good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this sunday the 23rd of uh january as we gather to say our morning prayers wherever you are in the world feel welcome very different morning from yesterday with a cloud covering uh and we've come in to share our morning prayers with our turkey friends and so i brought breakfast for them so i'm going to give them that first so that they'll be quite sort of happy with us in here because they're like all and they're locked down and uh let's just spread it about a bit because the first time you've seen these for a while and you'll see that the posts are now growing going up there we are that gives them quite enough to get on with and tiger is being nosy in the background he'll come and go i think so bring your prayers wherever you are in the world and uh your concerns but all of us of course have grave concerns over the tensions between russia and the ukraine and all that buildup of military capacity on both sides of the border and people in the position of leaders across the world having to make wise and careful decisions at this time this is a day when our reflections take us on a wayfarers path a journey it's it's a almost an ordinary journey when this starts and we we read our lesson but for the moment i'm going to begin our ordinary morning prayers for sunday morning and then you'll see why we've come in here because we've set up almost a wayfarers camp at travellers camp which is can be temporarily taken on and the journey goes on and the turkeys themselves are great wanderers look you see we've got here the four pelts and lizzie and darcy himself but if you try to take a turkey on a journey in the garden they they're curious and they will go off in different directions and we had two white palm turkeys once which she called seize and onion not for any reason of eating them that means stress um but just for fun and uh we used to lead them down from the orchard but you had if you took your eye off them for a moment each would wander off in a different direction and they are beautiful peaceful curious birds as they as they walk along but that wandering is like human imagination and we shall we shall deal with that when we come to our reflection so let's begin our prayers on this particular 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 our light and our salvation to you be glory and praise forever you gave your christ as a light to the nations and through the anointing of the spirit you established us as a royal priesthood as you call us into your marvelous light may our lives bear witness to your truth and allah our lips never cease to proclaim your praise 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm this morning on this 23rd morning of the month is psalm 111 alleluia i will give thanks to the lord with my whole heart in the company of the faithful and in the congregation the works of the lord are great sought out by all who delight in them his work is full of majesty and honor and his righteousness endures forever he appointed a memorial for his marvelous deeds the lord is gracious and full of compassion he gave food to those who feared him he is ever mindful of his covenant he showed his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations the works of his hands the works of his hands are truth and justice all his commandments are sure they stand fast forever and ever they are done in truth and equity he sent redemption to his people he commanded his covenant forever holy and awesome is his name the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have those who live by it his praise endures forever well tiger's presence is unexpected he's being very brave in here let's just pick up the papers that he has happily scattered for us and we're going to go to our um lesson from the first book of samuel and this takes us on the beginning of a completely different kind of journey but it begins with a story as so many of the old testament stories and the new testament stories do it's a story taking place in a particularly and completely haphazard way but it will begin with a little genealogy and then go on to tell a simple story it's 1 samuel chapter 9 and verse 1. there was a man of benjamin whose name was kish the son of abiel the son of zero son of the korah son of a fire a benjaminite a man of wealth and he had a son whose name was saul a handsome young man there was not a man among the people of israel more handsome than saul from his shoulders upwards he was taller than any of the people now the donkeys of kish saul's father were lost so kish said to saul his son take one of the young men with you and arise go and look for the donkeys and saul passed through the hill country of ephraim and passed through the land of elisha but they did not find the donkeys and they passed through the land of sha alim but they were not there then they passed through the land of benjamin but did not find them when they came to the land of zaph saul said to his servant who was with him come let us go back lest my father cease to care about the donkeys and becomes anxious about us but he said to him behold there is a man of god in this city and he is a man who is held in honor all that he says comes true so now let us go there perhaps he can tell us the way we should go then saul said to his servant but if we go what can we bring the man for the bread in our sacks is gone and there is no present to bring to the man of god what do we have the servant answered saul again here i have with me a quarter of a shekel of silver and i will give it to the man of god to tell us our way now formerly in israel when a man went to inquire of god he said come let us go to the seer for today's prophet was formerly called a seer and saul said to his servant well well said come let us go so they went to the city where the man of god was as they went up the hill to the city they met young women coming out to draw water and said to them is this here here they answered he is behold he is just ahead of you hurry he has come just now to the city because the people have a sacrifice today on the high place as soon as you enter the city you will find him before he goes up to the high place to eat for the people will not eat till he comes since he must bless the sacrifice afterwards those who are invited will eat now go up for you will meet him immediately so they went up to the city and as they were entering the city they