good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of friday the 21st of january as we come to say our morning prayers together from right across the world i'm sitting very near to where i was yesterday but this time we've turned things round and that will show with the fortunes of israel changing in our biblical story but we're sitting by the peace tree here the davidia tree which is often called a handkerchief tree from its white flowers hanging down like handkerchiefs but also they've reminded people of white doves and so it's called a peace tree as well it's winter time here in the northern hemisphere and so the tree is bare but is getting ready in this resting time to produce all those beautiful symbols of peace which will come at its flowering season and we're doing this at a time when there are great tensions in the world none more so than russia and ukraine which is occupying diplomatic attention military attention all kinds of attention and the tension itself not the attention but the tension itself is in need of prayers for peace and the welfare of all those involved and at the same time this is a day in the week of prayer for christian unity and so to pray for the peace of christ church and the unity of the church becomes an important part of our prayers in these days between the 18th of january and the 25th of january when we celebrate the feast of the conversion of sin paul and the week of prayer for unity ends so uh we are thinking in our prayers particularly still of the people of tonga as the careful bringing of help i say careful because of the coveted restrictions in those islands which are coveted free at the moment and plagues pass very easily and some of the variants are are very contagious indeed so there's all that to worry about as well let's then say our prayers on this morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your light springs up for the righteous and all the peoples have seen your glory blessed are you sovereign god king of the nations to you be praise and glory forever from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is proclaimed in all the world as the sun of righteousness dawns in our hearts anoint our lips with the seal of your spirit that we may witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the earth 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 so our psalm on this morning of the month is psalm 105 it's a long historical psalm and we shall read one or two sections of it o give thanks to the lord and call upon his name make known his deeds among the peoples sing to him sing praises and tell of all his marvelous works rejoice in the praise of his holy name let the hearts of them rejoice who seek the lord seek the lord and his strength seek his face continually remember the marvels he has done his wonders and the judgments of his mouth he brought his people out with silver and gold from the land of egypt there was not one among their tribes that stumbled egypt was glad at their departing for a dread of them had fallen upon them he spread out a cloud for a covering and a fire to light up the night they asked and he brought them quails he satisfied them with the bread of heaven he opened the rock and the waters gushed out and ran in the dry places like a river for he remembered his holy word and abraham his servant so he brought forth his people with joy his chosen ones with singing he gave them the lands of the nations and they took possession of the fruit of their toil that they might keep his statutes and faithfully observe his laws alleluia it's an historic psalm and tells the story of the exodus from egypt and our book that we're reading at the moment one samuel is part of the ongoing development of the nation separated into tribal areas that was formed from the coming of those tribes from egypt and settling in the land of canaan so now many many years later we're in the book of samuel and our lesson today i'm going to read chapter 6 verse 10 to chapter 7 verse 4. now we saw yesterday how the uh philistines took the ark of the covenant and when they did so they took the ark to some of their defended cities with walls there were five philistine cities and uh they were ashdod gaza ashkelon gath and ekron and many other small communities but these were 45 cities and they have the ark of the covenant and we saw yesterday the end of the line of eli and his sons the end of the tabernacle at shiloh and the ark having been captured and with a very great slaughter israel having been defeated and now they were at the complete power of and in the hands of the philistine lords so the ark was taken to philistine cities but there a particular plague broke out in the first city and all this in detail you can read in chapter five and the beginning of chapter six and then they thinking that this was the cause of the trouble uh sent the ark to the next city and exactly the same thing uh occurred and then the next city and the next and the next all five and the people suffered terribly and this passing of the pandemic if you like from place to place was linked with the arrival of the ark and all that happened then the suffering of the people and the lords of the philistines meeting thought this this is a bad thing to have upon us and it's probably what is causing all our distress for our people and so they decided that what they would do was to put the ark on a wagon and bring two mother cows milk cows separated from their calves whom they could still hear calling for them and yoke them to the ark and put in a box certain golden reminders of what they had suffered from the the ark being there and then simply see what would happen because naturally the cows would turn back to their calves but in fact the story is really quite different chapter six with the philistine lords watching shows what happened when the cart was set free verse 10 the men took two milk cows and yoked them to a cart