pray for the parish of canterbury st martin and st paul which is really nice there are nearest neighbors just over the wall there and uh it's in paul's church first but then a closer connection not in terms of distance is of course saint martin's church which was the church that augustine found queen bertha worshipping in when he came it had been there since roman times and then augustine brought the christian message back to england in 597 and saint martin's became his base while the cathedral was founded and that means that it's actually our mother church tiny compared with here but from there to here is the queen's way which comes through the queen's gate the quenen gate which if i followed this path right up to the end of the orchard and through the dean's walk where we were on sindalfidge day we would come to the queen's gate the quening gate in the city walls where queen bertha would go for the celebration of mass at the little church there of sint martin in 597 so uh we pray for the parish of saint martin and saint paul and for mark griffin our friend there the the parish priest and hannah thompson the curette and the life of that parish i'm actually giving the wrong church for the wrong um diocese for the anglican communion my mind on brazil we'll pray for them tomorrow again i should be praying actually for the anglican church in japan today another most wonderful place of natural beauty and i still rejoice in the white stole that a christian in japan she she embroidered that for me and sent it across the world as she was watching our morning prayers that's i think probably about almost a year ago now and uh these things are our lovely memories so we pray for the that the anglican church in japan on this morning as well right let's say the prayer first for this anzac day god of love and liberty we bring our thanks this day for the peace and security we enjoy which was won for us through the courage and devotion of those who gave their lives in time of war we pray that their labor and sacrifice may not be in vain but that their spirit may live on in us and in generations to come that the liberty truth and justice which they sought to preserve may be seen and known in all the nations upon earth this we pray in the name of the one who gave his life for the sake of the world jesus christ our lord amen and the collect for this day almighty god whose son jesus christ is the resurrection and the life raise us who trust in him from the death of sin to the life of righteousness that we may seek those things which are above where he reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen moment of silence now on this day for memories but also for prayers for the peace of our world and we give thanks for that intention which will be spoken by the turkish ambassador that nations should be together in peace the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus that great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight 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 remember this day now and always are amen [Music] ah [Music] [Music] ah is [Music] trees foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] uh [Music] crazy oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] you