saw samuel coming out towards them on his way up to the high place now the day before saul came the lord had revealed to samuel tomorrow about this time i will send to you a man from the land of benjamin and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people israel he shall save my people from the hand of the philistines for i have seen my people because their cry has come to me when samuel saw saul the lord told him here is the man of whom i spoke to you here it is who shall restrain my people then saul approached samuel in the gate and said tell me where is the house of the seer samuel answered saul i am the seer go up before me to the high place for today you shall eat with me and in the morning i will let you go and will tell you all that is on your mind as for your donkeys that were lost three days ago do not set your mind on them for they have been found and for whom is all that is desirable in israel is it not for you and all your father's house saul answered am i not a benjamite from the least of the tribes of israel and is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of benjamin why then have you spoken to me in this way [Music] so we leave this with that question why then have you spoken to me in this way saul sees himself as totally unimportant and samuel has a particular message for him and as samuel is about to reveal that message but first he's going to take him with him and all will be made plain when we go on tomorrow it's not that so much that i want to speak about this morning it's the fact that that kind of wandering journey which we're talking about is the result of uh an ordinary incident the incident is simply the losing of the donkeys or the wandering off of the donkeys like the turkeys wandering around here in their on their own and they wish i wish they could wander further in this time of lockdown for them because of the avian flu but for the moment they're here with us but they would wander everyone the donkeys have gone and nobody knows where but that was a an ordinary farming incident in the countryside see how it began with the genealogy rooting it always there and at the same time samuel is trying to find the the kind of wisdom that uh is necessary for him to to choose a new leader for israel now that becomes a very important aspect and remember at the last verse of our psalm this morning the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom and that wisdom samuel is a seer has both in his own mind and experience but also in the spiritual depths of what is going on so that we think of samuel waiting on god waiting for god meanwhile saul is wandering on an ordinary day on an ordinary journey looking for the donkeys of his father kish all very ordinary for him but what's he what's he thinking at the end why are you speaking to me like this because samuel is clearly focusing on him i am of the smallest of the tribe and the least of the clans and yet you're speaking to me and the question is hanging over us at that point the story is everything now a human story fascinates us if somebody starts telling a story with which we can make connections then if they're good storytellers then they listen and that's a lovely thing and in order to to have imagination about a story sometimes the human mind wanders and you find points when someone's telling a story where you're relating and then have to snap yourself back into it but when you're by yourself your imagination can go where it likes and that becomes something quite different i'm sure you've done as i have and suddenly find yourself thinking about something and you think to yourself how did i ever get to that point and if you trace it back it generally goes through a really wandering journey of experiences in your own lifetime which have connected through and rather like the turkeys i was talking about before who would wander off on each side your mind does that it's a human power of imagination and reflection which is also a spiritual gift for is the facility whereby we wait on god and in silence and patience we wait on god and that becomes an imagination at two levels an imagination exploring the things of our own memory our own life our own relationships all of that but at the same time creation feeds into that images of the divine and uh there's a lovely word that rupert brooke uses in his poetry otherwise meaning we don't know where that comes from but suddenly there's a different dimension opening up we can't create it it comes as a gift from time to time uniting our human thinking and imagination and our physical experiences with that which we know somehow inside us is is beyond and often has to do with what god wants us to do next in our human journey it might be just for today or it might be beyond that so from ordinary beginnings and the loss of donkeys saul is going on a journey and he's found the seer and samuel now has found saul and their parts have crossed now this is a day when we're thinking of two particular dates and they are both artists one of them is gustav dorei he was born on epiphany day 6 of january in 1832 but died on this day the 23rd of january in 1883 adoree was an engraver and an artist and he created in his life 10 000 illustrations mostly of stories at a time when uh pictures didn't appear in photographs one part of life and certainly not the kind of images we can show now dorian's imagination was really important in people opening up a storybook and seeing a wood engraving and dory's imagination knew no bounds he tended to to look at uh major stories which people knew there's a wonderful book on our shelves of his illustrations to cervantes don quixote and in a strange way the character that dory draws has become etched in our memory with sancho panza and uh it it it becomes how we think of don quixote but don quixote in one of dory's drawings is actually seen sitting in his chair and all around him in the room are the features of his imagination as he thinks himself a night errand going off uh and rosinante will take him there into the uh into the the battlefield it's all in his imagination as he's sitting there and then he of course sets out in his way well he began with with those kind of stories and we think of him also as someone who who who drew and made engravings of the fables of lafontaine most of which are very like the esops fables where creatures like our friends here our friends here as well become the subjects of