good morning and welcome to the deanery garden on this tuesday the 2nd of november it's the third of the days of all hallows tied which we've been keeping with its central day yesterday with the feast of what is more normally called these days all saints but traditionally all hallows and all hallow eve the day before and today all souls or the commemoration of the faithful departed this is a day for memories memories of gratitude to those whom we have known and loved all held within the context of what we were speaking about yesterday the communion of saints our nearness to them within the life of our god who is always in the present tense there is uh a sentence right at the beginning of t.s eliot's poems the four quartets which was culled from a rehearsal in this cathedral church for the murder in the cathedral and the producer cut the line out and t.s eliot took that line and says say put it in his pocket metaphorically and it became the founding line the first line for that meditation that wonderful meditation of the four quartets and it reads at the beginning of the four quartets time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future and time future contained in time past we live within the context of time generations past and generations still to come we live also in the context of our creative memories which jesus himself uses in the most wonderfully creative way with the word remember when he breaks the bread when you do this remember me do this in remembrance of me we say those words over and over again and remind ourselves of how creative memory can be but it comes with an intention for when he said those words he was handing on the role of being the ones who would give the creators good news to the whole of this planet and he was handing that on with a future intention rooted in the past active in the present and going on to the future the commemoration of all cells but a very particular commemoration for many of you and for me as we think of those who formed us and give thanks for them for the many experiences we had with them and we give thanks for our nearness to them in our prayers on this day of remembrance commemoration of the faithful departed there's a lovely sentence when we're uh saying uh the the uh sentences of scripture today and also of liturgy which goes in in commending people to god those who have died in the faith of christ and those whose faith was known to you alone it's a wonderful intimate concept of our heart and mind being known perfectly only to god who knows us better than we know ourselves so this is a creative day but it's a day of reflection looking back and a day of intention looking forward and it's also the day when our news bulletins and everything that we read and see the top headlines are about the great conference of world leaders and all those who've come to assist them and advise them taking place in glasgow this is the second day of cop 26. and we now know what that means in a very very clear way after so many fine speeches yesterday and so many little sentences given to us by young people from all over the world in different cultures we shall think about that in so many ways as we reflect today on this day of looking back looking forward and looking at what we can do not only pray about think about but do at this time in our lives for one another and for the life of this beautiful gift of the planet which has been given to us as our home so as we say our prayers let's think of all that we've come today to sit under the trees and we know that trees are one of our greatest aids in lowering the carbon footprint we can do some more about that in in detail but this is the place we would come on a really hot day in the hottest part of the day and if we have guests to bring them here because a canopy of trees lowers the temperature one's looking out onto the heat fletcher likened it earlier to standing near the fridge on a hot day and feeling the the heat around us which is being too hot at the moment and wanting to cool down and opening the fridge door it's not as cold as the fridge which would be too cold for any of us to sit inside but it gives something of the coolness of the fridge the and beyond is the warmth of the room and it gives us the right temperature to be in and here we sit under this canopy of trees which are performing the same function and the planting of trees in a great green canopy across the world becomes a crucial crucial activity for they assist us in lowering that carbon footprint and cooling the planet in a way which makes it a more habitable place for life we'll come back to all that in our reflections and the way in which leaders have spoken about that but let's begin our prayers on this day of the commemoration of all the faithful departed all souls day o 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 as we rejoice in the gift of this new day and so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our son this morning on this second morning of the month is psalm nine i will give thanks to you lord with my whole heart i will tell of all your marvelous works i will be glad and rejoice in you i will make music to your name almost high when my enemies are driven back they stumble and perish at your presence for you have maintained my right and my cause you sat on your throne giving righteous judgment you have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked you have blotted out their name forever and ever the enemy was utterly laid waste you uprooted their cities their very memory has perished but the lord shall endure forever he has made fast his throne for judgment for he shall rule the world with righteousness and govern the peoples with equity then will the lord be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in time of trouble and those who know your name will put their trust in you for you lord have never failed those who seek you sing praises to the lord who dwells in zion declare among the peoples the things he has done the avenger of blood has remembered them he did not forget the cry of the oppressed have mercy upon me o lord consider the trouble i suffer from those who hate me you that lift me up from the gates of death that i may tell all your praises in the gates of the city of zion and rejoice in your salvation the nations