good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral to the dinery garden on this sunday the 20th of june the third sunday after trinity we're here in the garden in a very very light drizzle under a gray sky but bring your own prayers and intentions wherever you are in the world on this sunday morning and bring those concerns most on your heart and mind we're thinking this morning of a young teacher in our king's school our cathedral school in china in shenzhen and he was called tom o'connor and was the head of of sport and had so many wonderful plans for the school there but has sadly died of cancer and a short memorial service was held for him we're thinking not only of him in a spirit of thanksgiving but also the sadness of parting but also we're thinking of his wife and little daughter evelyn and uh that that uh is is one of our intentions this morning bring your own name them allowed or or quietly as we begin our worship oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise bless the lord all your works of the lord sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord you heavens sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord you angels of the lord sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord all people on earth sing his praise and exalt him forever o people of god bless the lord sing his praise and exalt him forever 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen we're here in the bastion garden this morning high on the wall which is between the stones here it's sheltered but it's well up and we've not been here for a while so it's nice to come here on this damp morning under the ash tree and under the bay tree and with plants all around us here we see different creatures because we're at a different level of the garden we're high up and as i look across through the trees i can see the lawn far below there's water running up here as well which is pumped up and round and round in ponds which fetter has created just here so we give thanks for spaces like this of quietness where people can come in the garden and enjoy the privacy and also the quietness of the space this is the weekend of world refugee day and that day we're continuing to keep today we had a webinar as i said yesterday morning and you can access that on our website with a discussion led by bishop rose of dover about refugees in our world today but we are continuing to think of that and i shall do that in my sermon in the cathedral a bit later on this morning so for this morning let's go on with our psalm psalm 103 on this 20th morning of the month bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with faithful love and compassion who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagle's the lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed he made his ways known to moses and his works to the children of israel the lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness he will not always accuse us neither will he keep his anger forever he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our wickedness for as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his mercy upon those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so far has he set our sins from us as a father has compassion on his children so is the lord merciful towards those who fear him for he knows of what we are made he remembers that we are but dust our days are butters grass we flourish as a flower of the field but as soon as the wind goes over it it is gone and its place shall know it no more but the merciful goodness of the lord is from of old and endures forever on those who fear him and his righteousness on children's children on those who keep his covenant and remember his commandment to do them the lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom has dominion over all bless the lord you angels of his you mighty ones who do his bidding and hearken to the voice of his word bless the lord all you his hosts you ministers of his who do his will bless the lord all you works of his in all places of his dominion bless the lord o my soul it's good to see how that psalm reflects the opening of a sunday morning which we began with and then comes almost like a camera coming in in in in bless the lord heaven's earth and then finally my own soul bless the lord so we turn to our reading from the acts of the apostles special reading on sunday morning and we've been in the acts for the last three sundays and we're remembering that paul having been arrested in jerusalem was taken and by the help of the tribune in jerusalem was conveyed to caesarea safely on the coast has been imprisoned there and now he is being sent to rome because he has appealed to caesar we're starting chapter 27 so we've we've left a chapter or two the last sentence of chapter 26 is king agrippa saying to the roman governor festus in caesarea the great port of rome and the capital of that that area of the roman empire where the governor is right on the coast of the mediterranean and king agrippa says to festus the governor of paul this man could have been set free if he had not appealed to caesar but paul has appealed to the emperor and therefore roman law has taken over now and the governor is bound to send him to rome chapter 27 verse 1 and when it was decided that we should sail for italy they delivered paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the augustan cohort named julius and embarking in a ship of adremitium which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of asia we put to sea accompanied by aristarchus a macedonian from thessalonica the next day we put in at sidon and julius treated paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for and putting out to see from there we sailed under the lee of cyprus because the winds were against us and when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of silesia and pamphilia we came to myra in lysia there the centurion found a ship of alexandria sailing for italy and put us on board we sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off nidus as the wind did not allow us to go farther we sailed under the lee of crete of salmoni coasting along it with difficulty we came to a place called fair havens near which was the city of lazia since much time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous because even the fast was already over paul advised them saying sirs i perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss not only of the cargo and the ship but also of our lives but the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what paul said and because the harbour was not suitable to spend the winter in the majority decided to put out to sea from there on the chance that somehow they could reach phoenix a harbour of crete facing both south west and northwest and spend the winter there it's a beginning it's a new beginning for now paul has had his vocation which was made known to him in the way that the lord appeared to him saying you have given testimony in jerusalem now you must give testimony for me in rome all those years before and then the journey to caesarea and all that all