good morning and welcome to the dinner garden and canterbury cathedral on this 30th of october it's a friday morning friday the day of the cross and we've special prayers to say of course this morning for those who are badly affected by the terrorist attack on three people waiting for a mass to begin in the basilica of notre dame in nice our prayers and our love go out to the catholic community in france to those who have lost friends or members of their family in that incident and those who have been made afraid by it and we pray that fear may not result in vengeance but in an understanding between faith and a willingness and intention of all faiths to hear and understand each other but for this morning we pray for france in its new state of lockdown as the citizens there come to terms with this and pray for the president president macron and all in france itself but all those across the world who live in fear of violence so on this day of the cross we meet wherever you are in the world to say our prayers together it's a windy morning and i'm sitting under the great magnolia tree here which is at the beginning of the orchard here in the fern garden and under the cherry tree which you'll remember in summer days was covered with the the rose the rambling rector which flowered and flowered across it well now whenever the wind blows and it's gusty this morning leaves will fall on us like snow and we shall enjoy the sense of autumn as we enjoy all seasons let's look for a moment at one of the two of the happenings that have happened in past years on this october the 30th in 1485 king henry vii the first of the tudor monarchs it was followed by henry viii and elizabeth the first and and so on um and we remember henry vii as having ended at the battle of bosworth field the wars of the roses which had gone on for many years as kings from one dynasty and another the yorkists the lancastrians and now the coronation of henry vii meant an end to all of that and also just in a heritage sort of way we might remember that he in that year 1485 founded the yeoman of the guard and they are quite often referred to as beefeaters many of you will have seen them in different guises for the yeomen of the guard all together at first but then were split into two should we call it divisions i'm sure i've got the military turn wrong but some are now yeoman warders at the tower of london and others are the personal bodyguards of the queen whenever she appears on a state occasion still wearing their tudor garb this is the day also in 1925 when john logie bad achieved transmission of the first television pictures in his london studio how that has developed in less than 100 years it's the date of the first successful kidney transplant in 1960 here in the united kingdom at the edinburgh royal infirmary by the surgeon michael woodruff it's the day in 1990 when the tunnelers under the english channel creating the channel tunnel met in the middle the english tunnelers and the french tunnelers tunneling together and the agreement for the the tunnel itself was signed here in canterbury cathedral and we remember also that on this day in 1938 this is a radio transmission orson welles put on radio his play of the war of the worlds by h.g wells and it was so realistic that many people got frightened that this was really happening it shows how again radio and television have advanced in that way and the way that we uh we communicate with each other there are some holocaust stories on this day in 1941 1500 jews from piracy were sent to the extermination camp at bilsick by nazis and also the sisters anne and margot frank in 1944 on october 30th were deported from auschwitz to belson where they died before the end of the war from the conditions there but 1947 on this date saw the world trade agreement which set up the world trade organization so we could go on but we're looking at things which splits people divide people in violence and misunderstanding and we're looking at at ways of communicating right across the world which we are doing now in our prayers this morning so let's begin our friday morning prayers having in consciousness the way of the cross oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon earth your saving power among 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 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 on this morning our morning psalm is psalm 146 hallelujah praise the lord o my soul while i live when i praise the lord as long as i have any being i will sing praises to my god put not your trust in princes nor in any human power for there is no help in them when their breath goes forth they return to the earth on that day all their thoughts perish happy are those who have the god of jacob for their help whose hope is in the lord their god who made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them who keeps his promise forever who gives justice to those that suffer wrong and bred to those who hunger the lord looses those that are bound the lord opens the eyes of the blind the lord lifts up those who are bowed down the lord loves the righteous the lord watches over the stranger in the land he upholds the orphans and widow but the way of the wicked he turns upside down the lord shall reign forever your god o zion throughout all generations alleluia we're coming to the end of the first letter to timothy and because this sunday all saints days sees the beginning of a new season our lectionary if i obey its verses will not allow us to finish it so i'm intending today and tomorrow to take parts of both chapter five and chapter six and if you want to read the whole of those then you will know that you can do so but i shall have read part of them today and tomorrow to complete the epistle before we begin something entirely different next week we have to remember that this is a a cameo picture a snapshot of the life of the church in ephesus at the what shall we say in the late 1st century or even later still and therefore there are things that we say ah i see where that's all come from or goodness we don't do things like that now but in the middle of all this a completely different culture almost 2 000 years ago we see the way in which certain aspects of our christian life have developed and we find them as we said yesterday like jewels set in the midst of this it's historic but it's also present tense chapter five instructions to timothy on the governing of the church in ephesus do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father younger men as brothers older women as mothers younger women as sisters in all purity honor widows who are truly widows but if a widow has children or grandchildren let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents for this is pleasing in the sight of god she who is truly a widow left all alone has set her hope on god and continues in supplications and prayers night and day but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives come on these things as well say that they may be without reproach but if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever going on from verse 17 let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor especially those who labor in preaching and teaching for the scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the labourer deserves his wages do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses as for those who persist in sin rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear in the presence of god and of christ jesus and of the elect angels i charge you to keep these rules without prejudging doing nothing from partiality do not be hasty in the laying on of hands nor take part in the sins of others keep yourself pure no longer drink only water but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments the sins of some people are conspicuous going before them to judgment but the sins of others appear later so also good works are conspicuous and even those that are not cannot remain hidden we begin to see the ordering of the church and that becomes an important aspect of how we see christian ministry developing for here we have had instructions to deacons and that ordering within the threefold ministry the way in which elders and folk who were in charge of things became bishops and priests later then that kind of development needed instruction for leadership