good morning and welcome to the deanery garden on this saturday morning wherever you are in the world as we say our morning prayers early in the morning it's a really dismal day and grey clouds are sailing past very fast above there's a bit of a wind but i think there's a storm coming but i hope that we shall be able to say our prayers before the storm arrives this is a day november the 14th when we wish his royal highness prince charles a very happy birthday and we hope that his royal highness and the duchess of cornwall will have the most happy day on this november the 14th this year as always on saturday mornings we are here with the animals and i'm going to give them their breakfast so that you can see how the piglets are getting on and as you remember last week we divided boys and girls with the fence so i'm going to give clemmy come on come on come on the girls that breakfast first here and then less the boys get very jealous we'll give winston and the boys some too here you are winston oh and uh then we'll bring some back here lest our feathered friends also need to join in later on so as we look back on this day at this time of year we see many different things happening and november the 14th became the most significant kind of day it's a day when we think of many horrendous things this was the day in 1941 that nazi troops murdered in one day 9 000 residents of the solemn ghetto in eastern poland it's also the day in 1940 when 449 german bombers dropped 503 tons of bombs and 881 incendiaries on the city of coventry killing over 500 civilians and destroying the medieval cathedral of st michael completely and of course we know that that cathedral was rebuilt new but also that beside it the shell of the old cathedral stands as a monument to an intention for peace and reconciliation for the provost on the next morning twisted the uh nails of the cathedral roof which had completely come down in the huge fires which followed into a cross and that cross of nails has become a sign of reconciliation the world over so we give thanks for the capacity of humanity for good and the capacity of humanity for evil and that is the whole theme of our book of revelation reflection as we continue to read this morning other lovely creative things happened on this day in nineteen in uh 1922 the first radio news bulletin was was given at marconi house in the strand a six o'clock in the evening news bulletin and weather forecast and at nine o'clock the first ever radio and it was at marconi house and we remember with thanksgiving marconi who was credited with the invention of radio which has become so important to us guillermo marconi and he said rather like tim berners-lee which we remembered yesterday with the world wide web when he doubted whether it was a force for good or evil and he'd intended that it should be a force for immense good and was doubtful about it marconi in the same kind of vein said of radio have i done the world good or have i invented a menace well in all ways there's potential for either as we go on this is the day of diwali the hindu festival of light which is a fantastic festival and covers the the the population of india uh through all faiths really rather like christmas which is a christian festival becomes something that all celebrate in midwinter as something which is cheerful and good and and uh the lighting of lumps and lit lit houses uh comes right across the world for that society and and culture and we give thanks for it and share in the desire for kindling light in darkness well let's now say our prayers together on this morning a grey morning and give thanks for the gift of light and communication as we think of all these things oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night blessed are you creator of all to you be praised and glory forever as your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made and as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you praise 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm this morning on this 14th morning of the month is psalm 71 in you o lord do i seek refuge let me never be put to shame in your righteousness deliver me and set me free incline your ear to me and save me before me a stronghold to which i may ever resort send out to save me for you are my rock and my fortress deliver me my god from the hand of the wicked from the grasp of the evildoer and the oppressor for you are my hope o lord god my confidence even from my youth upon you have i leaned from my birth when you drew me from my mother's womb my praise shall be always of you for as for me i will hope continually and will praise you more and more my mouth shall tell of your righteousness and salvation all the day long for i know no end of the telling i will begin with the mighty works of the lord god i will recall your righteousness yours alone oh god you have taught me since i was young and to this day i tell of your wonderful works forsake me not o god when i am old and grey-headed till i make known your deeds to the next generation and your power to all that are to come your righteousness oh god reaches to the heavens in the great things you have done who is like you oh god my tongue will tell your righteousness all the day long for they shall be shamed and disgraced who sought to do me evil so we we turn to a short lesson today from the revelation to john it's an horrendous lesson it's one of those pictures which john gives us and it's dwelling on exactly what we have said at the beginning of this service that humanity has a great capacity for good and a great capacity for evil and the temptations for evil grow more and more as power increases with people and john's target is the imperial power of the emperor at rome who is seeing himself as a god to be worshipped and john knows that