and shut up their calves at home and they put the ark of the lord on the cart and the box with the golden mice and images of their tumors and the cows went straight in the direction of beth shimish along one highway lowing as they went they turned neither to the right nor to the left and the lords of the philistines went after them as far as the border of bethshemish so that's back in israel now the people of beth shemish were reaping their wheat it was harvest time in the valley and when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark they rejoiced to see it the cart came into the field of joshua of bethshemish and stopped there a great stone was there and they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the lord and the levites took down the ark of the lord and the box that was beside it in which were the golden figures and set them upon the great stone and the men of beth shimish offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the lord and when the five lords of the philistines saw it they returned that day to ekron these are the golden tumors that the philistines returned as a guilt offering to the lord one for ashdod one for gaza one for ashkelon one for gath one for ekron and the golden mice according to the number of all the cities of the philistines belonging to the five lords both fortified cities and unwalled villages the great stone beside which they set down the ark of the lord is a witness to this day in the field of joshua of bethshemish and the lord struck some of the men of beth shemesh because they looked upon the ark of the lord he struck seventy men of them and the people mourned because the lord had struck the people with a great blow then the men of beth shemesh said who is able to stand before the lord this holy god and to whom shall he go up away from us so they sent messengers to the inhabitants of kiriath jirim saying the philistines have returned the ark of the lord come down and take it up to you and the men of kyrias jiren came and took up the ark of the lord and brought it to the house of abinadab on the hill and they consecrated his son eliazar to have charge of the ark of the lord and from the day that the ark was lodged at kiriath jiren a long time passed some 20 years and all the house of israel remain lamented after the lord then samuel said to all the house of israel if you are returning to the lord with all your heart then put away the foreign gods and the ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the lord and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hand of the philistines so the people of israel put away the bales and the ashtaros and they served only the lord samuel makes his appearance at that particular point but he has a great part to play in all of this for the moment there among the reapers of beth shemish in israel sat at heart and defeated suddenly this site of the ark of the covenant of the lord of hosts coming back is something which gladdens the heart but they have to remember and hence all those awful warnings and that this is too holy a thing to take lightly and in the end because of their fear they call for the men of kiryat jiren to come and take the and then the ark is put in a temporary resting place in the house of binary on the hill and eliezer is set to look after a new tabernacle temporary tabernacle but 20 years were given for the moment and the people uh see that as their focus this is a a big turning point and it's a turning point in two different ways because at the end because of their sense of defeat and loss and the growing sense that only the lord can save them and his saving them will depend on a right response to the covenant then having set up stones to mark the landmarks they call for samuel and samuel comes to gather them together and to say well if you really are turning back to the lord you know what to do the commandment about serving foreign gods and having idols and all of these things put away all these things and turn back to the lord setting stones in landscapes is often something that happens in the old testament but at the same time it happens in many lands and really when you see one of these memorials or stones sometimes going back hundreds and hundreds of years and sometimes going back to an incident which happened not too long ago and yet to get the feeling of that and to the way it's speech to that community and culture even locally you have to have one of the people there tell the story with you as to how important that that that actual stone or mark or memorial actually is and all our communities bear places like that signs like that plaques on walls or memorials set up sometimes in sadness sometimes in joy at the memorial of a celebration or something that happened which gave the the community a time to rejoice and to celebrate and have a time of festivity together and then wanting to remember it a sign goes there sometimes a building is erected in that kind of memory but oftentimes if you're traveling in certain countries you see on the tops of hills markers which set out the face of a culture or something historic which happened there before and those become signs of the way in which a community can come together here we are with the peace tree that coming together is what's most necessary for the tribes of the house of israel at the moment when they come to samuel and samuel knows that but he knows also exactly what a task he has in hand to provide the right kind of leadership for the moment eliezer has been shall we say consecrated to look after the ark in its temporary place but samuel is there as well what shall we call him a prophet or a priest he does conduct sacrifices he's certainly a leader of some kind but not a military leader and at the same time the people are in need of leadership in the field because the philistines with their five cities and all their armory of of of weapons and resources the