the stories and doree was was full of imagination for that but he really became immensely famous when he was asked to provide illustrations for a new french translation of the vulgate latin bible it's called la grande bible de tour the great bible of tour and the illustrations he wrote he he made for that 241 of them are there for us all to see you can actually explore them yourselves without much difficulty but they are fantastic illustrations we can put the we can put the the the the line on with the the link on for you to do that but at the same time um we think of the the wonderful illustrations that are given all from dorae's imagination some of them are very uh scenic like the creation of light a genesis illustration and then some of them are very dramatic and the expulsion of adam and eve from paradise which also appears in his uh illustrations to milton's paradise lost and then one comes to lovely stories there are there are beautiful drawings of ruth and naomi and beautiful drawings also of uh the way in which pastoral landscapes when uh rebecca or or rachel coming to to the water uh and right through the old testament it it's story who chooses which scenes he wants to set and of course they're all scenes he knows in his mind he conjures them up and creates a scene around all that's going on with the creatures and with also the landscapes but then in the middle often the human figures living out tragedy or loss or wonder or affection or all kinds of human emotions but also being given the sign as to where they go next like the illustration he draws of the three angels coming to abraham and through the whole of the scriptures in the old testament he creates that 139 drawings of the old testament 81 drawings of the new testament and if you scroll down on the link of those drawings you will find that the gospels don't seem to be in the stories in the gospels don't seem to be in the right order that is because of course he does the gospels in order so he chooses pictures from the gospel of matthew pictures from the gospel of mark pictures from the gospel of luke and pictures from the gospel of john and the sequence keep going back to the beginning and gives a flavor of the way in which those evangelists set out that good news but it goes on and there is a plentiful illustration of the acts of the apostles and the life of the early church when one gets to the book of revelation well no hell's apart and finally the the great glory of the new jerusalem is something quite wonderful he turned also to dante and in dante at the the end of paradiso perhaps one of his most famous drawings of all then his wood engraving of the angels of heaven in that great sempi tunnel rose with the the uh the the the wheels of of that and and dante there looking from a hill at that huge vision of heaven human imagination reaching out from experience and reaching out from a deep thinking about it but at the same time having a spiritual dimension too which feeds itself into us how many impressions those those books that he began to to illustrate gave to children opening their bibles that he really is is quite terrifying in some of the things that he did he was asked and commissioned to illustrate volumes on the city of london and he came across when he was fulfilling that contract and lived in london for months at a time to do that and at the end of it there was there was a great popularity of the book but also some people didn't like it because it showed in all reality the grim sites of victorian london and the poverty of victorian london for he showed humanity as it was and all that humanity has to suffer hello lizzie you're eyeing me um and uh we've really a great debt of gratitude for all of that the way in which he he thought through and showed us how imagination could be used well at the same time i wanted to mention that this is also a date when we think of the artist the surrealist artist salvador dali who died on the 23rd of january 1989 having been born in figures in catalonia and died in exactly the same place at the end before he always had his roots just there now sadhara dali is quite different in his art and of course now we have great color but there are two paintings which do exactly the same kind of thing as dory is trying to do and one which is very popular indeed of course is christ of st john of the cross which finds itself now in the kelvin grove art gallery glasgow and that gives pictures which in his particular way bind things together of the cross uh holding over the lake with christ's arms outstretched and the color of the sky beyond the lake and the wonderful tranquility of the lake and the boat the fisherman's boat with the fisherman standing beside it it's become a very popular painting indeed but it's all from the imagination of dali and the way in which we ourselves can just tap into that imaginative quality which we can use and the other one which is much less well known is simply called ecumenical council and it was painted in 1960 as a response or it was finished in 1960 as a response to the election of pope john the 23rd to the papacy in 1958 and it shows in all kinds of symbolic forms images of the sacramental life of the church and the way heaven gently insinuates itself properly into our life by symbols of creation but also imaginings of the the reality of the holy trinity and this is dali's wonderful imaginings of all of that an ecumenical council which can be a a really uh dry thing to think of with all these discussions becomes suddenly something which is talking about and imagining and trying to define symbols of us and symbols of heaven uniting as we've been speaking of all this particular morning so one thinks of that journeying that travelling uh and it re it reminded me of and the donkeys did the same uh of in may 2020 you remember very early on in all of this uh i read in episodes travels with a donkey r.l stevenson's of with modest in his donkey in the seven just traveling and thinking and imagining and reflecting and meeting people it's still very much available if you if you uh just uh tap in uh youtube uh travels with a donkey canterbury it'll it'll come up with all the episodes but many of you saw it at the time and you remember modestine and the relationship which builds up between r.l stevenson and uh modestine on the way through now the the nice thing about all of that is the way in which stevenson was someone who all his life