good morning and welcome as we come to say our prayers on this morning of thursday the 7th of january last night i had the opportunity of putting out a message which many of you will have seen already on our website of support and encouragement and prayer to the citizens of the united states of america and to all our friends i think all of us watched with disbelief the scenes on the steps of the capital which symbolizes the onward progress of democracy which as i said in my message has been a long and hard fought progress through many nations encouraging one another and so often calling for the help of each other over the centuries certainly those who've come here to england and to canterbury where so many of the pilgrims set out for the united states of america to form a new world many of you will have been taken through our history here and there been times when democracy was very much threatened by those who were impatient with its processes and impatient sometimes with the decisions made by the people the same would go for our friends in france just 21 miles across the channel from here and one remembers only too well that in the days of the second world war then the darkest hour came before the dawn but we needed help as the prime minister then said from the new world to assist once again in the onward progress of democracy and respect for each other so today our prayers are very much with the american people but as i said in my message last night i have absolutely no doubt that the spirit of america will prevail and one sees the elected representatives returning to the capital with a sense of business as usual which is exactly what we're doing today with the rhythm of our daily prayers we shall keep our friends in america in our hearts and minds of course particularly over these next weeks and months but nevertheless the spirit is one of we go forward both for the pandemic and also for the citizens of the united states at this time in their history because their going forward is an encouragement to us all we've come this morning to this part of the garden and here i am amongst the cold frames i've come for a very special reason but for the moment these cold frames are preparing all the seeds and plants for next year when the spring comes the growing season we propagate our own because that not only saves money but it also saves the carbon footprint of importing plants from elsewhere and sometimes the plants naturalize and become hardened to the new climates so around me is almost an australian corner if i look along this line of trees right at the end are what we call eucalyptus the australians know as gum trees and also then the line of what we would call mimosa and the australians would call wattle these mimosas were collected by our friend fletcher here on the on the camera and and propagated from seed from spain where in the mediterranean regions the moses had become naturalized and now they grow here and you'll notice they're in two different varieties the ones farther from me are not yet flowering but this one is exuberant in winter and mimosa is a bright flowering the sun's not yet up but when it comes it will shine on the yellow almost bubbles of this and i've i'm not in the least bit surprised that one of the drinks that cheers us up the thing that we call bucks fizz and so much of the world called mimosa is named after this wonderful plant which at the coldest time of year when the days are shortest has naturalized here and become a plant that we look forward to in january not at all shy like so many of the winter flowers but here blooming out and in the next few days this tree here will become a mass of yellow bubbles and beyond then the brothers and sisters of this one will take over in their own way around me too are plants like these camellias which are already in bud and will flower quite soon and on this side the citrus plants which have come out of the greenhouse so that the cold air can cleanse them from blights that they've received last year they'll be taken back into the greenhouse for warmth so that they flower sweetly and give us that wonderful scent before they begin to fruit and here of interest is a spindle tree uh it's leafless of course because it's winter but it's rather interesting for today for this day the 7th of january the day after the epiphany in traditional terms was called sin disstaff's day that wasn't a saint it was actually the implement from the spinning wheel and and of course the spindle is another of the implements there but the disc staff was the staff that held the ball of flax or wool as things were spun and it was considered in those days because it was done at home to be work which the women mostly did and this was a day since this staff's day before work started following the feast of the epiphany when women really had enormous amounts of fun and celebration with their men folk around them as well it was linked with the feast of the plow which we shall keep on monday plow monday when the men themselves uh brought the plow to be blessed before work began and there's a 17th century poet robert herrick who always loved celebrations and and made poetry about all kinds of as especially the bring the springtime but here's his poem about saint distaff's day partly work and partly play you must on sin disstaff's day from the plow soon free your team then come home and fodder them if the maids are spinning go burn the flax and fire the toe scorch their plackets but beware that he singed no maidenhair bring in pails of water then let the maids be wash the men give sin disstaff all the right then bid christmas sport good night and next morrow everyone to their own vocation get back to work it's more or less saying but as we see biz christmas sport good night we remember that for our orthodox brothers and sisters today is christmas day in russia because they're on the julian calendar and we on the gregorian and that helps us remember that the birth of christ spreads across the year and like these mimosa flowers is a ray of sunshine day by day as we wait to say our morning prayers which we will now do together wherever you are bring your prayers and keep in your hearts on this morning all the citizens of the united states of america oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your light springs up for the righteous and all the peoples have seen your glory blessed are you sovereign god king of the nations do you be praise and glory forever from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is proclaimed in all the world as the sun of righteousness dawns in our hearts anoint our lips with the seal of your spirit that we may witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the earth 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 seventh morning of the month is psalm 36 sin whispers to the wicked in the depths of their heart there is no fear of god before their eyes they flatter themselves in their own eyes that their abominable sin will not be found out the words of their mouth are unrighteous and full of deceit they have ceased to act wisely and to do good they think out mischief upon their beds and have set themselves in no good way nor do they abhor that which is evil your love o lord reaches to the heavens and your faithfulness to the clouds your righteousness stands like the strong mountains your justice like the great deep you lord shall save both man and beast how precious is your loving mercy o god all mortal flesh shall take refuge under the shadow of your wings they shall be satisfied with the abundance of your house they shall drink from the river of your delights for with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to those who are true of heart let not the foot of pride come against me nor the hand of the ungodly thrust me away there are they fallen all who work wickedness they are cast down and shall not be able to stand wonderful epiphany images of the things and gifts of creation given to us in that psalm and particularly verses 8 and 9 they shall be satisfied with the abundance of your house they shall drink from the river of your delights for with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light great images of the epiphany as our lord is shown in light as the light of the world but also in water and particularly remembering that two of the epiphany signs the three signs the magi the wedding at cana of galilee the baptism of jesus two of them contain the element of water the baptism of jesus of course which we shall keep on sunday as a feast and our lesson in a moment will refer to it but also the wedding of cana of galilee where the pots of water become the richest of wine as a sign of the way in which our lord jesus christ transforms our humanity and so we're going to read this morning as our morning lesson verses 29 to 34 of the first chapter of the gospel of saint john the next day john the baptist saw jesus coming towards him and said behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world this is he of whom i said after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me i myself did not know him but for this purpose i came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to israel john bore witness i saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him i myself did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain this is he who baptizes with the holy spirit and i have seen and have borne witness that this is the son of god the testimony of saint john the baptist of jesus the lamb of god but also the one on whom the spirit like a dove descends as he is in the water of baptism and remains with him as he comes up from those waters john says i didn't know that it was him but i was told that the one on whom the spirit descended like a dove and remained is the one to whom i am testifying with my ministry a baptism a ministry of preparation and a ministry of repentance from sins and of total forgiveness to prepare a people ready to receive the christ but the epiphany lesson is more than john was ready to realize in his ministry at first he was baptizing his own people to make her people prepared for the ministry of the christ but epiphany declares by the explosion of light and new signs that that gift is a gift for the whole world for every nation and at this time of pandemic when we are forced really to communicate with each other in this virtual way that sign is given to us in a new way as we reach across the world across many many cultures and it becomes important to remember that epiphany is something that goes on throughout the whole year we keep a season now of epiphany signs as we come to the baptism of jesus on sunday which we shall explore a little tomorrow and the sign of the magi joins with the way the truth the life and all those signs of the epiphany with living water well we normally look at the way in which this date has been important in the past and as we do so uh we think of first of all the 7th of january 1899 when the composer pulank was was born born in paris and died in paris in 1963 known at first for its enormous skill in composition but he always saw himself as a mixture of the naughty boy and the devout catholic and one thinks of his 1923 ballet le bish as a symbol of the first of those and she said at the end what should i be remembered for because he lived through paris during the nazi occupation and saw the democracy of france being destroyed by that occupation and then when help came eventually he was still in paris and went on composing there but he turned so much more to music of seriousness both opera but also choral music which we use in our own repertoire here very much there are four motets that we use and uh two of them vinnie mayer aleksa my choice vine and and my soul is very sad come from four penitential pieces which we use at lenten times but at the same time we use his charming four little prayers of saint francis and we give thanks both for his enormous uh joy in life like the mimosa but at the same time the offering of his life and skill to the music of faith and perhaps the whole symbol of that is the starbuck martyr of uh of pulank but all of you will have your own favorite bits but then this day also is the day on which in 1925 gerald durrell was born and we give thanks very much for gerald darryl and i give thanks for his wonderful book which is part of the corfu trilogy here's my book of the corfu trilogy and he calls them three classic tales of childhood but the the most famous of course is my family and other animals