philistines are there as a constant threat to them and so samuel is going with them to have quite a journey of exploration as the next few chapters go through as to what kind of leadership the people are going to want and that is not without its without its stops and starts as we shall see but we were seeing yesterday how in this nation a way of of government was gradually evolved and there are stopping places and developments and uh catastrophes which take place and civil wars and then the thing develops further on and here we are with samuel being really the only focus with the ark of the covenant of the lord of hosts in its temporary place simply in the house of abinadab on the hill an ordinary place before and now suddenly vested with great holiness and shiloh the other shrine very stands in ruins and forgotten for things which seemed so permanent for years can suddenly change and at that moment something else a fresh start a new beginning happens and we shall see how that happens for the hebrew kingdom as it begins to develop and we shall see also how crucial samuel's role in this is and that even samuel can make mistakes on the way through so we give thanks for looking at that story together which in so many ways is a a precursor to the royal line of david but in so many ways also gives signs and they're plentiful in the psalms as well and in the prophecies of the one who in the end will come to bring an anointed ministry to the whole world with the good news that the christ will bring in that same area of the world that promised land but now a gift to all the nations so what happened on this 21st of january in years gone by well in 1924 vladimir lemin died he was by then head of state in russia a very new russia from the one that he had taken over in 1917 and he himself became an icon to which people came there in the kremlin and visitors to moscow would go there we remember all of those things but we remember again a change in political leadership and a development on the way through on this day when we're remembering russia and the ukraine and the tensions between them at present on this day too and i'm dotting around rather but uh in 1793 king louis xvi for king louis xvi who was really not up to the task at that particular time was guillotined and that was another phase in the french revolution as it went forward the development of another historic nation in systems of government and changes and sometimes in turmoil and sometimes in triumph and sometimes in completely peaceful times but things develop in particular ways sometimes in crisis and sometimes smoothly through decisions made but i wanted to say that on this day too george orwell died 21st of january 1950 and i think of him in two particular books one of them is called animal farm written in 1945 and that uh uses a farmyard with the the the pigs and the the karch horse and the donkey and even a raven representing different aspects of a political system and a culture and a nation and the way that corruption can sneak into that and it's an amusing book but has a great moral lesson in it but the other one was called 1984 and it was written in 1949 looking forward all those years to the year 1984 and why george orwell chose 1984 but it became a sort of ornament a ominous year when uh we were growing up in the in the 1960s in the 1970s one was thinking what will really happen in 1984 and that sense of big brother watching everything that everyone did and that was orwell's warning about what a future might look like now 1984 is ancient history now and we can assess orwell's prophecy in completely different ways and think oh that meant that and that meant that it didn't it actually felt forward in various ways and as with animal farm gave wise words and amusing words and various different warnings but always trying to give perspective now there are lots of little snatches like that today paul scofield the actor was born on the 21st of january 1922. now i think of him obviously a long stage career but i think of him most of all as sir thomas more to some saint thomas more in robert boat's play and then the film a man for all seasons and the way that moore stands as a figure of faithfulness against all the machinations of the king whom he desperately wants to serve but cannot in conscience do so and scofield has that that um face in the middle of a court probably in westminster hall um uh which has been uh summoned because moore had been the lord high chancellor of england so it wasn't just anyone that they were prosecuting and then sentencing to death but in the end um that was the route that moore chose uh and his words i die the king's good servant but god's first and then that lovely prayer which was said with his family are giving thanks for all of them and saying that we may one day merrily meet in heaven his book utopia of course thomas moore himself is something that looked to a society where the things that he felt right in a society and culture would be given prominence and that utopia is something that everyone that searches for the right kind of society making these kinds of adjustments to the way in which a culture is ruled and governed last of the people today uh is uh on the 21st of january 1932 the biographer in a way i'll call him lytton strachey died and he began to write a new kind of biography he was an english biographer and critic who had an irreverent attitude to the past but she had psychological insight and sympathy with those he was writing about and the challenges they faced and at the same time irreverence and humor and wit to write about them and i i think of just uh three of his books one is 1921 a biography of queen victoria herself and then secondly in 1918 uh i've gone in the wrong chronological order but uh this is a collection of biographies four different biographies of victorian so say heroes the great ones cardinal manning florence nightingale dr