god himself is over all things but there are other terrible images to be given to us we're in chapter 9 and i'm beginning at verse 13. then the sixth angel blew his trumpet and i heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before god saying to the six angel who had the trumpet release the four angels who are bound at the great river euphrates so the four angels who had been prepared for the hour the day the month the year were released to kill a third of humankind the number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand i heard the number and this is how i saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur and the heads of the horses were like lions heads and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths by these three plagues a third of humankind was killed by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming from their mouths for the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails and by means of them they wound but the rest of humankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood which cannot see or hear or walk nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts well the lesson is in the last verse for horror and fear can never draw people to god instead what is drawing people to god in this book as we shall see for the whole book has to be seen as a composite entity where horror and fear and terror is part of the picture but what draws people to god is the arms of the cross in the symbol of the lamb who was slain drawing people by love and causing good to triumph over evil in the heavenly places symbolized with the armies of evil and of good and on earth symbolizing by many scenes of terror and horror but also by scenes of wonderful creativity and courage in the end the place of the martyrs in all of this is going to be crucial and john will come back to that but we mustn't allow ourselves to stop on the scenes of horror nor of the scenes of anger of john on patmos john of patmos having been exiled by this emperor who is killing christians persecuting them all of that if one goes through the book of the psalms then there are psalms of deep deep anger so bad sometimes in terms of the pictures they they describe that uh recently more recently from the 1928 prayer book onwards there have been brackets around these bits that we don't actually read or sing but at the same time they are part of the human picture they're part of what we have to deal with when we think back of the murdering of all those in the ghetto on this day and all those in the city of coventry and many other cities like it has fire rain down from heaven on those cities throughout the world still those terrible things happen today and still in the midst of it little lights are kindled there's an aesop's fable where the traveler sets out on a journey and the wind and the sun say um let's have a competition let's see who can get rid of the traveller's cloak first and the sun says fine go first and the wind blows and blows and blows and summons help from storm clouds and hail and the effect of all that roth of the wind is to make the traveller hug the cloak more firmly as the traveler walks on and then when it seems that it's gone on long enough rather like elijah at mount carmel the sun says okay let me have a go and the sun gently begins to shine and the storm clouds move away and gradually warmth and light comes over the traveler and at first the traveler puts back his cloak from off his body and puts it on his shoulders and walks on again and begins to be hot and at that point he sees a cottage by the wayside takes off his cloak and leaves it there and says i'll collect it on the way back it's the warmth it's the light which have won not the furious wind with all the storms this will become the message of the book of revelation but first evil as a concept in eternity has to be dealt with and that will happen and we have to see the book as i keep saying as one series of pictures well in our calendar today the name of samuel seabury comes who was the first bishop from the united states of america to be consecrated after the uh american war of independence and at that point there were no bishops in the united states because they had all gone either up into the the the north where in canada the the rule of of uh king george iii continued but in america that was seen almost as an act of treachery so seabury had to come across to england to receive consecration as a bishop and in england a problem was found because the consecration of bishops included an oath to the king which seabury felt he couldn't take as it is citizen of the the new nation so he went to scotland where the church wasn't at the episcopal church the anglican churches will say was not a part of the of the uh established church and there in aberdeen on this day he was consecrated bishop but at the same time in pennsylvania uh william white and in new york uh the samuel provost uh had been elected bishop and came across to england and by then england had got its act together and the archbishop of canterbury had secured a consecration for bishops which didn't mean any kind of treachery on their part so three bishops then were consecrated at lambeth palace too uh um with william white and provost who went back and william white became the first presiding bishop of the united states but soon after uh the the two strands of the scottish episcopal church and also the uh the the um bishops who had been consecrated in england came together and formed the episcopal church of the united states and for that we give enormous thanks on this day and pray for the presiding bishop himself michael curry today who is a great friend to this place such wonderful signs of creativity and coming together and communication across the world but at the same time signs