hello little monster got a robin on the seed in the bucket you won't be able to see me now but i'm just opening the door for the pigs to come and join us come on you two it's a saturday morning and here they come come on chloe winnie come down through this is a nice little thing for them there's some nice fallen apples too for you to eat before you have your real breakfast which are set out for you down here come on both of you come on come on all right clemmy come here winnie we'll put their real breakfast here but i fear for the moment we've deliberately left the guinea like them the guineas like them too fallen apples which are the best treat of the autumn for all of them there we are winnie tell me they've gone off for a drink first of all that's always the best thing for them down at the stream but i know they'll come back in a moment and enjoy breakfast as we all like to so good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral to the dinery garden on this saturday morning it's a saturday of the friends festival day and so we've an activity today which couldn't happen last year because of the lockdown but will definitely happen this year but much of it also will be online for people to see both the services inside and some of the friends meetings recorded and the friends have a morning of activities connected with the history and life of the cathedral they have their annual meeting and then uh lunch together and finally after some music this afternoon they will have tea and coming to even songs so quite a day and lots of friends being glad to gather physically together as the restrictions on coming together are eased further so this morning we're under a gray sky but not a bad sky at all it's a lovely september morning and i think the the sun will burn off much of the grayness a bit later on as the day develops there's no promise of rain and so which there is later on in the week but the friends i think will have a lovely day and we're here to say our prayers so be welcome wherever you are in the world on this saturday morning we've got uh a scene at the moment i'm sitting in the orchard of course and behind me and around me are the tall trees which form a great canopy which are very important to the life of our planet as we're learning more and more and the planting of trees and the green canopy is our queen's intention for the celebration of her platinum jubilee next year so we're all busy planning where to plant trees but most of all how to keep the ones we've got for they are always under threat particularly when there are developers who want to develop a particular area and a tree is getting in the way and yet city landscapes need trees in order to protect and give shade and give an atmosphere underneath which is friendly to plants and animals and even human beings in very hot weather we have areas of the precincts which are full of stone which reflects the heat back and the trees therefore become intensely important but they can of course become threatened by diseases of their own which we can help remedy we have a a wonderful liliodendrum a a tulip tree and historic one in the precincts which this week on michaelmas day will need a little surgery and lily agenda will generally respond well to surgery uh because part of the the center has has uh become diseased and is beginning to split and we think we can help that and we'll attempt to do that with this beautiful tree in the past the instant thing if a tree becomes uh someone says oh there's a slight disease in that horse chestnut a developer will instantly step in and and chop lines of them down in cityscapes and instantly the green shelter and the friendliness of the atmosphere around we've suffered here from that in canterbury in the past is suddenly gone and trees take a long long time especially the very tall ones to grow up high behind me in the distance is the great ash tree when we're on the bastion we're sitting absolutely near it and 12 years ago we were told that the ash tree should be demolished or chopped down because of of the ash dye bag but look at it this morning as it's it's in full foliage trees grow up well this has been a good year for trees because of all the water and uh it's it's been a coolish summer here which is helpful but around two are high sycamores uh and and even the the mulberry tree is is grown up in height you can see more trees than i can because i had my my back to them but you can see the elances the chinese tree of heaven underneath where underneath which is the white table we've used so much in the past that's down on this side behind me the feathery leaves that you can see over the shorter trees of the orchard but tall trees there's a huge birch tree in front of me which you can't see which is grown up high that high canopy of such importance to us sometimes there's a huge problem and people have to make decisions uh and we're told that in the royal botanic gardens in edinburgh at the moment where they are doing a reconstruction of many of their palm houses there is a 200 year old palm which is too tall and too big to be removed and the tragedy is it looks as though the decision will be made to chop that down it's uh coming to the end of its life but nowhere near that yet but that's a a really hard decision to make by people who care about trees but one has to sit and think of all the solutions it's so even also in skyscapes of cities in architectural terms in in new york itself as one sits in central park with all those beautiful trees around a place where so many different kinds of trees and high canopies exists one particular tall tall thin building which we both dislike intensely has been put into park avenue number 432 park avenue is called and so many of the new yorkers that we know feel that that is absolutely blotted the skyline by just standing