good morning and welcome to the dinery itself this morning on this Saturday the 29th of January as we meet to say our morning prayers welcome wherever you are in the world as we come together and bring your concerns there one or two things of concern throughout the world of really major concern we can look to the situation between Russia and the Ukraine again but we can also look to the enormous dangers in different parts of the world that storms are causing here in the United Kingdom storm Malik is striking Scotland and it's a really heavy and dangerous storm for people to be outside in and will cause and is causing damage and at the same time in the United States there is a a Fierce uh winter storm was a hurricane of of of snow starting in Florida with a lowest temperatures and that's a a great threat to the the life there of iguanas in the trees who are used to warmth and then it will go up through the eastern part of the United States into Canada bringing record snowfalls were told and hurricane force winds so there is a a a a tense state of pending emergency as that storm a winter storm develops in those areas and then at the same time in Africa and this has been going on some days now storm Ana has caused already more than 100 deaths and vast amounts of damage it struck Madagascar and then has uh uh made people homeless with the damage of the storm and with flooding and at the same time it's now gone on to Mozambique and Malawi with the same kind of damage so immense stories of distress through weather and through military tension and also this is the day when at evens song this afternoon we shall be remembering the Holocaust this is our Holocaust Memorial Day and that will be online live this afternoon at 5:30 our time here so as we come together uh We've Come into Fletcher's study in the bottom of the uh south tower of the D it's a veritable book room and whenever you step into here you step down into this room last time you were in here with us it was decorated for Christmas and then Epiphany now it's free of that but it is full of books and they tend to be a little bit at random although there are areas of the room that if you think I want geography I want Botanical information I want classical novels I want poetry I want well anything you like going around you think they're mostly there and if one looks around then I suppose the books and that's so with all our books uh tell the story of our lives and there are books that are really special but we only get that special nature if we're allowed and I'm talking about all of us now to tell the story of why that book was special to us and our theme today as you will see is very much the theme of story let me just say and I'll come back to this at the end that this also is the the weekend here of the big Garden bird watch when people are asked to spend an hour in a green space if they have a garden their own garden but a green space they can find and it's easier unless a storm is is uh is blowing which it certainly isn't here this morning uh to spend an hour outside now this goes right across the weekend and you'll remember from last year and we'll give details at the end that you're asked to do that to chart the different birds that you see so that here a scientific examination from the Royal Society for the protection of birds can be carried out about how many of the different species are in The Gardens of this Kingdom but it's fun to do wherever you are and we'll come back to that at the at the end today for now let's begin our morning prayer and we are still in the Epiphany season and that will last until February the 2nd when we celebrate the Feast of the presentation of Christ in the temple though here in Canter tomorrow morning we'll keep a candle Mass Eucharist so that the the Sunday congregation can enjoy that too oh Lord open our lips and our mouths shall Proclaim your praise your light Springs up for the righteous and all the peoples have seen your glory blessed are you Sovereign god king of the Nations to you be praise and glory forever from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is proclaimed in all the world as the son of righteousness Dawns in our hearts anoint our lips with the Seal of your spirit that we may witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the Earth 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 re joice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh God set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our Psalm this morning on this 29th sorry this uh uh yes 29th morning of the month is Psalm 1039 and it couldn't be a better psalm for what we're intending with the reflection about story particularly our own story as we tell it Psalm 139 oh Lord you have searched me out and known me you know my sitting down and my rising up you discern my thoughts from afar you mark out my Journeys and my resting place you are acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word on my tongue but you oh Lord know it altogether you Encompass me behind and before and lay your hand upon me such knowledge is too wonderful for me so high that I cannot attain it where can I go then from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence if I climb up to heaven you are there if I go down into hell you are there also if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there your hand shall lead me your right hand hold me fast if I say per Adventure the darkness will cover me and the light around me turn to night even darkness is no Darkness with you the night is as clear as the day Darkness and Light to you are both alike for you yourself created my inmost parts you knit me together in my mother's womb I thank you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous are your Works my soul knows well my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth your eyes beheld my form as yet unfinished already in your book were all my members written as day by day they were fashioned when as yet there were none of them how deep are your counsels to me oh God how great is the sum of them if I count them they are more in number than the sand and at the end I am still in your presence part of that beautiful Psalm which is very much a