good afternoon and welcome to even song on this third sunday after trinity at canterbury cathedral i'm speaking to you from the deanery garden here and welcome wherever you are in the world by next sunday we shall be having a service in the cathedral both of the eucharist and of evensong with a social distancing uh between those who are worshiping but nevertheless it's a great step forward in the easing of the lockdown but meanwhile we shall be continuing to stream our daily services morning and evening prayer on our website through the week i'm also going to put on our website a most interesting collection of films which were taken uh before the war and they show canterbury and particularly the beginnings of the canterbury festival at that time they've been put together from films discovered by tim jones and you'll see all the details of that below and you'll also see on the festival um pictures the t.s eliot at the first performance of murder in the cathedral in the cloister and also dorothea sayers at one of the plays she wrote for this place so i hope that will be a huge interest to you you will find the link below so now we're going to say our evening prayers and please bring to your prayers all those whom you know yourself to need prayer at this time o lord open thou our lips and our mouth shall show forth thy praise oh god make speed to save us o lord make haste to help us glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen praise he the lord the lord's name be praised so the psalm for this afternoon is psalm 138 i will give thanks unto thee o lord with my whole heart even before the gods will i sing praise unto thee i will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name because of thy loving kindness and truth for thou hast magnified thy name and thy word above all things when i call upon thee thou heardest me and endureth my soul with much strength all the kings of the earth shall praise thee o lord for they have heard the words of thy mouth gay they shall sing in the ways of the lord that great is the glory of the lord for though the lord be high yet hath he respect unto the lowly as for the proud he beholdeth them afar off though i walk in the midst of trouble yet shalt thou refresh me thou shalt stretch forth thy hand upon the furiousness of mine enemies and thy right hand shall save me the lord shall make good his loving-kindness toward me yea thy mercy o lord endureth forever despise not then the works of thine own hands glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen tomorrow is the feast of saint peter and saint paul and the church has a custom of beginning that feast at even song the night before so the lessons are special to peter and paul this afternoon both were martyred and gave their lives for the service of jesus christ and his gospel far from home at the same time we have in mind this afternoon our friends in the diocese of south carolina in the episcopal church of the united states for they are keeping the feast day of the martyr bishop william alexander gary who was their bishop in 1928 and a huge campaigner for social justice and the inclusion of all into the church of christ and into the ministry of the church of christ he was there in the first campaignings for racial equality and for that reason he was wanting a black bishop in south carolina he was shot in his own office at this time of the year and he died on june the 9th in 1928 he was shot by one of his own clergy who himself was having mental disturbances and and and was was feeling angry in all sorts of ways and came in he'd opposed the bishop's ideas before came and shot him there and then shot himself it's a tragic story but the bishop before he died for he died five days later in hospital the bishop was heard to say of the man who shot him father forgive him he knew not what he did echoing the words not only of our savior but of sin stephen the first martyr of the church so we give thanks for all of that as we begin to read the two lessons for this afternoon sin peter and paul the first comes from the book ezekiel and we are reading this afternoon the third chapter beginning at verse 4 and he said to me son of man go to the house of israel and speak with my words to them for you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language but to the house of israel not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language whose words you cannot understand surely if i sent you to such they would listen to you but the house of israel will not be willing to listen to you for they are not willing to listen to me because all the house of israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart behold i have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads like emery harder than flint have i made your forehead fear them not nor be dismayed at their looks for they are a rebellious house moreover he said to me son of man all my words that i shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears and go to the exiles to your people and speak to them and say to them thus says the lord god whether they hear or they refuse to hear here ends the first lesson so we say the song of mary the magnificat my soul doth magnify the lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in god my savior for he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed for he that is mighty hath magnified me and holy is his name and his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations he has showed strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts he has put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away he remembering his mercy has opened his servant israel as he promised to our forefathers abraham and his seed forever glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen [Music] our second lesson is written in the letter of saint paul to the galatians beginning at the 13th verse of chapter one and wait for this helicopter to go over for you have heard of my former life in judaism how i persecuted the church of god violently and tried to destroy it and i was advancing in judaism beyond many of my own age among my people so extremely zealous was i for the traditions of my forefathers but when he who had set me apart before i was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that i might preach him among the gentiles i did not immediately consult with anyone nor did i go up to jerusalem to those who were apostles before me but i went away into arabia and