up like an uh a a finger in the sky uh and that kind of of building is something we have to think about in the cities skyscape this morning i mentioned that because there's a huge lawsuit by those living in that tall tall building going on at the moment a huge lawsuit against the builders because so many of the facilities in that building just don't work and they've been stuck for hours with elevators and lifts that don't go up to the top or get them down or water doesn't appear all of that but the planning and balance of how we live is so much of importance and the welfare of each other sometimes the power of the earth to do things which are um threatening to human life as we see in la palma at the moment the island of the canaries which has suffered the enormous volcano eruption sometimes that the earth takes its own course and then we can only make provisions for safety six thousand people have been evacuated many homes have been uh destroyed and the lava is is is um flowing down from that volcano up towards the sea there well so many things to think about this morning you will have all kinds of situations in your own minds as we come to say our prayers on this morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation and sustain us with your gracious spirit blessed are you creator of all to you be praise 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 refresh 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 i see that uh winnie and clemie have been slow to get their breakfast and cheeky and friendly little robin who is our best friend in the orchard even in winter days has making the most of that at the moment with his own breakfast our psalm this morning is psalm 119 which we say across these days following the evening of the 24th right through the next two days the longest psalm in the book split into neat sections of eight verses each and this morning section is psalm 119 verses 33 to 40. teach me o lord the way of your statutes and i shall keep it to the end give me understanding and i shall keep your law i shall keep it with my whole heart lead me in the path of your commandments for therein is my delight incline my heart excuse me to your testimonies and not to unjust gain turn away my eyes lest they gaze on vanities oh give me life in your ways confirm to your servant your promise which stands for all who fear you turn away the reproach which i dread because your judgments are good behold i long for your commandments in your righteousness give me life we turn back to our story of joseph and his brothers and jacob their father and you will remember that yesterday jacob made the huge decision in very old age to make the journey to egypt to see his son he knows that he will never return to canaan except when his sons bring him back for burial there in the traditional family place but for the moment he's going to make that journey and we are starting at verse 1 of chapter 46 and i'm going to read from verse 1 to 7 and then 28 to 34. the verses in between you can read for yourself but the verse in between are a great list of all those names who go down with jacob to egypt and so we'll omit reading the long list but you can do that yourselves later on and i'll read chapter 46 verses 1 to 7 and 28 to 34. so jacob took his journey with all that he had and came to beersheba and offered sacrifices to the god of his father isaac and god spoke to israel in visions of the night and said jacob jacob and he said yeah here i am then god said i am god the god of your father do not be afraid to go down to egypt for there i will make you into a great nation i myself will go down with you to egypt and i will also bring you up again and joseph's hand shall close your eyes then then jacob set out from beersheba the sons of israel carried jacob their father their little ones and their wives in the wagons that pharaoh had sent to carry them they also took their livestock and their goods which they had gained in the land of canaan and they came into egypt jacob and all his offspring his sons his son's sons with him his daughters his son's daughters all his offspring he brought with him into egypt jacob sent judah ahead of him to joseph to show the way before him in goshen and they came into the land of goshen then joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet israel his father in goshen he presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while israel said to joseph now let me die since i have seen your face and no you are still alive [Music] joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household i will go up and tell pharaoh will say to him my brothers in my father's household who were in the land of canaan have come to me and the men are shepherds for they have been keepers of livestock and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have when pharaoh calls you and says what is your occupation you shall say your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now both we and our fathers in order that you may dwell in the land of goshen for every shepherd is an abomination to the egyptians so joseph greets his father but before that we have that rather touching description of what it feels like for jacob in extreme old age after all he has been through after all his years of grief for the death of rachel at the birth of benjamin and also the death of joseph in his mind following the brothers having returned with the many colored coats torn uncovered in blood and the deception they practiced on their father all of that is not mentioned now in first of all the joyful realization that joseph is alive but then the huge the momentous step in his old age of taking everyone everyone from what has been home all the way down to egypt it weighs on him physically of course as a very old man it weighs on him mentally because