searching Psalm about One's Own Story we're going to back back now to the the the story that we've been reading about the chosen people at the time of Saul and Samuel and we've come to chapter uh 12 of the first book of Samuel and I'm going to read from verse 8 to the end of the chapter it's headed Samuel's farewell address and it begins with Samuel saying that she's in a sense handing over now but there's more work for Samuel to do so it's not fair to say yet that this is Samuel's farewell address but as with many of the speeches in the Old Testament and the New Testament the old Covenant and the New Covenant the long story of the chosen people of Israel is actually told in shorthand and interpreted by the one speaking and here is Samuel speaking to all the people Samuel said to the people the Lord is witness who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous Deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your forefathers when Jacob went into Egypt and the Egyptians oppressed them then your ancestors cried out to the Lord and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place but they forgot their God and he sold them into the hand of cisar commander of the army of Hazel and into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab and they fought against them and they cried out to the Lord and said we have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Bales and the ashteroth but now Deliver us out of the hand of our enemies that we may serve you and the Lord sent jbel and Barack and jeffa and Samuel delivered and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side and you lived in safety and when you saw that nahash the king of the ammonites came against you you said to me no but a king shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your king and now behold the king whom you have chosen for whom you have asked behold the Lord has set a king over you if you will fear the lord and serve him him and obey his voice and not rebel against the Commandment of the Lord and if both you and the king who Reigns over you will follow the lord your God it will be well but if you will not obey the voice of the Lord but rebel against the Commandment of the Lord then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes is it not wheat Harvest today I will call upon the Lord that he may send thunder and rain and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking for yourselves a king say Samuel called upon the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel and all the people said to Samuel pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die for we have added to all our sins this evil to ask for ourselves a King Samuel said to the people do not be afraid you have done all this evil yet do not turn aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all your heart and do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver for they are empty for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself moreover as for me far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you all and I will instruct you in the good and the right way only fear the lord and serve him Faithfully with all your heart for consider what great things he has done for you but if you still do wickedly you shall be swept away both you and your king in the heart of all that lies a great tension and we've already had a look at that it's the tension between the holy people who in their Psalms say the Lord is King be the people never sound patient and all those psalms in the 90s area of the Psalms the Lord is King but they have asked for a military leader as king like the other nations and here is the Lord's Voice through Samuel speaking them speaking to them and saying beware a military leader may lead you into battle but if you forget that over all this the Lord is King then things will end in disaster and defeat honor the Lord first and then with your king give yourself to the the living of the life of a Nation with the honoring of God coming first we're back with Jesus with the tribute coin Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are Gods the large statement comes second but takes precedence over all and that tension is always going to be there battle is not an enough there has to be in the holy people this sense of dependence on God and faithfulness to what Samuel is saying and I I read that speech because of course he tells the story and if you think into the New Testament very often you will find when Peter speaks on the day of Pentecost or when Steven speaks at his trial before the Sanhedrin or when Paul speaks at his defense before uh king agria or someone understanding the history of peoples they go through the episodes of the story of the chosen people and in the New Covenant open it out so that it becomes a gift for all nations but the telling of the story is something that is natural in that sort of culture where talking of if we want um human time a time around the year 1020 to 1,000 BC remember the numbers come down in the other way and those are roughly thought to be the years of the kingship of Saul traditionally he was thought to be about 30 years old when he became king and that the 20 years that followed for him and his sons we shall look at some of that but always the tension is there the relationship between Saul particularly when he's begun to win battles and when the crisis of the moment has to be seized the tension between him and Samuel who represents a very different kind of authority not quite priest not quite Prophet not quite judge but a mixture of all three basing himself in that line of Moses and Aaron and not in a line of kingship and that tension in the story is constant the role of the king and the role of the priest Prophet even when we get to David the prophet Nathan can walk into the court and admonish the king and that tension is always there but there's within the context of the constant telling of the story it's why we read those scriptures in our worship but at the same time in our cultures we have different kinds of stories and I'll come to the books in a bit but I want to say why I'm going there and it was prompted by the fact that in 1942 on this day January the 29th