good morning and welcome to the january garden on this morning of friday the 16th of april i'm sitting in a particular place outside the deanery which you won't be used to beneath a flourishing acabia the five leaf chocolate vine with a chocolate smelling flower and it does really flourish here it flourishes with many um plants which go up the walls at this part of the dinoree this ancient part of the deanery and you can hear the sparrows who are nesting in the banksia rose which is on the wall above me too but there's a special reason for all of this and you can probably guess it as we come to the next i am statement of jesus in our reflection the chocolate vine is one which doesn't lose its leaves in the winter and is therefore good cover for birds of all kinds and uh we have a starling on the roof of the um choir house here this is a very ancient part of the deanery and its architecture shows just about every stage through from norman times in the 11th century right up through the tudor brickwork and the medieval tower and also beyond me and on my right here was the old dairy and in front of me where fletcher is today with the camera uh would have been the kitchens to feed the priors guests at his special refactory for guests in table hall which is now part of the forester's house the 13th century part of the forester's house so we could have a whole lesson in architecture sitting here and go into the past of this house which has been a house of hospitality for hundreds of years but here i am at our back door and behind me is there is the back door uh and so uh we are using this for a very particular reason which will become all too apparent when we get to that point of our service we are of course continuing our week of mourning following the death of his late highness prince philip duke of edinburgh and in preparation for the funeral at windsor tomorrow we pray for the queen and all the royal family at what will be quite a small service but will of course be uh televised and and witnessed by us or as we pray for her majesty and the royal family in their grief and continue to give thanks for prince philip's long life of service so let's begin our prayers on this morning with a sense of easter joy on this friday morning in the second week of easter and also of thanksgiving oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice hallelujah blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as once you ransomed your people from egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your risen sun may we the first fruits of your new creation rejoice in this new day you have made and praise you for your mighty acts blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever our psalm on this 16th morning of the month is psalm 80. hear o shepherd of israel you that led joseph like a flock shine forth you that are enthroned upon the cherubim before ephraim benjamin and manasseh stir up your mighty strength and come to our salvation turn us again o god show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved [Music] oh lord god of hosts how long will you be angry at your people's prayer you feed them with the bread of tears you give them abundance of tears to drink you have made us the derision of our neighbors and our enemies laugh us to scorn turn us again o god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved you brought a vine out of egypt you drove out the nations and planted it in you made room around it and when it had taken roots it filled the land the hills were covered with its shadow and the cedars of god by its boughs it stretched out its branches to the sea and its tendrils to the river why then have you broken down its wall so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes the wild boar out of the wood tears it off and all the insects of the field devour it turn again oh god of hosts look down from heaven and behold cherish this vine which your right hand has planted and the branch that you made so strong for yourself that those who burnt it with fire who cut it down perish at the rebuke of your countenance let your hand be upon the man at your right hand the son of man you made so strong for yourself and so will we not go back from you give us life and we shall call upon your name turn us again o lord god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved so today we are going back to the supper table and we are beginning in john at the farewell discourses where the disciples are sitting around the table well we can imagine them there in fact william temple the archbishop here in the second world war the middle of the second world war who died so suddenly and at a time when people were looking to him for leadership in rebuilding the nation so his loss was a great one to us but when he wrote his readings in the gospel of sin john a great classic of a book he imagined that already the disciples and jesus had set off from the supper table and were going towards the garden of gethsemane we'll come back to that thought in a bit i'm in chapter 15 of st john's gospel and beginning at verse 1 and i'm going to read up to verse 17 jesus said i am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit already you are clean because of the word that i have spoken to you abide in me and i in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me i am the vine you are the branches whoever abides in me and i in them they it is that bear much fruits for apart from me you can do nothing if anyone does not abide in me they are thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered thrown into the fire and burned if you abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples as the father has loved me so have i loved you abide in my love if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as i have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love these things i have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full this is my commandment that you love one another as i have loved you greater love has no one than this then someone lay down their life for their friends you are my friends if you do what i command you no longer do i call you servants for the servant does not know what the master is doing but i have called you friends for all that i have heard from my father i have made known to you you did not choose me but i chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the father in my name may be given to you these things i command you so that you will love one another the two halves of that reading fit together [Music] the unity of the vine and the branches and the unity of those whom jesus calls friends with one another from their love for one another chapter 15 of john's gospel [Music] chapter 14 has ended with the words rise let us go from here and then this continues that's not the only reason that william temple thought that this was being said on the way to gethsemane let's imagine that scene the disciples beginning to walk if we imagine they have left this upper table and are going along to the garden of gethsemane which they know well