good morning and welcome to the dinery garden on this thursday the 9th of december welcome to morning prayer here as we gather from all parts of the world so wherever you are as i always say bring your own prayers and concerns to our own prayers yesterday we were thinking of storms in australia today we're thinking of wildfires which have broken out again in western australia and are are ravaging the the uh um countryside there we think uh personally of our friend andrew who uh flew from new haven in the united states down to perth eventually for the funeral of his father and we pray for him and his mother and pray also for his safe journey back to the united states when that becomes possible we also remember one of our garden congregation liz who uh died the night before last and we pray for the repose of her soul and think of her husband ali and the family and all her friends uh and jenny particularly who's one of our again garden congregation as they prepare for her funeral so let's say our prayers on this particular morning there are there are bright things to think about too there are news reports in the zoo in sydney taronga zoo of a baby hippo who's been born utterly delightful and seeking a new name and so i'm sure a great competition will be held for that name here's our morning prayers for this advent morning we've come to be by the field maple today remember i said yesterday that we would revisit the trees that we visited last year to see what the year looks like and this year is rather different from last year the foliage is is far more shall we say advanced towards winter and it's lost far more leaves i'm sitting here beside a hawthorn there are there are some sheltered horse horns here and they still have their golden leaves on the other side and there's a beech tree here still with its leaves more sheltered but the field maple which is one of our most common indigenous trees here and the horsehorn have lost their leaves and i'm sitting in the shelter of a great bay tree here oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise reveal among us the light of your presence that we may behold your power and glory blessed are you sovereign god of all to you be praise and glory forever in your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night as we look for your coming among us this day open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you 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 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 psalm on this ninth morning of the month is psalm 46. god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear though the earth be moved and though the mountains tremble in the heart of the sea there the waters rage and swell and though the mountains quake at the towering seas there is a river whose streams make glad the city of god the holy place of the dwelling of the most high god is in the midst of her therefore shall she not be removed god shall help her at the break of day the nations are in uproar and the kingdoms are shaken but god utters his voice and the earth shall melt away the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold come and behold the works of the lord what destruction he has wrought upon the earth he makes wars to cease in all the world he shatters the bow and snaps the spear and burns the chariots in the fire be still and know that i am god i will be exalted among the nations i will be exalted in the earth the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold in the midst of everything there is that sense of god over all things and also of the the river whose streams make glad the city of god the stream of water and the river always seen as a sign of the holy spirit and the refreshment that christ gives to his faithful servants as they are his body of christ on earth and at the same time that sense of needing to draw apart and reflect be still and know that i am god so here we are in exactly the same place as last year having gone through a year full of the should we say the ups and downs of the pandemic and we this morning find ourselves in a very different situation with the government having announced new restrictions because of the omicron variant which has arrived here so for the safety of all we're being restricted and told to use measures to keep each other safe and we've learned to do that and to be patient over the past 12 months since i sat here last year by the same field maple and the same hawthorn and the same beech tree under this bay tree remember last year fletcher was doing a study of the trees and in revisiting them you may want to revisit last year too you can easily do that on youtube and also find the study of what both the tree itself the field maple but also of a tree hero and we shall think of one of those today but you can find the one for last year if you go back through youtube to this date last year for morning prayer well let's read our lesson this morning which comes from the epistle to the hebrews and i'm in chapter 7 and beginning at verse 11 from where we left off the day before yesterday now if perfection had been attainable through the levitical priesthood for under it the people received the law what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of melchizedek rather than one named after the order of aaron for when there is a change in the priesthood there is necessarily a change in the law as well for the one of whom these things are spoken belong to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar for it is evident that our lord was descended from judah and in connection