[Music] good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of friday the 31st of december it's new year's eve and this year 2021 has only hours still to run and in parts of the world celebrations are already beginning because you're well ahead of us and so here in this country we shall be waiting until just before midnight for that but across the other side of the world of course it it will go on even longer for us to wait to see celebrations there we remember situations of great danger for humanity and for livestock and also for the destruction of of homes and forests particularly in colorado uh this morning where people are fighting the fiercest fires and hundreds of thousands have been asked to leave their homes because of the the swiftness and and terror of the blazes that are happening so we think of those people there and those who are attempting to help them bring your own prayers and intentions on this new year's eve as we come together as a garden congregation from right across the world to say our prayers and uh we are here in the uh entry to the orchard of uh of the deanery garden uh as we say our prayers and still our theme is one of christmas time because the days of christmas continue through oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands blessed are you sovereign god creator of heaven and earth to you be praise and glory forever as your living word eternal in heaven assume the frailty of our mortal flesh may the light of your love be born in us to fill our hearts with joy as we sing 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 so may the light of your presence oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen we're continuing with the theme of being under the trees here as we were speaking yesterday of the greenwood and the way in which music from the countryside came into our hymn books particularly at christmas time uh and also yesterday the theme of wildwood where the staff there are breeding uh both uh the chuffs uh and many other creatures who used to be really common in english life here but have have become extinct or aren't breeding in this part of the country anymore and i'm glad to say that the national press picked up on that i'm glad to say it because that i hope will bring success and resources to wildwood and a consciousness of what they're doing in that wonderful place we're going to say our psalm now which itself is a magnificent way to end this year it's psalm 145 a long psalm but i'll use some of it now as we say our morning prayers i will exalt you o god my king and bless your name forever and ever every day will i bless you and praise your name for ever and ever great is the lord and highly to be praised his greatness is beyond all searching out one generation shall praise your works to another and declare your mighty acts they shall speak of the majesty of your glory and i will tell of all your wonderful deeds they shall speak of the might of your marvelous acts and i will also tell of your greatness they shall pour forth the story of your abundant kindness and joyfully sing of your righteousness the lord is gracious and merciful long-suffering and of great goodness the lord is loving to everyone and his mercy is over all his creatures all your works praise you o lord and your faithful servants bless you they tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your mighty power to make known to all peoples your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom your dominion endures throughout all ages the lord is sure in all his words and faithful in all his deeds the lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all those who are bowed down the eyes of all wait upon you o lord and you give them their food in due season you open wide your hand and fill all things living with plenty the lord is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works the lord is near to those who call upon him to all who call upon him faithfully he fulfills the desire of those who fear him he hears their cry and saves them it's a wonderful psalm to end our human year with and also it's one of the psalms for the last day of the month every month we're going to read this morning from another of saint paul's epistles not so early as the epistle to the galatians and also it has in it what we believe to be insertions of perhaps the earliest type of christian hymns or shall we say carols at this christmas time i'm in chapter one of the epistle to the colossians and here in that epistle is a hymn to christ which is very apt for this time when we remember christ's birth in bethlehem chapter 1 of the letters of the colossians beginning at verse 15 christ is the image of the invisible god the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things hold together christ is the head of the body the church he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent for in him all the fullness of god was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross and you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil things he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him if indeed you continue in the faith stable and steadfast not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which i paul became a minister well the first section of that is thought to be an early christian song and it speaks in a way which tunes in to so many of the things which we ourselves sing of at christmas time i'm now not speaking about phillips brooks i'm speaking of the hymn which is known in latin across the nation as adeste fidelis and in english oh come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant and has as its chorus that great call from psalm 95 venete adorama so come let us adore him repeated each verse three times so come let us adore him oh come let us adore him christ the lord and as we go through that then there is a tuning in to that prologue of saint john's gospel the fourth gospel of the word of god the eternal word before human time but born and in all the fullness of god in the child in the manger god of god light of light [Applause] lo he abhors not the virgin's womb very god begotten not created oh come let us adore him in short form and creedal form we sing it at christmas adorama so come let us adore him christ the lord and then we cause the angels to sing sing choirs of angels and choirs perform their descants but on christmas