the first broadcast of a new program took place on the radio the wireless as it was called then um and that broadcast was of a program on the forces network of the BBC because there were many soldiers abroad serving in all sorts of places and the forces program broadcast desert island discs and it was the brainchild of a man called Roy Plumley and he couldn't know that that little program of such simple design would go on on to be still being broadcast regularly today and the pattern of that framework and design is so clever as we'll discuss in a moment that it's caused it to be used not only on the radio but I've had it done to me in different communities on on a stage because uh it helps you to tell your own story not only to introduce yourself to people but in communities in which you're serving to help them think of their own story with the aid of music and of books so that when Roy Plumley thought of it then it's pretty well stayed the same in its pattern ever since it begins with that lovely uh tune called by the Sleepy Lagoon with it's written by Eric coats and you get the the the sound of Herring gulls uh because Roy Plumley thought of people on a desert island utterly separated from everyone else being there alone and the question was if you had the chance and still is if you had the chance to take eight recordings with you of music what would they be and then when those recordings through the program with skilled interviewers are announced then why have you chosen that and then the Story begins to unfold and it's a it's a program about storytelling from very very many celebrities there have been about I don't know 3,400 something like that of these over the years and one or two very famous people who've lived a long time like David atur have appeared twice and at different things I said at different times of about how they want their recordings because we change constantly but at the same time at the end the format has always asked which recording then would you take and honestly it's an impossible question and it almost uh relies on how you're feeling on that particular day of the week at that particular time of your life but it brings people to a decision and gets a bit more of their story told because that think of Psalm 139 you've searched me out and known me and you've known me from the very beginning to the very end this is the psalm to the Lord himself the Lord is King the overarching influence in our life if we're faithful um all of that is asking us to sift ourselves it's a kind of clever reflection and then at the end uh the interview will say now what book would you take other than and it's always been the works of Shakespeare or the Bible or nowadays some other religious or philosophical work set those aside which other book would you take well that's looking at the books in this room I'd be here um an hours choosing even the book I choose today it could be of any sort and so all these questions are really lovely teasing questions and then of course there's the thing of and you can take one luxury it must be inanimate so I'm not allowed to take Lily uh and it is also um it can't be of any use to you for escaping the island and it can't be any use to you in hearing Communications from outside you're there on your own and you've all the time in the world one of the questions is quite often you know would you try to escape and uh but but Roy Plumley invented so many of these and uh and uh took us right through to the day he died uh uh 1985 he was still seen as the presenter when he could do that and so from 1942 to 85 it was Roy Plumley and then for just three years Michael Parkinson took over and after that for a long spell 1988 to 2006 Sue Lai took over and then from 06 to 2018 Kirsty young took over and when she was indisposed temporally Lauren lne took over and then it was announced that Kirsty wouldn't be coming back and so uh the BBC said for the foreseeable future Lauren will be the interviewer and she still is and interviewers grow into their task of being sensitive to a multitude of completely different people young and old of different backgrounds of different cultures and the story becomes fascinating it's not too long a program and the AG recordings are not played in their fullness unless they're very short pieces but always the question is so what's your next recording and and then so why did you choose that and uh all of that takes us through the stories but the choosing of a book oh and I should say of course nowadays everything is on IP player and the BBC has put down also uh the BBC not only the BBC I player but it's the archive is now open to you to go back and hear again favorite ones that you thought oh I remember so and so like some malham Sergeant or or Margaret Lockwood or someone doing doing uh that well back or some quite in in more recent times you'll all have your own favorites but you can go back and and hear them again and and and there put on now by the wonders of of the the digital and virtual age so as I say we find ourselves playing that game ourselves and it the pattern has been used when someone is wanting to be interviewed on a special occasion and in community life that can be not even recorded just just a fun evening when you do that or you find yourself doing it yourself just to Wi away the time which eight books you can change the rules and say which 20 books am I thinking I would take with me and all of that it's a a magic formula and this morning looking around at what kind of books uh we would take and we would be different in this um there's a little pile here and they would suit different kinds of moods on the top there's a book of fairy tales then there's um Fletcher's favorite School poetry book it's called a choice of poets which is a lovely book and for him a really important book in his life and then uh Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son and others advice given by an 18th century gentleman to his son here is the whole um uh um Harry Potter and this is the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling uh and that great sequence of course was credited and is credited throughout the world for causing children to begin to read again and wait for a book