good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury casual it's saturday morning the 17th of october and has become our custom on a saturday morning we've come into the hospitality of the animals here just before they have their breakfast so it'll be a little bit noisy to begin with because the eagerness for breakfast is very strong with them so i'm going to put some breakfast down for them and then they will arrive for their nourishment as we begin our morning prayers and receive our nourishment so i'll just put some down here winston and clemia already feeding a little bit and we'll then put it around here there we are we look forward to their company coming to join us now [Music] and as we do so we look at the things are here they come and there's a golden silence as the prospect of food comes over them we're looking today at the way in which october the 17th has been important in history in one or two different ways there are some saints days to think of but there are some days when the earth itself caused disasters in the past showing us the fragility of life on earth in 10 20 1091 a huge tornado struck london destroyed london bridge destroyed 600 houses and caused enormous devastation in 1989 on this day an earthquake in san francisco killed 67 people and 3 000 died we remember these things because they are natural tragedies which we always are having to deal with throughout history and then we also remember human tragedies and that causes us to give prayer for the citizens of paris and the surrounding areas in france after the truly shocking terrorist attack and the horrific death of the school teacher there in in the outskirts of paris we remember things which have been step by step towards the way in which we ourselves as anglican episcopalians and i know there are lots of other guests joining us uh on this day but the way in which we anglicans and episcopalians worship in 1651 oliver cromwell defeated the last attempt by charles ii to regain his throne at the battle of worcester which confirmed the fact that the book of common prayer and the ordering of bishops priests and deacons and the worship of the church of england became a criminal activity in england and that was the same until 1660. we remember times of persecution and of the forbidding of worship of all times throughout the world in faith throughout history and we also remember on this day in 1529 that henry viii deposed cardinal woolsey because he'd failed to get an annulment of henry's marriage with catherine and had he done so who knows which way the course of history would have gone let's think of creative things too on this day in 1980 our queen elizabeth ii was the first british monarch to visit the vatican and received the hospitality of john paul ii it's a day in 1849 when the great pianist and composer chopa died and a day in 1998 when the actress joan hickson so beloved as the miss marple through the early series on television died those creative activities also in 1888 the first time that the national geographic magazine was published showing us the things of this earth in wonderful ways so we remember that we remember also that this is the fifth day of ignatius of antioch and we will think of him a very early apostolic father whose date is given at his date of his death has given it 107 and also two sacks and saints ethel red and ethelbert from kent here murdered they were christian princes and murdered and uh in 669 and in reparation the abbey of minster went worse in mildred was later abbess was founded in atonement well let's say our prayers with all those thoughts in our minds and we remember this as a day of ignatius of antioch so i'm using the beginning for the saints day season oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more 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 does we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our morning psalm on this 17th morning is psalm 87 her foundation is on the holy mountains for the lord loves the gates of zion more than all the dwellings of jacob glorious things are spoken of you zion city of our god i record egypt and babylon as those who know me behold philistia tyre and ethiopia in zion were they born and of zion it shall be said each one was born in her and the most high himself has established her the lord will record as he writes up the peoples this one also was born there and as they dance they shall sing all my fresh springs are in you the psalmist using zion as a sign of the presence of the creator the lord of all things here on earth and all nations springing from his creative power so we come to read our lesson it's rather a poignant day because having throughout these months gone all the way through the writing of saint luke in his gospel and the writing of saint luke in the acts of the apostles today we complete our reading of the acts of the apostles and we are reading the end of chapter 28 and starting at verse 17. paul is in rome and you remember that when he came there no doubt the centurion julius kept up his kindness and paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him after three days paul called together the local leaders of the jews and when they had gathered he said to them though i had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers yet i was delivered as a prisoner from jerusalem into the hands of the romans when they had examined me they wished to set me at liberty because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case but because the jews objected i was compelled to appeal to the emperor though i had no charge to bring against my own nation for this reason therefore i have asked to see you and speak with you since it is because of the hope of israel that i am wearing these chains and they said to him we have received no letters from judea about you and none of those coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you but we desire to hear from you what your views are for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against so when they had appointed a day for him they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers from morning till evening paul expounded to them testifying to the kingdom of god and trying to convince them about jesus both from the law of moses and from the prophets and some were convinced by what he said but others disbelieved and disagreeing among themselves they departed after paul had made one statement the holy spirit was right in saying to your forefathers through isaiah the prophet go to this people and say you will indeed hear but never understand and you will indeed see but never perceive for this people's heart has grown dull and with their ears they can barely hear and their eyes they have closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn well i would heal them therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of god has been sent to the gentiles they will listen paul lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him proclaiming the kingdom of god and teaching about the lord jesus christ with all boldness and without hindrance and there luke stops