and with a a a sickness of a growing consumption at the end um uh was journeying and finding where his place would be he felt himself to be a wayfarer and he wrote wayfaring songs of travel one of them called wither must i wander was actually set to music beautifully in a song by rafne williams it's it's in this old book of songs here which is always on my piano somewhere this is a first volume of a heritage of 20th century british song and here is whether must i wonder if tiger would allow me to read something here is the first verse home no more home to me whether must i wander hunger my driver i go where i must cold blows the winter wind over hill and heather thicke drives the rain and my roof is in the dust loved of wise men was the shade of my roof tree the true word of welcome was spoken in the door dear days of old with the faces in the firelight kind folks of old you come again no more home was my home then my dear full of kindly faces home was my home then my dear happy for the child fire and the windows bright glittered on the moorland song tuneful song built a palace in the wild now when day dawns on the brow of the moorland lone stands the house and the chimney stone is cold let it stand now the friends are all departed the kind hearts the true hearts that love the place of old spring shall come come again calling up the more fowl spring shall bring the sun and rain bring the bees and flowers red shall the heather bloom over hill and valley soft flow the stream through the even flowing hours further they shine as it's shone on my childhood fair shine the day on the house with open door birds come and cry there and twitter in the chimney but i go forever and come again no more his journey has gone on he's remembering the past but he as a wayfarer goes on we found a a lovely version of that being sung by a young singer called anthony reed and i must get the the names absolutely right um anthony reid and the accompanist is chris reynolds and they are uh students of a very special uh organization called the ryan opera center and the ryan opera center which is linked to lyric opera in chicago tries to find out new talent journeying through to find what their their actual life will take where their life will take the musicians who perform and so anthony we found singing this song whither must i wander and that i think is a a lovely thing for our prayers and reflection this morning but let's see the places that we're going to be praying for and uh today is the day when in the anglican communion we pray for the province of hong kong shen kung hui and for um the archbishop there andrew chan and all our friends it's in john's cathedral in uh hong kong and all the people of hong kong we think particularly of of felix the organist there and he's has been helping with the music for the projected numbers conference but we think of so many people there in hong kong and they are in the kind of lockdown which means they can't at the moment cross into the border of china so they have plenty of time in a way for reflection in lockdown still but uh friends there too many to mention and you will have some too but our hearts go out to the life of hong kong and john's cathedral there this morning and in the diocese well this is given as a listening and discerning day no better for um this day when we are thinking about how our imaginations can carry us onwards in our journey as we wait for god and then i'm going to use the connect for this week as for the first time this morning so bring your your own prayers and also bring the myself around the the people you want to remember this morning bring also your thoughts of your own journey and your own imaginings and give thanks for those imaginings almighty god whose son revealed in signs and miracles the wonder of your saving presence renew your people with your heavenly grace and in all our weakness sustain us by your mighty power through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language then 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 now for your own reflection [Music] where i must [Music] thick rain and my roof is [Music] [Music] of was with the [Music] faces again no more [Music] that my dear full of kindly faces home was [Music] fire the windows [Music] [Music] in the world [Music] [Music] is [Music] the true hearts that loved the place [Music] spring shall come again [Music] and [Music] through [Music] on my childhood [Music] but i go for [Music] all right christ the son of god perfect in 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 well thank you for joining me in our spiritual and mental wayfaring this morning uh sitting under aguava tree and an indigo tree here in the company of our acting friends who've played the role of the wandering donkeys this morning um i wanted to say that those of you who might like an a performance of a a new gilbert and sullivan opera by the new york uh gilbert sullivan players and then next sunday there's the opportunity between 8 and 10 at night to see something which only comes on live on the television or your computer screens and we'll put the link on as to how to do this this is a free performance but you have to register in say we'll put that down if you want to see hms pinafore performed and this is their new production and they of course have not been able to do that because of the lockdowns over there but they did have one performance and they're going to give that to us next next sunday evening so that we it's three o'clock over in in new york but here of course is eight o'clock our time in the evening in england and wherever you are in the world but it has to happen during those hours this is a not a live performance but it's a a live online streaming of this opera from those players so if anyone is interesting we'll put the link on so have a lovely sunday and uh we've uh going to give this little chap a little bit more breakfast so he's not short of breakfast i assure you very brave being in here with the turkeys aren't you really brave oops [Music] fury of a girl [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] all right [Music] of legal knowledge i acquired such a grip that it took me into the part of the ship and that tune your part [Music] me that now i am the ruler of the queen's name [Music] is [Music] [Music] which shall my heart [Music] is food [Music] big [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] all day [Music]