good morning and welcome to the dinery in canterbury cathedral on this thursday the 11th of november the 11th of november a significant date in so many ways which we will come back to in a moment but we've come up here on to the south tower of the deanery to look out over the buildings of the city in a different direction this is a day it's the last day with a dedicated program and theme for the delegates at cop26 and their theme is cities regions and the built environment and we're remembering that buildings generate nearly 40 percent of annual global co2 emissions and all those things the delegates will be looking at and we shall also in our reflection but there will be pictures of our own community here because we have to turn the light on ourselves always when we are having these thoughts now you will have your own situations in mind but that we will come to during the reflection for the moment um we wanted just to make an apology yesterday for the enormous uh delay in putting on the whole of the service yesterday it was a youtube delay and and a big glitch but it's all there now but uh in the end it it was put on fletcher put it on in two parts and we remind you to look at part two because that gives you an idea of what the delegates yesterday were looking at and again today part one and part two but don't don't uh forget part two because that will give you pictures in your own time to contemplate what the delegates are doing for us and for our planet and this now if we go on to the other themes which will take our time also not only this morning but also in the cathedral a bit later on this is armistice day the 11th day of the 11th month and we remember that at the 11th hour the armistice in 1918 took effect and peace was restored now an armistice doesn't mean a peace treaty it means a stopping of violence is what the latin two words come together mean armistice and then people uh agree to sit down together and work out what will make for a peaceful future we will be remembering in the cathedral that armistice day at 11 o'clock with representatives who have come to remember times of war but our big remembrance service is always now on the nearest sunday to november the 11th and that will happen on sunday itself with remembrance sunday this is also saint martin's day and that is the day in the christian calendar of the fourth century roman soldier saint martin of tours as he became the bishop of tours and of course that name saint martins i hope you'll realize from many of our morning prayers is the dedication of the little church which when augustine came here queen bertha the princess from the frankish kingdom whom ethel that the king down here of kent at the time who was not a christian he had married bassa and she brought her pre she was already a christian she brought her priest with her and they used the church of saint martin which dated from the times of the roman occupation so as we said before when looking across from the other tower here the north tower st martins is the oldest church in the english-speaking world and that is a a wonderful uh um attribution but it also makes them in a in a way that little church our mother church for canterbury cathedral so we wish that congregation well and pray for them this morning on this in martin's day you will remember that saint martin was the roman soldier who had given half of his cloak to the beggar who was asking and at night then had a dream that that beggar was christ himself and he'd done it for him and fletcher has a theory that that the cloak he was wearing was paid for the the roman empire paid for half an officer's expenses and the other half was provided by the person themselves who in the armed services and the sense of martin giving away half the cloak was the sense of giving away the half that he owned render unto caesar after the empire and this is our lord's words of course render unto caesar the things that are caesar unto god the things that are god's and giving the beggar the half of the cloak that belonged to him martin was a sign of his own sacrifice in this but not giving away something that wasn't his because that's not the same kind of sacrifice at all so those themes will be there in our day but let's begin our prayers on this armistice day o 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 as 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 so we read is our psalm on this 11th morning of the month psalm 57. be merciful to me o god be merciful to me for my soul takes refuge in you in the shadow of your wings will i take refuge until the storm of destruction has passed by i will call upon the most high god the god who fulfills his purpose for me he will send from heaven and save me and rebuke those that would trample upon me god will send forth his love and his faithfulness i lie in the midst of lions people whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword be exalted oh god above the heavens and your glory over all the earth they have laid a net for my feet my soul is pressed down they have dug a pit before me and will fall into it themselves my heart is ready o god my heart is ready i will sing and give you praise awake my soul awake harp and liar that i may awaken the dawn i will give you thanks o lord among the peoples i will sing praise to you among the nations for your loving kindness is as high as the heavens and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds be exalted oh god above the heavens and your glory over all the earth so we turn to our reading and we are reading this morning from the book of exodus where we left off yesterday is a different kind of story i'm reading from verse 8 of chapter 17 then amalek came and fought with israel at rephidim so moses said to joshua choose for us men and go out and fight with amalek tomorrow i will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of god in my hand so joshua did as moses told him and fought with amalek while moses aaron and her went up to the top of the hill whenever moses held up his hand israel prevailed but whenever he lowered his hand amalek prevailed but moses hands grew weary so aaron and her took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it while aaron and her held up his hands one on one side and the other on the other side so moses hands were steady until the going down of the sun and joshua overwhelmed amalek and his people with the sword then the lord said to moses