i often wonder whether he had a trilogy in mind for there's much more to tell and his life clearly went on he has told the story of the gospel by collecting the information with great detail and setting it out in order and we'll come back to that because coincidentally tomorrow sunday the 18th of october is saint luke's day so we have a great time to give thanks for him he started the story of the early church and he has collected information not as an eyewitness but also given us the story as an eyewitness as it developed after he had joined paul and all of those things we have followed through reflecting day by day today is the day that we remember ignatius of antioch one of the three apostolic fathers meaning very early indeed with polycarp and clement of rome and those three if you think that ignatius and polycarp um and uh clement of rome were around at that particular time and the date given in our calendar in the the church of england calendar is of his death is 107 then this is time when he could have been an apostolic eyewitness as well as a writer seven of his epistles survive one of them was to the romans one of them to the ephesians one to the philadelphians and one of them to the people of smyrna a church that we hear about in the revelation of john but also another to polycarp who was the bishop of smyrna at that time and those early letters give us an idea about how the communities of the church were developing about its shall we call it its ecclesiology the way it formed itself to be a church about its uh use of the sacraments and also about the position of the bishop in those early days for ignatius and clement and polycarp were all bishops and ignatius met a martyr's death in rome at the um the the way in which so many christians were killed and and and uh savagely devoured by beasts that was a spectacle for the roman people and at the same time uh polycarp met a martyr's death and clement met a martyr's death it seemed to be the way in which things were unfolding for the early church but it gave them courage to carry on and also i wanted to think this morning about the way in which those little communities of believers which paul came across and which he had had nothing to do with their forming he wrote a letter to the romans so we we know that the friends there who were greeting him and looking after him were well known to him there's a list of them at the end of the epistle to the romans but paul himself had had nothing to do with the founding of that church he was coming in his own way to encourage and to nourish that church and he would nourish that church by his very martyrdom in rome later on but the hospitality he received as he went around and the way in which the centurion julius allowed that to happen is a significant aspect of the way the church builds up i would say it was a significant aspect in my own ministry this was a benedictine community here and of course we give what we think of as benedictine hospitality but from very early years in my ministry i have experienced the hospitality of the anglican communion throughout the world from people whom whom i met who didn't know at all who i was and yet fulsome hospitality was given i don't just mean a cup of tea and a biscuit i mean staying with them sometimes for a long time i remember one occasion in 1981 when the plane i was traveling to to juba in the south of the sudan went right over juba because it couldn't land and landed in nairobi it was a place i had never been before here was i a young priest from the church of england who had been going to be met by people in the war-torn sudan in juba and i found myself in nairobi what did i do on that sunday morning we landed at 5am i got in to a taxi cab and asked for the cathedral and the taxi driver knew where to take me and as the taxi driver dropped me there with my bag i thought it just got light what do i do so i rang the door bell of the provost of the cathedral and the door opened and i said i'm a priest from england i explained what had happened the door was flung wide open so often happens with hospitality there and i became the guest of that cathedral community while we sorted out and it took a long time some method of getting back into juba from nairobi itself and i remember the happy hospitality i received there but the same thing happened to me in so many areas both in sudan and tanzania and other areas of the world and this kind of scene with saying prayers in the garden with chickens running around amongst us and the smell of smoke as a pot boiled there became an absolute standard activity of ministry within the anglican communion a guest was precious but a guest who had brought the good news of the gospel and its encouragement to join with that was even more precious and the sharing of news and hospitality mixed in with domestic life all that i count very precious and it lays a burden on me to make sure that this cathedral church in its community when pandemics aren't raging can give generous hospitality in the same way which is what we try to do some of you would have been our guests here others i hope will be when travel becomes available again but this morning let's mark our thanksgiving for all these weeks of savoring the writing of luke and learning so many lessons together tomorrow we shall keep as i said luke's day and on monday we will begin something else but for the moment we look back and give thanks and we look around and give thanks for the hospitality of all those who love us and care for us let's say our prayers on this morning we are praying today for the diocese of kapel in canada for robert hardwick the bishop there and his people the diocese of costa rica in central america and orlando gomez and his people the diocese of contegura in nigeria and jonah ibrahim and his people and as we think of this diocese of canterbury we pray for justin archbishop of canterbury for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and today for the parish church of all saints westbrook in margate for the clergy there dennis hartley and dawn watson and their community so with whatever intentions and prayers you have in your hearts and minds we use first the special prayer for this day of saint ignatius of antioch martyred in the year 107. feed us o lord with the living bread and make us drink deep of the cup of salvation that following the teaching of your bishop ignatius and rejoicing in the faith which he embraced a martyr's death we may be nourished for that eternal life for which he longed through jesus christ our lord amen so we say each in our own language and in whatever way we like to say it the prayer that our lord himself taught us to say our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever are men so in the moment of silence we make our own prayers on this saturday morning so god give you grace to follow his saints in faith and hope and love 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 come and see how clemmy and winston are this morning hello good morning hi hi winston hi the desire for food is very great even with the little piglets hey hi i'm a good girl