shall sink into the pit of their making and in the snare which they set will their own foot be taken the lord makes himself known by his acts of justice the wicked are snared in the works of their own hands they shall return to the land of darkness all the nations that forget god for the needy shall not always be forgotten and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever arise o lord and let not mortals have the upper hand let the nations be judged before your face put them in fear o lord that the nations may know themselves to be but mortal a psalm coming from ages and ages ago of someone who has troubles that we know not of but in them there are these wonderful nuggets of truth and lovely things to remember the needy shall not always be forgotten and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever that's not just the lord's work that's our work and when one thinks of jesus breaking the bread and saying do this in remembrance of me and then giving it to his disciples around the table he's handing on that hope that they will be agents that the needy shall not always be forgotten and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever we could have read an enormous number of lessons today and i shall refer to some of the gospel sentences a little later associated with this day but i'm choosing to read part of isaiah chapter 55 and i'm starting at verse six seek the lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake their way and the unrighteous their thoughts let them return to the lord that he may have compassion on them and to our god for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways declares the lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth making it bring forth and sprout giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall my words be that goes out of my mouth it shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which i purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which i sent it for you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands and instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle and it shall make a name for the lord an everlasting sign that shall be not be cut off it's a wonderful image of the trees of the field clapping their hands for joy and one might think of them doing so on this day when a very significant declaration is going to be signed by leaders of the great nations of the world about deforestation think about that in a bit but let's first think about the power the creative power of remembering and we also think of how much remembrance comes with a sense of grief for those whom we have lost and grief for those things which we might have said to them and think of now and all that is enfolded in that concept of time past being caught up into time present with intentions for time future and our creator whom our lord called it taught us to call father and whose name we hallo our creator is always a god of the present and the eternal word made flesh in the life of jesus is constantly using that verb in the present tense i am i am one thinks of those words i am the resurrection and the life spoken to martha when she goes to meet him following her brother lazarus's death as he comes to the bethany home where we have pictures of him in the gospels being comfortable in their company mary and martha and lazarus receiving their hospitality and now coming after mary also has come to meet him and met him with tears as they stand before the grave of lazarus and there in the shortest verse of the whole of the new testament john chapter 11 verse 35 two words in the king james's version of the scriptures jesus wept when he saw the grave when he saw people crying his humanity reaches out to them and the response is a physical response of weeping himself and as the crowds see him weeping they say see how he loved him the tears are a response to the love felt the human love felt as well as the divine love the human felt love felt for that little trio mary martha and lazarus expressed in those tears this is a day when we remember creatively when it's very likely that if we light a candle for someone and in some cultures this is a day of going to graves or places where people are remembered and lighting a candle a flame in the darkness and that lighting and that remembering with thanksgiving and feeling our nearness to them within the context of the communion of saints that great sentence in our creed i believe in the communion of saints and the ordinariness of saints throughout the new testament the communities with all their flaws in the little towns that saint paul and other apostles had gone to visit then that sense of grief is a creative sense of love expressing itself but expressing itself in intention from that memory it's how jesus wanted us to use the concept of memory so this is a creative day in the northern hemisphere it's a time of year when the leaves fall in the southern hemisphere it's a time of uh growth sprouting at the earlier part of the year but in all sorts of ways the created order is helping us and it's that that we're trying to protect so as we think of that sentence of elliott time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future and time future contained in time past let's take our minds to the cop 26 conference and here's some of the things which the leaders of the world said yesterday but not just the leaders those who also came to advise them and i want first of all to look at the little bit of success that has been achieved already a deal agreed on deforestation glasgow leaders declaration on forest and land use we're told the prime minister will say of the trees and of the forests these great teeming ecosystems these cathedrals of nature are the lungs of our planet forests support communities livelihoods and food supply and absorb the carbon we pump into the atmosphere they are essential to our very survival we were talking about getting coolness like standing by the fridge door but all of you will have had the sense on a really really hot day in a city when created material like concrete or even stone carved just reflects heat back all the time and you long for an alley of shade for tree not only give us shade from the blazing sun but also they absorb the sun and the heat and don't give it back so