morning the most glorious moment of all is when we sing out the last verse which in most places is kept until that day yea lord we greet thee born this happy morning [Music] so [Music] yeah lord we greet thee born this happy morning that little hymn that we found in colossians links us to the singing of the early church all the way back but also what they are singing about in shall we say theological terms about the babe in bethlehem and that we continue to think about today there is profound truth in the carols [Music] this is a day when i always think of the wessex writer thomas hardy it's because of one of his poems which he wrote on new year's eve new year's eve 1900 as the century turned and i'll leave that poem until a bit later on because i wanted to say that i first got to know thomas hardy's poems when it was given in the poetry book that we received to prepare for o levels we call ordinary levels as we call them in those days so that in the autumn term of uh my 15th year the we were given this book and in it was a poem called the pathion ball and it took my fancy i'll read it to you now it's about the old village choirs who in those days in hardy's time still just when he was growing up played their instruments in the choir gallery at the back of paris churches so that instead of an organ which was a rarity in those days you had a band of village instrumentalists playing the accompaniment to mostly metrical psalms and hymns but occasionally to carols and hardy remembers the melstock choir he calls them but he's talking about his own village of stinsford the melstock choir going around the villages of the area and playing to the villagers on christmas eve each year but one year in his poem they are enticed by the devil with a pile of gold coins to go and play at a ball which was full of wickedness and the old and young men of the village as they are out with their instruments because it's a cold night are enticed away so here is the payphone ball we went our christmas rounds once more with choir and vials as there to four our path was nearby rushy pond where eggedon heath outstretched beyond there stood a figure against the moon tall spare and humming a weird some tune you tire of christian carols he said come and loot at a ball instead it is to your gain for it ensures that many guineas will be yours a slight condition hangs onto true but you will scarce say nay thereto that you go blindfold that anon the place may not be gossiped on they stood and argued with each other why sing from one house to another these ancient hymns in freezing night and all for naught it is foolish quite to serving god and shunning evil might not else doing serve the devil but grand pay they were lured by his call agreeing to go blindfold all they walked he guiding some new track doubting to find the pathway back in a strange hall they found them when they were unblinded all again gilded alcoves great chandeliers voluptuous paintings ranged in tears in brief a mansion large and rare with rows of dancers waiting there they tuned and played the couples danced half naked women tripped advanced with handsome partners footing fast who swore strange odes and whirled them past and thus and thus the slow hours wore them while shone their guinness heaped before them drowsy at length in lieu of the dance while shepherds watched they bowed by chance and in a moment at a blink there flashed a change they could think the ballroom vanished and all its crew only the well-known heath they view the spot of their crossing overnight when weedled by the stranger's slight there east the christmas dawn hung red and dark rainbow with its dead yea the rare mansion gorgeous bright the ladies gallants gone were quite the heaped up guineas too were gone with the gold table they were on why did not grasp we what we was owed cried some as homeward shamed they strode now comes the marvel and the warning when they had dragged to church next morning with downcast heads and scarce a word they were astounded at what they heard praises from all came forth in showers for how they cheered the midnight hours we've heard you many times friends said but like that never have you played tenants of the earth and celebrate your savior's birth never so thrilled the darkness through or more inspired us so to do the man who used to tell this tale was the tenor vile michael nail yes male the tenor now but earth i give it for what it may be worse hardy's delight and suggestion that angels themselves filled the shoes of those who had tired of the cold and playing christian carols around the houses and left to play at the ball instead it always reminds me when i read that poem of finding that hardy's novel under the greenwood tree was the place where the whole story of the melstock choir would be would be found and when the christmas holidays began i went as i've said before to the village library to miss middleton and asked to borrow under the greenwood tree and over that christmas the christmas of 1962 i read under the greenwood tree and got to know the characters in that village later on i would find myself particularly in my ministry in tisbury and swallow cliff and anstey for the almost 10 years i spent there riding on the trailer with hay bales on it to sing carols with the village choir around the houses of the villages and many would come to their doors just before christmas to welcome us and say thank you for the fact that christmas music and christmas truth was being brought to them for just as the playing of wild shepherds watched their flocks by night or seated on the ground made all the demonic ballroom vanish so too the sense of singing the gospel in christmas carols and songs is something which as i've said again and again stays in the mind and stays in the heart and the characters of the various choirs that i've had the pleasure of having with me in various ministries not only those who used to come on the trailer around the villages of of uh part of wessex really though one needs to go just a little bit farther west to find stinsford but in those days on frosty nights the carols would sing out christmas and under the greenwood tree lived again now hardy had a fairly dismal view of the clergy who would come in with new ideas and in under the greenwood tree of course the new vicar with new ideas says to the village school mistress whom he's rather