with that tribe moses said nothing about priests this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of melchizedek who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life for it is witnessed of him you are a priest forever after the order of melchizedek for on the one hand a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness for the law made nothing perfect but on the other hand a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to god and it was not without an oath for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him the lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever this makes jesus the guarantor of a better covenant the former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office but jesus holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to god through him since he always lives to make intercession for them for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest holy innocent unstained separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens he has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily first for his own sins and then for those of the people since he did this once for all when he offered up himself for the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests but the word of the oath which came later than the law appoints a son who has been made perfect forever this is the image which the writer to the hebrews is striving in this epistle to give to that community of jewish christians who are beginning to dream of the past and to anchor after it to yearn for it and he's saying please don't go back because this new journey is a journey towards a different promised land accompanied by the one who has become a high priest forever to make intercession for us in heaven and this is the son of god jesus christ that's the image he is trying desperately to get these people who he feels in danger of slipping from the path and turning back this new exodus this new journey of wayfarers along the road and then the the qualities that he gives to this new priest of the royal line of david but of course as the tribe of judah every priest of aaron was of the tribe of levi and so this is a totally new beginning and the image of priesthood is being placed because of the offering of the perfect sacrifice the offering of himself as jesus says i when i be lifted up will draw all nations to myself it's an offering for the sins of the whole world as the line in the prayer of consecration says and why is it perfect because this high priest is holy innocent unstained separated from sinners exalted above the heavens and is always there to make intercession for us offering the one perfect sacrifice of himself it's an image which is powerful and belongs well to this epistle there are shades of it in many of the writings of sin paul of saint peter of st james letters to timothy letters to titus but it's the writer to the hebrews who encapsulates this vision of the one whoever makes intercession for us by the offering of himself we can find that resonance in many christian writings we can find that resonance in much christian poetry and in much christian hymnady and you can think of it but there is a corollary which stands beside it and that is the fact that this high priest though having all those qualities shared our human life and knows firsthand our human condition which is the other part of this wonderful picture that is being given to pilgrims wayfarers traveling the road through this finite world surrounded by the gifts of the creator towards an eternal city and that idea will be developed more and more as this letter continues but for this morning as we sit beside these trees the field maple and the hawthorne and the bay tree and the beech tree let's think of things which happened which resonate with new beginnings and have an anchor on this date in time for we're traveling in a world in time december the 9th and on december the 9th 1674 edward hyde lord clarendon died he died in exile in rural haven having fallen out of favor with king charles ii later on in his reign but he had been one of his closest companions and advisers just as he had been to charles ii father charles the first but he had one great defect in a monarch's eyes in those days and that was that he always told the truth and if he felt that the king's opinion was not the right one or the advice he was being given was the wrong advice he would say so and charles the first having used him during the first english civil war as his chief advisor when others began to say make alliances with the scottish presbyterians with the presbyterians in this country make alliances with edward hyde who was a very firm anglican episcopal anglican said no that's not the right way forward your majesty and then he sort of gradually was sidelined but still became in the west country a close companion to charles prince of wales who was in charge of that part of the kingdom which was very loyal to the king i don't want to think about that part of his life for when finally charles the first was executed and edward hyde mourned very greatly he followed the rightful heir as he saw it into exile and he accompanied charles prince of wales through those awful years of exile when it seemed that england which was now a republic with the lord protector oliver cromwell and it seemed as though that would always be the case when the church which he loved hyde loved was prescribed in its worship as a criminal and treacherous activity so that even the book of common prayer was prescribed as a criminal activity if one was using it and people had