good morning and a very warm welcome on this saturday the 6th of march to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral it's a saturday morning so we've come up to the orchard on our way to taking clemmy and the girls up to their time in the dean's walk it's a nice it's a nice uh morning for that it's a morning of patchy sunshine and they'll enjoy this no wind at all there are robins all around me staking out their territories and you will hear their song i should have said yesterday but there was so much we were doing yesterday but i should have said of course it was friday so there's music friday at five from our cathedral school our king's school if you go back to that and at the end of that you'll find a beautiful harp solo by francois joseph and it's played by by arwen on the heart and also a lovely song from handel's jeffza farewellie limpid springs and that's sung by grace so if you'd like to join in with music friday at five then go back to yesterday's you will find it at the at the end of our service there the same time this is a morning when the startling photograph of and film of uh pope francis sitting with grand ayatollah ali al-sistani in iraq on the first ever papal visit to iraq and the sense that he is going on to ur of the kaldi's the place of the birth of abraham uh the root of the three abrahamic faiths in chronological order judaism christianity islam is something which one can but rejoice in that that that conversation is happening for the welfare and unity of our world at this time of facing pandemic and so many other issues so let's say our prayers on this particular morning of the month and pray for the safety of pope francis and also continue to pray for the recovery of health of his royal highness prince philip oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice o lord according to your faithful love according to your judgments give us life blessed are you god of compassion and mercy to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of our sin the light breaks forth like the dawn and your healing springs up for deliverance as we rejoice in the gift of your saving help sustain us with your bountiful spirit and open our lips to sing your praise blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the light has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind does 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 psalm on this sixth morning of the month is psalm 30 i will exalt you o lord because you have raised me up and have not let my foes triumph over me o lord my god i cried out to you and you have healed me you brought me up o lord from the dead you restored me to life from among those that go down to the pit sing to the lord you servants of his give thanks to his holy name for his ross endures but the twinkling of an eye his favor for a lifetime heaviness may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning in my prosperity i said i shall never be moved you lord of your goodness have made my hill so strong and then you hid your face from me and i was utterly dismayed to you o lord i cried to the lord i made my supplication profit is there in my blood if i go down to the pit will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness hear o lord and have mercy upon me o lord be my helper you have turned my morning into dancing you have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing o lord my god i will give you thanks forever so we're turning then to our reading from the gospel of saint john from where we left off yesterday we're in chapter 7 and i'm beginning to read at verse 25 [Music] some of the people of jerusalem therefore said is not this the man whom they seek to kill and here he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him can it be that the authorities really know that this is the christ but we know where this man comes from and when the christ appears no one will know where he comes from so jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple you know me and you know where i come from but i have not come of my own accord he who sent me is true and him you do not know i know him for i come from him and he sent me so they were seeking to arrest him but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come yet many of the people believed in him they said when the christ appears will he do more signs than this man has done the pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him and the chief priests and pharisees sent officers to arrest him but jesus then said i will be with you a little longer and then i am going to him who sent me you will seek me and you will not find me where i am you cannot come the jews said to one another where does this man intend to go that we will not find him does he intend to go to the dispersion among the greeks and teach the greeks what does he mean by saying you will seek me and you will not find me and where i am you cannot come [Music] notice the absence of the concept of the twelve in this chapter jesus is portrayed amongst the crowds who of are of differing opinions as standing alone and maybe that was the case because he'd come up if you remember originally secretly to this particular feast and now the compulsion to teach in the temple is too strong and he is teaching openly and the crowds are wondering that none of the authorities stop him does that mean they say that really the authorities are beginning to believe that he is the christ what confusion for the crowds and also for the authorities and we go back to that sense in st john's gospel of the working on two completely different levels metaphorically jesus on the earthly level and jesus at the divine infinite heavenly level and of course it's impossible to separate the two but the crowds even nicodemus one of the authorities earlier in the gospel continue to work only on the earthly finite level and their questioning all comes from that but we know you we know where you've come from how can you be the christ and jesus replies well you do know me of course i come on that plane i come from nazareth in galilee you know me but you do not know where i come from for then he is talking of the heavenly plane for i have come sent by the one who sent me and here the inf infinite concept of the creator whom he calls other father comes into the picture it's a difficult concept even for us to resolve in our minds but we believe and faith and hope and love in the spirit all proclaim where the christ has come from but the crowds and the authorities are still in their confusion speaking of only earthly terms so when jesus says i'm with you just a little longer and notice here we go into the concept of time all over again they didn't arrest him because his hour had not yet come i'll be with you a little longer and then you will seek for me and where i get you cannot come all of all of this and they stay on the flat plane because they say was he going to go to to the dispersion the diaspora that this the spreading of of the jewish people among the greeks and here too in the writing of this gospel there's a sense of prophecy in what they're saying because of course jesus does do just that widens his teaching for the whole world and in the end in this gospel it's a group of greeks who ask to see jesus all these jigsaw pieces for us to have in the present tense let's keep stressing that our time with