good morning and welcome on this tuesday the 13th of october as we come to say our morning prayers on a very gray day threatening rain but just to brighten things a bit i've come to sit with the kentuckian yellow wood tree behind us here which is now turned its proper color as the fall advances the autumn advances and we tend to plant these trees to remind us of places well this reminds us of the grounds of washington national cathedral where there is a large one growing there so we think of that sister cathedral of ours this morning and this is a day if i go quickly through one or two dates of october the 13th in the past in the year 54 and it's important to our acts of the apostles lesson the emperor claudius died and nero succeeded him so that was a real change in terms of the roman empire's attitude later towards the christians in rome and then in 1792 the cornerstone of the executive mansion in washington dc was laid that executive mansion in 1901 was officially named by theodore roosevelt the president the white house in 1812 the uh british forces defeated united states forces which were attempting to invade canada i think hopefully that was the very last real armed combat between our nations who have always been huge allies across the world and we think of the american people at this time as they approach their presidential election um 1884 on this day the greenwich uh the greenwich time zone was the the was chosen as the universal meridian of longitude from which all the standard times throughout the world are calculated so the laying of foundation stones and the happenings in history in 1940 are princess elizabeth who is now our queen she was age 14 then made her first radio broadcast and she did that broadcast for children who were being eva evacuated to safer areas but it meant them leaving home and what else could we say in 2 2010 we remember the chilean workers in the mine disaster who were rescued after 69 days and there was great rejoicing as their rescuers brought them up well those are some of the dates that we might remember but there are three really special people that we want to remember today who were on our calendar yesterday and one today one is elizabeth frye the quaker who was a prison reformer one edith cavill a nurse who was shot on october the 12th 1915 for for being a a traitor to the german occupying government in in belgium and then lastly edward the confessor whose day this is who uh uh had the vision to build against in peter's abbey which is now westminster abbey and it was on this day not when he built the romanesque abbey but when later on henry iii laid the foundation stone of the building that we now know as westminster abbey 1269. so we shall be thinking of that and giving thanks for another place of pilgrimage and and worship here in england but let's say our prayers bring your own prayers from wherever you are as we begin this day oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all do you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more 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 does 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 13th morning of the month is psalm 68 and i shall read some verses from that now let god arise and let his enemies be scattered let those that hate him flee before him as the smoke vanishes so may they vanish away as wax melts at the fire so let the wicked perish at the presence of god but let the righteous be glad and rejoice before god let them make merry with gladness sing to god sing praises to his name exalts him who rides on the clouds the lord is his name rejoice before him father of the fatherless defender of widows god in his holy habitation god gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners to songs of welcome but the rebellious inhabit a burning desert oh god when you went forth before your people when you marched through the wilderness the earth shook and the heavens dropped down rain at the presence of god the lord of sinai at the presence of god the god of israel you sent down a gracious ray no god you refreshed your inheritance when it was weary your people came to dwell there in your goodness so god you provide for the poor blessed be the lord who bears our burdens day by day for god is our salvation god is for us the god of our salvation god is the lord who can deliver from death sing to god you kingdoms of the earth make music in praise of the lord he rides on the ancient heaven of heavens and sends forth his voice a mighty voice blessed be god so we come to our lesson from the acts of the apostles and we left paul having finished his defense before king agrippa and festus the roman governor i'm starting at verse 24 of chapter 26 of the acts as paul was saying these things in his defense festus said with a loud voice paul you are out of your mind your great learning is driving you out of your mind but paul said i am not out of my mind most excellent festus but i am speaking true and rational words for the king knows about these things and to him i speak boldly for i am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice for none of this has been done in a corner king agrippa do you believe the prophets i know you do and agrippa said to paul in a short time would you persuade me to be a christian and paul said whether short or long i would to god that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as i am except for these chains then the king rose and the governor and bernarcy and those who were sitting with them and when they had withdrawn they said to one another this man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment and the gripper said to festus this man could have been set free if he had not appealed to caesar the end of paul's defense before agrippa the two powerful people the roman governor of the province and king agrippa friend of claudius friend of nero well known in rome talk to each other as they walk out of the hall and they say there's nothing here which merits a death sentence and the gripper goes further saying we could have released him if he had not appealed to the emperor but paul had sealed his own fate before festus when he said i appeal to the emperor and the roman governor had said you have appealed to the emperor to the emperor you shall go and that's exactly what's going to happen fulfilling paul's vision in that he had had earlier in the acts of the apostles that he would go to rome but fulfilling it in a way least expected really and we remember yesterday what paul said in his defense before the king he said i was not disobedient to the heavenly vision his own heavenly vision his own call in his own specific vocation jerusalem is now left behind and now tomorrow judea will be left behind he will sail from the eastern mediterranean and in a journey full of dangers like wilfred of ripon yesterday full of dangers his mission journey he will eventually arrive in rome and we remember that as as paul goes on to rome well the vocation and heavenly visions of their own need to travel a particular path and it's very much an individual thing it's a matter of choice though the vocation might be presented again and again but it requires the partnership of humanity and god just as the angel gabriel presenting mary's vocation had to wait for the words behold the handmaid of the lord be it unto me according to your word a partnership and paul has answered that and i want you to think of three people today who also answered that let's begin with elizabeth frye who was on our calendar yesterday when we were considering