good morning and welcome to the deanery at canterbury cathedral on this lovely morning of the feast of the annunciation of the blessed virgin mary and the fine crown imperial has burst into flower for us there'll be more on the way but this one is greeting this spring morning and surrounded by other flowers too as you'll see but it's a a lovely sight on such a lovely morning as this so be welcome wherever you are in the world and bring your own prayers on this feast day when our services is very different from passion tied we have a little oasis as we said last week with st joseph's day but here we are with this festival and it's a year since we began these services in the garden so it's a time to say thank you to all of you the garden congregation who not only uh are with us in these prayers but surrounding us by your support and encouragement and veteran i would want to say thank you also to nathan and hannah of our communications department who load uh fletcher's films onto the website so that you can enjoy them too so let's say our prayers on this particular day and give thanks for the vocation of the blessed virgin mary which is what this day is all about our lord o lord open our lips and our mouths shall proclaim your praise you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands blessed are you sovereign god creator of heaven and earth to you be praise and glory forever as your living word eternal in heaven assume the frailty of our mortal flesh may the light of your love be born in us to fill our hearts with joy as we sing blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the canticle from the 61st chapter of the prophet isaiah i will greatly rejoice in the lord my soul shall exalt in my god who has clothed me with the garments of salvation and has covered me with the cloak of integrity as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels for as the earth puts forth her blossom and as seeds in the garden spring up so shall god make righteousness and praise blossom before all the nations for zion's sake i will not keep silent and for jerusalem's sake i will not rest until her deliverance shines out like the dawn and has salvation as a burning torch the nation shall see your deliverance and all rulers shall see your glory then you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of god will give you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the lord a royal diadem in the hand of your god the crown imperial echoing that that last verse in that canticle which is so like mary's own song magnificat you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the lord 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 so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever are men our psalm on this 25th morning of the month is part of psalm 119 the section beginning at verse 33. 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 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 not the gospel of saint john this morning for the annunciation of course gets the story of the annunciation so we turn to luke for that sin luke chapter 1 verse 26 [Music] in the sixth month the angel gabriel was sent from god to a city of galilee named nazarus to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was joseph of the house of david and the virgin's name was mary and the angel came to her and said greetings o favored one the lord is with you but mary was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be and the angel said to her do not be afraid mary for you have found favor with god and behold you will conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name jesus he will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the lord god will give to him the throne of his father david and he will reign over the house of jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end and mary said to the angel how will this be since i am a virgin and the angel answered her the holy ghost will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you therefore the child to be born will be called holy the son of god and behold your relative elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son and this is the sixth month with her who was called baron for nothing will be impossible with god and mary said behold i am the servant of the lord let it be to me according to your word and the angel departed from her it's the story of the beginning of mary's vocation as i said this day is all about that austin pharaoh in his book that i was talking about the other day lord i believe in looking at the first picture of the holy rosary and that's the enunciation says like a needle of fire piercing into mary's very being her heart and soul gabriel's message comes and the gift of the spirit is given it's like a seed which will then sprout and that vocation will grow but it can only grow because of mary's willingness to receive the lord's vocation to her and that willingness is of course given in time hallowed words spelled the handmaid of the lord beat unto me according to thy word total obedience but not total knowledge for there is never total knowledge even in our lord's own vocation as we've seen a vocation unfolds gradually challenging our humanity there's a sentence which was given to me at a particularly hard time that i was having some years ago by a lovely elderly lady the wife of a retired priest and she sent a little message along saying the will of god will not lead you where the grace of god cannot keep you step by step in vocation and mary is the icon the image of all that the vocation unfolding luke is fond of the word pondering in his gospel when he speaks of mary mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart and the angel's words to begin with are puzzling to mary so she answers not in any way with a resistance but with a question how can this vocation be since i am a virgin and the angel answers in words of the gift of the holy spirit our lord himself as we've seen in our lenten journey has the same questions the same struggles step by step with his humanity and that will become even more apparent next week as we go through the days of holy week itself but for the moment let's think of mary it was just the answer of the angel that was needed the holy spirit will come upon you overshadow you and the child that will be born of you will be called holy son of god you shall call him jesus just enough of an answer for her bravely to respond behold i am in our translation this morning the servant of the lord let it be to me according to your word and the angel left her the message is given and on this day we rejoice that that message is given but as we've gone through this year we've seen in no particular order the way in which mary is understanding and also her puzzlement and sometimes have pain have caused that vocation to go forward and that will be completed again next week when we're in holy week and on to easter day but for the moment this is a feast of great joy it's a feast when this afternoon it even song we shall sing magnificat mary's song of joy but first she wants to share that joy and immediately after that she goes to the one her older relative elizabeth whom the angel has said has shared a similar vocation so that the two of them can share that joy locations are hidden things you can't automatically see a person's human vocation no one can see yours it unfolds bit by bit signs of it are given of course they are by you and by me as we take up the challenge of whatever the lord has in store for us but on that journey when mary went into the hill country to see elizabeth no one knew that she was bearing god's inestimable gift and no one knew that all of this would unfold in such a way until she came to elizabeth and then there is a mutual perception that they are both servants of the lord and what they are bearing will bear much fruit for him and for his kingdom but also for us for as we keep saying everything has to be realized in the present tense and the present tense is today with all the challenges of our vocation in this world as it stands in our own places in particular places throughout