the gospel is in the present tense all these jigsaw pieces and we are working with the the commission of the one who has sent us in heavenly terms but we're speaking heavenly truths on an earthly plane and plumbing into the depths of what it means to be human in body mind and spirit but in the totality and uniqueness of every human individual short passages from this chapter seven and probably short passages with this kind of thinking is quite enough for us in our lenten journey day by day as different flowers open in the garden and creation begins in the northern hemisphere to show spring arriving and the sense of that is all around us but at the same time there is a kind of winter in the people's confusion of uh jesus in this passage as i say the company of the twelve is missing in this chapter and there are no i am statements of the new teaching this is a chapter when jesus is honing his own vocation with compulsion his end crypto his being in secret can't last because his compulsion is to give the gift of the one whom he has sent who his has sent him and and this is the authority in which he begins to teach and the compulsion with which he knows he has to teach for details of the teaching the synoptic gospel give us enormous amounts of information but in this gospel the context of the teaching and the authority and also the source of the teaching is the prime occupation leading up to the time when the hour will come for the christ well let's think a little of things today and let me begin then with that wonderful picture and the news report on the bbc of pope francis's brave visit to iraq surrounded by security and also his significant conversation with the grand ayatollah ali al-sastani of the shia muslim community incredible to see the 84 year old pope and the 90 year old leading shia muslim cleric sitting in conversation together but also equally amazing to think that the pope will go on to visit er of the chaldees right in the depths of the old testament scriptures the place of abraham's birth before the journey he was sent on which is still going on with the three abrahamic faiths even to this day working on the twin planes of being on earth and the infinite scope of the spiritual world so please god that that visit of pope francis is blessed and at the same time we come across many dates this morning of um of wonderful creativity but there's also in 1987 on another saturday morning that year on march the 6th of a scene of tragedy and that tragedy is the capsizing of the passenger car ferry the herald of free enterprise killing 193 passengers as it capsized the captain had left the harbour with the front doors open which may seem absolutely incredible to us but we can come back to that in a moment but fletcher remembers coming down to go to school and finding his parents in tears in front of the television on that saturday morning because these were kent people and the children of the crew were well known and his his brother was at school with two of them of the son of the captain and then and of the chef on board and the captain of course survived but sadly the chef was drowned but all this is a memory and strong impressions stay let's think about what had happened because ferries often left the harbour with their doors open and the captain was was in the end put into context in terms of the decision he'd made to go because that's what they always did there had been no damage in the past no difficulty and it cleared the exhaust fumes with the doors open just for the first little bit of the journey and then a freak wave as you remember got into the the car decks because the doors were open and the boat began to roll and at the inquiry of course that has never happened since but we still remember the tragedy in kent of the herald of free enterprise in uh um 20 and 1987 on that that saturday morning and we think of the people who died and families who lost members so to go to the very creative things that have happened today and one can scoot through them quite fast but some of them will pause at because they actually give something of an illustration of what we've been thinking of in that passage of saint john's gospel um in 1340 we're told that jonath gaunt the third surviving son of king edward iii was born first duke of lancaster and john of gaunt a important figure in english history but is probably best known for shakespeare's uh lovely solidify that shakespeare gives that character in the play richard ii which is an idealized concept of england surrounded by the silver sea in protection and you'll remember how that starts we used to sing it as a song at school this royal throne of kings this sceptered isle this earth of majesty this seat of mars this other eden demi paradise this fortress built by nature for herself against infection and the hand of war the solidity goes on but it goes on then to say and look what the leaders have made of it and so it's it's actually a prelude saying what this island could be and what it is but we we sing it as a and if we sing that song we sing it as an idealized concept of what this this land might be just as we talk about the heavenly jerusalem as well and then we go on with the dates uh 1806 the poet elizabeth barrett browning wife of robert browning was born and we give thanks for her poetry and also he gives thanks that in 1888 louisa may olcott was born the new england writer who is probably most famous for her novel which has been turned into lovely films little women and that we we simply remember the story of a community at civil war time and also the privations at that time but the the kind of of of of community and the love which exists in that family and the characters there so we give thanks for her writing um we give thanks for humor in the birth of in 1917 on this day the comedian frankie howard who was the master of the double entendre which made people laugh and that gave a lovely heartening effect when people watched the programs he made on on television particularly 1926 actually the shakespeare memorial theater in stratford on this day burned down but has been of course rebuilt and is a place which people beat their way to to see wonderful shakespeare plays and so we give thanks for the acting at that time 1951 ivan avello died who was probably the most uh popular actor and writer of musical shows between the wars between the first the great war and the second world war he was still writing afterwards but he died in 1951 of a of a coronary thrombosis just having taken part in in his own musical king's rhapsody and died too soon but he's probably best known for two songs one that he gave in extreme youth to the first world war keep the home fires burning and that became a song which was sung through the war at expecting people home and that was his quality the second world war he gave us we'll gather lilacs in the spring again and walk together going down a country lane and the great uh a strap line of that is till you are home once more this concept of home which is given uh in and in wartime when people are away it becomes such an important thing until you are home once more that little plaque is written and on a lilac tree above the place where his ashes are buried in london and then what else do we have here um i'm skipping about but some big ones now 1475 michelangelo was born he lived to be 88 years old a long