there amongst the olive trees and it would have been it was passover time the time of a full moon if you want to go back again to our good friday three hour reflection which is easily found on youtube uh you will see that that night here when we filmed that section by the brazier there was a pascal full moon in all its brightness it was a time of full moon if one imagines that moon casting light as they walked from the supper table then something very special was about to happen um because they were going to walk through the temple outer courtyards and down the path to the garden of gethsemane and the temple was decorated in its stone everywhere with the branches of a golden vine and that would have glittered in the moonlight and it's certainly not too romantic to think that that was an amazing sight under the full moon and jesus in temple's mind is thinking that the vine is in their minds because of what is all around them in the gold set in the temple stone jesus had come to the temple and found it unfruitful and wanted it so much to be fruitful and now once again he uses an ego amy i am statement and likens himself to the vine which the creator whom he calls abba father and teaches us to do the same has planted so that it may flourish and parts that are not flourishing can be taken away by his power within our own selves and be cleaned and made fruitful again we could this morning have gone into the herb garden and the vegetable garden where our large vine along along the wall there has been prunes completely and you would have seen no leafage whatsoever it's cut back and ready to grow again and to fruit in plenty along that sunny south-facing wall of flint an ancient wall there but we chose instead to come to the chocolate vine the five leafed chocolate vine here's one of the leaves here and it's got five big leaves uh i won't pluck it because it seems a pity just to pluck it in that way but i hope you can see there are five leaves on that and five has always been a symbol of the wounds of jesus in those hands those feet and his side but this chocolate vine also fruits amazingly and chocolate vines come from japan and korea and china but they grow really well here and will grow i know in the forest garden because we've come to that point where we're looking at those plants which are in no layer at all they root themselves in the ground and grow upwards and flourish using another support to help them up and here it's the case of being supported by a framework on the wall they don't root in the wall itself they're simply wanting to grow up towards the sunlight and to leaf and to fruit how often i only need to come to our salon this morning and that wasn't chosen especially psalm 80 actually is one of the three psalms for the 16th morning of the month but psalm 80 of course has wonderful images which jesus would have known well by heart from the vine and from the old testament so you brought a vine out of egypt you made room around it you planted it in and when it had taken root it filled the land and then the sadness when the nation goes astray and the planting has to take place again cherish this vine is a prayer which your right hand has planted and the branch you made so strong for yourself branch is one of the old testament words for the anointed one to come a branch from the stock of jesse and at the same time of course we have those verses where jesus takes one of the titles for himself so the let your hand be upon the manage your right hand the son of man you made so strong for yourself that was a title he loved to use of himself as an emblem of our humanity those the words used can be taken as as gender non-specific in the way that that goes along representing all of us by his humanity and giving us signs and pictures and symbols and nothing more fruitful than this chocolate vine which is utterly at home here and flourishing and giving shade in hot days and reaching out to the sun on a day like this where there's blue sky and white clouds above me and the sun when it breaks through will begin to have some april warmth to it if you think of the little stories which jesus told about the vineyards being planted and all that was necessary for it and also um in isaiah 5 exactly the same and in both fruitfulness of the fruits of the kingdom of heaven uh is expected from those vines and and do you remember how in isaiah it said that the vineyard owner looked for grapes and it produced sour grapes grapes that were of no particular use to him and in the gospel itself jesus talks about the vineyard of the lord of hosts and uh copying isaiah the vineyard of the lord of hosts is his pleasant cleansing all of these images which are deep within jesus from the old testament scriptures and we think of them today as we use the i am the true vine as a sign of our badge not only as servants but now as friends i have called you friends i call you servants no longer for you are the one who knows what the owner of the vineyard wants by the gift of the spirit the true fruitfulness and those qualities we explore but the greatest quality of all is love for one another which joins us not only to the vine with the old word but i can't find a better one ever if i try and do it abide in me as i abide in the father and i abide in you it means being rooted totally so that everything flows together from the branches so we give thanks for that image of the i am statement this time given at the last supper but no doubt remembered by the apostles later and remembered by all of us for those wonderful words in which follow the the image of the vine i call you servants no longer i have called you friends a lovely word to have used for both them and us and to have that re-established in the resurrection narratives for the apostles who failed him as friends in the garden of gethsemane well let's just think a little bit about uh what's going on at the moment and also what has happened on this day in years gone past um if we think about what's going on at the moment and we were reminded of it by the very thin and brilliant crescent moon last night for the full moon of the of the uh the paschal full moon was a sign of the jewish passover this thin crescent moon when it when it was as born and as a new moon began the feast of the fast rather of ramadan for our islamic friends and we pray for them at this time and think of that fast which will go on until may the 12th it's a a long fast in in daylight hours always as the moon begins to rise and wax and then weigh in again we think also on this particular day looking back in the past in 1746 this was the date april the 16th of the battle of colloden which it really ended the chance of bonnie prince charlie and his highland armies ever regaining the throne for him and from then on he he fled made his escape safely but what happened on that day in 1746 was a brutal victory by the duke of cumberland at the time who earned himself the title the butcher from that moment onwards not only for the battle but also for what happened to those who supported the stewart cause particularly in the