good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of wednesday the 17th of november as we come together to say our morning prayers be welcome wherever you are in the world we're beginning with special prayers for canada and particularly the city of vancouver which has under the whole of british columbia really which has suffered the worst storm of uh of the century and uh all the communications around the city of vancouver have been disrupted and destroyed uh people have been caused to leave their homes and here's another occasion and canada is very much to the fore in in the talks about climate change there's another occasion when extreme weather conditions have put human life in danger and also of course the complete uh stopping of all activity and work this morning for them and we think of those trying to take people to safety and people looking at the wreckage of their homes and the flooding and everything else that's going on the restoration of roads and railways which will have to happen so we pray for all those people we pray also for the situation of the migrants between belarus and poland we've seen how belarus have weaponized those migrants as almost a provocation to poland at that time and the situation is getting worse and worse but in the middle of that uh is caught that that unfortunate group of humankind who are at the moment without homes and without a place to go and they've been shipped right to the border there with no resources whatever so we think of them and any in a position to help them and ease the situation at this time so we come to our prayers on this morning and i'm sitting under well under a maple tree which is nice for thinking about canada most of the leaves now on the ground that have turned beautiful golden colors but i came here to sit under an oak tree for a reason that we'll discover in our reflection later on and there's an american oak tree here i've got a bunch of its leaves but the oak tree has unleaved itself quite early and so few leaves are left there but sitting under the oak will become important in an historic memory a bit later on so let's put these down for the moment and let me just also make up a plea you know that we had extreme computer difficulties or fletcher had complete uh extreme computer difficulties and getting both friday and sundays morning prayer on and on sunday after a complete day's work wrestling with the computer it was late evening by the time morning prayer went on that's resulted in many of you not having seen those very beautiful two days friday and sunday in morning prayer so um for fletcher's sake for all that work done but also do have a look back because they are helping our story through and at the same time giving wonderful images on friday of the oceans and our responsibility for them and on sunday remembrance and a very strong theme there but this morning uh we begin our morning prayers for today the 17th of the month today is a day when our calendar gives us saint hugh of lincoln who's the bishop of lincoln uh who died in 1200 an adviser to henry ii i always think that thomas beckett broke up the ground of the harassable henry ii to allow the sweet nature of hugh and who was himself a councillor to the king to have ground rather like the poppies breaking through the ground and flowering again a very different henry ii for hugh of lincoln than for thomas beckett but hugh died in 1200 and we pray today for the diocese of lincoln and lincoln cathedral 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 and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this 17th morning of the month is psalm 86 incline your ear o lord and answer me for i am poor and in misery preserve my soul for i am faithful save your servant for i put my trust in you be merciful to me o lord for you are my god i call upon you all the day long gladden the soul of your servant for to you o lord i lift up my soul for you lord our good and forgiving abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you give ear o lord to my prayer and listen to the voice of my supplication in the day of my distress i will call upon you for you will answer me among the gods there is none like you o lord nor any works like yours all nations you have made shall come and worship you o lord and shall glorify your name for you are great and do wonderful things you alone are god teach me your way o lord and i will walk in your truth knits my heart to you that i may fear your name i will thank you o lord my god with all my heart and glorify your name forevermore for great is your steadfast love towards me for you have delivered my soul from the depths of gray of the grave o god the proud rise up against me and a ruthless horde seek after my life they have not set you before their eyes but you lord are gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and full of kindness and truth turn to me and have mercy upon me give your strength to your servants and save the child of your handmaid show me a token of your favor that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed because you o lord have helped and comforted me some lovely verses in that psalm for the 17th morning and verse 8 reminds us of jesro's sentence to moses when he was visiting him and heard of all the things that god had done for the children of israel and that sentence in verse 8 among the gods there is none like you o lord nor any works like yours cause jesro to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to god as being above all other gods in his mind this priest of midian but also that lovely line i will thank you o lord my god with all my heart and glorify your name forevermore for gracious your steadfast love towards me those lines from the psalms all become lines that it's good to remember different lines will leap out of the psalms that you day by day and it's good just to keep them and have them in mind but this morning we come to a very very familiar lesson and we've come to exodus chapter 20 and uh i've got here russell standing before me on monday on monday we had the mellow crow of our other rooster brewster the rooster today i wouldn't call russell's crow uh very mellow but we still give thanks for his heralding of the morning and with great thanksgiving the gift of this new day russell chapter chapter 20 of the book of exodus and beginning at verse 1. this is a chapter and words that you will know very well and god spoke all these words saying i am the lord your god who brought you out of the land of egypt out of the house of slavery you shall have no other gods before me you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth you shall not bow down to them or serve them for i the lord your god am a jealous god visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments you shall not take the name of the lord your god in vain for the lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain remember the sabbath day to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a sabbath to the lord your god on it you shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter your male servant or your female servant your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates for in six days the lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day therefore the lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the lord your god is giving you you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor you shall not covet your neighbor's house you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's the ten commandments and that law set out in those ten sayings became a foundation stone of all the laws that were to follow there are also laws that are repeated in the second telling of the story of the law which we find in those five books the pentateuch as they're called and the second telling is in the book of the second law deuteronomy from the greek and in that book deuteronomy the fifth chapter gives us all of that again but done in a slightly different way deuteronomy is a a very much more generous telling of the story of the law written by a very different hand and given on the holy mountain mount horeb it's called in sinai but as i in a deuteronomy but in as i said the other day scholars believe generally that those two mountains by different names sinai and horiba speaking of the same place and when we read deuteronomy chapter 5 it's slightly different but it will seem more familiar for reasons that we shall think of in our reflection a bit later on but certainly it seems more familiar because the way in which our lord summarizes the law when he's talking to the lawyer in st mark chapter 12 and instant mark chapter 12. you remember a lawyer asks him a question a scribe asks him a question in instant mark is in the middle of all those questions that are testing him from pharisees and sadducees and herodians the scribes question seems completely neutral in in discussion not not hostile at all what is the greatest commandment in the law and jesus responds hear o israel the lord your god is the only lord you shall love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strengths and then he says and the second is like it namely this you shall love your neighbor as yourself jesus isn't summarizing out of his own head he's quoting from the book deuteronomy chapter 6 that sentence hero israel is there you shall love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your mind with all your soul with all your strength that's there deuteronomy chapter six verse four if you want to look it up that's what jesus is quoting and he then goes on to quote leviticus chapter 19 verse 18. you shall love your neighbor as yourself and the lawyer responds you're right in saying that and that is worth more than all burnt offerings sacrifices and burnt offerings and jesus responds to him as i say it's a conversation it's not a hostile conversation at all you are very near to the kingdom of god it's a beautiful thing for him to say to the scribe all that in mark 12 when matthew tells the story he adds at the end in our lord's own words on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets everything is summarized by that if you know that then to set them out in ten ways becomes of course important because in exodus that's how the law is given in deuteronomy that's how the law is given but nevertheless the key to working out how to interpret that law in our own lives is given by our lord's summary from the two verses one from deuteronomy and the other from leviticus and we remember our lord's words i came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it how he interprets with compassion for humankind the ruling about the sabbath and how he castigates those who do not honor father and mother and those whom they should respect as as their teachers and helpers and mentor all of that uh and he castigates them by saying you you pervert the law of god by saying well i can't give you that because i've set it apart for god and half the time that's actually what we might call a cop out and and is it's not really the way in which the law is to be observed so we have it then summarized and that we give thanks for because it's an easy thing to remember easy because of what happens in our next reflection on november the 17th 1558 sitting under an oak tree that's why we sat here this morning elizabeth the daughter of henry viii and anne boleyn sitting under an oak tree at hatfield house in the garden there saw people coming and at that time she thought maybe they were coming to imprison her or even take her off for more questioning more trials and even execution her sister mary was queen and not much news would reach her instead those coming came and knelt before her and to claim her queen for mary had died and elizabeth was now their queen she was 25 years old and a wise and clever young woman who had been well taught and could speak other languages and understand the scriptures and had had plenty of time to think both in suffering and as a good servant of the lord whom she served in her devotions and now she was the sovereign of england which included wales and of ireland not scotland in those days that very much a separate kingdom but elizabeth in that second under the oak tree was changed from a prisoner to the queen of england and ireland and at that point uh life completely transformed itself and her wisdom and character put to good use there's often a question asked it's a slightly humorous question what is the same about the announcement to them of the queen uh elizabeth the first and queen elizabeth our present queen queenless was the second and the humorous answer is queen elizabeth the first received the news sitting under a tree queen elizabeth ii received the news sitting in a tree because she was in kenya kenya as we called it in those days before it's its pronunciation changed um and she was in the hotel treetops set in the trees up high in the trees and say that humorous answer remembers the beginning of two rains the one in which we are now living on this morning here in these islands and the one which reshaped english history and england and wales and uh ireland's perception of itself under that queen 44 years she was to rule well i'm going to concentrate on what she did for the church of england and wales at that time for the book of common prayer had been abolished by the coming of mary to the throne and now elizabeth wanted something that would unite her kingdom as best she could unity of her people was going to be everything and therefore a book of common prayer was something she wanted but the 1558 book of common prayer which was brought back rubbed out with a clever hand all sorts of distinctions between the warring parties true enough at that time she herself could not whatever she was feeling herself she could not as queen of england for she was not recognized by the the catholic nations of europe or by the pope himself and so she was constrained it had to be following the the more protestant books of the reign of her brother edward vi but at the same time she gave it a much more catholic in the wholeness of it all emphasis and that became the book of prayer for this nation up until it was abolished in the civil war but it was revived again in 1662 the beginning of the reign of charles ii and from then on no changes took place in that book until 1928 so that the prayers that were said by the english