it's a hard decision to make it weighs on him spiritually because this is the place that he has worshipped god with his household and everyone he has that as the long years of his life have unfolded towards the end and made him prosperous but the famine has bitten hard into canaan and there are two good reasons for going down to egypt one is to see joseph again and the second is that they may be kept safe and given food and resources and shelter and care for not only themselves but for their livestock and joseph has arranged that they may have the land of goshen and we see from that last sentence is a cryptic sentence that the the egyptians won't care too much about that and shepherding was not not their their general practice this is a canaanite activity and uh it's it's fairly despised by the egyptians but that on this occasion works in their favor so for the moment we see that jacob makes preparation and he comes to beersheba and there he makes his devotion and in a dream in the night god gives him promises here we are again with dreams we shouldn't be surprised because of course jacob's dream of the angels ascending and descending upon him when he was earlier in a state of being alone and fear of his brother esau jacob's dream heartened him them and he made that place holy and now the dream will hearten him now for god appears to him and says don't be afraid i am present tense always with the living god i am the god of your father isaac he could also have said and abraham uh and i will don't be afraid to go down to egypt i will go with you i will be there with you and there the next part of my plan for your own family and people will evolve [Music] and jacob is comforted by that reassurance yet still physically and mentally he's got to make the hard journey and emotionally he's got to tear himself away from that place which has been home yet there are the wagons joseph has provided as much comfort as you can and then we have the point that judah goes before judah who had offers his own life in place of benjamin's and now judah going first before jacob and all his households to tell joseph that they're on their way and to be the one that goes ahead now this is important of course because the royal line of david and our our lord's own tribe in in terms of um the genealogies is the tribe of judah not the tribe of joseph or the tribe of benjamin or of ruben or any of the others not the tribe of levi but the tribe of judah and that tribe of judah is represented by the father of that tribe judah himself one of jacob's 12 sons and now we've seen him twice giving a sign of all of that first a sign of self-offering take me instead of benjamin let me be your servant let me bear this load and punishment and on the other hand uh now going before to prepare the way for his father on this really hard and journey for jacob there's no going back from this they're on their way and they arrive and joseph prompted by judah his is uh in his chariot in with all the splendor of his status in egypt and that we've seen again and again comes to his father but at this point it's joseph who presents himself in full humility but this is long before the ten commandments of moses so honor your father and your mother is deep within the culture not one of the ten commandments by then but here is joseph honoring his father presenting himself earthly possessions earthly status mean nothing at all the family bond is one of love and respect from joseph to his father and jacob and joseph then have a time of reaffirming their precious love for one another and jacob at that point utters a nunc dimittis lord now let your servant go in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation and that that is that the words of simeon of course in holding the christ child of the royal line of judah but here is jacob saying yes as he holds his son joseph the fruit of the womb of rachel his beloved wife buried in bethlehem where the christ child will be born and though all those hundreds of years later but for the moment signs in dreams signs in people signs of the way forward but the absolute assurance of the living god i am god and i will be with you rather like that psalm which i always say i like so much 139 if i go down into hell thou art there also there are um i think two dates only that i want to think about today and both of them are musicians and they they sort of reach out in in different ways the first one is this is the day on which in 1906 dmitry shostakovich was born he died in august 1975 and if you can think of the history of russia the soviet union and now once again russia during those times then into your mind comes a a picture of a huge nation in so many different situations of crisis and violence transformation and change 1906 was still in the reign of tsar nicholas ii but by the time that the revolution broke out in the latter years of the great war and the war itself having been traumatic well shostakovich was just entering teenage years really and he wanted desperately to be a musician in some way or another composing or playing but for the moment he had to have his education in a land in flux completely as the soviets took control and things became really unknown as to the way forward for his own family and yet he stayed so many of those with uh creative gifts at their disposal someone thinks of stravinsky mcmahon enough chose to leave at that point and pursue their career elsewhere in the world shostakovich stayed and his life through those traumatic years the years of of stalin of the the enormous amount of of of killings and death before ever the second world war broke out and then the the nazi invasion of russia itself and the the desperate siege of stalingrad all of that and then the the stalin years following all of that were not happy and easy years for shostakovich and