[Music] so [Music] team [Laughter] [Music] this feast of sin sylvester so world is of the song that you may justly wonder it was differed so long he was the glorious pope that very happily did bring a peace unto the holy church by healing constantine eleven million martyrs stout the rage of tyrants stood and sealed the heavenly testament of jesus with their blood which still increased the faithful flock for near 300 years though not was left for christian folk but tortured death and fears the beginning of a long song for since sylvester's day this 31st of december so welcome to the deanery garden on this day when most of europe still considers this sylvester tide and there are many many customs associated with this day it of course coincides with another great event where fireworks and all kinds of things happened but still sylvester tide it is in so many lands and archbishop cranmer in his calendar for the book of common prayer felt sylvester who was the pope at one of the crucial hinges of christian history deserved his name there on the calendar on this 31st of december so we remember him and we'll think about him and think about some of those customs that our friends in other cultures are enjoying today on this 31st of december and one of those customs in the city of vienna is pig walking they do it on leashes and the pig walking then keeps the traffic and the pigs apart well that's part of our day anyway and clemmy and the girls have had half their pig walk up to the high meadow but uh they are here i'm just gonna give them a bit more breakfast and we'll then see them enjoying their breakfast we have a lovely pheasant here as well here we are come on girls have some more here we are hey come on come on come on off we go there we are come on it's a very frosty morning and quite slippy on the grass with the ice on this 31st of december so it's traditional winter weather for this feast of since sylvester on this particular day but we're going to say our morning prayers first and read our lesson and at that point then we shall just reflect a little bit about what this day means in so many different ways oh lord open our lips and our mouth 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 assumed 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 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 our son this morning on this 31st day of the month is psalm 145 and i'll read some verses of that long but marvelous psalm now i will exalt you o god my king and bless your name forever and ever every day will i bless you and praise your name forever and ever the lord is loving to everyone and his mercy is over all his creatures all your works praise you o lord and your faithful servants bless you they tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your mighty power to make known to all peoples your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom your dominion endures throughout all ages the lord is sure in all his words and faithful in all his deeds the lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all those who are bound down the eyes of all wait upon you o lord and you give them their food in due season you open wide your hand and fill all things living with plenty the lord is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works the lord is near to those who call him to all who call upon him faithfully he fulfills the desire of those who fear him he hears their cry and saves them our lesson this morning is taken from the first chapter of the gospel of saint john it continues from where we were reading yesterday and the essence of everything is that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory i'm starting at verse 29 of chapter one the next day john saw jesus coming towards him and said behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world this is he of whom i said after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me i myself did not know him but for this purpose i came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to israel and john bore witness saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him i myself did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain this is he who baptizes with the holy spirit and i have seen and have borne witness that this is the son of god behold the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world sentence which at our eucharists we repeat as a prayer o lamb of god you take away the sin of the world have mercy on us the lamb of god you take away the sin of the world have mercy on us o lamb of god you take away the sin of the world grant us peace well peace was the gift that the angels were proclaiming to the shepherds by the birth of jesus and here we are on the seventh day of christmas today the 7th of the twelve and new lessons unfold day by day and on this day it is john's sentence this is the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world and also the verification of that sentence by john saying i saw the spirit descend on him like a dove all of that we remember but there is no time more than this time when with the babe still newly born and seen by us in the manger at bethlehem is the spotless lamb of god and that lamb of god is the one who will give himself totally for the sins of the whole world and we saw what a struggle that was for his humanity we've been through that in our lessons recently and the sense of now my soul is troubled which we saw on one of the days of this week in reading another part of st john's gospel jesus in embracing our humanity the word was made flesh and dwelt among us also embraced all our human fears and temptations and the sweat of agony in gethsemane all of that becomes really important in the fact that he held true to his vocation and in silence met his persecutor and that silence spoke for the sins and suffering of the whole world we give great thanks for that today i said at the beginning and sang in my croaky voice at this very early time in the morning before the sun has even come up uh that this is since sylvester's day and is marked as such by so much of europe and sylvester became the pope uh early on in 314 until 335. that meant that he was the pope during the first council of al which attempted to settle one type of schism and then even more importantly in 325 at the council of nicaea when our nicene creed was formulated and once again there was a an attempt to bring together disparate christianity into one holy communion right across the known part of of the world to to those who gathered there then and sylvester in rome was someone who knew well constantine and no doubt helena his mother this is all significant for at this time when constantine was converted to christianity and at some stage baptized sylvester was there in rome he received the gift of constantine's palace and he built there the church of st john lateran which is the cathedral church of rome and the mother church really of all christian churches in that way we tend to think of saint peter's basilica which is a a very different kind of basilica st john lateran is the place where the bishop of rome sylvester at that time had and has his seat and we pray for the the life of that great basilica on this day but that's not all sylvester built many churches there for persecution as the first verse of that old carol translated into english said persecution had stopped the verse reminded us that despite persecution 11 million martyrs stout the rage of tyrants stood and sealed the heavenly testament of jesus with their blood which still increased the faithful flock for near 300 years though naught was left for christian folk but torture