write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of joshua i will utterly blot out the memory of amalek from under heaven and moses built an altar and called the name of it the lord is my banner saying a hand upon the throne of the lord the lord will have war with amalek from generation to generation well it's a story that has been written down write this as a memorial but amalek's name is not blotted from the book and is part of that story it's a part of the tapestry of war and peace which illustrates every community of humankind throughout history this sense of war and peace title of one of the famous most famous novels ever written the benefits of peace but the constancy of conflict and war in situations where the needs the desires the intentions the visions of humankind conflict and we've come to a particular point in the journey of the children of israel a wilderness journey as they move on we've come to to a point in moses own sense of what it means to be the leader and the leader in both war and in peace and what a leader can expect in trying to balance the needs of the welfare of people in a wartime situation and the welfare of people in a peacetime situation what are those needs and when is it time to make an armistice to create a potential for peace in the next few days we'll look through three completely different developments with what is going on with that community of israel who have been a wandering community and will continue to be so but more and more they are developing within themselves the sense of being a people with needs actually where they are and carrying even the sign of the place of their worship with them but for the moment they are still those who have crossed the red sea and were grumbling at moses about the fact that they had no water to drink and now here's another demand on moses what we see is war and peace today and then afterwards when we start reading on from there a sort of restoration of family life first of moses himself and the way in which different generations of family life give wisdom to each other as jethro and moses wife and daughters appear and then the day after with the wisdom of jethro something about the ordering of society in a very basic form and it's in the sense of jethro the father-in-law saying to moses whom he honors and respects as does moses jethro who had been the priest of midian whose flocks joseph was looking at moses was looking after when he had the vision of the burning bush then at that point jethro is giving advice saying you can't do all this by yourself and the people mustn't expect it so all these things how much one human human being can affect and how much pressure one human being can take before things begin to give and we come then to that point where moses has been harassed and vilified with aaron also when there was no water for leading the people out we've seen that and then today he is expected to be the one who faces those who are at this moment enemies of that nation and thinks almost of the city-states of italy fighting in the renaissance and even saint francis going off to war with uh little armies to go out and to fight and one thinks of martin the roman soldier this and of course today on an armistice day it's an armistice in the great war the nations of of of europe at that time on their knees with exhaustion and the running out of resources and at that point an armistice the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month 1918 and those times will be kept this morning but if one goes back then to the way in which this is playing out then moses now realizes on the mountain that first of all his physical form as a leader needs the support of created matter they put the stone under moses to support his physicality and then on one side aaron the representative of the liturgical priestly worship life of that community and on the other side her one of the elders of the people and representatives joshua will be the real representative of the army but her is that as an ordinary representative in that way hold up right hand and left so that moses hands can be seen not only as a morale builder but as a sign of the leadership which draws them together but we see what cost that is pushing on to the leadership so it's a good time then now to begin to think in a different way about the theme given at the climate change conference which is going on cop 26 and reaching its last crucial days in the past crop conferences have often had to overrun but already we're seeing a build-up and the way in which other nations and the new agreement between canada between china and the united states the two biggest economies of the world uh coming to an agreement and an accord which feeds in a different kind of feeling to the ending days of this cop 26 as as more and more nations begin to see the danger the danger to themselves the danger to their planet it's a situation of war and peace in a very different way and what is being created shall we say is an attempt at an armistice with the planet the gift of the creator say that we begin to work with the gifts of creation rather than against them that we see how the earth is able to adapt to the gifts of creation and if we work with those gifts particularly in the built environment because so many people now are living in an urban environment and as we saw yesterday with the traffic emissions so we see today with the global emissions of co2 from buildings being generated everywhere and we come to the fact of so how is that realization suddenly going to be developed into let's call it an armistice a balance a time when we can just relax a little bit because we realize the planet if we work well with it is working with us god's gifts the creators gifts are there and we ourselves then can look at the hands of moses raised in worship and welfare of his people and uh that being seen as a banner for the lord on that hilltop we do that with bases of worship but at the same time we have to do it with our built environment and the way that we treat the earth so today we're looking at urban settings and the buildings producing 40 of that co2 emission but we're also looking at the initiatives of governments in trying to combat that and we shall see many ways in which that's happening i said to you last night i had to go to london to speak to it as a very happy occasion speak to the the annual dinner of the the um musicians company and they are a company