good morning on this Sunday the 9th of May and it's regation Sunday the sixth Sunday of Easter tide or what the old prev used to call the fifth Sunday after Easter and we've come into the greenhouse because this is a day that we are generally outside blessing the crops and uh two years ago we had a huge procession at the end of the S Eucharist from the Cathedral Church right across the Green Court into the Deery garden and onto the the Great Lawn here where all the people from the sanukis gathered around while the Archbishop of Canterbury gave not only a blessing for them but asked God's blessing upon not the Harvest of the Earth but the growing crops and their fruitfulness there are four of these agricultural festivals plow Sunday right at the beginning of the year when the land is broken up that's in wintertime and then after that we come to this one ration which is at this time of year the uh sixth Sunday of Easter time fifth Sunday after Easter uh when uh many parishes go outside and uh say prayers for the the growth around them and give thanks for creation and then of course Lamas at the beginning of August which is the very first fruits of the Harvest and finally Harvest Thanksgiving itself kept in so many count as a time of Thanksgiving at different times of year and different types of fruitfulness springing from our Old Testament scriptures as well so this morning rogation tide and we've come into the greenhouse because this has been rather a difficult year as you well know it's been very cold and we've had frosts right up to the first week of May so many of these plants which are growing around me should be outside and I believe this week we shall be able to take them outside you'll see very strong daers here sparm Manas here waiting to go outside and ginger plants beside me and all then the trays of seeds which are being transferred into the cold frames and then they will be put into the garden outside so we're going to move around a little bit this morning but we're starting here in the hospitality of this greenhouse and I had she's gone off now a kill I think at my feet eating her breakfast but Tiger's certainly here and he's had his breakfast and is longing to go outside he's very fond of the this part of the garden so I'm sure we shall see him again as we move around Let's uh say our prayers then on this day and after I've said the opening prayers before we say the psalm I'm going to read the benedis which is uh very fitting for this day as we are surrounded by these plants there's even a little Sweet William growing here beside me in flowering oh Lord open our lips and our mouths shall Proclaim your praise in your Resurrection o Christ let Heaven and Earth Rejoice Allelujah 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 son 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 the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind that we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh God set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen so the benedis city the song of creation taken from the apocryphal song of the three in the scriptures bless the Lord all you works of the Lord sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the Lord you Heavens sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the Lord you angels of the Lord bless the Lord all you his hosts bless the Lord you Waters above the heavens sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the Lord sun and moon bless the Lord you stars of Heaven bless the Lord all rain and you sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the Lord all winds that blow bless the Lord you fire and heat bless the Lord scorching wind and bitter cold sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the Lord duws and falling snows bless the Lord you nights and days bless the Lord light and darkness sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the Lord Frost and cold bless the Lord you ice and snow bless the Lord Lightnings and clouds sing his praise and exalt him forever oh let the Earth bless the Lord bless the Lord you mountains and Hills bless the Lord all that grows in the ground sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the Lord you Springs bless the Lord you seas and rivers bless the Lord you whales and all that swim in the waters sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the Lord all birds of the air bless the Lord you beasts and cattle bless the Lord all people on Earth sing his praise and exalt him forever oh people of God bless the Lord bless the Lord you priests of the Lord bless the Lord you Servants of the Lord sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the Lord all you of upright Spirit bless the Lord you that are holy and humble in heart bless the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit sing his praise and exalt him forever a wonderful song of creation and our response to it as part of that creation and partners in creativity with our God and Creator and also with our Lord Jesus Christ in his Humanity the word made flesh and the word in creation the sentence bless the Lord dues and falling snow uh reminded me of a a news item that we were watching earlier where the mar of New York has said that snow days will be from now on cancelled and there's been an outcry snow days are proclaimed when the city is so full of snow that schools are shut and children can then enjoy the snow there's normally not more than one a year sometimes two but rarely and uh they are days I don't know if you like us have been out in snow as children and remember those almost magic days and now they've been cancelled because as a result of the pandemic it's shown that children can be taught online so instead of going out to enjoy the snow on a snow day it's expected they'll sit in in front of a screen and do their work thus um I don't think that that