of the capacity for terrible horror in our world where people have to stand strong and where these little lights can be kindled despite the horror all of that becomes part of the pattern of this book of images that we're reading which really contains horror but some of the most glorious scenes and scenes which have inspired artists in the whole of the new testament so much of the imagery taken from the old testament especially the book of daniel and as we said yesterday the plagues in the book of exodus which were the prelude to setting people free so let's give thanks on this day for all these things there are so many more things that we could remember and maybe we should remember that in 1900 the great american composer aaron copeland was born and his appalachian spring is well known and his fanfare for the common man which uses the trumpet in a well-known fanfare just as the trumpet is important in all we do today and at the same time we remember that on this day the uh artist claude monet the impressionist was born and many of you probably like us have been to given but if you haven't you will know his famous pictures of the little bridge there with the willow trees and he too wanted to capture the beauty of creation by a sequence of pictures with his art school there sitting outside of the same scene in different weathers and conditions well we do that daily and certainly as we reflect that weather and the beauty of god's creation plays its full part so this morning we're praying in our anglican communion on this 14th of november for the diocese of sabah in southeast asia and the bishop there melta tais in his ministry with his people and the diocese of down and drama in ireland and for all the folk there that is marked as vacant but a bishop by now may have been appointed but we certainly pray for that diocese i have to apologize that yesterday i didn't pray for the the the anglican communion in all that we were doing and so let me say also the diocese of ruan zori in uganda and ruben casembo and the diocese of dornachal in south india and vada pali rayo the bishop there and all his people we pray for justin our archbishop and the life of this diocese of canterbury and we're continuing to pray for the area deanery of maidstone and today for those who lead the ignite communities in that area deanery in the communities around the county town of maidstone here in kent so let's say for the last time because this is saturday so a new prayer will be given to us for next week tomorrow the let's say together the prayer that we have said each morning this week almighty father whose will is to restore all things in your beloved son the king of all govern the hearts and minds of those in authority and bring the families of the nations divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin to be subject to his just and gentle rule who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men and we remember as that prayer is said once again that the quality of righteousness just and gentle rule is a really important one and the lighting of lamps at this festival for so many becomes a a sign of light in darkness we've mentioned stevenson r.l stevenson so many times this week and today his treasure island was published in 1883 but also one of my favorite songs to sing at the piano is written by roger quilter and it's about a little boy's ambition because it comes from stevenson's book of verses for children and it's simply called the lamplighter which reminds me also of course of the little prince and the lamplighter in that but it's uh a little boy looking out at the gas lamp outside their house i remember we used to have a gas lamp a street lamp outside the house beyond the hedge which will be lit each evening and this is how it goes i i'm sorry i can't sing it to you my tear is almost ready and the sun has left the sky it's time to take the window to see leary going by for every night at tea time and before you take your seat with lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street now tom would be a driver and maria go to sea and my papa's a banker and as rich as rich could be but i when i am stronger and can choose what i'm to do o'leary i'll go round at night and light the lamps with you for we are very lucky with a lamp before the door and lyrius stops to light it as he lights so many more and oh before you hurry by with ladder and with light o'leary see a little child and nod to him tonight it's a beautiful song but it also speaks of our capacity in so many small ways to light lamps for people in their darkness particularly at this time of pandemic when we need so much encouragement so let's say the prayer in our own language which uh our savior taught us to say when we come together 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 i'm going to say a moment of silence for you to say your prayers but a pause in our words the pigs have found the market and flipped it over so just bring your own intentions to a woman's paws 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 amongst you and those you love and those you would pray for today and always are men you you're used to the chickens here uh but you won't have been used to our beautiful and elegant turkey she is growing bigger than the other turkeys we have and they're certainly not for the christmas table but uh she is someone who reminds us almost of a victorian heroine because she's so elegant and when she's in the chicken shed we haven't introduced her to the other two turkeys yet because she's bigger than they but she puts her wings over the hens in the shed as if to comfort them she is so placid and we are beginning to love her a great deal and she takes no notice of all the noise going on so she lights the lamp for us all right okay put you down all right [Music]