of people and it was looking down it was a vast assembly and all of them are those who have committed themselves to give encouragement real encouragement to young musicians and we know the role of music the way in which music can actually give a sense of healing and help our reflection so it was wonderful to to be there saying thank you to all of them and to watch as young musicians stepped forward and some of those were military blind bands men young men and women serving in the armed forces but as musicians and i found myself talking to a percussionist and he said oh well percussion is very versatile um because he was an uh a young raf uh um uh percussionist uh and being trained in that way but she said it's very useful because of course it can play all sorts of music from classical music to the music of the of the band and at the same time a jazz trio with a with a a percussionist all of those things in terms of music but at the same time it caused me after i got off the train and i don't go to london very often now to see as you go through the underground station after underground station on the walls the city of london led by sadiq khan the mayor of london has notices everywhere about the the zones low emission zones and the penalties for breaking that and the way in which it can be by car number plates identified but then also ultra low emission zones and all this that the notices are saying being extended from the present area to the whole of greater london it's a city attempting to deal with that and help the planet in that way people get helped in domestic building and adaptation by government subsidies for domestic energy efficient boilers and lighting and electricity and insulation but as more and more people throughout the world live their life in cities the figures are set to increase more and more and more building over green land and as that happens then we pay a price for not working with the planet much of what is built over that green land is built out of harmful polluting materials before this realization and this is a realization that's only begun to dawn very recently that at the moment many of the materials are using are at war with the creator's intentions and the way that the planet can react to things going on the amount of rainfall and the amount of heat from sunshine coming back off certain materials how polluting materials can be used as well and that therefore is a situation of war with nature or peace with nature the armistice and we are seeing at the moment a transformation in intention in government terms not only the city of london but the government of this nation realizing that and the people and we ourselves as we watch the the uh clips that we were privileged to see from different nations and these will be in part two of yesterday and today in morning prep that you enjoy piecemeal whenever you want to look back at them i've found them absolutely fascinating and also they're very optimistic with the way in which local initiatives but in some cases massive government initiatives no longer war or peace but a sense of balance because if we do that then that which is being so say thrown at us even now before we attempt to help with climate change so the earth's its atmosphere stops warming now if we adapt ourselves to the materials we're using then we begin to establish that armistice with the planet and we need times and leaders need times for reflection see how our lord again and again withdraws in order to reflect and to feel around him something and in the wilderness or on a mountaintop where he's gone to open himself to the channels of the creator the father and to pray i'm sure not always in words so from time to time that the close disciples hear some of those words but oftentimes just being there and surrounded by all that this beautiful creation gives him but also the dangers of creation and his word consider reflect on is often there here it is who says to us consider the lilies of the field consider the birds of the air learn a lesson from the fig tree learn a lesson from the morning sky or the evening sky you know these things and he's talking to a rural society but he's also talking to people in the city of jerusalem which has a big built environment at that time but those cities in those days not big enough to affect the planet now they are huge huge cities and it's really a wonderful thing to see that those cities are beginning only beginning to come on board in former days and i'm talking about until quite recently it was taken for granted that you had vast amounts of glass enormous amounts of concrete and materials like tarmac which would trap the water and if it came down in torrents then it would run off it has to run off somewhere but it would also be wasted the earth wouldn't be soaking it up because the materials were actually resisting it it was a situation of war not a balance not of armistice between the the gifts that the the creator has given us and at the same time the gifts that and the way we're using it to to build so all those things and the taking down of trees which themselves lower the temperature and trap pollution and reduce the impact of heavy rain and reduce wind damage and improve health and also think of just drawing a part into that kind of landscape improve emotional well-being there's a great plan in the city of paris and this is a plan in its infancy to shall we say green up that city so that there are areas of that sort and with new cities being built there are plans for what we call 15 15-minute cities where no one is more than 15 minutes away from what they need in terms of their welfare 15 minutes walk away not car drive away and it's not the very first or bicycle ride if one wants it but it wouldn't be 15 minutes at that point it would be even faster um but uh that was this isn't a new idea when things are well in garden city which was built with that kind of flavor here but also we think and this is really uh mind-blowing we think look at the huge cities in china which have grown and grown and grown and they're being built now as sponge cities wonderful concept they're cities where when rain falls both the materials and the amount of green space is there and even the roads and pathways where the water can permeate and run through and water the earth beneath or be stored somewhere beneath not run off to do massive damage in flooding but actually be used and the astonishing growth of these