good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this sunday the 31st of october the great sound of dunstan is ringing out for the eight o'clock communion and that communion begins three days of what the church calls all hallows tied today all hallows eve tomorrow all hallows or more commonly these days called all saints day and on uh tuesday uh all souls day and those themes are still part of our consciousness at this beginning of of what was seen as the winter coming on and everything about this has been placed here for all saints day in earlier times in the northern hemisphere was kept at different times but late in the first millennium it was placed at the beginning of november and it tunes in just as gregory said to augustine use whatever you can to teach and use those lessons that the people best understand well there's no lesson better than light overcoming darkness and the themes of those three days have rather got conflated as the years have gone by and different aspects have been emphasized now in the cathedral today we're keeping an all saints sunday because most people will come to worship on sunday and the big theme of these three days is the glory of the saints reflecting the light of christ but at the same time the beginning of it all was the sense of people fearing the darkness and that goes right across the world in all faiths a sense of trying to kindle light to combat darkness and the way in which people personified the evil they felt in darkness became something that was a common thread here in england for a long time halloween was not something that was noticed it's been brought back from the united states mostly and if you went to any town in or city like washington in the united states today every garden would be decorated in the way that we've tried to show this morning in the deanery garden with emblems of people's fantasies and fears personified in some way or another or given shape that uh the the sense first of all of of ghost stories which has gone through children's tales throughout the ages but generally the the kind of phantasms that that people have in the middle of the night in a delirium which wakes them sweating and there are things in it that they can't then describe but all of that was a sense of the darkness and uh the dawn coming and the going from halloween into all saints day all hallows day and the sun rising on that and dispelling those images but sometimes they're too powerful to dispel and so what we're thinking of today is the way that the themes unfold and yet they go through each day and when we start today this is the morning of all hallow's eve and we've we've taken some pumpkins from our own patch and shown how they've been used in different areas but mostly of course in the new world because all the themes of halloween originated in scotland and ireland here and were taken across to the united states the irish used to carve turnips to carry around a jack-o-lantern and uh jack-o'-lantern was a a sign of that darkness with the light inside and was carried in the night but of course that it was moving on to all saints day with the rising of the sun and the sense of those who received the light of christ carrying that light around them but the themes of evil and darkness are real so that in the personification of them one mustn't take it too lightly although this has become a great secular festival there is no doubt whatsoever about that certainly if you're you're in the united states because huge festivals are attached to it not so much a church festival but a a secular festival and the processions which go on which we enjoy seeing in new york city a wonderful procession that's the only nighttime procession i think new york has in the village there and the the uh personifications of what evil might look like but it's all done with a sense of fun but in the the heart of that in the christian faith is something that one needs to take really very seriously indeed at the same time as helping children to understand that many of these personifications are things that they can enjoy but at the same time one has to be watchful with all these things our little niece arabella i think has over the last few days has six different halloween parties so obviously halloween has come to spain and over the last i should say three decades it's come to england but one remembers its origins in the fact that the light over the darkness is an important aspect of all these three days so look at all we have here this morning and think of all the films the horror films that people watch and that will come on to a certain series of films which are very helpful because of an anniversary today but at the same time think of how in the gospels and throughout the the scriptures and in the book of revelation those kinds of personifications of evil are talking about a real force so when we come to the lesson this morning from the ephesians in chapter six we shall find that the the uh writer to the ephesians is is actually talking about the the battle going on of cosmic forces in heavenly places well that's something far too deep for us to engage in but we can engage in the fact that the resurrection of christ like the sun dawning which we keep at the other side of the year in the northern hemisphere uh and uh that that springtime arising then now becomes at this time of the year the the warding off of that which is evil within us so let's begin our prayers on this all hallows all hallows eve and carry on with our reflections afterwards 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 to 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 say may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our son this morning is psalm 145 i will exalt you o god my king and bless your name forever and ever every day will i bless you and praise your name forever and ever great is the lord and highly to be praised his greatness is beyond all searching out one generation shall praise your works to another and declare your mighty acts they shall speak of the majesty of your glory