good morning and welcome to Canter Cathedral on this Saturday morning 26th of September and we've come has has become rather our custom on a Saturday morning in to join the animals and be the guests of the pigs and chickens and everything else on this day it shelters us from a strong wind but the rain has stopped but this is very much a fairly chilly autome morning wherever you are in the world please feel free to bring your own prayers and intentions to our morning prayers as we reflect together early in the morning on this Saturday this is an important day for us in the Cathedral Church this afternoon the Archbishop will be ordaining deacons and we pray for all of those and their families because of the restrictions each has to have only a small number of guests so that the distancing can be right but nevertheless these are joyful occasions as vocations are confirmed and given the authority of the church with the laying on of hands from the Archbishop this afternoon well there are actually four names this morning which which will overarch our thinking and we give thanks for each of them each has an anniversary in our calendar the founder of the church Army Wilson carile is remembered and at the same time we remember the birth of George gerswin the musician and we think also of TS Eliot who was born on the 26th of September in 1888 and we also think of Johnny apple seed John Chapman in real life born on this day in 1774 but a legendary figure in the United States of America so this is Johnny apples seed day and those things we'll just think about in our reflection but let's say our prayers first oh Lord open our lips and our mouths shall Proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation and sustain us with your gracious Spirit 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 and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh God set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our Psalm this morning is a section of Psalm 119 and it's the section beginning at verse 105 your word is a lantern to my feet and a light upon my path I have sworn and will fulfill it to keep your righteous judgments I am troubled above measure give me life oh Lord according to your word accept the Free Will offering of my mouth oh Lord and teach me your judgments my soul is ever in my hand yet I do not forget your law the wicked have laid a snare for me but I have not strayed from your Commandments your testimonies have I claimed as my Heritage forever for they are the very Joy of my heart I have applied my heart to fulfill your statutes always even to the end so we turn to our regular reading of the Acts of the Apostles and we are now at the end of chapter 18 and you remember that Paul by himself has just set sail from Ephesus and in a short paragraph Luke covers an enormous amount of ground and then comes back to a particular situation verse 22 of chapter 18 when Paul had landed at cesaria he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch and after spending some time there he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of galatia and friia strengthening all the disciples now a Jew named Apollos a native of Alexandria came to Ephesus he was an eloquent man competent in the scriptures he had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in spirit he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus though he knew only the baptism of John the Baptist he began to speak boldly in the synagogue but when Priscilla and Aquilla heard him they took Apollos aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately and when he wished to cross to AA the Believers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him when he arrived he greatly helped those who through Grace had believed for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus now it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth Paul passed through the Inland country and came to Ephesus there he found some disciples and he said to them did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed and they said no we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit and he said into what then were you baptized and they said into John's baptism and Paul said John baptized with the baptism of repentance telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him that is Jesus and on hearing this they were baptized in the name of the the Lord Jesus and when Paul had laid his hands on them the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying there were about 12 men in all well very interesting passages because of course it's covering an enormous ground the journeys which Paul is shown taking in a few sentences are colossal Journeys in the ancient world we left him sailing from Ephesus he came to cesaria he went back to Antioch he goes up to Jerusalem he comes back he goes again and eventually he comes to Ephesus which is where we will find him continuing his ministry but meanwhile we come across this other Apostle should we call him for He's listed in the epistle to the Corinthians along with Paul and Peter and Apollos and this alexandrian Jew who is in traditional terms there we have no records or Epistles from him except from those who and there quite a body of them believe that he was the one who wrote the epistle to the Hebrews I said the other day that I got a friend who thought it was Barnabas but we if we add together now Barnabas Paul Apollos Peter your seeing the development of the Christian church across the Mediterranean world and divisions begin to happen they always will for people proclaim the good news according to their own vocation and in different ways tuning them to the society that they're talking to just as Jesus did using the images of creation and also the foundation on which they own vocation and in the case of Paul that's the law and the prophets and the Psalms just as it was with our Lord himself so here we are and we come back to that couple Priscilla and Aquilla whom I said yesterday reminded me of Alan and Jean Oakley John correcting Me Gently in 1979 in the devastated city of Juba as the Christians there were trying to build up the church again in the southern Sudan taking me aside and saying let us help you in this and I was grateful for that and here are Priscilla and Aquilla taking aplus aside and saying most of you what you saying is absolutely accurate but there's one particular Dimension which is missing and that spiritual Dimension they quietly impart to Apollos and then when he's invited to go over to Corinth the Believers which no doubt included them write to the disciples there and say you've got someone with particular gifts wonderful gifts coming to you receive him with gladness but by the time St Paul is writing to the letter the letter to the Corinthian Church right at the beginning of the epistle to the Corinthians he is saying there are factions amongst you because some say I belong to Paul others say I belong to Apollos others say I belong to Peter no one can belong to anyone except the one on whom the foundation is built Jesus Christ himself but divisions have always been part of that and the wonderful gifts of the Spirit which Apollos is now giving are to be shared by all but they'll be shared in different ways as I hope they will by the deacons who are being the young men and women or uh who are being or ordained this afternoon in the cathedral will be given I'm saying young men and women they're from all age groups groups and all backgrounds and so in fact I hope that experience that they have of vocation will be