and uh he writes at the beginning of that a defense of this book being written as a memory of his childhood it was written in the 1950s but it's been made so often into television series and into a film and the the life of that time between 1935 and the outbreak of the war when they all had to come home of the darrell family there is something that we've got to know it amuses us but it also shows little jerry with his dog roger growing up and discovering the glories of creation and the glories of the way in which the island of corfu could could uh show him that but he writes right at the beginning and i love this book you'll you'll know it well i'm sure but at the beginning there's of the each section there's always a little quote and this one begins with a quote from the white queen in through the looking glass why sometimes i've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast a nice quote but here's his first paragraph making a defense for the book this is the story of a five-year sojourn that i and my family made on the greek island of corfu it was originally intended to be a mildly nostalgic account of the natural history of the island but i made a grave mistake by introducing my family into the book in the first few pages having got themselves on paper they then proceeded to establish themselves and invite various friends to share the chapters it was only with the greatest difficulty and by exercising considerable cunning that i managed to retain a few pages here and there which i could devote exclusively to animals well we know that's not quite true because the book is full of animals and some of the animals give the members of the family when jerry brings them home quite a fright but i've seen it in various versions and i must say that the 1987 series which i best enjoyed um with brian blessed as the the taxi driver spiro who decides that he is the protector of louisa durrell and her family who knew nothing about corfu and need all the help they can get is the epitome of the spiro that i always think of when i read the book and one joys in every dimension of the characters there they're also different louisa herself struggling with not too much money and keeping the family together and keeping some kind of order in the house and then louis margot the daughter and leslie that one of the sons who always goes around with guns and and firing things off frightening everyone to death and larry who became famous himself lawrence darrell with his alexandrian quartet as a writer in his own right but little jerry with the dog roger going around exploring and if you haven't read the book well i recommend it but all of you will have in your minds series from the television and films of that wonderful family in those years of growing up and the way in which the people of corfu helped jerry to explore not only his own growing up but also god's creation on that marvellous island now you might think i'm sitting here without um animals leo's been hither and yawn but i'm actually joined by two people who always remind us of jerry durrell and they are two tortoises and here we are they don't hibernate here they're in the greenhouse and they have a doze sometimes for days in winter but sometimes they'll walk outside and here they are this morning we just brought them out of the greenhouse which is just nearby and we've got here achilles and athini and remember achilles was the name which jerry darryl gave to one of his tortoises well in fact these are greek tortoises which come from that stock when we've got them as tiny tortoises uh we were told that they were descendants of that dural stock and so athene and achilles we welcome you this morning and their slow way of life and their great age and from our point of view their silence almost becomes immensely important in the way they've got a way of showing that they don't like things happening they will hiss at you a bit but they're perfectly happy for the moment and very soon i shall put them back into the warmth let's put some straw here so they can rest on it and then they can be our friends as we say our prayers on this particular morning and i have here the themes for today and also bring your own prayers and of course as i i've said several times our prayers are very much for those in the united states of america as we say our prayers on this morning we pray for all our orthodox friends as they celebrate christmas on this day and also in the anglican communion we pray for the diocese of abye in the south sudan in our own diocese as we pray for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambus we remember today all the villages around austringe in that area dinery and pray for steve lillycraft the area dean and his ministry pray for each other on this particular day o god who by the leading of a star manifested your only son to the peoples of the earth mercifully grant that we who know you now by faith may at last behold your glory face to face through jesus christ our lord amen so we say the our father 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 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 no problem for tortoises to keep silent as we keep silent now for our own prayers the one thing that tortoises are if you've kept them you'll know are dogged and determined when they decide to go on a little journey they're great escape artists but they are determined slowly step by step silently to go along the way that they have chosen the best way well we are being shown all kinds of new ways during these months and we shall return to the magi as they go home in our prayers tomorrow but for the moment we bless each other in the words of the blessing may christ who by his coming at christmas time and the revelation of his glory at this season of epiphany dawning on the world bless you and those whom you love and would pray for we bless you in the name of the father the son and of the holy spirit are men so we're going to put you two back into your warm greenhouse where you can choose either to have a little walk around or you can go to sleep and let's put you back under the straw now then achilles will put you back first and affini mind your feet just a bit there we are to hurt you cover you with the straw that's it okay both of you good