that they are cooling the earth in a wonderful way and the more we have of them the cooler the us will be our queen yesterday in giving a message was really quite shall we say some like in what she said because she was remembering the generations rising and falling at the age of 95 she has the right to reflect with great wisdom and also she has remembered and she said this so many great leaders and she said what is the quality that turns them from simple leaders into people we remember as statesmen it's generally not the politics of the present day in which they live but the vision of the future for humanity that causes them to be seen as statesmen and states women so here is part of her little speech which was given by video to the assembled leaders in that terribly important assembly it's time to rise above the politics of the moment and achieve true statesmanship of course the benefits of such actions will not be there to enjoy for all of us here today we none of us will live forever but we are doing this for our children and our children's children and those who follow in their footsteps well she could have said our children's children's children because of course she's watching those great grandchildren grow up too but at the same time she is looking down at the leaders and remembering back through a life when so many leaders have been in her company and she's analyzing and reflecting and remembering many with thanksgiving and those who manage with a vision to help the way forward for the future by drawing on wisdom of the past but by reading the signs of the times well another 95 year old was there as well born in the same year as the queen and someone that she as we've seen in television documentaries as they walks among the trees together she clearly takes advice and counsel from and shares her own advice with him too i'm talking about sir david attenborough who again at the age of 95 walked on to the stage seemingly full of energy and to me made the speech of a lifetime we love his his books and love his his uh documentaries on television but i i look back all the way back to the 1950s in those black and white films in a very different world at that time to that young man who had no idea what a role he was going to be given as someone who was a prophet or is a prophet of the way in which we must care for our planet and this as the queen said and she remembered let's remember this is a day of commemorating those we've loved and lost she remembered the vision of prince philip and spoke of him no doubt with a sense of grief but also of massive thanksgiving in her heart and also of pride of her son the prince of wales and her grandson prince william for holding the torch for the life of this planet with all sorts of brave statements of vision for the future for the different generations but david attenborough in that speech if you've seen that speech and let's think about the life of the planet over the years was concentrating on the number representing the concentration of carbon in our atmosphere and it's risen massively to 414 parts per million and he said very strongly as he talked about that huge rise which has happened so swiftly we need to rewrite our story to turn this tragedy into a triumph in all these speeches the wonderful thing is that there is a seed of hope if we act if we listen to the messages that the creator is giving us in the gifts around us in our planet here are words of sir david yesterday little more than ten thousand years ago earth's climate stabilized allowing civilizations to form and flourish everything achieved enabled by stability of those 10 000 years everything that we've achieved is resting on that stability of climate and now he goes on our burning of fossil fuels our destruction of nature our approach to industry construction and learning are releasing carbon into the atmosphere at an unprecedented pace and scale we are already in trouble the stability we all depend on is breaking those who've done least to cause the problem are being the hardest hit and we had voices young voices then shown us from across the world in areas of the greatest danger from climate change from islands which will be submerged by the rising of the oceans by areas which are being devastated by huge storms as that stability that balance is upset and these voices as the psalmist said are the ones that are crying out they've not caused the problem and those who cause the problem the burning of fossil fuels the destruction of nature the approach to industry construction and learning as we do it those who cause the problems are those who are suffering least in our planet those who have not caused the problems who are are those who whose very cultures and atmospheres and ecosystems are suffering most those who've done least to cause the problem are being the hardest hit said sir david and all those voices of young people helped him from very very many different cultures and then he went on we must use this opportunity to create a more equal world and our motivation should not be fear but hope it comes down to this the people alive now and the generation to come will look at this conference and consider one thing did that number that atmospheric co2 concentration stop rising and start to drop as a result of commitments made here there's every reason to believe that the answer can be yes we've heard from so many that and so many people who are wanting us to take action that the time for words is over we are in trouble now says the wisdom of the two 95 year olds who gave us their wisdom yesterday our queen and sir david and at the same time all those young voices from cultures and and and wonderful communities all over the planet who rely on their own ecosystems and we remember that every minute around the world 55 600 trees are torn down and the trees are helping us as they grow up to keep that carbon footprint low i read a lovely thing this morning another news bulletin that the great whales in our oceans have within their bodies an enormous amount of carbon and instinctively when they come to die they do what is called a whale fall they take their body right right right right right down to the depths of the ocean trapping that carbon there while the trees are growing up in the other direction and taking that out of the air