life but his wonderful wonderful sculpture his paintings a sistine chapel ceiling which is in on our minds a spark of life being given by the creator's finger to the newly made human being there and and at the same time and we think of the the heart wrenching pieta of the mother of jesus holding the dead body of her son on her lap which he carved the only piece of sculpture he signed and that of course is in saint peter's basilica a wonderful thing still a powerful thing to stand in front of earlier last year just before the pandemic actually in february we stood before a crucifix with a naked christ on which is michelangelo and it's a an incredible crucifix in the church in florence there and that too is is powerful it shows how his work developed all the way through and it became natural and of course his great statue of david uh was in in florence in medici times and uh the copy of that still stands in florence but the real one has been taken into the ufc the museum um so that it's it's protected but what we think of is the fact that when he died in rome at the age of 88 he was smuggled out the body was smuggled out in a hay bale said that he could be taken home that important concept of home and to go into the church of santa croce in florence we were there at the same visit that we saw the crucifix just over a year ago and uh saw his great tomb in the church of santa cruz so we give thanks for the way in which he combines all art forms and for his poetry and his sonnets and everything that michelangelo gave a man of intense faith and the faith became expressed so that he reached the eternal dimension in his paintings his sculpture and his poetry working again on two planes as we do body mind and spirit the creations of god that we are and then again i wanted to mention uh rimsky-korsakov who was born on this day in 1844 he was one of the russian composers who plumbed the culture of russia for their music in the same way that people have plumbed the culture of their own countries to find music to give and see he became a part of a group called the five we've been talking about the support the twelve gave to jesus though he stood apart from it and was supported by that group and led that group on the twelve the five that's bala kirif kui muzovsky rimsky-korsakov and borijin form themselves and probably uh rimsky-korsakov is best known for his shahrazad and the images of of stories that she he gives in that but tchaikovsky was at the same time and i think probably feel people feel he was the greatest of them all but stood apart from it and took the russian music into the western music and began to break down barriers too so we give thanks for rimsky-korsakov this morning and the five who worked together as a five from 1856 to 1870 and then uh best of all 1853 uh la traviata verdi's opera was premiered in venice and probably the brindisi the drinking song at the beginning of uh traviata with alfredo and violetta in full enjoyment before ever really they've met properly and fallen in love um but that song is one of the great songs of opera we've seen it in so many places and what i want to say is that we saw it in a palazzo in venice which had been a private house on a rainy night a few years ago i went on the vaporetto got off through the rain and then candles lit our way up the stairs and into a house and for a small audience and beautifully a small number of singers and musicians in different rooms in the house gave the opera without chorus la chaviata and you can do that with that opera so when we got back fletcher had the idea that we could do it in the deanery and on a winter's night in 2018 um a february night he packed 140 people and the whole thing was in age of the the charity which we support for the homeless particularly this time of year porchlight uh 140 people uh crammed into the deanery drawing not that couldn't happen at the moment with the distancing and david newsham who is at the moment our acting organist and director of music here with us a string quartet and and and three singers gave a performance we couldn't move around the house and then an extra singer was added to play the doctor and then uh the the maid also came in but but apart from that only the three singers playing alfredo's father and and also violeta and alfredo and we really we didn't sing but we became the people for whom the the brindisi and the whole opera was being sung and we had the the marvelous song about provence when alfredo's song father is trying to entice him home back to the family back home but alfredo is feeling at that time that home is with violetta there are so many different concepts of home that love give us so we give thanks for all of that and memories of what might happen again because uh federer often organizes an opera here in the garden and that's happened on many occasions but all of that has ceased for the moment and we look forward to the time when we can come together and be creative and laugh and hear singing and seeing ourselves and that too is something of encouragement but for the moment the whole task is facing the pandemic and looking after one another for each other's welfare bravely going for our vaccines and being protected so that once again the human life at all its levels body mind and spirit can be enjoyed in community so we give thanks for all of that this morning and pray for one another in the prayers that we say we're thinking this morning uh on the 6th of march for the we're thinking about a welsh diocese the diocese of saint assaf church in wales ivanovelo was born in cardiff clark on his house where he was born there so we pray for the diocese of saint assaf and we pray also for uh justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth on this day for all the parishes of the elam area deanery it's clergy and people and we'll go through them village by village as the days unfold in the week ahead pray for jane weeks the area dean in her ministry there this morning so here are collect for this week which is the last time we'll use it because of course we shall be on the third sunday of lent tomorrow almighty god you show to those who are in error the light of your truth that they may return to the way of righteousness grant to all those who are admitted into the fellowship of christ's religion that they may reject those things that are contrary to their profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same through our lord jesus christ amen so we say each 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 to the chattering sound of a magpie behind me we keep silence for a moment for your prayers christ give you grace to grow in holiness to deny yourself take up your cross daily and follow him 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 pray for today and always are men well you've been good girls this morning let's come to lovely clemmy first okay i've got a nice day outside up here today all of you and spotty very calm and quiet today aren't you and you too as well good let's take you on then and give you your day on the dean's walk before we take you home again hey [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] no [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] um [Music] me [Music] [Music] would [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is 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