suggestion is going to find much favor and uh in a way I hope the children still have snow days when they can go out and really enjoy the snow with their parents who probably have been able to get to work either on that day so now we're going to move into the different part of the the garden here not far away to the cold frames there are certain things like these um sweet corn here which need to go into the cold frames so let's move to our next part of morning prayer there so we've just come outside the greenhouse and here are the cold frames which Peter Built about five six years ago which give plants a chance to get used to a new temperature before they go into the garden itself and uh some of these as I've said are ready so here are the sweet corn ready to go into the cold frame and there are things in the Cold Frame ready to come out and to go into the garden itself it's good to be outside on a regation Sunday morning you've got pots of herbs here some quite Hardy like the sage bush there and some ready to come up and uh it's the time of year when they'll grow well but um behind us you'll recognize the mimosa trees which have now of course stopped flowering because they were winter flowering and we enjoyed their brilliant yellow colors earlier on and then once again we've got plants here this is quite a warm part of the garden so there are coral trees here behind me and you may even hear the sound of Darcy and Jane and Lizzy because at the moment they're in the Tomato greenhouse because the tomatoes aren't put in there yet so are shifting around not only of plants but of creatures and everything about that is good on a regation Sunday morning when so many rural par parishes Delight in coming outside to ask God's blessing on his creation and beating the bounds of the parish walking around the ancient boundaries of the parish I doubt much of that will go on this year because of the social distancing but that's a common custom on uh um regation Sunday morning this sixth Sunday in Easter tide well we're going to say our Psalm out here and it's Psalm 46 for this 9th morning of the month and the sun has come out to warm us on this morning so tiger will enjoy that hugely God is our refuge and strength are very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear though the Earth be moved and though the mountains tremble in the heart of the sea though the waters rage and swell and though the mountains Quake at the Towering Seas there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God the holy place of the dwelling of the most high God is in the midst of her therefore shall she not be removed God shall help her at the break of day the nations are in uproar and the kingdoms are shaken but God utth his voice and the Earth shall melt away the Lord of hosts is with us the god of Jacob is our stronghold come and behold the works of the Lord what destruction he has wrought upon the Earth he makes Wars to cease in all the world he shutters the bow and snaps the spear and burns the Chariots in the fire be still and know that I am God I will be exalted among the Nations I will be exalted in the Earth the Lord of hosts is with us the god of Jacob is our stronghold the Sunday mornings there a special lesson and an even more special one because it's regation Sunday morning so I'm reading from the gospel of St Mark the fourth chapter and uh beginning to read at verse 26 and Jesus said the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground he sleeps and Rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows he knows not how the Earth produces by itself first the blade then the air then the full grain in the air but when the grain is ripe at once he puts in the sickle because the Harvest Time Has Come and Jesus said again with what can we compare the kingdom of God or what Parable shall we use for it it is like a grain of mustard seed which when sewn on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on Earth yet when it is sewn it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade with many such Parables Jesus spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it he did not speak to them without a parable but privately to his own disciples he explained everything well Mark giving us a short summary but saying in many such Parables and so some he obviously knew but isn't writing down in his short gospel he's giving us examples but notice he's using pictures all the time Jesus pointing round to things and having that sense of people understanding because he is linking their own creativity with the creativity of the Creator whom he teaches them to call Father ABA father so we're going to move on again because because there are things in this cold frame which could do with coming further into the garden and meanwhile we can put these in the Cod frame itself so we open this and take out a tray of broccoli and a tray of kale and they can come with us into the garden and meanwhile the sweet corn can go into the cold frame tiger is looking on with enormous knowledge and wisdom in his face so I'm sure he'll come a bit farther with us in a moment let's go into the garden together and take these along with us so here we've come to the vegetable garden itself and there's a lovely smell of damp Earth from yesterday's rain here and that means fruitful growing you may have heard the sound of the the peragine Vulcans who are nesting in B har to at the moment as they cry in the morning and fly around high up in the air one of the fastest birds in creation when they do their Dives and uh so amazing amazing um Hopkins called them Cavaliers of the sky really um and they are so here we have come and we brought the various plants that we took from the cold frame the uh broccoli and the kale I'm sitting amongst the remains of the um winter leaks and and charred that are around and behind me all pruned and