to come out and then below is a description a new description of Sir John s's Museum showing how artifacts can help us but below that another long reading uh running series on the radio The Archers which uh is a mellony of of interesting facts about that other radio program now all these are just totally haphazard uh and here below that is the Pilgrim's Progress which the opening of which I would know by heart and some of you would as well and then below that uh a a a history of Canterbury Cathedral written by Lois Lang Sims who was a teenager here when the Great bombing took place and the opening of that book is beginning to unwrap canterbury's story and below that is uh a book of Thomas Hardy two on a tower which we actually spent some time with earlier around me are Books Galore and we could go really anywhere and enjoy it one of the most enjoyable things is having something where you enjoy The rhythms and let me come to another person this morning who has a date today uh Edward Lear who wrote Nonsense Rhymes really and their meaning is just in the Rhythm rather like pieces of music you enjoy it because of the Rhythm and here's the the full work so he died in 1888 on the 29th of January um here are the full works of Edward Leah and we've got here opening out I put a marker in The Owl and the Pussycat went to seea in a beautiful PE Green Boat they took some honey and plenty of money wrapped up in a 5 pound note the owl looked up to the stars above and sang to a small guitar oh lovely oh my love what a beautiful you are you are you are what a beautiful you are that makes Lily p and but at the same time you could say well it's is all nonsense and yet somehow the the The rhythms bring up memories and poetry will do that for us in so many different ways and I'm not even going to launch into that because all of you w have your favorite poems and if you asked well why why is it important in your life then the telling of the story instantly opens you up and the Poetry prompts it and at the same time we've um got here one of uh Fletcher's favorite Edward leers you could say the same that it's it's a nonsense poem but at the same time it's got that that sense of of of rhythmic pleasure which a piece of music might have this is the jumblies they went to seea in a Civ they did in a Civ they went to seea in spite of all their friends could say On a Winter's mour on a stormy day in a Civ they went to seea and when the Civ turned round and round and everyone cried you'll all be drowned they called aloud our C ain't big but we don't care a button we don't a fig and a Civ will go to Sea far and few far and few are the lands where the jumblies live their heads are green and their hands are blue and they went to sea in a Civ they sailed away in a Civ they did in a siiv they sailed so fast with only a beautiful PE green Veil tied with a ribboned by way of a sail to a small tobacco pipe Mast and everyone said who saw them go won't they be soon upset you know for the sky is dark and the voyage is long and happen what may it's extremely wrong in a Civ to sail so fast far and few far and few are the lands where the jumblies live their heads are green and their hands are blue and they went to sea in a sive the water it soon came in it did the water it soon came in so to keep them dry they wrapped their feet in a pinky paper all folded neat and they fastened it down with a pin and they passed the night in a Crockery jar and and each of them said how wise we are though the sky be dark and the voyage be long yet we never can think we were rash or wrong while round in our C we spin far and few far and few are the lands where the jumblies live their heads are green and their hands are blue and they went to sea in a siiv and all night long they sailed away and when the sun went down they whistled and wobbled a Mooney song to The echoing sound of a coppery gong in the shade of the mountain Brown oh Tim Balo how happy we are when we live in a Civ and a Crockery jar and all night long in the Moonlight pale we sail away with a peag green sail in the shade of the mountain Brown far and few far and few are the lands where the jumblies live their heads are green and their hands are blue and they went to sea in a siiv they sailed to the Western sea they did to a land all covered with trees and they bought an owl and a useful cart and a pound of rice and a cranberry tart and a hive of silvery bees and they bought a pig and some green Jack doors and a lovely monkey with lollipop pores and 40 bottles of rainbow re and no end of stilt and cheese far and few far and few are the lands where the jumes live their heads are green and their hands are blue and they went to sea in a siiv and in 20 years they all came back in 20 years or more and everyone said how tall they've grown for they've been to the lakes and the table Zone and the hills of the chle bore and they drank their he and gave them a feast of dumplings made of beautiful yeast and everyone said if we only live we too will go to see in a Civ to the hills of chle bore far and few far and few are the lands where the jumblies live their heads are green and their hands are blue and they went to sea in a Civ is it nonsense and yet it has that sort of rhythmic quality which stays and when the chorus comes you find that children and adults say it with you far and few rather like the the The rhythms that sometimes come in the Psalms and the choruses that sometimes come in our our hymns and yet the imagery throughout is suggested by the words and The rhythms and one of our most popular storytellers for children uh at the moment Julia Donaldson uh whose books are very often illustrated by Axel schifer schfer sorry um she relies on that Rhythm which the children can join in with and this is a book called a squash in a squeeze a little old lady lived all by herself with a table and chairs and a jug on the Shelf a wise old man heard her Grumble and grous there's not enough room in my house Wise Old Man won't you help me please my house is a squash and a squeeze take in your hen said the wise old man taking my hen what a curious plan well the hen laid an egg on the Fireside rug and flapped around the room knocking over The Jug we know all about