that went on there and the the time in imprisonment and the changes of the roman governors between felix and festus and so on and now as king agrippa said to festus this man could have been set free if he hadn't appealed to the emperor but he has there is a respect shown to him and happily the roman centurion julius of the augustan cohort into whose charge paul is delivered is is friendly and respectful of his roman citizenship nevertheless he is a prisoner and the centurion has orders and though when they get to seiden he's allowed to spend some time with friends there that's just up the coast from caesarea then uh he has to be brought back to the ship and they go off on their journey to start with along the southern part of the of asia minor now turkey but notice uh the reference to cyprus with all its associations with barnabas who was from cyprus if you remember and uh was paul's companion in the first missionary journeys and the one who had introduced paul with encouragement to the apostles but after their disagreement of the over whether barnabas young cousin mark should go with them and paul saying no he failed us in the first journey barnabas having sailed away to cyprus we've not heard of him again but the mention of cyprus brings the son of encouragement to our mind barnabas himself but paul is going on with different companions now notice that the passage is one of those passages in the first person plural luke is writing and he is saying we sailed on we sail when it was decided that we should sail for italy between paul's firm intention to go to italy long back before ever the lord said to him you will testify for me in rome he had written to the the roman christians there that long and and very powerful letter to the romans the very first of the letters i think the letters of paul are arranged in length in the new testament and romans therefore the longest and making an argument to people whom he had respect for but felt his apostolic authority to the gentiles also gave him a certain authority to speak to the roman church but he longed to go there and be with them and give them encouragement well now he's on his way and the only person who is named by luke is aristarchus the macedonian who's with them and off they said we know because we have read this before that this journey will end in a a very dangerous way indeed but we also know that the lord's prophecy for paul will be fulfilled he will go to rome he will speak for the lord in rome and for several years and those years which are hidden except in the traditions of the church will end the acts of the apostles but we've a little way in the journey to go yet and so on this morning this third sunday after trinity when this lesson is given to us in the ordinary time of the church i want to give thanks for new beginnings particularly in the lord's will for us and we never quite know how they're going to be affected and when they are coming certainly for paul the vocation he had embraced the vocation he had always wanted is in several ways being affected but in the most dangerous and unexpected way as they set out but there are friends along the way and we shall find as in all our vocations there will be friends in unexpected places companionship where we least expect that and are least likely to find it and encouragement from people we've never met before even here this morning as we read that lesson the centurion who is named julius from the augustine cohort shows as the tribune had kindness to paul giving him what freedom he can and unwittingly furthering the course of paul's apostolic ministry in a way that will take him right to rome so we can't help give thanks for that but take the lesson for ourselves on this world refugee day which the moment you you mentioned the word of refugee you think of people traveling in dangerous circumstances and often under the authority of others and going where others would have them go and seeking their own safety where there's much of that in this journey and many of the psalms are written in that ex exilic context of by the waters of babylon we we sat down and wept when we remembered our homeland but at the same time paul wouldn't be returning this is a journey which will take him to a new homeland in this world and there he will find massive opportunities for the lord's work and his own vocation so as we give thanks for that it's a day when we might think of new beginnings and um two dates this morning so as we think of a day of new beginnings we've just three dates this morning that i wanted to mention from the 20th of june and they all speak of different beginnings some of them surprising ones in 1837 on this morning the 20th of june the archbishop of canterbury william huley spelled haole but it's huli and the lord chamberlain lord cunningham was sent on a journey which began in the middle of the night they were sent to kensington palace and there at six o'clock in the morning they had to awaken the staff and they asked to see the young princess victoria and her mother and this we get from victoria's own diary now her mother went to rouse her and say that the king had died her uncle william iv and that the archbishop of canterbury and the lord chamberlain were there and victoria said that she got up and put on her dressing gown and went alone not with her mother alone into her dressing room to meet the archbishop and the lord chamberlain who then had to say as prince philip said to our own queen when she had her accession day and knew the the death of her father she was in kenya at the time victoria was at kensington palace and lord cunningham knelt before her and said that the king is dead and god saved the queen and there is the most wonderful painting of that by henry tamworth wells which was done 50 years later at the golden jubilee of queen victoria it's an idealistic painting but it's giving a true account of who was there and exactly what happened but the sun on that june morning is shining through the windows of kensington palace onto victoria's dressing room with its piano or clavichord in the background there is the lord chamberlain on his knees and the archbishop on his knees as they kneel before their queen and in her eyes there is a sense of um her vocation opening up a 64-year reign as the head of state of this kingdom and and also many others and so she began her reign at that point what would happen next she had no idea what dangers leia had who would be there to support her she was 18 years old and she'd only become that a month before prince albert was still in the future she needed advisers she needed companions she needed friends there was a long journey ahead but that portrait tends to give the sense of already she knew her vocation and we again give thanks for new beginnings and people's intentions to embrace them it's a day when we pray especially for our own queen so for those 64 years of her reign that date was the accession date in our book of common prayer when special prayers were said for the queen june the 20th now it's february the 6th because that's the date on which our own queen became queen and had the same news that she was