and i will tell of all your wonderful deeds they shall speak of the might of your marvelous acts and i will also tell of your greatness they shall pour forth the story of your abundant kindness and joyfully sing of your righteousness the lord is gracious and merciful long suffering and of great goodness the lord is loving to everyone and his mercy is over all his creatures all your works praise you o lord and your faithful servants bless you they tell us the glory of your kingdom and speak of your mighty power to make known to all peoples your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom your dominion endures throughout all ages the lord is sure in all his words and faithful in all his deeds the lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all those who are bowed down the eyes of all wait upon you o lord and you give them their food in due season you open wide your hand and fill all things living with plenty the lord is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works the lord is near to those who call upon him to all who call upon him faithfully he fulfills the desire of those who fear him he hears their cry and saves them the lord watches over those who love him but all wickedness shall be destroyed my mouth shall speak the praise of the lord and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever one wants to say amen after forever and ever but that's a fine psalm of light triumphing over darkness in whatever way the darkness shows itself and let's now read therefore on this sunday morning so a special lesson this morning and i'm taking it from ephesians chapter 6 and beginning at verse 10. finally be strong in the lord and in the strength of his might put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places therefore take up the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of god praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication and to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints and also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which i am an ambassador in chains that i may declare it boldly as i ought to speak well no doubt about that in terms of the constant battle of our faith against evil imaginings and evil reality and evil found in all kinds of places but at the same time the human capacity of making those imaginings into fearful creatures and at the same time in uh the way in which the literature of so many nations has evolved into comic or powerful creatures of good and of evil but there is always that sense of striving the light over the darkness and the darkness putting itself forwards and remember that sentence in the scripture even the devil can masquerade as an angel of light all these things or jesus himself saying to those who come to arrest him this is your hour and the power of darkness that's absolutely part of the the gethsemane story the arrests the betrayal all of those things but at the same time this all halley's tide leads us through and different kinds of images come each day but they actually conflict and mix in with each other you cannot now go into a city in england into any shop or even watch the television or read in newspapers without being aware of halloween and all its wonderful symbols but at the same time one has to take up all those weapons of good and right in order to have that kind of conflict and we remember how in different faiths that light over darkness is something which humanity needs augustine told take what you find and use it to teach the faith well what we find is all around us and we're using it at this all hallows tied this all saints tied to help people understand this huge battle of light over darkness which we are engaged in in so many different forms and the personification of evil in different cultures takes different forms and the sort of spiders and ghouls and trolls and demons and horns and hooves and all of that are speaking of a reality which our lord himself took very seriously and people's troubles in the gospel writers the evangelists all speak of the casting out of demons the sense of restoring people to that the image which god wants in them and helping them through the power of the good news of the anointed one who is living in that same humanity and saying to those who come to arrest him this is this is your hour the power of darkness we remember all these things today and no doubt maybe some of you tonight in certain cultures will find children dressed in all sorts of ways knocking on your door for trick and treat has become something also that needs the children kept safe in and the way in which all that happens so that fears are not carried over into their dreams and reality and some face real fears and one one remembers how at the moment there is a great struggle against social media entering into children's lives and and and bringing many good things but at the same time the capacity for evil to hurt and not help them in any way but today we have to help them enjoy and learn from everything that is going on i said that certain customs are carried forward from one day to another well the custom of going round with um the sense of we will say a prayer for you poor people going round in former times we will say a prayer for you and for those whom you love and those whom you have lost could you give us an all souls cake in in in thanksgiving for us doing that for you and all souls cakes these are properly things which were given at the door of people's houses on all souls day which is tuesday not today has transferred itself and that sense of coming and knocking on someone's door and when people went around to ask for all souls cakes they often carried a jack-o'-lantern as i said in ireland they were turnip heads with a with uh carved out with a candle inside them and knocked and offered prayers on behalf of the the whole household and the departed ones as well and an all sills cake which was an ordinary cake spiced with dried fruit in it and with a cross on it rather like the hot cross buns of good friday but this this time of the year at the the