shared in a multitude of different ways let's think for a moment on the creative abilities of those four that I mentioned earlier at steel first with Wilson carile he appears in the calendar he was an ordained priest in the Church of England but was moved by the work of the Salvation Army and he wanted a similar organization within the compass of the Church of England itself and he bravely set out and founded that church Army at all times he acknowledged his inspiration to Bramwell Buu the founder of the Salvation Army but this was to be a wing of the Church of England working in the parish parishes with the full permission of the clergy in those parishes and it developed into a great strength for the Church of England and a huge encouragement to those who were in special need without resources without homes who'd Fallen by the wayside in a way and needed to be helped in such different ways we give enormous thanks for the current work of the church Army on this day and then let's think of Johnny apples seed now here's a character who himself was a historic character John Chapman he was not only a nursery man who planted apple trees and nurseries everywhere and introduced apple trees I'm sitting under one now um into parts of the United States but he was also an evangelist and we remember that with gladness he is a person who has amassed more illustrations about himself and legends than Robin Hood here in England and Johnny apples seed day very often is told to the children as the way in which the uh creation can be enjoyed and the the Apple we've got some here one that's fallen from the tree this morning at my feet here which these will enjoy in a moment but he is an icon very often he is pictured with the wolf who poor he tended and who began to follow him there's a gentleness about him but at all times he was wanting to proclaim the gospel and although he was eccentric quite clearly he did Proclaim that and his name has become iconic now particularly on this Johnny apple seed Day in the United States George gwiin Well need I say more his music has a way of creating atmospheres second to none if you think of their whole score of pori and Bess and things like summertime and the living is easy the tune is instantly in your head or an American imper which we have enjoyed on the stage and the creation of that both in New York and in London brought all those Tunes back to life and there's the wonderful moment this is Paris after the second world war just after the second world war when in the bar the electricity fails because things were only just about beginning to come back to normal and you see the horror on people's faces because they think that the times of War have returned and then the lights come back on again and there are three playing on the piano and you remember that they're trying to find a tune for the words I got rhythm I got music and they start with a very slow Rhythm and a very slow tune but then the another one of them steps forwards and said no no no wrong time and then we get I got rhythm I got music and when we get to who could ask for anything more then the feet begin tapping we give thanks for people in music's ability and with words to to do just that and then this lastly turn to TS Elliot and we have so many connections here with uh with TS Elliot because of course he wrote his murder in the cathedral for this place and then took two lines of it which were cut out by the producer here from that production and they became the first two lines of his four quartets we could quote so many things this morning but within the context of what we're doing the divisions of the church and the total power of the Holy Spirit those those uh four people that we've we've mentioned there's only one poem that I want to read from TI celot and it's not about cats so we could do that and it's not part of the four quartets it's a single poem which he headed and when this epistle is read among you Calla it it be read also in the Church of the L the Deans he's looking at the human frailties of the church at that time and now Elliot a very very devout Christian and he's looking at the way in which Humanity can deceive itself but also Humanity's expectations sometimes think that there are particular uh human beings uh and even creatures who have no way of being redeemed because of how they are and he strikes on the character and in his uh um animal uh Kingdom he strikes on the hippopotamus some of you will know this but it was a lesson for the church really the broad-backed hippopotamus rests on his belly in the mud although he seems so firm to us he is merely flesh and blond flesh and blond is weak and frail susceptible to nervous shock while the true church can never fail for it is based upon a rock the hippos feeble steps May ER encompassing material ends while the true church need never stir to gather in its dividends the potamus can never reach the mango on the mango tree but fruits of pomegranate and Peach refresh the church from oversea at mating time the hippo's voice betrays inflections horse and odd but every week we hear Rejoice the church at being one with God the hippopotamus his day is passed in sleep at night he hunts God works in a mysterious way the church can sleep and feed at once I saw the potamus Take Wing ascending from the deep savanas and chiring angels him sing the praise of God in loud hosas blood of the Lamb shall wash him clean and him shall Heavenly arms enfold among the saints he shall be seen performing on a harp of gold he shall be washed as white as snow by all the martyred virgins kissed while the true church remains below wrapped in the Old miasmal Mist it's a poem which is both humorous but also has huge truth in it that God's spirit has the power to enfold into the company of Believers and the company of the redeemed so many unexpected people and his whole creation too is loved by him thanks be to God for all that creativity and thanks be to God for those who are going to exercise a new creativity in their vocation as deacons Let's uh look at today's order of prayers for the Anglican communion as you bring your own intentions the dasis we're praying for is Paraguay in South America and Peter barlet the bishop there and his people the dasis of central Zimbabwe in central Africa and IGN makumbe the bishop there and his people and the dasis of Kobe in Japan and Austin kabashi and his people there we pray for Justin our Archbishop as with rose Bishop of DOA he ordains deacons this afternoon and for Tim Bishop at Lambeth and today we pray for the ordinance parishes and training incumbents who are waiting for the ministry of the deacon we can name Alice Bates ilva bled McKenzie Charlotte Kohl's Ben Forbes Lucy Henderson Paula Jardine Ross Charmaine mure Katherine fungai ganga and Debbie scoel Angie stole and Jen Waters who are to be ordained this afternoon so let's say our prayers bringing your own prayers to our prayers here in Canterbury this morning here is the prayer for this week God who in generous Mercy sent the Holy Spirit upon your church in the burning fire of Your Love grant that your people may be fervent in The Fellowship of The Gospel that always abiding in you they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen let say in whichever way we like to say it the prayer of our savior to us and in whichever language 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 let me silence now for your 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 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 today and always amen ky ky okay