sweet on fancy day uh who plays the organ i'm going to get rid of this band of instrumentalists and uh install you as the organist and that will me be much better music and part of the book is all about that it's also of course about dick dewey's love for fancy day as well but perhaps the poem that hardy best shows his contempt for new ideas which dig in to that way of singing the truths in people's hearts and minds in groups of old and young is the choir masters burial well here it is and it's speaking once again of the vicar with new ideas and contempt for the old ways of the village instrumentalists and singers the choir masters burial he often was asked us that when he died after playing so many to their last rest if out of us any should hear abide and it would not task us we would with our lutz play over him by his grave brim the psalm he liked best the one whose scent suits mount ephraim and perhaps we should seem to him in death stream like the seraphim so as soon as i knew that his spirit was gone i thought that his due and spoke there upon i think said the vicar a red service quicker than vials out of doors in these frosts and halls that old-fashioned way requires a fine day and it seems to me it had better not be hence that afternoon though never knew he that his wish could not be to get through it faster they buried the master without any tune but was said that when at the dead of next night the vicar looked out there struck on his ken thronged round about where the frost was graying the headstone grass abandoned all in white like the saints in church glass singing and playing the ancient stave by the choir master's grave such the tenerman told when he had grown old hardy's faith in the fact that heaven heard the singing of those who sang those carols in gospel truth and the sense of hardy conjuring up that countryside and the songs that we were speaking about yesterday that composers like vaughn williams and cecil sharpe went round to rediscover and wrote down for our hymn books because those songs and mountie frame which was mentioned there one of the old tunes that would have been played to metrical psalms and metrical verses of the gospel for that's all while shepherds watch their flocks by night is but it happens right across the world that people have their own songs and their own tunes to sing to peddled christ's birth in tune with heaven there is the most wonderful appalachian carol from the appalachian mountains which we actually sing here from time to time i wonder as i wander and wonder is a part of the christmas experience as we enter a different dimension kneeling before the babe at the manger with all the fullness of gods there before us in our human flesh god of god light of light very god of very god begotten not made oh come let us adore him christ the lord but i said it was one particular poem that hardy had written that brought me always to new year's eve and it happened to him on new year's eve 1900 when the last century stretched back and the new century to be stretched forward and he was out all by himself in bitter cold weather and he had an experience which he wrote in a few verses and many of you will know this uh this particular poem absolutely by heart it's called the darkling thrush and i brought the the thrush mug out this morning the emma bridgewater thrush mug so that you see what a thrush looks like because they sing in winter weather so here's hardy on new year's eve 1900. i lent upon a coppice gate when frost was specta gray and winter's dregs made desolate the weakening eye of day the tangled bind stems scored the sky like strings of broken liars and all mankind that haunted nye had sought their household fires the land's sharp features seem to be the century's corpse outlet his crypt the cloudy canopy the wind his death lament the ancient pulse of german birth was shrunken hard and dry and every spirit upon earth seemed further less as i at once a voice arose among the bleak twigs overhead in a full-hearted even song of joy in limited an aged thrush frail gaunt and small in blast be ruffled plume had chosen thus to fling his soul upon the growing gloom so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound was written on terrestrial things afar or nigh around that i could think that trembled through his happy good night air some blessed hope whereof he knew and i was unaware a glorious new year's eve poem of the blessed hope offered us by the christ child at bethlehem which all creation hymns and things and today we give thanks in wintertime for the thrush's glorious song which hardy calls a full-throated even song so let's say our prayers on this particular day as we've continued our theme of christmas carols proclaiming the truth in tunes that we love to sing we're praying in our anglican communion today for the province of ondo in the church of nigeria and here in the diocese for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and for the east bridge scenery that's the group of parishes all around the village of bridge and we shall be thinking of that uh later on day by day as we pray for the parishes but today we pray for stephen thomas in his ministry as the area dean of east bridge deanery here then is the collect for this week almighty god you wonderfully created us in your own image and yet more wonderfully restored us through your son jesus christ grant that as he came to share in our humanity so we may share the life of his divinity 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 and in our own way we say 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 well my voice and our prayers have awakened the thrash's song here in the garden and it's a lovely music to listen to as we keep a moment of reflection here on this new year's eve [Music] [Music] oh [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] is [Music] oh oh jesus oh [Music] yeah oh [Music] christ who by his coming at christmas time gathered into one the things of earth and the things of heaven fill you with the sweetness of peace and good will and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love this new year's eve and throughout the whole new year to follow now and forever amen god give you a happy new year and many memories of the past not only this year but those you've shared new years with in the past but also great hopes blessed hopes for the future you