that the little old lady cried what shall I do it was Pokey for one it's tiny for two my nose has a tickle and there's no room to sneeze my house is a squash in a squeeze and she said Wise Old Man won't you help me please my house is a squash and a squeeze take in your goat said the Wise Old Man take in my goat what a curious plan while the goat chewed the curtains and trod on the egg and sat down to nibble the table leg the little old lady cried glory be it was Tiny for two and it's titchy for three the hen pecks the goat and the goats got Fleet my house is a squash and a squeeze and she said Wise Old Man won't you help me please my house is a squash and a squeeze take in your pig said the Wise Old Man take in my pig what a curious plan so she took in her Pig who kept chasing the hen and raiding the lder again and again the little old lady cried stop I implore it was titchy for three it's teeny for four even the pig in the Luder agrees my house is a squash and a squeeze and she said Wise Old Man won't you help me please my house is a squash and a squeeze Tak in your cow taking my cow what a curious plan well the cow looked took one look and charged straight at the pig then jumped on the table and tapped out a jig the little old lady cried Heaven's alive it was teeny for four is weenie for five I'm tearing my hair out I'm down on my knees my house is a squash and a squeeze and she said Wise Old Man won't you help me please my house is a squash and a squeeze take them all out said the wise old man but then I'll be back where I first began so she opened the window and out flew the hen that's better at last I can sneeze again she shed out the goat and she shoved out the pig my house is beginning to feel pretty big she huffed and she puffed and she pushed out the cow just look at my house it's enormous now thank you old man for the work you have done it was weeny for five it's gigantic for one there's no need to Grumble there's no need to gross there's plenty of room in my house and now she's full of frolics and fiddly Dees and it isn't a squash and it isn't a squeeze yes she's full of frolics and fiddly de it isn't a squash or a squeeze there's wisdom in all that and you can find it but it's it's done so that we and the children can keep saying the choruses and it's a clever device and of course Axel scher's drawings are fantastic of the cow and the goat and the Pig and the hen so uh we give thanks for those things well you know that we could go on all day with this and it's no time to do it we must say our prayers on this day and come back to the sense of Our Own Story and playing the game ourselves to find the divine and human tensions within our own lives and helping with wisdom to sort them out and give them perspective on this day so we're thinking on this particular day of in the Anglican communion the dasis of campala in the Church of the province of Uganda and in our own dasis praying for Justin our Archbishop for Rose Bishop of DOA for Emma Bishop at lambus and today the Parish of burington All Saints with acor st Mildred and St Thomas minis Bay and we pray for Mark ham in his ministry there and all the people there and the the children of burington Church of England Primary School bring your own concerns as we say the conct for this week of the Epiphany 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 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 of your own reflection as we Ponder our own story and the tensions within it [Music] I I [Music] [Applause] [Music] all [Music] [Applause] [Music] Christ the son of God perfect in you the image of his glory and gladen 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 amen I should have said that it's the BBC sounds app that you can find the the um desert island discs on um at the same time uh the the the details of how to um affect your bird watch shall we say we shall we shall put on and uh that is something you can do and if it's really stormy tomorrow uh it's on the rspb website and the details of how to do that and that's really for for this nation but you can do this rather as you can do desert island disc yourself wherever you are and even in this nation I wouldn't worry if tomorrow is terribly stormy it's the only day you could manage or and but there is some time the next day it's just one hour spent in a green space and charting the birds and there's the way in which you can send them back through so feter has said that uh with all the things that are demands on his time there's no possibility of of replying to photographs that will be sent but we may show some of them tomorrow we'll show some from last year and if you want to send from wherever you are in the world the photographs of birds that then we we will look at them but there won't be a wants to reply to each one and you could send it to watch the birds at Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury hyphen Cathedral uh.org that's what you need so uh and uh then you can do that and and we will enjoy receiving them um so I wanted to say also don't forget that tomorrow at 8:00 in the evening our time and at 3:00 in the afternoon Eastern Standard Time in the United States uh and you can work those things out across the world for you there is the performance of HMS pfor being uh broadcast and it's a live broadcast of a recording but it only appears once during those hours if you want to do that you have to to register it's a free performance but you have to register and then the link will be sent to you and this is a reminder Because by the time we get to tomorrow then it for some of you been too late so uh have a wonderful day and thanks for sharing stories in your minds and hearts [Music] today and [Music] [Music] of legal knowledge I acquired such a gri that they took me into the partnership and that Junior partnership I win was the only ship I ever had seen only ship that kind of ship so suited me that now I am the ruler of the Queen's name kind ship [Music] [Music] which shall my heart my heart the [Music] ready he is a English [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the ocean Andy ship arey we are so and anded to our Dy when the ball free on the SE our guns we ride on the time for [Music]