people going to church and they were fined if they didn't not heavy fines in elizabeth the first time but just an encouragement to be there and at that time she saw it very much as a way of uniting the nation in ordinary life and in worship and those 44 years of course became the elizabethan age with shakespeare and marlowe and the the music of that age and also the tales of the seafarers exploring a world and finding new treasures of creation and sir francis drake coming back and kneeling before her and being knighted on his ship the golden hind having circumnavigated the whole globe all these things were the most incredible the most incredible discoveries of the creator's hand in other places but we remember elizabeth the first for her wisdom and the way in which that rain opened out and let's think how those ten commandments were placed right at the beginning of the communion service they were placed there as ten commandments they were also usually with the our father on the other side of the altar often painted on the church walls on each side so that people when they were sitting those who could read could follow it without having to look at the book and as the commandments were read the the answer lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this law after every commandment and then at the end lord have mercy upon us and write all these laws in our hearts we beseech see that writing in heart is very much an instruction from the old books of the law the first five books of the scriptures so we give thanks for that in 1928 that was accompanied by an option not to have to read all of them through of the celebrant but at the beginning to say the shortened version given to us by our lord himself hear o israel the lord thy god is one lord thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart and with all thy soul with all thy mind with all my strength and the second is commandment is like unto it namely this sound shall love thy neighbor as thyself on these two there is none other commandment greater than these commandments on these commandments hang all the law and the prophets and then came the sentence lord have mercy upon us and write all these sign laws in our hearts we beseech thee an easy piece to remember written on hearts and minds and acted out and interpreted of course to one's own daily life just as jesus had said these are the two laws on these hang all the law and the prophets so thanks be to god for the way in which our lord fulfilled that giving of the law to the people at the holy mountain and his sentence i came to fulfill not abolish for on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets write them on your hearts and have them in your minds thanks be to god for that and that connection between just going through that connection between the old covenant and the new covenant which jesus himself makes in his human life and in his teaching and eventually in his being lifted up for all nations a gift for all the nations that is the law and the prophets just one other thing on this day and it's a good visual image of connection and the way in which uh there can be blockages in connection or a way through though it be narrow and that is the fact that on this day november the 17th in 1869 the series canal was opened after 10 years work before there had been no way for a ship to sail through the mediterranean and down into the red sea and around eastwards they had had to go all the way around the cape of good hope or else in the other direction all the way around cape horn dangerous and stormy passages and on this day that canal which became a lifeline for shipping and still is just going down the line which separates africa from asia was opened it was opened with great trumpetings and fanfares and the crowned heads of europe going to be there the emperor of austria francis joseph the first was there the empress of france eugenie was there and the code of ishmael uh put on the banks of the the canal at the entry to the canal a temporary church and mosque side by side so that the canal could be blessed by his people in that islamic country and with christian services for the emperor and empress and other heads of state and representatives of the nations which were christian we remember how cutting through quite a small exercise there just resulted in a flow through remember elizabeth the first is a narrow channel linking past with something that opened out into the world as we now know it and we give thanks for the way that quite often the the work of cutting through something which blocks gives a completely different kind of life um if i'd read psalm 87 this morning which is a favorite of mine but i chose to read psalm 86 they're both morning psalms for today the 17th and that psalm ends all my fresh springs are in you it's a prayer to go all my fresh springs are in you and those fresh springs of connection become hugely important and the opening of that canal just as the opening much later much harder work took ages right up till 1914 and ferdinand de lesseps who'd been the architect for the series canal was completely confounded by trying to dig the panama canal so you could get from atlantic to pacific and it was affected in the end in 1914 but another little going through so that passage can be made between two before separated places oh let's say our prayers on this particular morning to the accompaniment of russell's music standing behind me here and uh we are praying this morning in our prayers for the anglican communion for the diocese of in the province of myanmar burma we prayed the other day for the american journalist danny fenster who had been imprisoned with a trial which no one would be allowed to go to and after the international pressure and outcry he was released the next day and has been sent back to the united states we give thanks for that but we remember all those still living under that oppressive regime in myanmar burma and at the same time today we pray for justin our archbishop at present at general synod which is sitting at present and we pray for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and today for the church of holy trinity in foxton for the clergy there bob weldon roger smith and kate mcneese and the ministry of that parish and benefits so we use the prayer today for saint hugh of lincoln and pray for the diocese of lincoln and the life of lincoln cathedral oh god who endowed your servant hugh of lincoln with a wise and cheerful boldness and taught him to commend to earthly rulers the discipline of a holy life give us grace like him to be bold in the service of the gospel putting our confidence in christ alone who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so each in our own language we use 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 are men moment of silence now as we say our own prayers so [Music] ah ah ah [Music] oh 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 well here you all are russell your music has been a bit louder than bruce's but we're glad to have you here nevertheless and darcy you are the emblem of all sedate and silent creatures concentrating on all we're doing uh uh uh ah hmm [Music] [Music] hmm ah hmm uh you