ready to begin budding and leafing is the vine which Grows All the Way along the wall and fruits magnificently and so all of that we should look forward to as the season progresses but for this morning we're being brave and beginning to plant out uh vegetables now these little cabbage plants and kale plants will go into the ground behind me here which is already prepared and then a a CL will go across them to protect them for the moment and then gradually as more go in and they grow stronger and those are taken away a net will be spread right across here because hungry pigeons are everywhere and there's plenty of food from for them in the garden elsewhere but uh these uh cabbages would be real Delight for them so we shall protect the little plants as they grow but the lesson of rogation Sunday which we heard Jesus talking about in those little Parables is of patience and waiting for the Creator's time no season can be hurried and every season and although these are should we call them rural analogies because those were the cultures that Jesus was talking to we can talk about times and seasons for all kinds of work times for right decision making and those times quite often can't be hurried because we are eles obviously we have to make snap decisions sometimes but others have to be thought through and agreed to and then patience is needed and certainly here in the garden and out in the fields and with the Harvest of the earth patience and waiting time becomes immensely necessary the little Parable that Jesus tells about the seed sprouting and growing always reminds me of the Harvest hymn that my predecessor Henry Alford wrote Come thankful people come raise the song of harvest home um but there's a regation passage in it first the blade and then the ear then the full corn shall appear but we can't hurry that we have to make the conditions right and we also have in heart and mind to know know when it's ripe for new activity the worst thing one can do generally when one is growing something as a child and yet I've done it so many times because of impatience is to pull something up to see how the roots are going on and then put it back in and uh those kinds of things are are fairly damaging You Can't Hurry these things here's a a lesson which Jesus is giving but at the same time he's teaching us to look around and to see signs of the activity of our own planet and at the same time to be partners in creativity with our creator now that might not be gardening work it with all of you I know that you're full of different kinds of creative activity I've seen some of the examples of that and also have been told stories by you as you've written in about different kinds of skills different situations but there are also human situations of difficulty or sadness or um Joy which needs a quick congratulation now um yesterday we heard news of the death of uh our friend Donny Dunn who is a friend through the garden congregation priest in Virginia we prayed for him because of the Fall he had and he was on a kind of life support and sadly he died yesterday so I was in touch with his wife Mary and I felt I was speaking for all of you in saying we would pray for the Repose of donn's Soul this morning and Thanksgiving for his Priestly Ministry but also to give thanks for him uh along with Mary and Surround her with our love and pray for her so you will have all kinds of of intentions and memories and commemorations in your mind as we sit in the garden all these things are creative activity but there is nothing more pleasing to the human Spirit than to be involved in an act of creativity and the strange thing is that if it's a this is Rule of St Benedict if it's a physical activity it seems to cheer the heart and mind if it's a a a loving activity or a spiritual activity it seems to cheer the mind and body and uh if it's uh a mental activity it feeds both body and spirit in terms of puzzling things through and working out Solutions so let's say on this regation Sunday um let's just have a look and see what happened there there are really good memories of of people with huge creativity and uh I'll try to do them uh chronologically this morning nobody takes precedence here 1860 JM Barry was born on the 9th of May and although he was hugely popular in terms of his writings and his plays what he's remembered for best of course is Peter Pan and that has gone on and on not just in straightforward Peter Pan stories like um the uh Disney cartoon or the pantomimes we have here at Christmas time telling the story of Peter Pan and involving the audience in a fantasy world as well and bringing together all age groups children and their parents and grandparents but at the same time modern things which have relied on the same story and um I think we remember seeing Finding Neverland in on Broadway in New York and enjoying that hugely and that tells the story about how Peter Pan was created it's a musical and a lovely one as well but also we remember that JM Barry left all the proceeds from his Peter Pan to Great Orman Street Hospital for Children so we we pray for that place this morning and give thanks not only for his creativity but that act of generosity 1934 is the next one I wanted to say Alan Bennett was born now he was born on the 9th of May and uh he has been a very popular playright and writer of um television programs and books and he has a capacity for giving us character with sharp insight and it's very very enjoyable I remember first seeing 40 years on his play a long long time ago I think in about 1968 or something like that but then also The History Boys and the M Madness of George III and the series of Talking Heads which concentrated on a just a a monologue really on the television screen by different characters my favorite is Maggie Smith B among the lentils playing the Vicar's wife in that so we give thanks for him and his