returned again to damascus then after three years i went up to jerusalem to visit kifas and remained with him for 15 days but i saw none of the other apostles except james the lord's brother in what i am writing to you before god i do not lie then i went into the regions of syria and silicia and i was still unknown in person to the churches of judea that are in christ they only were hearing it said he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy and they glorified god because of me then after 14 years i went up again to jerusalem with barnabas taking titus along with me i went up because of a revelation and set before them though privately before those who seemed influential the gospel that i proclaim among the gentiles in order to make sure i was not running or had not run in vain but even titus who was with me was not forced to be circumcised though he was a greek yet because of false brothers secretly brought in who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in christ jesus so that they might bring us into slavery to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you and from those who seemed to be influential what they were makes no difference to me god shows no partiality those i say who seemed influential added nothing to me on the contrary when they saw that i had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised just as peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised for he who worked through peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the gentiles here ends our second reading we say the song of simeon the num timitis lord now letters are thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou has prepared before the face of all people to be a light to lighten the gentiles and to be the glory of thy people israel glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen let us pray lord have mercy upon us christ have mercy upon us lord have mercy upon 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 amen o lord share thy mercy upon us and grant us thy salvation o lord save the queen and mercifully hear us when we call upon thee and do thy ministers with righteousness and make thy chosen people joyful o lord save thy people and bless thine inheritance give peace in our time o lord because there is none other that fighteth for us but only thou o god oh god make clean our hearts within us and take not thy holy spirit from us so the collect for the feast of saint peter and saint paul almighty god who blessed apostles peter and paul glorified thee in their death as in their life grant that thy church inspired by their teaching and example and made one by thy spirit may ever stand firm on the one foundation which is thy son jesus christ our lord who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men oh god from whom all holy desires all good councils and all just works do proceed give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness through the merits of jesus christ our savior amen lighten our darkness we beseech thee oh lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy only son our savior jesus christ amen an evening and tomorrow a day when we remember those who have given their life for their faith in the good news proclaimed by the life and death and resurrection of jesus christ and have used the gifts of the holy spirit to give them courage to proclaim that faith peter and paul both of whom met martyr's deaths in the city of rome far from home and also we add to that as we think of our friends in south carolina and particularly at grace church cathedral there which has the canterbury stone set in its walls as a sign of their membership of the whole worldwide anglican communion we think of them and pray for dean michael wright and archdeacon cali of the the chapter there and all our friends there it's not so many years ago that they came here and we had a service unfolding the name of william alexander querrey in the book of the martyrs from every nation every denomination modern martyrs and there are so many of them we keep hearing stories of folk who have given their lives as part of the cause of the gospel and never more so than now and as the people of grace church cathedral in charleston in south carolina worship and the diocese of south carolina keep this day of june as the feast day for william alexander guerri we remember those who make beginnings often very troubled and sometimes violent beginnings of movements for social justice and movements for the inclusivity of the church sometimes when we look at the beginnings of those we think how on earth was it like that then and at other times we think we still have to make this change now and the martyr's lesson becomes something that we place in our own hearts and commit ourselves to that change to a society where everyone is valued and to a church where every member's gifts are received welcomed and treasured so many different parts of pilgrimage so many different answers to christ's call and as the christian calendar goes through day by day and the list of those who have followed the call of jesus in a multitude of different ways comes before us each day challenges us to look around in our own society and see how we can help change things for good all of us can do that day by day even within the little company of those with whom we might come into contact meanwhile we are beginning to feel the ease of this lockdown the easing of of restrictions but only step by step we keep the welfare of each other very much in our hearts in the way we go forward but at the same time we've had time to consider those names set before us in the different calendars of the different denominations and provinces of the christian church and for that i for one give great thanks because every christian vocation answered is a challenge to me to be loyal to my own gifts which god has given me and tasks which he has set me let's keep silence for a moment as we say our own prayers this afternoon almighty god who has given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee and us promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy name thou wilt grant their requests fulfill now o lord the desires and petitions of thy servants as may be most expedient for them granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting amen 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 the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and would pray for today and always amen you