and not giving it back we know the answers and we know also that humanity is so often driven by short-term gain but for the sake of all those that we remember from the past but more still for the sake of those who live on this planet now and are going to live on it in the future our children our children's children our children's children's children the old and the young are crying out for justice justice in the terms that are helping this planet to help them be alive and free and breathing clean air and having enough food enough water in their generation and for generations to come the loveliest thing about all this is that every speech ended with hope but let's hope that this decision that hope will transfer itself into decisions as with our own intentions for our memories of those we've known and loved today when we have certain regrets then we transfer those regrets into action of how we act with one another now and the memory becomes a creative one but all held within the context at this all hallowed tide of the communion of saints there is uh the most lovely hymn uh it's not a song but a hymn which i'm told and we could be wrong in this but i'm toad is the prince of wales his favorite him if he's anything like me if somebody says what's your favorite hymn i'm absolutely non-pleased because i have a whole clutch of them but this is one certainly that tunes in with the lessons that we've been speaking about and it's like a psalm it's written by w chalmers smith you'll know it well most of you immortal invisible god only wise in light inaccessible hid from our eyes most blessed most glorious the ancient of days almighty victorious thy great name we praise unresting unhasting and silent as light nor wanting nor wasting thou rulest in might thy justice like mountains high soaring above thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love to all life thou givest to both great and small in all life thou livest the true life of all we blossom and flourish as leaves on a tree and wither and perish but naught changes thee great father of glory pure father of light thine angels adore thee all veiling their sight or lord we would render oh help us to see it is only the splendor of light hide is the a beautiful hymn with that lovely incarnational line in all life thou livest the true life of all we remember the eternal word made flesh in the person of jesus standing before the earthly power and saying i came to bear witness to the truth in all life thou livest the true life of all well this is only a step towards decisions to be made and each day our prayers are for those at that conference so today as we remember the church throughout the world we remember all those who are grieving and particularly those who've been bereaved very recently but all of us remembering and all of us metaphorically or really kindling a light in the darkness and knowing that it's only the sense of the the source of light which god has given us it is only the splendor of light high to see but we can reflect that light in all that we do so our prayers for the whole church but our prayers too for leaders gathered and our thanksgiving for the lessons taught us by those who were old and the lessons reflecting the same message cried out by those who are young and care so much about this gift of the planet which we must care for and hand on to them and those who come after them so we remember in our prayers justin our archbishop who's of course her majesty the queen's chief spiritual minister representing faiths of all kinds in england that dimension because the communities of faith here and across the world can play a huge part in everything that is decided and affected at the cop 26 conference we pray for him we pray also for rose bishop of dover and we pray to for emma bishop at lambeth bring your own prayers as we pray for all those who today are remembering those whom they love who has passed on to a greater light eternal god our maker and redeemer grant us with all the faithful departed the sure benefits of your son's saving passion and glorious resurrection that in the last day when you gather up all things in christ we may with them enjoy the fullness of your promises through jesus christ our lord amen so in the many languages that we speak in this garden congregation right across the world we say the prayer our savior taught us to to pray 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 amen moment now of reflection and prayer for you to say your own prayers is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] praise [Music] is [Music] [Applause] time [Music] it's salutary to think that during that time of prayer and reflection over a hundred thousand trees across the planet have been torn down or destroyed and uh yet we remember the rule of thumb that if you chop a tree down or destroy a tree you plant two and so we keep that rule of thumb in mind on this particular day 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 those whom you would pray for and those whom you would remember with love and thanksgiving today and always are men well now little tree you're one of the ones that were clapping their hands with joy in isaiah's great prophecy the liquid amber tree we planted a pair of them and they reward us with beautiful colors in the autumn but they're growing up strong it's a tree that comes in its origin from north america but this one's never been there it's brought the fruits of that to this nation and will give us shade and help to take down the carbon footprint so thank you prime minister wholeness for your kind words of introduction i'm delighted to welcome you all to the 26th united nations climate change conference and it is perhaps fitting that you have come together in glasgow once heartland of the industrial revolution but now a place to address climate change this is a duty i'm especially happy to discharge as the impact of the environment on human progress was a subject close to the heart of my dear late husband prince philip the duke of edinburgh i remember well that in 1969 he told an academic gathering if the world pollution situation is not critical at the moment it is as certain as anything can be that the situation will become increasingly intolerable within a very short time if we fail to cope with this challenge all the