to do things quite quietly and secretly during those years for the liturgy of the anglican church was forbidden the liturgy of the church of england the elizabethan prabhuk well after the restoration of the monarchy it was edward hyde as the advisor to the king who arrived here as the new lord chancellor here in canterbury on that morning in 1660 when england welcomed back its king and king charles ii stepped ashore and came straight to canterbury and spent the first nights of his reign as king of england here and worshiped before the altar where his father and mother had first brought their marriage to be solemnized in a new way they had been married by proxy but charles wanted to remember them his mother queen henrietta maria was still alive but his father had been executed so edward hyde stood by as his faithful counselor and organized here in canterbury the first privy council of king charles ii reign and decisions were made there now hyde's policy was going to be one that would try to reconcile and unite the nation and in that he had common cause with thomas turner the dean here at that time who had come back with the um uh what should we say that the adage the the maxim uh no revenge and we put this behind us on we go well there were times when revenge was shown but on the whole hyde was keen to unite and reconcile the nation but he was very keen also to restore the unity of the church of england and its liturgy and that was foremost in all his plannings as a faithful servant of the church so that it was he who planned for the 1662 book as it became the revised book of common prayer based mostly on the elizabethan book of common prayer to be restored as a book that the whole nation could use in worship and from that moment onwards things went forward so we have much to be grateful to edward hyde for in all of that but nevertheless he continued to tell the truth in the middle of all things if charles ii's policies were unwise then he as the lord chancellor said so and some of the decisions made which he was not even party to with which he didn't even agree were then disastrous and in 1665 the great plague in london in 1666 uh the the great fire of london and the dutch war which was most unsuccessful all of that those around the king who had his ear and told him what he wanted to hear plotted against hyde by then hyde's daughter anne had become the wife of the king to be james ii and was the mother of two uh english queens who followed mary the second and queen anne but for the moment edward hyde fell out of favor and the easiest thing to do when you're out of favor um is simply to accept the fact that you shouldn't be there and more than that the king sent him away so he died in the french city of ruan and his body was brought quietly back to be buried in westminster abbey but we remember him today on this december the 9th as one who made a new beginning after the terrible crisis and awful civil wars there were counted and the the first civil war was the longest but then a second civil war a third civil war which ended in the execution of the king and then the 11 years of what was called the commonwealth and that ended when the king charles ii was received back with his counsellor edward hyde who came to make a new beginning to make decisions for a new start and to say try to put the past behind you for this is going to be different situation we find ourselves in now really after all the scriptures of the pandemic let's try to put the pastor behind us what the writer to the hebrews is is saying in the epistle and uh then let's then think of another new beginning now this is uh a strange lady she looked a strange lady and i remember her on uh television in the in the uh early early 1960s there was a program called this is your life when uh uh a commentator ellen andrews would suddenly surprise a celebrity in and they didn't know this was going to happen and the celebrity was um on this occasion dame edith sitwell and she came into the studio and i at that time probably that was 1961 so i'd been 14 remember thinking very strange lady she was a poet a critic and another who spoke the absolute honest truth she belonged to a family of eccentrics in that way her brothers ozbert and sichevrel were also famous but that time i think that was probably the first time i'd seen her and certainly the first time i heard her this is your life then tended in half an hour to produce those who've been important in your life early on and they'd come and meet you again and speak about things and you'll respond i know i don't remember much about the program with her i remember more what she looked like but there's also a connection here because uh just before the second world war broke out there was a great party on the lawn here which was well remembered by dean hewlett johnson's wife in letters to him afterwards because she remembered it is the last occasion when there had been a an unreservedly happy time on the lawn and it was at the baptism of the younger of the two daughters of hewlett johnson and the the dean also in writing to his wife remembered this afterwards and edith sitwell was one of the godparents and was here so we think of here on these lawns but we think about also as a poet yes she was a person who loved words she played with words and there is one of her poems in that long sequence of playing with words facade which was set to music by sir william walton she was a friend of poets like siegfried sassoon and the bloom's reset and composers like william walton and he wrote music not to be sung to but to be read over probably the