and here is plentiful instruction for leadership in ephesus but the best leadership was by example and the writer of one timothy stresses that with all the power that he can exercise to the one to whom he's writing as paul would have done to timothy or paul is doing to timothy wherever you date this epistle it's an important insight into the way things develop and that position widow seems to have been something that could be recognized officially just as the word deacon simply means servant but it also meant a an officially recognized position so widow just doesn't just mean someone who has lost her husband it actually was an order of ministry within the church and later on in that passage if you read further you would find that people could be enrolled on the list of widows if we're using that in the technical term all of those things talk about the social welfare aspect of the church which was already in place and which is really proving massive today in this pandemic the way in which we can help one another it's a task for all humanity but it's a task also for the church to set an example of care of care beginning with their own families and friends and those in there shall we call it extended families who rely on them and at the same time as an example to their communities and an example of giving that kind of encouragement see too that timothy has received the laying on of hands and that in the end will become a formalized ordination within the church so that people who are uh in the church know who their leaders are and what authority they have been given all those things as we look at that snapshot these things we'll go on with tomorrow um but let's for the moment uh think of of just one or two other things that have happened today which which which bear on that are going to start in an odd place this was the date in 1751 when richard sheridan uh who was in in government service but also was a poet and a playwright he was born on this day and so his life was lived out in the end of the 18th century and into the 19th best known probably for his play the rivals where the amusing mrs malaprop could never get words right and she's always mistaking the wrong word and putting it in amusing places and not knowing it but what i wanted to concentrate on was a short and beautiful poem of his which is an exercise in human relationship when passion might get in the way and cause a wrong course of active action or thought and that takes us back to the instructions given to timothy at the beginning of that chapter treat older men with respect and older women as you would your mother and treat younger men as brothers and older and younger women as sisters but of course passion gets in the way of that sometimes and there is a lovely poem by richard sheridan written at the end of the 18th century which talks about this and he is talking about obviously a young lady he's fallen desperately in love with but realizes she might not be the one who becomes his wife and he then says that whatever you are so beautiful and charming both outwardly and inwardly that all if they're aged will actually call you a friend and if they're young and realize that it's a young man and realizes that his passion won't be requited um then he will see you as a beloved sister and friend here's a little poem had our heart for falsehood framed i now could injure you for thou your tongue no promise claimed your charms would make me true to you no soul shall bear deceit no stranger offer wrong but friends in all the age you meet and lovers in the young for when they learn that you have blessed another with your heart they'll bid aspiring passion rest and act a brother's part then lady dread not hear deceit nor fear to suffer wrong for friends in all the aged you'll meet and lovers in the young well that's a beautiful thought and if passion could be so assuaged it would be a lovely thing and often it is by grace passions of rage and anger and all the things which saint paul to timothy is saying put those aside you are a leader and therefore don't be partisan don't join in with others quarrels but this is how you behave towards people well today one last date in 1580 the little ship the golden hind the ship of sir francis drake arrived in plymouth harbour having circumnavigated the whole world and he was the first person in the same vessel with the same commander to do a complete circumnavigation of the globe it's taken some time remember how in the midsummer night's dream puck says to oberon and i i'll put a girdle around the earth in 40 minutes well if only so we can do that virtually now in less than 40 minutes but physically it still takes us many many hours by aircraft or much more by ship or railway train physically to to to cover geography and as we do so we pass through many different cultures and try to understand them well for drake it must have been a very dangerous voyage he had the pleasure when he came back once his ship got round to depth of being knighted on board the golden hind and giving a precious jewel by queen elizabeth the first who was delighted with him and what he had brought back and that jewel born a picture of her on it and he wore it with pride but he also wrote a prayer and it's a prayer that we like to use when we're feeling too comfortable in our own situation here is the prayer disturb us lord when we are too well pleased with ourselves when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore disturb us lord when with the abundance of things we possess we have lost our thirst for the waters of life having fallen in love with life we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim disturb us lord to dare more boldly to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery where losing sight of land we shall find the stars we ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes and to push into the future in strength courage hope and love well that's a prayer not only for those who are well satisfied with their condition and of cease to dream but it's also a prayer for those who are being disturbed and gives courage from that voyager francis drake and his golden hind it's probably not the prayer that he's known best for and that's a very different prayer it's quite short and was made into a prayer from a letter he'd written to sir francis woolsingham it wasn't made into a prayer till i think 1941 by mill eric miller white who wrote so many prayers and it's a lovely prayer and i find it one that is special to me because it involves one of the dangers i'm too guilty of lord god will now give us to thy servants to endeavor any great matter grant us also to know that it is not the beginning but the continuing of the same until it be thoroughly finished that yield is the true glory through him who for the finishing of thy work laid down his life for us our redeemer jesus christ amen a good prayer for a friday morning so let's begin our prayers and think of those we intend to pray for today in our anglican communion we pray for the diocese of rio de janeiro in brazil and for eduardo griot the bishop there and his people and the diocese of davao in the philippines and jonathan casimina the bishop there and his people and here in this diocese we remember justin our archbishop and rose bishop abdova and tim bishop at lambus and today the parish of saint lawrence in sanet ramsgate saint catherine's at manston sin christopher is at newington st mary cliffsend and saint mark's also at ramsgate they are all together in one benefits and we pray for the clergy there andrew jacobson and ken cox and peter bone the curette and the missionary sue cox and all the people that they look after at this time so we say the prayer for this week blessed lord who has 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 amen now in our own language and with our own concerns wherever we are in the world we pray for those in in danger of terrorism this day and also prayers of thanksgiving in our own language 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 deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever are men moment of silence now for our own prayers on this friday morning the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and if your 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 [Music] so we finished and now you can go and have your breakfast all right