queen and february the 6th is the day when we give thanks for that vocation for she certainly sees it as such beginning and her intention to embrace it so then i wanted to think of a date in 1497 strange time to go back but it was the date that the new church the new parish church of saint mary in fairford in gloucestershire it's my own home county in gloucestershire was was consecrated it was a new church there'd been a church there before for a very long time but this had been rebuilt in a fine way by a rich wool merchant and he and his son went on to adorn the church after his death his son took up the cause and it was the son who who furnished the church with wonderful windows stained glass windows all around the church telling the stories of the old testament and the new testament the life of jesus right from the annunciation up through all the events and then on into apostolic times and uh stained glass of the evangelists and so on and so forth now i'm saying all this because most stained glass in the parish churches was smashed out in the civil war or in the reformation whereas at saint mary's in fairfax the only parish church retaining almost 100 percent of its staying class the complete collection the only bit that has been restored and is no longer medieval is just a little bit of the west window because of a storm which broke part of that in uh the earlier times and was restored in the 19th century in a way that they thought was imperceptible but apart from that it's absolutely complete and it's a wonderful church to go and visit but it shows how there are different ways of telling the stories that we're reading and reflecting on them as the light shines through when we discuss these things together and reflect on them we're causing the light to shine through the scriptures those stories and here in fairford church all of that is done in stained glass of course there's much stained glass here in canterbury cathedral acres of 12th century glass but as a parish church complete fairford uh wins all the prizes and we give thanks for that but we also give thanks for something else in fairfield church and that is that between 1792 when he was born there because his father was the incumbent and also um up to the year 1836 john keeble who is well known to us is one of the early tractarians a great scholar a gentle and pastoral figure who set aside all opportunities for a different ministry than his reflective pastoral life he as his father's curate would on horseback ride to say the daily offices day by day but also was a scholar at oxford and became in fact the professor of poetry therefore for long years but but um keeble as he rode backwards and forwards would make up poetry and he set himself the task of writing a verse or several verses a poem for every aspect of the christian year set out in the book of common prayer the windows of fairford church showed so many of the scenes through their light keyboard was determined to mark every feast day and morning and evening and even the days connected with the sacrament with a poem we give thanks for that the fact that he kept reaching for natural images of clouds with the sun hiding them or the sun breaking out from clouds or particular things happening in the natural and created world at the same time as having a loyalty to the christian year which is what the book of poems were called some of those have become really well-loved hymns but fairford gave it a beginning its countryside in gloucestershire and also the pastoral ministry of the kibble family and particularly john keeble and my favorite of of all those hymns so we we of course sing blessed to the pure in pure in heart uh for they shall see our god i think he set that for february the second uh the feast of um the the presentation in the temple of jesus um but also we sing the evening hymn son of my soul thy savior dear it is not night if thou art near but the one that i like best is the morning one new every morning is the love our awakening and uprising prove through sleep and darkness safely brought restored to life and power and thought new mercies each returning day hover around us while we pray new perils past new sins forgiven new thoughts of god new hopes of heaven and all of that him it'd be lovely to recite it all but you know it well and that that the sense of the trivial round the common task will furnish all we need to ask room to deny ourselves a road that leads us daily near a god it's the journey of the day and one of those verses is so like the way that we begin morning prayer i want to give thanks for keeble's verses and hymns but i also want to give thanks for his commitment to the ordinary pastoral ministry of the church knowing his people teaching them as jesus did by the lessons of the landscape as well as the lessons of the scripture and the rhythms of the church's life so five beginnings this morning the beginning of sin paul and the journey the vocation to to rome a beginning also for uh queen victoria with her announcement from the lord chamberlain that she was now queen in kensington palace at 6 00 am on this june morning the rebuilding of fairford church the adornment of it with the pictures of the gospels and of the old testament and finally the pastoral poetic and hymn writing ministry of john keeble in all faithfulness hebrew moved in 1836 to be parish priests at hursley a different parish different part of england but he's remembered it fairford in a good way and if you go to fairford where then look for the glass it will help you see the gospels and stories of both testaments with light shining through let's say our prayers on this particular day um throughout this weekend we're praying world refugee day and that particular theme and in the anglican communion yesterday today we're remembering the diocese of chichester in the church of england and the church of north india praying for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover whom i mentioned earlier leading that discussion on the refugees in the webinar yesterday which you can access and then in the the diocese as we pray for all caring for those who are refugees and this is kent where so many refugees land at the coast and we're praying for the church of saint john the baptist margate and dawn watson in her ministry there in mar gate let's say the prayer then for this particular sunday the third sunday after trinity bring your own intentions and prayers almighty god you have broken the tyranny of sin and have sent the spirit of your son into our hearts whereby we call you father give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service that we and all creation may be brought to the glorious liberty of the children of god through jesus christ our lord 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 moment of silence for your own prayers on this sunday morning so [Music] [Applause] [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 amen [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] r [Music] ourselves [Music] oh [Applause] r [Music] yes [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] oh is [Music] [Music] me is [Music] you