death and fears and the song goes on through many verses to tell of the healing of constantine from leprosy till constantine the great was crowned a pagan emperor too his predecessor's steps he came resolving to pursue was struck by the almighty's hand with the most grievous saw that with both scabs and leprosy infects his body or a bath of newborn infants blood his pagan priest prescribed this deed of hell was ordered then so he might be relieved and like another herod he those harmless babes would slay had not our saint sylvester come to cure another way this pontiff by command of heaven was brought from out his cave appeared before the emperor undaunted stout and brave re reviled at once his dark design his magic art condemned told him the only cure was then to make of god his friend it's a powerful little song and i've set it to the old tune of god rescue mary gentlemen because it it has that sort of rhythm of an old song of course it's full of bits of legend bits of this and that but the fact is but for all those years between 314 and 335 in the early christian history sylvester was the pope and presided over the city of rome which was then left to him because constantine decided to move his capital to constantinople and there he went and from then on the two centers became the two centers of what was known as civilization in this part of the world at that time and so at that kind of exercise um we see sylvester being really important and it's it's good to feel of him on this last day of the gregorian calendar december the 31st certainly not always here at the beginning of the year march the 25th for many many years hundreds of years was the beginning of the year but we remember on this day all those who are celebrating with fireworks and special customs the roasting of a carp the boiling of lead in a spoon and dropping it into cold water all signs of customs all kinds of customs and the viennese who can't walk their pigs give each other marzipan pigs as a sign of this feast of sin sylvester and so all of those things we remember on this particular day but it is a day for looking back and it's a day for remembering and remembering all those whom we have known and loved and those whom we have maybe loved and lost in the months that have come up to this particular day it's important to remember that the lamb of god was born to share our suffering to give his life as a ransom for many that christians in rome at the beginning of constantine's reign were still hiding in their caves and catacombs and crypts and having to be secret about all that had gone on because they were still subject to persecution and sylvester was the first pope to reign over a city where they need not fear persecution and gradually a world where they need not fear official persecution what that did to the life of the church is something that is told in the history of the church from then on but we still seek to achieve that unity which those two councils that al and nicaea try to establish it's a hard-won fort but it's still at the absolute base of our prayers as we come to this 31st of december and look forward to the 1st of january tomorrow so let's say our prayers on this day and commit ourselves to the kind of courage that was shown by early christians but also to the ordering of the life of the church and the hallowing of holy places which means so much to us and at the same time the hallowing of the fact that jesus came to share our human life the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world as john the baptist proclaimed we remember that today remember it in word remember it in sacrament and at the moment so many of us are deprived of being able to come together to share that sacrament but nevertheless the truth that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and still dwells among us in every christian life and in so many other ways in creation that truth together with the call each morning oh come let us adore him is a really important fact on this morning of the feast of since sylvester this frosty morning when winter is deep and the seventh day of christmas takes us onward to new truths day by day let's say our prayers this morning we're praying this morning in our anglican communion for the diocese of gasabo in rwanda and the bishop there owner sephore ruaje and all his people and the diocese of goboko in nigeria and emmanuel nietzsche the bishop there and his people the title above the diocesan intention today in my list is looking back and looking ahead well we've done a little bit of that this morning but you in heart and mind wherever you are in the world we'll be doing that too whatever your customs are on this day however many things we're regretting because all the traditional ceremonies of this evening will not be done in gatherings of thousands for so many it means doing this in very small family groups or perhaps even being alone but never sense that you are alone for in these ways of coming together as we do the rhythm of christian life undergirds us until we can once again come together in safety we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth on this day as we say our prayers and you bring your own prayers and intentions here's the prayer first of all for sin sylvester and then the prayer for this week almighty god the light of the faithful and shepherd of souls who set your servant sylvester to be a bishop in the church to feed your sheep by the word of christ and to guide them by good example give us grace to keep the faith of the church and to follow in the footsteps of jesus christ your son our lord amen and the collect for today almighty god who wonderfully created us in your own image and yet more wonderfully restored us through your son jesus christ grant that as he came to share in our humanity so we may share the life of his divinity who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever men so we pray 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 are men moment of silence now as our little friends join us anxious to continue their big walk christ who by his coming at christmas time gathered into one the things of heaven and the things of earth fill you and all those whom you remember this day with the spirit of peace and good will and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you would pray for and those whom you love today and always are men it's fairly clear to me that uh i have to follow them rather than me leading them in the big walk but they know the way to their meadows so we shall go now happy new year and i hope that 2021 brings us a much much better year than 2020 has but we shall come together tomorrow in the same way to begin that year sylvester didn't only build churches he also established the scholar cantorum a nine-year course when the monks learned to sing the psalms and this scholar cantorum of course became the precursor to the sistine chapel choir but the scholar was taken up by pope gregory the great who of course is very important to us here because he sent august in here we're now in the candlelight carol going to show some of the candles that we've lit in memory of those who've died this year you may have lost friends and you may have lost them through covet 19 or in many other ways and perhaps also you may not have been able to be at their funerals and grieve for them in this year when we couldn't come together so think of them now as the candlelight carol is sung and give thanks for the gift of music which as i keep saying recalls the words of scripture to us when we learn words to a wonderful tune [Music] do [Music] do do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] you