arnold of rugby school and general gordon and all four who have almost their legend had grown much bigger than their personalities and he took it right back to them with psychological insight and sympathy and a degree of irreverence and wit so that that also was then brought in his last one in 1928 to the relationship between queen elizabeth the first in the isle of essex and how someone can influence another in particular ways but then the queen has to make the awful decision to order the execution of essex and strategy deals with that well all these are ways in which cultures communities and the norms of life in society begin to develop through crises and ordinary times and we're seeing that with the hebrew kingdom right at the beginning with samuel now scratching his head and thinking so where do we go now well we'll go to our prayers and uh we shall today pray let's see for the diocese of cadugli and the nuba mountains again in the province of the episcopal church of the sudan nuba mountains a beautiful area but suffered uh in the civil wars with terrible genocides and and awful things and uh for a while they were cut off from the site of the world and uh so we think of that now and those who who minister there and at the same time we pray for justin archbishop of canterbury and for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and today for the united benefits of reculva and we've been praying for the area deanery of reculver but today we're the united benefits of recalva those are the parishes themselves and it the united benefits contain three different parishes saint mary the virgin recover sin bartholomew hearne bay and holy cross hoes and we think of sue martin stephen parrott and jenny hadlow in their ministry there but it's recover that we want to think about mary the virgin recover because it has a long connection with this cathedral church so mary the virgin recover dates well back to the 6th century and was built on the site of a roman lighthouse at the end of the wantsome channel which separated the island of thanet from the kent coastline and that was a navigable channel in those days with the area with it which recover has now and at the other end rich bra a real roman fortification there and the romans could sail up and down it uh saint mary's became a a monastery at that time and uh that meant that the monks would would cut the reeds there so the channel stayed open after that when the monasteries were dissolved it silted up but there were the two towers there and roman remains were incorporated into them roman columns as the portico of the church and in the 15th century uh two sisters who were shipwrecked one of them the abyss of of uh fabisham uh were saved from there but when one of them later died the abyss herself put twin steeples on top of the towers of the of the reculver church just there and they are shown in in many drawings and the church of st mary the virgin there was with at that point then but as the coastline began to go back it had to be abandoned was demolished in 1809 and the church we see now is built in a different place and was built in the 19th century but the roman portico towers were brought here in the end for protection to canterbury cathedral and i think until the 1950s we certainly have black and white film of them outside in the water tower garden but they're now inside in the crypt of the cathedral for protection going all the way back to roman times so that piece of history is something hugely connected so many people landed in that area augustine landing at peg well bay and canute landing there uh but the romans coming first so our history developing and going back to this theme of how society and culture develops and the story of everything are holding together because people unite around that particular story so let's uh say our prayers for this day and we are going to use first of all and bring your own prayers a conict for this day in the week of prayer for christian unity this friday morning and then the collect for the week heavenly father you have called us in the body of your son jesus christ to continue his work of reconciliation and reveal you to the world forgive us the sins which tear us apart give us the courage to overcome our fears and to seek that unity which is your gift and your will through jesus christ our lord amen almighty god in christ you make all things new transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory through jesus christ our lord our men so in whatever language you'd like to use we say together 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 moment for your own reflections on this day [Music] oh [Music] the place [Music] is [Music] it is not within [Music] r [Music] shall be made [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] and [Music] [Applause] he [Music] [Music] the [Music] to make the way [Music] is [Music] the [Music] [Music] time [Music] take it out [Music] the [Music] did [Music] he said before the fear of the lord [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] i wanted to say that uh the cathedral church of st john in parramatta in sydney australia uh is based on the design of the front of the old uh church of saint mary the virgin in reculver with its twin towers and uh it's its little spires in parramatta also there is uh the king school parramatta which we've spoken about before i think when we were talking about australia day last year which has a great link with the uh school here our own king school in the precincts and after the destruction of the war parramatta put forward the funds to rebuild the lardergate in our own uh precincts and that i think we've we've spoken about before so we give thanks for the connections across the world christ the son of god perfecting you the image of his glory and gladden your hearts with the good news of his kingdom 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 amen