cities china is a place quite different from anywhere else in the world when a decision is made to do things they really do do it with a will and their population of course is massive but the way in which these sponge cities as i call them because a sponge can take in water and also if you squeeze it give it out again so the water can be given back either by evaporating off but also come by storing and being used here we are with joseph's barns again being used when that is utterly necessary and these sponge cities are growing by the minute everyone with more than a million people in and dotted around across china so that the water and the flooding and the waterways and the the the huge downpours which is absolutely common in china are being used to the advantage of an urban population with multitudes of green spaces we've seen these cities like shenzhen i was talking about that i think yesterday where we have one of our king's schools there and you see as you go across shenzhen a multiplicity of green spaces and materials being used where water can simply soak through we've not got to that stage in many uh cities yet in western europe but we're learning lessons you might call it smart building and also the sense of eco-friendly building materials let's look at urban farms for a moment which we were introduced to by a friend of ours james jenkins in new haven in connecticut where local government have released plots that are possible building plots but are given to the local communities so that an urban farm can be created and very often they are in areas where there is a low rate of employment in new haven the university of yale is there but it is an area of of social deprivation as well and those are the people who benefit most from this because not only are work opportunities offered but at the same time they begin to learn skills of growing crops or in some cases even keeping animals and finding a new um pride in what they're doing and then going on and on and developing and it actually opens up the sense of growing things for the benefit of the society right in the middle of the urban area and that's something also that we've seen in new york with allison rockefeller a friend of ours who's the chair of the central park conservancy not only is central park in new york a massive green space but at the same time many other green spaces large and small have been found and resourced by the resources of that conservancy committee in order that the same kind of things can be happening that crops can be grown and employment can be given and understanding given also of this way in which the the the gifts of god in this creative planet work with us and one creates that atmosphere of balance and peace and gives understanding to those who before felt perhaps not very much used to society and had gone into that area of human life where they needed a re-creation and this gives that recreation with wonderful resources which are easily available because there is so much wasted space in cities from buildings which had been or areas that had been developed but have now um fallen out of use and suddenly they are growing things therefore one looks at the city of singapore then enormous amounts of urban crop growing is going on and sometimes much of that is indoors and at different levels but it's then creating food sources which don't rely on having to import and transport enormous amounts of food sources from elsewhere and so we're looking at cities which give us an example of the way in which we can work with the planet with the materials we're using and the plans we have and of course we then turn that light on to ourselves and i said we're coming up here on to this particular place the the uh south tower of the deanery and i can look out if i turn around on a huge building project which is being built according to old principles and that uh you could see by what is going on there and the amount of folk being put into an area made of traditional materials also built on a flood plain and pushing more and more traffic into the center of the city but at the same time having little regard to the the balance that is there and what will happen that it's right beside the river star and as that goes flowing past uh and that the amount of traffic is being used is is is also immense but it it is something i think that that will gradually dawn on communities that this isn't the way forward i remember in hereford my deanery looked out across the river y and the river was it that my garden sloped downwards towards the river in lawns down and then there were stone steps down to the river itself big river that river would flood it was bound to flood again and again i don't think a year went past without a flood and there was a a stone sundial halfway up the first lawn as it sloped towards the deanery and i knew that as i saw the waters rising uh and looking out from the windows of a bedroom right across the river as i saw the waters rising that the moment it reached halfway up that sundial the waters would be dissipated right across acres and acres of water meadow opposite which had not been built on and suddenly all of that became water so as i'm standing on the side of the sea of galilee looking out and the trees were standing up through the water and the flood plain there was left empty and the land was porous but at the same time no new homes at us were were built on that now when i caught the train to london and went through worcester i remember very well and there worcester is on the river seven um uh i remember well there was a a and what would you call a viaduct going across for the train and uh down below were the old water meadows beside the river seven and lots of starter homes for young people had been built on those water meadows and the sadness when the seven flooded and it flooded less often than the river y but because the y took so much water from the welsh mountains but the the seven wood flood i remember going to london on the train and looking out and seeing all the roads below with the the traffic lights under the water and the the homes of people with them bringing out their uh belongings which had been completely ruined by building on the floodplain at this balance which caused them to be at war with the river and the answer generally is so put a barrier up and the old answer used to be no put in a flood plain and then recognize that this is going to happen or if it's