wilfred of griffin but let's think of her today and she was a quaker she was born elizabeth gurney of a norfolk family a quaker north family but she sensed her vocation was to help those particularly women in prison in terrible conditions and she was brave in doing it she married one of the frye family who were a bristol family i remember their chocolate factory and the village around that little factory when i was growing up just a bicycle ride away from home and the village they created was all for the welfare of their workers and she as a quaker spent her life improving the quality of life in prisons in appalling prison ships and also giving people resources to make those terrible journeys if they were transported to australia or the southern hemisphere so all of that we remember we used to remember her daily because from 2001 to 2016 it was her face on the five-pound note of england and it showed her reading the scriptures to the women in newgate prison but she did much more than that she began to give them the wherewithal to occupy their time to sew and to knit and to make beautiful tapestries and that continued but she also got royal help parliamentary help for their condition queen victoria herself interested herself in in the work she was doing as did robert peel who later became the prime minister and so we give great thanks for her and the fact that she was not disobedient to her heavenly vision at the same time we remember edith cavill the daughter of an anglican vicar and she went to brussels before the war in response to someone who wanted her to be the matron of a new nursing college with the best kind of nursing going on and found herself in brussels during the german occupation she was known for never refusing healing to anyone on nursing to anyone on either side but she was also known and didn't make too much of a secret of it really for helping those who wanted to cross into the neutral space of the dutch border and for that she found herself accused of treason and despite a complete international outcry the sentence of death by firing squad was carried out and edith cavill died and her death was so powerful that it became an icon of service whatever she said to the anglican chaplain who ministered to her before she was shot patriotism is not enough i must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone and those words are on the bottom of her of the plinths on the the statue of her in saint martin's place just off trafalgar square between st martin's church and the entry of the national portrait gallery still saying those words to the people who walk by patriotism is not enough i must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone and the other sentence she's remembered for i can't stop while there are lives to be saved and there were plenty of lives to be saved during the course of action of those terrible battles at the beginning of the great war and lastly this is a day that we remember edward the confessor the last king before the norman conquest of 1066 who had the vision to rebuild the monastic abbey of saint peter as a place where royal burials and funerals might take place we now know that place of course is westminster abbey but the first abbey built in the romanesque style was completed and consecrated on the 28th of december 1065 just weeks before edward's death but that building of course it saw the coronation of william the conqueror but that building was again demolished and replaced by henry iii in 1269 and the building he built was consecrated on this day in 1269 october the 13th so today we give thanks for the life of westminster abbey not a cathedral because no seat of a bishop in it a royal peculiar a chapel of the sovereign and we know that only too well because so many royal occasions and also uh a place where where people of enormous distinction in all walks of of life and not only monarchs and prime ministers but poets actors musicians scientists military leaders and also the tomb of the unknown warrior become a focus of national attention and often world attention so we give great thanks for westminster abbey where also on this day in 1399 henry iv the first king of the house of lancaster was crowned king of england later when he died to be buried here in canterbury cathedral wanting to be near to the shrine of thomas beckett here in this place of pilgrimage well those things we think of people who were faithful to their heavenly vision and we give thanks for it and pray that we might say the same i was not disobedient to the heavenly vision the prompting of a special task for us however small and maybe just one action each day or a lifelong vocation all those things we think of at this time particularly for those who are trying to combat the threat which has raised its head in a huge way again of the pandemic at present and the dangers they face and we remember edith cavill's statement i can't stop while there are lives to be saved i found a little poem together which was written by an american parrot she's called aura may hull not well known but it was a tribute to the vision of edith cavill and also to what her england would look like and it's all about the kind of ways that humanity has tried to lift off the ground talking of of the ways in which icarus and leonardo da vinci and and and people with ropes and boards and all sorts of things but how she used ropes and boards to lift people into health and at the same time that the death by firing squad her cell was set free to to fly like a kite here is the here is the poem where is your england now robin in the sparrow's arms count the lamp posts leonardo and icarus tall from the flower bin shook the planetary and filled the cart with ghosts once standing on planks and ropes and lifting the stone beneath they made the world more tall pinpoint england a lighter soldier's drifting scars by one soft match light nurse crawl in from the valley that was your heel print running mender of maps mender of arms upon their planks and ropes wheel back the bird melted in the sun defender say every felled world goes round a carousel with runners bolted down edith where is home now the moons are ground the emptied pools and fancied bust of lincoln before the wall of some fake hotel a half flight down take in your arms are torn and laughing kite a reference to the firing squad which shot her against that wall at the end and we give thanks for her heavenly vision heaven is sending down a gracious rain and leo would rather not be wet today we pray for the diocese of portsmous in england for christopher foster and the diocese there of colorado and the episcopal church and robert o'neill the bishop there and his people and the diocese of congo in the south sudan and gabriel took agot the bishop there we continue to pray for the parishes of the saanich area deanery and today for their missional learning communities and fresh expressions of church gathering we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth and bring our own prayers to the prayer for this week almighty and everlasting god increase in us your gift of faith that forsaking what lies behind and reaching out to that which is before we may run the way of your commandments and win the crown of everlasting joy through jesus christ our lord amen in our own words in our own language we say 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 amen moment of silence for your own prayers this morning so edith cavill's words i can't stop while there are lives to be saved 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 foreign