sense of the all souls day going round from house to house which i think probably is in some way transferred itself over the centuries into this trick-or-treating so that they're knocking on the door and then something given um i don't know if prayers are offered in return but i would expect i would expect it's simply a time of enjoying uh sweets and and nice things and uh hopefully also not mischief but mostly that festival uh in countries which keep it in that way is not seen as a religious festival at all but it's an opportunity to talk about the way in which fantasies and fears can be combated and if our faith in christ can do that then we are doing what augustine said teaching the faith by using something that people are becoming and this side of the atlantic used to and are very used to on the other side of the atlantic the three days of all hallows tied which we give thanks for at this time i remember first seeing um the gilberton sullivan opera radigal set in cornwall and we've seen it more recently actually in new york [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] where can it be now let me see yes yes it's contrary to etiquette tell me pray and tell me [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] fiddly me [Music] [Applause] [Music] ah [Music] when the nightwine halls in the chimney cars and the parts in the moonlight flies and inky clouds like funeral sharks sail over the midnight skies when the footpaths quail at the night birds will and black dogs pay at the moon then is [Music] then thus [Music] my eyes are fully open to my awful situation i shall go at once to roderick and make him adoration i shall tell him i've recovered my forgotten moral senses and i don't get up and tape any for any consequences no i do not want to perish by the sword or by the dagger but a martyr may indulge a little pardonable swagger in a word or two of compliment my vanity would flatter but i've got to die tomorrow so it really doesn't matter sword really doesn't matter so it really doesn't matter so it really doesn't matter so it really doesn't matter so it really doesn't matter so it really doesn't matter [Music] is [Applause] [Music] a wonderful opera where the ghosts in the second act step out of their their portraits i hope that never happens to me with all these demons in the house in their portraits but uh the ghosts in radigal of the baronet of radigal castle going back back back step out and walk around the stage terrifying the incumbent of of the present baronet in in radical castle and uh making him do a bad deed every day and the the chief of all of them sir roderick sings a wonderful song which is a bit like the dance macabre which has been composed by so many different people think of fantasia with those dances which are immediately sent away when the sun rises but in this stance macabre this song about the ghosts high noon there is the most wonderful illustrations of all going on un until uh the the sun rises and then that everything the phantasms disappear and uh i always enjoy that that opera and the way it comes forward that operator shall we call it of of gilbert and sullivan when it's done not one of the most well-known but one of the ones with lovely attractive characters and lovely attractive music so the soul cakes and the the dance macabre and everything and the roots in very ancient festivals indeed which augustine found here when he came festivals which by lighting fires on the top of hills at samhain actually tried to eradicate the darkness a sense of darkness which was creeping over with the days getting shorter and shorter in the northern hemisphere and the more farther north you go the days become shorter and shorter so bonfires and candlelight and lanterns at this time of year are very much part of the way in which festivals came and our festival of all saints today in the cathedral and tomorrow in the cathedral and then the the the the prayers on all sales day will reflect all of that well now let's think that on this day the 31st of october 1961 the film director peter jackson was born a new zealand director born and he is best known for his adaptation in film form magnificent panoramas of j.r.r torkane's lord of the rings to start with that book which or those three books as i read them uh first of all the fellowship of the ring secondly the two towers and thirdly the return of the king remember tolkien's very fervent catholic face and the way in which when someone said is this an allegory all the way through he would always say no it's not an allegory and yet there are symbols all the way through of the high elves and the way in which they themselves represents goodness and they have powers which defeat the evil one until the evil is so great that even they are frightened the the high elves are frightened that this is going to overwhelm the earth and someone must destroy that ring of power you remember how it the story unfolds and in the book of course there's far far more detail but the one who in the end is able to do it is the least noticed person as frodo with sam gammy uh his his gardener goes all the way to mount doom to throw that ring of power and it's hard for him to do it and the the way in which the the ring begins to take over his life and then the throwing of the ring into the fires and the coming back to the peaceful life of the shire where people have no idea of what battles have been fought between good and evil and all kinds of destructive elements orcs and ghouls and and balrog and all sorts of things which which uh uh torkane draws for us in amazing detail but all the way through and the wizard gandalf leading the way all the way through that battle of good and evil and the triumph of good because one of the least noticed people of all the little hobbit frodo in the midst of all the high elves and the the the mighty dwarfs i mean mighty in their power with fighting and and also the the men themselves like strider aragorn and in the middle of kings courts and great mountainscapes the one who carries the ring unnoticed surrounded by