good afternoon and welcome to canterbury cathedral to the deanery garden as we come to say our evening prayers together on this friday afternoon of the 10th of july wherever you are in the world bring your own concerns to your prayers and we will pray with you as we say the psalms and canticles and read the lessons of even song oh lord open now our lips and our mouth shall show forth thy praise o 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 ye the lord the lord's name be praised our evening psalm on this tenth evening of the month is psalm 55 and we read some verses of that now hear my prayer oh god and hide not thyself from my petition take heed unto me and hear me how i mourn in my prayer and am vexed the enemy cries so and the ungodly cometh on so fast for they are minded to do me some mischief so maliciously are they set against me my heart is disquieted within me and the fear of death is fallen upon me fearfulness and trembling are come upon me and unhorrible dread hath overwhelmed me and i said oh that i had wings like a dove for then would i flee away and be at rest though then would i get me away far off and remain in the wilderness i would make haste to escape because of the stormy wind and tempest day and night they go about within the walls thereof mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it wickedness is therein deceit and guile go not out of their streets for it is not an open enemy that has done me this dishonor for then i could have borne it neither was it mine adversary that did magnify himself against me for then peradventure i would have hid myself from him but it was even thou my companion my guide and my own familiar friend we took sweet counsel together and walked in the house of god as friends the words of his mouth were softer than butter having war in his heart his words were smoother than oil and yet be they very swords o cast thy burden upon the lord and he shall nourish thee and shall not suffer the righteous to fall 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 very hard to read that psalm without the music of mendelssohn coming into your head with his beautiful solos in the motet hear my prayer oh god and even more famous maybe oh for the wings of a dove for then when i flee away and be at rest and also for the music from his elijah cast thy burden upon the lord and he shall nourish thee so we read our first lesson and i remember the other morning saying that a poem the poem we read by shelley about the cloud was rather like a passage from the book of job for job describes the wonders of creation in wonderful ways sometimes gigantic waves and we've come this afternoon to chapter 41. we won't read it all but he imagines the great sea monster the leviathan which clearly they had little idea about but they imagined sometimes people have imagined it was a crocodile but i think a crocodile is too small for what is being described here can you draw out leviathan with a fish hook or press down his tongue with a cord can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook will he make many pleas to you will he speak to you soft words will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever will you play with him as with a bird or will you put him on a leash for your girls will traders bargain over him will they divide him up among the merchants can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears lay your hands on him remember the battle you will not do it again the hope behold the hope of a man is false he is laid low even at the sight of him no one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up who then is he who can stand before me who has first given to me that i should repay him whatever is under the whole heaven is mine there's much more description of the leviathan but it reminds us of those passages in job where god talks to job and asks him questions like have you ever seen the storehouses for the snow or where the thunder comes from and here is the same have you been to the depths of the sea and seen the great sea monsters tales of huge fish from way out in the mediterranean sea or the oceans but given enormous color in the book of job so we give thanks for all creation as we say magnificat together 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 generation 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 shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts he hath put down the mighty from their seat and has exalted the humble and meek he has filled the hungry with good things and the ridge 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 our second lesson is written in the 16th chapter of the letter of sin paul to the romans beginning at the first verse i commend to you our sister phoebe a servant of the church at kencree that you may welcome her in the lord in a way worthy of the saints and help her in whatever she may need from you for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well greet prisca and aquila my fellow workers in christ jesus who risked their necks for my life to whom not only i give thanks but all the churches of the gentiles give thanks as well greet also the church in their house greet my beloved epinepis who was the first convert to christ in asia greet mary who has worked hard for you greet andronicus and junior my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners they are well known to the apostles and they were in christ before me greet ampliatus my beloved in the lord greet urbanus our fellow worker in christ and my beloved status greet apellis who is approved in christ greet those who belong to the family of aristobulus greet my kinsmen herodian greet those in the lord who belong to the family of narcissus greet those workers in the lord triphena and trifosa greet the beloved persist who has worked hard in the lord greet rufus chosen in the lord also his mother who has been a mother to me as well greet asyncritus fligon hermes patribas hermas and the brothers who are with them greet philologus julia nerius and his sister and olympus and all the saints who are with them and greet one another with a holy kiss for all the churches of christ greet you [Applause] lord now let us thou thy servants depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou has prepared before the faith 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 i believe in god the father almighty maker of heaven and earth and in jesus christ his only son our lord who was conceived by the holy ghost born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of god the father almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead i believe in the holy ghost the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting are men 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 for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen the lord shall 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 sign 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 oh god the protector of all that trust in me without whom nothing is strong nothing is holy increase and multiply upon us thy mercy that thou being our ruler and guide we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal grant this so heavenly father for jesus christ's sake our lord amen o god from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all just works to 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 mendelson died too young and when he was really failing at the end he said i think to his sister just how many tunes were still in his head how many compositions he had to give us well we can only imagine we give thanks for what he was able to give us but i'm reminded of that kind of energy and that kind of unfinished business when i read parts of saint paul's epistles his longing to go just everywhere and throughout the letter to the romans and then when he's writing that he's not been there he's determined to go there but he says i'll come to you on the way to spain so far as we know he never got to spain it was unfinished business nevertheless he'd left so many friends and disciples that of course in the end the christian news got to spain and this afternoon there's this wonderful lesson which is full of names they're great names and each name tends to give you a picture not only of the church in rome because some of these names he is commending to them like phoebe who is coming from ken craig and going to rome and and paul is giving her a letter of introduction if you like and in the same way prisca and aquila all these people and the lovely thing is that there's a complete mixture of men and women in house churches and little groups and the focus is becoming rome well we know that he will get that it won't be on his way to spain it will be as a prisoner and he'll spend time there and get to know the church in rome and many people there but this little paragraph does give you a wonderful flavor of how christians were beginning to travel around the mediterranean region and to share with each other greetings and good news of the gospel if you tell the story of any church you get a multitude of names and if you start telling the story of canterbury there are as many influential women as there are men in its story right from the very beginning after all it was queen bertha who welcomed augustine when he came here first and on the way through many important women who guaranteed the continuation of the life of this holy place women and men mixing their energies together and mixing their prayers together a lot of them in the holy houses which existed in this place until the reformation but even after that people of influence the kind of worship that we have here survived because of elizabeth the first enormous love of cathedral music and ceremony and all of that we give great thanks for her statue is on the west face of the cathedral amongst many others but at the same time you have people like queen mary i mean william and mary and mary when she came with her husband william who was very much a dutch protestant of the house of orange made sure that her chaplain dean hooper came here as the dean of canterbury and not only that but she kept an eye on him to see that things were being done decently i say that because i'm sitting in front of these windows in a a a 12th century wall which would have been lancet in those days but she told the dean that the room was too dark and so these three great windows into the library we give thanks for for her but so many have said their prayers here and if you're going to tell the whole story of any of our communities throughout the world it would be a mixture of men and women who have kept the faith and gave us courage and insight into the faith and the good news there's one point in that little list where one suddenly stops and i always feel very moved we get to greet those workers in the lord trifena and try triphasa greet the beloved persons who has worked hard in the lord greet rufus chosen in the lord and also his mother who has been a mother to me as well we are straight back into the gospel of saint mark and christian tradition absolutely says that rufus is that very rufus that we hear when simon of cyrene is made to carry christ's cross and as a little bywords in mark writing his gospel in jerusalem with peter's influence sin mark writes simon of cyrene the father of alexander and rufus what a connection and here now is rufus whose father carried the cross and his mother who has been a mother to st paul as well well it causes us to give thanks for all holy men and women who have handed on the faith to us and it causes us also to remember our own responsibility to hand on the faith with enthusiasm and courage for the future let's say our prayers together silently for a moment bringing all those that you would want to pray for this afternoon and then we'll say the prayer of synchronous system together 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 just before the blessing i want to commend the work of another woman of the faith our own canna cannon emma pennington who this afternoon has excitedly with me excited as well delivered to me the gift of her new book now published at the foot of the cross with julian of norwich and there's a lovely stained glass window picture on the front of mother julian of norwich kneeling before the cross her hands spread in prayer and wonder so we thank emma for the book and julian for her vision at the foot of the cross also i put at the end of this um a link because yesterday was damn vera lynn's funeral and the link is just below and the funeral is today but the uh the on the white cliffs of dover uh there was a projection made with dame vera singing and so you can find that below together if you want it with the flypast which follow to honor our 103 year old singer who died and was so important to this nation at a very critical time little bit of music for you at the end but now 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 are men [Music] we'll meet again don't know where don't know when but i know we'll meet again some sunny days we'll keep smiling through just like you always do till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away