the world this has been the case every day as we've encouraged each other and then at the end of our prayers gone off to see what this day brings knowing that the lord the will of god will not lead us where the grace of god cannot keep us all of that we remember on this particular day this day in 1980 march the 25th was a special day here in canterbury it was the enthronement day in the chair of saint augustine of archbishop robert runcie and the dean at that time who placed him in that chair and installed him in the ancient chair of central augustine was dean victor de val both those men have been important to me at particular times of my own vocation robert runcie was the principal of the seminary in which i trained and i remember before even going there i was invited to spend a weekend at the seminary to see mutually whether this was the right place to carry my vocation forward and i have a a a memory a very clear memory of sitting on either side of the fire in his study in the vicarage for at that time the principal of the seminary at kunsten was also the vicar of the village of constant and in charge of their pastoral welfare and we sat there together it was a coal fire and one heard the coals falling in the silences which were left as robert runcie plumbed the depths of my vocation at that time i'd already been accepted for training for the ordained ministry but now he was exploring what was the next best step and later i received an invitation to go and be part of the life of that place he went on while i was there to be the bishop of syd albans and then later on was chosen as archbishop of canterbury but that was accomplished by dean victor de val in installing him today in the chair of central augustine 41 years ago and i remember victor de val coming to see me when i'd been announced uh as the new dean of canterbury i was the dean of hereford at the time and victor was living not too far away and she came to see me and we sat in the kitchen of the deanery at hereford drinking coffee together and he told the story of not only the enthronement of robert ranci but also the visit of pope john paul ii and said something about canterbury well his whole family have since become friends of ours in a very big way indeed and uh edmund's own gifts uh the the son who is the the potter uh will become very apparent as we approach the time of the jewish passover on saturday two days time so we'll speak about that again but i wanted this morning to give thanks for the life of robert ranci and his wife linda and to remember our friendship with james his son and rebecca and also to send a greeting out to uh dean victor davao and the whole duval family on this day of the annunciation because they will have remembered this day as a very special one in the life of canterbury in 1980 other things happened on this day as you would expect on such an important feast day but perhaps the one i'll speak about is first is in 1436 the lovely duomo in florence the uh cathedral cathedral uh santa maria in in florence which many of you will know with brunelleschi's great dome that cathedral church after many years of building was consecrated on this feast of the blessed virgin mary by pope eugene iv and we give thanks for its life it was one of the last places that we both visited uh last year before the the lockdown earlier on in the month of february and we give thanks for the worship of all cathedrals but let's remember the duomo in florence today and the ministry of that place and then on these on this day just to think of march the 25th in ordinary ways in 1199 king richard the lionheart the great crusader was wounded by a crossbow boat which was to prove fatal to him and he died on the 6th of april but he is remembered mostly for the crusades uh he lived most of his crowned life in france so much of france as we know it now belonged to england in those days and his his uh his his duchy of aquitaine in southwest france was very much the place that that he liked to be in at that time so remember him and the way in which crowns change from one person to another richard generally is is remembered with the courage of the lionheart his brother john who took his place is remembered not so well and and that's how things pass in the way crowns pass but the crown imperial is a sign of a crown much more important on this day of mary's vocation to bear jesus our lord whom we delight to call king of kings and lord of lords and then in 1807 the slave trade act received royal ascent bringing an end the slave trade across the british empire as it then was and in 1833 not only the trade but slavery itself was abolished by the slavery abolition act for those steps we give great thanks and for the freedom which jesus proclaimed but which we still have to maintain for slavery can happen in many many different ways as we know only too well in our society and 1949 on this day the film hamlet starring laurence olivier premiered and it won five oscars the first british film to win academy awards we remember lawrence olivier and his acting but also shakespeare's great gift to us of the play hamlet we were thinking of shakespeare in the elizabethan age yesterday and then lastly another filmmaker 1908 david lean was born on the 25th of march it's it's amazing to read of the films that that great film director produced and i only have to read the titles for great images of those films to come into your mind for picture images are very powerful indeed here they are in chronological order first of all two uh three black and white films first brief encounter in 1945 and that film is a very iconic film with the music of rachmaninoff but people watch it over and over again because they they love to see it 1946 great expectations 1948 oliver twist and then launching into color 1957 the bridge on the river kwai 1962 lawrence of arabia that huge cinemascope where there's the scene of the two camels of lawrence and the one he's gone back to look for racing together from both sides of the screen into the middle to meet and so many scenes of that sort lean was responsible for a pioneer in filming in that way uh in 1965 dr zhivago with all its snowscapes but also the powerful story which it tells 1984 a passage to india there are many more of course but the way in which images can capture stories and stamp their impression on them and we've seen how in the gospel of saint john jesus does just that with the great i am statements giving us pictures which we will come back to particularly in in the three hours devotion which we'll do together in the garden uh on friday week tomorrow week so let's say our prayers on this particular morning and give thanks for the vocation of mary and give thanks for our own vocation and our journey through lent on this day we're praying in the anglican communion for the diocese of bangor in the church of wales and the people there and in this diocese as we pray for archbishop justin and for bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lambeth today we're continuing to pray for the communities of the romney and tented and area deanery and all who work as chaplains formally and informally within schools uniformed organizations residential care communities community clubs businesses hospitals health groups prisons police armed services and sport and the list again is of many who are helping both ordained and lay folk in that way as chaplains so let's say our own prayers and give thanks for your own vocation and an opportunity to exercise it we beseech you o lord pour your grace into our hearts that as we have known the incarnation of your son jesus christ by the message of an angel so by his cross and passion we may be brought to the glory of his resurrection through jesus christ our lord amen moment of silence now for our own prayers but first we'll say together the our father in whichever language you like to say it 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 lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen here i think [Music] the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and if 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 you