creativity we give thanks also for the creativity of Albert finny who was born on this day in 1936 he died in 2019 and the I remember him playing Tom Jones in the film in 1963 as a young man but my favorite part of his and I've mentioned this before I think is of him playing Winston churel in in the film The Gathering storm in 2002 it's also my favorite Churchill film there are many others but this one is uh is is is really Splendid with the comedian Ronnie Barker as the butler at Chartwell and he's not there as a in a comic partch but all the way through he's adding joy to what's going on and then in 1936 also Glenda Jackson was born she also could play complicated ated women characters in in her films but probably best known for her characterization of uh Elizabeth I and she became a labor politician and from 1992 to 2015 she was a member of parliament for Hamstead and Highgate so we give thanks for a multiplicity of creativity in Glenda Jackson and uh then we wish her a happy birthday today and then in N oh I've gone out of syn but 1920 Richard Adams was born on the 9th of May and Richard Adams is probably known most of all for one book and I remember meeting him when I was a curet in rosbury and was invited to lunch by one of the house masters at at trosy school who was living there in retirement and he said I've got my friend Richard Adams staying he's a strange man and he's just written a book about rabbits it was not then published but that became Waters shipped down and that too is a tremendously sad story about rabbits trying to find a safe home and then uh finally I wanted to mention uh in 1955 the wonderful Swedish soprano and Sophie Von who has Charmed us all with uh obviously her her leader singing her her singing of songs but she's Charmed as when she's played male parts which happens in in Opera and particularly kabino in Mozart's um marriage of figuro whose voice is not yet broken and he's trying to grow up with Figaro's help Hansel in humed dinks Hansel and grle and Octavian best of all in D Roan Cavalier who um with her voice singing that part with the marshin was just Second To None really so we give thanks for all kinds of creativity there in all sorts of ways as we sit in the garden on rogation Sunday morning want also to pray for the life of Lincoln Cathedral today it was consecrated on May the 9th in 1092 and that magnificent cathedral which were was thought to be for several hundred years the tallest building in the world but uh that's contested by some but we certainly know it as a magnificent Cathedral so I wanted to pray for Dean Christine Wilson and the chapter there and the life of Lincoln Cathedral on this day so now let's continue to pray for Jerusalem because the unrest there has has not ceased yet uh and uh then we give thanks for the way Nations can come together in 1986 the Treaty of Windsor was signed a diplomatic alliance with Portugal that actually has never been broken and stays in place which is extraordinary it's the oldest historical diplomatic Alliance and it was one of the test questions when one was at school you know which is England's oldest Ally obviously the alliance now goes for the United Kingdom England's oldest are and it was Portugal only because of that Treaty of Windsor in 1386 but we give great thanks for the capacity of Nations to make agreements with each other for the welfare of all so let's say our prayers on this particular morning and we continue to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem because the the trouble there uh continues and we pray for uh the holy city there and in our Anglican communion today we're praying for the Anglican Church of Kenya and pray for the Primus and the the whole life of that church in that beautiful land there in our own dasis we pray for Archbishop Dustin for Bishop Rose of DOA for Bishop Tim at Lamers but we're praying for the baram Downs with adisham benefit you may think you don't know that but actually we were there with you in the Bluebell Woods quite recently and if you look back just a couple of weeks or so you will find that we went out there to film morning prayer amongst those fields of bluebells under the trees with the wooden emony and we give thanks for those parishes as adisham baram Bishops born Kingston and women's world and pray for Stefan Thomas uh in his ministry there and Leslie Hardy the assistant curate there and the life of that whole benefice so first I'm going today to say the ration prayer and then the prayer for this week almighty God who is Will it is that the earth and the Sea should bear fruit in due season bless the labors of those who work on land and sea grant us a good harvest and the grace always to rejoice in your fatherly care through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen God our Father you never cease the the work you have begun and to prosper with your blessing all human labor make us wise and faithful stewards of your gifts that we may serve the common good maintain the fabric of our world and seek that Justice where all may share the good things you pour upon us through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen so the collect for this week God Our Redeemer you have delivered us from the power of darkness and brought brought us into the kingdom of your son grant that as by his death he has recalled us to life so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to Eternal Joy through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen so we pray each in our own way and in our own language the prayer Our Savior taught us Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen so a moment of silence for your own prayers the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our lord Jesus 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 upon those whom you love and Those whom you would pray for today and always amen