yet shall we say he stuck it out and created his music crafted it out of that crisis he was forever under the lens was he a traitor to the soviet cause but at the same time he was faithful to his people and in his music to different dimensions of the roots of russian music while crafting a music of his own made out of the situations around him so that we have from him a body of work probably the most important body of work is enshrined in the 15 symphonies that he created and also the three operas and there are stories of one of his opera where operas when it's being performed lady macbeth minsk um where stalin and and and his his senior people turn up to the opera house and are laughing at the love scenes because they they think the music is is is not to their soviet taste and at the end they leave in silence without even applauding or anything and shostakovic is is left to think what is happening now will there be a knock at the door tomorrow and when i be then incarcerated somewhere is my life in danger and yet he sticks it out all the way through and becomes really in the end a hero of the russian people and it it's stalin's death he begins to be recognized as someone who has kept that russian culture both uh kept it in its roots and in its development and has seen through those crises with his people and all the things going on his music speaks of that some of the music speaks of of the the disruption and and what he's feeling inside the disturbance but at the same time there are two aspects of his music which don't do that one of them is his film music which is it gives a completely different feel to shostakovich and certainly his his music from the film the gadfly in 1955 for me produces one of the most beautiful pieces of music that i know it's simply called romance from the gadfly and if you um tap that in to google or one of the search engines and just hear it played it's very short piece the gadfly romance and i think the minute it starts you will know it and it's most unlike so much of the shostakovich music utterly untroubled there's a wistfulness about it as there always is if you think of tchaikovsky's music but there's a very russian quality to it and it's become a beautiful piece that people know well rather like his second wall stream the suite for variety orchestra is a different shostakovich but on the other hand and this will take us on to our next person he also wrote as did j.s spark for the piano 48 preludes and fugues in every key the 24 keys and so he wrote a prelude and fugue in c and then a prelude and fugue in c minor then a prelude and fugue in c sharp and a pollutant fugue in c sharp minor and a prelude and fugue india go on you could do it for me until all 48 were accomplished almost like an ordering of his life we're told he was an obsessive kind of person and that bach therefore in this was an inspiration to him and as that's going on i'm gonna just rescue the bucket or we shall be i'm interrupted by do you want to come through come and have your food bach became an inspiration to him uh in that but also the ordering almost like the clocks ticking around charles v that we saw the other day those preludes and views and they're on my piano and i enjoy playing some of them some of them are well beyond my capacity and that becomes more so as i practice the piano lesson less but i enjoy playing them as i enjoyed playing barks preludes and fugues and those also on the well-tempered clavier which you will know so well those bring me on to my second person because on this day the 25th of september 1932 the canadian pianist uh and and performer on on uh keyboards but mostly known for piano glenn gould was born and he himself again uh was wanting to be performer but he was a a fairly solitary and introvert person and intensely eccentric in some ways as he grew on and yet the way in which he interpreted bach is really second to none and bernstein respected that and also his his interpretations of of of other uh um piano concertos but it was bach that he mostly became known for and the 48 fellows and fugues of park the well-tempered caviar but the most famous piece of glenn gould's performing is the recording of the goldberg variations of bach in 1955 and here is creativity as extreme because bark created the goldberg variations as you probably know for a russian aristocrat who was the ambassador to the court of saxony and um he had a servant called gottlieb goldberg who could play the harpsichord and counciling was was an insomniac and needed to be lulled to sleep settled with music like king saul with david and at the same time uh gottlieb uh goldberg ran out of ideas so bach created a suite of variations which began with a simple aria and then 30 variations followed mostly in g major three of them are in g minor one very famous one in g minor the black pearl is known as and then coming all the way around again to the last variations and he created them so it would be like counting sheep for goldberg sat he was only 14 15 years old sat in the next room and played these and they had the effect of lulling councilling to sleep i'm sure goldberg wasn't lulled to sleep because some of them are fiendishly difficult to play but others for average pianists like me are pleasant to play and the coming home to the aria at the end and the simplicity of of some of the variations are really pleasant it's it's like a homecoming having gone through all those shall we say vicissitudes of different scenes of life as we saw shostakovich going through but at the same time having a creative stability rather like our saying of the daily office together the rhythm of the morning the rhythm of the evening the choral even song the way in which the day is counted and held by prayer and also by the promise that whatever new beginnings are asked of us god says i am