water coming downwards let something be there to let the waters through now at the same time massive areas of of concrete and glass promote heat not only for the earth but for humankind and the lack of trees not giving shade means that heat is there which increases stress and in buildings means constant air conditioning which itself is full of emissions all those things can be balanced but if you're building according to old principles then the armistice hasn't been created and uh we're not actually looking forward then also and there are plans also to huge but to build great great bypasses on green meadows and through uh village communities on the other side of of canterbury here which i think will probably be rethought because a consciousness of how communities should be and 15-minute cities and cities like the sponge cities and also the way in which public transport and and uh electricity in cars will be used and buses and vans we've seen all of that this is all about an armistice an armistice when we sit down stop and think how do we build best and where do we build best and in what units do we build best for the planet and the welfare of those who need most resources most employment need homes but what should those homes look like and where should they be it's really a dialogue between humankind and the planet the creator's gift and one remembers most of all this morning our lord's words consider take time to reflect it's what we've been doing through these two weeks i've learned huge amounts from that which we've been given to look at by the delegates at cop 26 and i know that i can plug back into them as i say in both part twos from yesterday and today you can do that and look to see exactly what is happening in cities and be inspired now our law's words consider let's keep that one consider the lilies of the field the right plantings that the plantings that suit that area best we saw that in that little illustration about cape town yesterday suiting it best for what the the the weather throws at it and suiting it best for the heat and crops that the citizens there can expect consider the lilies of the field consider the birds of the air let them be a symbol of creatures in creation learn a lesson from the fig tree about seasons and the way in which things develop and in that consideration many many things i know not only will change they must change for the welfare of the whole of humankind and it's a wonderful thing to see in these last two days how nations massive nations are coming on board with that realization and from it small communities like this one can learn so let's say our prayers on this particular day and uh obviously we are praying for all those who will be in acts of remembrance of the cessation of hostilities at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 but it's only a symbol about the balance between war and peace and humankind's constant struggle to maintain that balance so that peace can be established and given and assured so we remember those who have died in war on this day as we shall on sunday and we are this morning praying in the anglican communion for the diocese of the eastern himalayas in the church of north india there's a a mountainscape to think about this morning pray for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and today we're going to pray for the parish of saint martin here on this saint martin's day martin who gave half his cloak the half that belonged to him and that was a true sacrifice and through it he had a vision of being a member of christ's army and uh fighting for those who most needed his championship here's the colleague for saint martin's day god all-powerful who called martin from the armies of this world to be a faithful soldier of christ give us grace to follow him in his love and his compassion for the needy and enable your church to claim for all people their inheritance as children of god through jesus christ our lord amen so let's say the prayer our savior taught us when his disciples asked him teach us to pray so our lord said and say it in whatever language you like when you pray say 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 and consideration now as we consider that armistice between ourselves and the creator's gifts [Music] do [Music] [Music] perhaps it's good to remember that martin gave half his cloak the half that belonged to him for the need of the person who was asking for it and needed it at the same time the part that he knew belonged to the state he left to the state we would expect then in terms of subsidy to those who most need it that governments throughout the world would provide that other half in order that that welfare can be achieved 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 so don't forget to look at the things in part two yesterday and today because they're not only the things which come down from cop 26 they are many and fascinating and imaginative and inspiring videos that fletcher has researched to illustrate everything that we've been saying through these two weeks and speaking for the two of us learning through these two weeks as well saint martin was born at the beginning of the 4th century as the son of roman parents his father was in the military so martin had to join the roman army at the age of 15. he encountered christians and was touched so much that he wanted to be baptized a legend tells how he was traveling in the middle of winter to the city of amiens encountering many people who suffered from the cold inspired by the example of jesus he shared all the clothes he could miss at the city gate he saw a scantily dressed beggar shivering from the cold everybody ignored him martin wanted to help but the only thing left was his military cloak he took his sword and cut his cloak in half to share with the man that night martin dreamed of jesus wearing the half cloak he had given away it reminded martin of what jesus had said whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine you did for me martin left the army shortly after he was baptized and eventually became bishop of tour he was buried there on november 11th the feast of st martin is celebrated in various places in europe with bonfires that remind us of the light and warmth charity brings with winter approaching the poor would go from door to door to ask for help even today children go from door to door carrying lanterns and singing songs hoping for some candy [Music]