other problems will pale into insignificance it is a source of great pride to me that the leading role my husband played in encouraging people to protect our fragile planet lives on through the work of our eldest son charles and his eldest son william i could not be more proud of them indeed i have drawn great comfort and inspiration from the relentless enthusiasm of people of all ages especially the young in calling for everyone to play their part in the coming days the world has the chance to join in the shared objective of creating a safer stabler future for our people and for the planet on which we depend none of us underestimates the challenges ahead but history has shown that when nations come together in common cause there is always room for hope working side by side we have the ability to solve the most insurmountable problems and triumph over the greatest of adversities for more than 70 years i have been lucky to meet and to know many of the world's great leaders and i have perhaps come to understand a little about what made them special it has sometimes been observed that what leaders do for their people today is government and politics but what they do for the people of tomorrow that is statesmanship i for one hope that this conference will be one of those rare occasions where everyone will have the chance to rise above the politics of the moment and achieve true statesmanship it is the hope of many that the legacy of this summit written in history books yet to be printed will describe you as the leaders who did not pass up the opportunity and that you answered the call of those future generations that you left this conference as a community of nations with the determination a desire and a plan to address the impact of climate change and to recognize that the time for words has now moved to the time for action of course the benefits of such actions will not be there to enjoy for all of us here today we none of us will live forever but we are doing this not for ourselves but for our children and our children's children and those who will follow in their footsteps and so i wish you every good fortune in this significant endeavor as you spend the next two weeks debating negotiating persuading and compromising as you surely must it's easy to forget that ultimately the emergency climate comes down to a single number the concentration of carbon in our atmosphere the measure that greatly determines global temperature and the changes in that one number is the clearest way to chart our own story for it defines our relationship with our world for much of humanity's ancient history that number bounced wildly between 180 and 300 and so too did global temperatures it was a brutal and unpredictable world at times our ancestors existed only in tiny numbers [Music] but just over 10 000 years ago that number suddenly stabilized and with it earth's climate we found ourselves in an unusually benign period with predictable seasons and reliable weather for the first time civilization was possible and we wasted no time in taking advantage of that everything we've achieved in the last 10 000 years was enabled by the stability during this time the global temperature has not wavered over this period by more than plus or minus one degree celsius until now one burning of fossils our burning of fossil fuels our destruction of nature our approach to industry construction and learning are releasing carbon into the atmosphere at an unprecedented pace and scale we are already in trouble the stability we all depend on is breaking this story is one of inequality as well as instability today those who've done the least to cause this problem are being the hardest hit ultimately all of us will feel the impact some of which are now unavoidable my world is melting you think you have control we actually have no control i'm absolutely terrified to bring a child to this world is this how our story is due to end a tale of the smartest species doomed by that all-too-human characteristic of failing to see the bigger picture in pursuit of short-term goals perhaps the fact that the people most affected by climate change are no longer some imagined future generations but young people alive today perhaps that will give us the impetus we need to rewrite our story to turn this tragedy into a triumph we are after all the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on earth we now understand this problem we know how to stop the number rising and put it in reverse we must have carbon emissions halt them this decade we must recapture billions of tons of carbon from the air we must fix our sights on keeping one and a half degrees within reach a new industrial revolution powered by millions of sustainable innovations is essential and is indeed already beginning we will all share in the benefits affordable clean energy healthy air and enough food to sustain us all nature is a key ally whenever we restore the wild it will recapture carbon and help us bring back balance to our planet and as we work to build a better world we must acknowledge no nation has completed its development because no advanced nation is yet sustainable all have a journey still to compete so that all nations have a good standard of living and a modest footprint we're going to have to learn together how to achieve this ensuring none are left behind we must use this opportunity to create a more equal world and our motivation should not be fear but hope can we fix climate problem in one generation my answer would be yes we have to we need to not just to talk about what we can do but to do what we can this is a challenge that we should try to solve in a quick way with the long-term vision it comes down to this the people alive now are the generation to come we'll look at this conference and consider one thing did that number stop rising and start to drop as a result of commitments made here there's every reason to believe that the answer can be yes if working apart we are force powerful enough to destabilize our planet surely working together we are powerful enough to save it in my lifetime i've witnessed a terrible decline in yours you could and should witness a wonderful recovery that desperate hope ladies and gentlemen delegates excellency is why the world is looking to you and why you are here thank you