god i am with you and that promise undergirds all our worship and our brave new beginnings and also the bravest new beginning that we all look to at the end of our days of entering a a completely different dimension of the presence of the living god enfolding us so thanks be to god for all that creativity in different situations for brave new beginnings and for people who themselves had to have a rhythm in their life glenn gould became so introvert in a way he yet one meal a day never cooked for himself and would go simply to the dine around the corner and nearly always have the same meal and then come back uh and uh kept recording recording till the very end let's say our prayers then on this particular day and on this day um we are in the anglican communion praying for the diocese of southeastern florida in the episcopal church of the united states and in our own diocese as we pray for justin our archbishop and for uh rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambert the diocese is asking us to be listening and discerning on the way and pray about pollution where we practically every day we we think about the care of our planet and today the green canopy of trees was something that we were very much praying about and thinking about but i would want you also today to pray for the life of the friends of canterbury cathedral worldwide and uh there is a separate body uh which is totally connected with us the friends of canterbury cathedral in the united states so all of those the friends of canterbury who will come and meet here today so many of them and others will be watching as the friends festival unfolds today and we enjoy the sociable quality of being able to come together again this is a day when we remember lancelot andrews bishop of winchester spiritual writer one of the translators for the king james bible and also his book of prayers his his private prayers have been at the basis of so many of the fine colleagues and prayers that have been written by others so i'm going to use the collect for his day as the colleague for this morning bring your own intentions and prayers from wherever you are in the world lord god who gave to lancelot andrews many gifts of your holy spirit making him a man of prayer and a pastor of your people perfect in us that which is lacking in your gifts of faith to increase it of hope to establish it of love to kindle it that we may live in the light of your grace and glory through jesus christ our lord men those middle words very much words of lancelot andrews so let's say the prayer our savior taught us in whatever language you like to use 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 of silence now as we say our own prayers [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hmm she's [Music] foreign [Music] 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 and those whom you would pray for today and always are men perhaps i should say a word about the friends of canterbury cathedral as this is their festival day uh and they have a wonderful secretary caroline placed it who is organizing this day with enormous care not only for the projects that the friends are engaged in but also for the membership of the friends because essentially it's a membership organization who keep in touch with one another and their objects are not only to provide resources for special projects for the union chapter and that's always been the case but also to communicate the the um story of the cathedral's life both historically and in present tense and of course that all happens on websites but it happens also by their marvellous and colorful magazine which is called the chronicle and that delves into the history of this place talks about characters who have been involved in the cathedral in the friends but also talks about the vision of going ahead let me just say that that projects like the buying of the av system which is now helping us to live stream from the cathedral and even the camera which fletcher has been using all the way through all of those are gifts from the friends of canterbury cathedral to enable us to do these things and at present they're just about to start and they've funded this the restoration of the long back wing of cathedral house our place where all our offices are and where people walk in to find a receptionist and and various officers of the cathedral connected with our worship and the friends and the visits organization and the the house is a very old one and also was in that area of the cathedral where the bombs fell and so it needed restoration so the end has not been used for a few years and now the friends are helping us to restore it so today is a a time for me to be full of gratitude to the friends of canterbury cathedral but i would say to you also look at their website because it's of enormous interest and of help to us and their remit is massive the first member on the role is her majesty the queen and the royal patron is his royal highness the prince of wales and both take an interest in the life of canterbury cathedral and assist in the sense of of bringing the friends together across the world um president george bush senior was a patron and president of the friends in the united states and and so so many people across the world do that the best way of course to get to know the friends is to visit their website which you can easily do online or else just join up and it gives you all the resources of the cathedral at your disposal and the the chronicle that lovely magazine will be sent to you so a shout for the friends at that at the moment and they were they were mightily instrumental also in the restoration of the grand organ and that will be played to them this afternoon before they go for their tea and follow that with even song so god bless the friends of canterbury this morning