the evil of the nine black riders all of that the dark riders coming and at that time getting to the fires of mount doom and casting the ring into it and then coming home equally unnoticed and people not right realizing what's happened now peter jackson set all that out in film form and it was done in 2001 2002 2003 one remembers people going and not having read the book being mesmerized by that panorama and in the at the heart of it was tolkien's we've talked talked about this before tolkien's absolute face in the fact that the good will triumph over evil the light will triumph over darkness and that the one who said i am the light of the world actually holds the power of the creator but needs a partnership with those most unnoticed perhaps in the universe humanity to affect that on this earth and then again uh jackson returned to the fray in terms of making films and in 2012 and 2013 and 2014 he made three films of the book the hobbit which is quite a short book but my goodness he opened it out with the unexpected journey in 2012 the desolation of smorg in 2013 and the battle of the five armies in 2014 and all of that too gave images that people could embrace of the fight of good over evil but it's no more than the gospels are doing for us day by day in ordinary situations and jesus coming to people with healing hands of salvation remember how i think perhaps a week ago when we were reading the prophet isaiah we read that passage where the lord himself seeing the situation straps on the uh the armor of righteousness and comes himself this sense of well i must do it myself and in the person of jesus christ came and took up that battle and showed us then after his resurrection how that power is released for us to wage the same warfare for ourselves and for others and also to take that lesson which tolkein shows us but is very evident throughout the gospels too that it's sometimes in the least likely places that you find the capacity for good to triumph over evil for light to triumph over darkness so um i'm going to pick our little owl up again he's fallen off here he's one of the symbols of darkness but maybe that was a sign of evil being triumphed by the toppling of the owl uh now this morning as we surround ourselves with these symbols well of course we shall also surround ourselves with stories of the saints and of all souls today the remembering of those who have carried the christ light for us in the past and whom we still love and feel at one with in the communion of saints on this morning three days of all hallows time so we'll come back to it tomorrow morning and again the morning after but meanwhile let's say our prayers on this day and on this day we're praying for the uh episcopal anglican province of alexandria and also we are praying with our diocese for missional learning communities throughout the diocese praying for all who are worshiping in whatever way to remember these days of all hallow tied and we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for uh emma bishop at lambeth as we say the prayer for this all saints tied this all hallows tide almighty god you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your son christ our lord grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that we may come to those inexpressible joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you through jesus christ our lord amen so in whatever language you'd like to use let's 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 now on this day as we uh say our own prayers conscious that the light triumph over darkness [Music] so [Music] [Music] one remembers that the carving of faces right across the world has been an artistic thing in order to ward off that which might be threatening um and very often creatures make themselves as scary-looking as possible when they are most afraid in order that that which is threatening them is ward off across the cathedral uh and it it has been very much a culture of the the carving and in many parish churches as well there are what we might call gargoyles facing outwards as if to do just that it's a an artistic habit in that way and a natural thing in humanity and in creatures to present a threatening face as scary as possible to ward off what is actually quite frightening and today in the cathedral we've got tonight a confirmation service which the bishop of dover is taking which is a lovely thing to do on on the eve of all saints day as people accept a confirming of their baptismal vows and mostly young people coming together there we have one lady catherine who has come all the way down from northumbria to be confirmed here because she has a special connection here and is a member of our garden congregation so with all of that the confirmation service will light a candle for them and actually at the end of the service i see the presenter has put him that richard shepard and i wrote in a world where people walk in darkness let us turn our faces to the light and i remember writing the the chorus of that from a statement of terry terry weight when he came out of his long long incarceration in the darkness for the light is stronger than the darkness and the day will overcome the night though the shadows linger all around you let us turn our faces to the light and that is in fact what this all hallows tide is about in winter darkness growing in the northern hemisphere and fading away in the southern hemisphere as we encourage one another 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 would pray for today and always amen [Music] is [Music] oh yes [Music] is [Music] with us [Music] let us is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] he went [Music] relentless brown [Applause] [Music] is [Music] sail over the midnight [Music] is [Music] uh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that once were women and men [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good night [Music] [Music] i knew [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] so [Music] um uh [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] you