highlands from then on and uh that uh cause that battle was won by an english army with rifles and a scottish army mostly with with uh um steel swords um i i came across i when i was i don't know 17 or 18 i suppose the novel um the flight of the heron by d.k broster it's the first book in a what's called a jacobite trilogy and the fight of the heron is an amazing book in giving the atmosphere of culloden sort of offstage like a greek tragedy the story and i commend the book to you it's a it's a wonderful story it's the story of how an english redcoat captain keith windham makes friends with one of the highland chiefs you and cameron of ardroi and uh because as here this is before colloden but at that time um at that time before the the the scottish uh highlanders had had come together and begun that their march flies up in front of his horse and unseats him and uh you and cameron coming out of the lake where he's been swimming in his own land meets him and it's about the friendship of those two men on completely different sides i'm not going to give too much away because there are moments in it which are really powerful but one of the moments that i i can't help but remember is that the scottish army which when it came to the battle of culloden was simply standing for a lot of the time while long-range rifles shot them down in their thousands very few just losses really um and in the book it says that the camerons as a as a clan were not catholics as bonnie from charlie were they were uh scottish episcopalians anglicans they would be our episcopalians with the united states and the the episcopal church of scotland and uh there's the the tale later on when the tale is told of of the two of the brothers who who died of them having to stand and wait and when they were found one had his prayer book open with his finger in these psalms for the 16th morning 79 80 and 81 because they had had nothing to do but wait as this huge onslaught of bullets um came towards them so one remembers how rhythmically throughout the day these psalms can help in different situations and then on this day also cheerfully 1889 charlie chaplin was born the great comedian who helped people so much in times of of of war in the second world war particularly made people laugh and before that we remember him and also in 1895 sir over arab the english structural engineer of a danish background with that name was born whose probably major works uh we remember sydney opera house and also coventry cathedral so we give thanks for his creativity in 1953 on this day our queen elizabeth ii launched the royal yacht britannia and there's a wonderful film of that happening and the joy of all the people as that wonderful ship slides into the water about to begin a 45-year life of state visits and diplomatic missions and also giving holidays to the royal family in a place where they could be private and protected from time to time and the affection for that yacht throughout the world was was very great but it was used so often for british trade missions so that ambassadors could use that and also when the queen went to visit in different places the band of the royal marines would entertain those that were her hosts so that she could give the same kind of entertainment back all those things we remember in that wonderful yacht which now stands uh as a a in a dry dock in in lease in edinburgh and can be visited and and you get the atmosphere of some of the life that was enjoyed there and the the great sadness of of the fact that it had to be decommissioned and it done a million miles uh and was decommissioned in 1997 and uh still when you see um photographs of it you think ah there's the royal york britannia great thanksgiving for all of that and then today um we say happy birthday to pope benedict the 16th who is 94 today and um he was born on this day in 1927. he was a bavarian and we knew him before he became pope benedict the 16th as a a mighty scholar in all kinds of ways a biblical scholar and a scholar in all kinds of church history and scholarship but uh we knew him then as cardinal ratzinger and then he became benedict the 16th and was the first paper to retire he retired he was elected in 2005 to succeed john paul ii and retired in 2013 but we can say we wish him a happy birthday today on his 94th birthday so we think of all those things as we begin to say our prayers this morning bring your own thoughts and prayers from wherever you are as i pray under the chocolate vine with its five leaf leaves and the little stems giving us the five five aspects of this leaf we remember the wounds of christ but of course also the resurrection of christ at this time and we pray on this day in our anglican communion for the diocese of blackburn in the church of england and the life of that diocese and here in canterbury for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and we've come to pray in sequence uh for the area deanery of canterbury that means the parishes of this city and the surrounding area and the area dean of that the group of clergy who who serve and the lay people who serve in in this particular area of the diocese of canterbury is mark griffin our near neighbor here and and a great friend of ours who is parish priest of the church of saint martin also is in paul but also in martin and martin was the mother church tiny but it's a mother church of canterbury because augustine found queen bertha using that when he landed here and it already it was a site of christian christianity from late roman times when christianity had first come here so much uh prayer for the deanery which and which surrounds us bring your own prayers on this day as we use the collect for this week of easter the second week of easter almighty father you have given your only son to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth through the merits of your son jesus christ our lord amen so we say each in our own language the prayer which our savior taught us to say giving thanks that he has called us friends 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 are men moment of silence and also sparrow song noisily in the branches here enjoying the morning god of peace you brought again from the dead our lord jesus christ that great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and upon all whom you would love and remember on this day and forever are men now yesterday we uh we were thinking of the harvest mice amongst the wheat and we've a little bit more film of them for you this morning if you want to hang on uh um they're very shy and very fast but the this is the little colony of harvest mice uh who are here one of the smallest mammals in all creation future [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] she [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so so so [Music] okay for me yes [Music] for the next one so so [Music] so so thank [Music] me so [Music] so so so [Music] so she so so so next [Music] me so so [Music] so so [Music] [Music] [Music] okay is [Music] [Music] first [Music] so so [Music] so so [Music] so [Music] so so so you