most famous of those is the one which trips along quite fast and the tune da da da da da da da da da da da silly and shady longing to be a lazy lady as they go on through they make little sense it's words playing with the music but when the war began the second world war after that party that i've described on the lawn here and one can imagine it happy at a baptism a christening party the war broke out and the deanery itself as you've heard me say in 1940 was blasted or it's frontage blasted by a high explosive bomb falling on i think october the 17th 1940 as the dean and guests were at lunch and they ran for shelter and at that point everything that uh nell the wife of of julia johnson had known in this beautiful place that she had created with her grand piano and everything in the drawing room was shattered and she laments for that in a letter but he did sit well wrote a poem not about this place but about the constant blitzing of london and the bombs raining down on that city which she loved it's called still falls the rain and was set to music by benjamin britton as one of his canticles i think it's canticle number three it was set for tenor voice and a horn and piano but here is the poem neat as she wrote it and she likens that rain of bombs to the rain falling down on innocent citizens and then talks about the way in which in 1944 yes no more sorry 1940 years the the date of the bombing when she's writing this poem humankind has changed little in its desire to hurt as well as its capacity to do good so here's the poem still falls the rain and underneath in brackets she's written the raids 1940 night and dawn and the poem runs still falls the rain dark as the world of man black as our loss blind as the 1940 nails upon the cross still falls the rain with a sound like the pulse of the heart that is changed to the hammer beat in the in the potter's field on the sound of impious feet on the tomb still falls the rain in the field of blood where the small hopes breed and the human brain nurtures its greed that worm with the brow of cain still falls the rain at the feet of the starved man hung upon the cross christ that each day each night nails there have mercy on us on divis and on lazarus under the rain the sore and the gold are as one still falls the rain still falls the blood from the starved man's wounded side he bears in his heart all wounds those of the light that died the last faint spark in the self-murdered heart the wounds of the sad uncomprehending dark the wounds of the baited bear the blind and weeping bear whom the keepers on his helpless flesh the tears of the hunted hare still fools the rain then i'll leap up to my god who pulls me down see see where christ's blood streams in the firmament it flows from the brow we nailed upon the tree deep to the dying to the thirsting heart that holds the fires of the world dark smirched with pain at caesar's laurel crown then sounds the voice of one who like the heart of man was once a child who among these says lane still do i love still shed my innocent light my blood for thee edith sitwell's poem during the blitzes as bombs reigned on the city on bad and good alike on innocent and guilty alike and anchors it into those stories of the cross of passion tide of judas and the potter's field and all that has happened in the 1940 years since until that day she hears the bombs drop well quite quickly then um two other little dates on 9th of december one in 1934 one in 1967. the 1934 one is of the actress dame judy dench and dame judy dench born on that day uh has a birthday today so we wish her a very happy birthday indeed one of our finest actresses of course and last year we went through so many of the roles that she's played from james bond character to shakespeare from sitcom in time as time goes by to tea with mussolini and to that from that rather to ladies in lavender we'll come back to that in a moment we mentioned perhaps because we're doing this this morning and still able to be found on the internet her long uh one-hour documentary on her passion for trees which we are asked to join in with now but let's go back to the feel of the film lady ladies in lavender with uh with maggie smith the two of them play in that heart-rending film and i mention that because in it there is that most wonderful almost rhapsody on a violin with orchestra which was written by the composer nigel hess for that film and it was played by a young violinist who himself was born on this day the 9th of december 1967 joshua bell an american violinist said that when we watch that film we see dame judy dench playing the most wonderful role of someone so disappointed and at times so devastatingly upset with herself but a a kind of love has taken control of her and maggie smith trying so much to support her in their old age as the ladies in lavender it has a wonderfully moving ending but the music of that violin of joshua bell goes all the way through it in that beautiful melody and they share the date the 9th of december for their birthday she in 1934 he in 1967 so happy birthday to both of them on this december the 9th let's then say our prayers we're praying this morning for the diocese of ejebu south west and that's in the church of nigeria in the lagos province and here in the diocese today for the we the the joint parish there of east tree and wooden sprawl which contains northbourne as i said yesterday and pleasure was reminding me of the beauty of that saxon church in its foundation northbourne with uh a a a wonderful provenance and and beauty of its own and we talked about the little church also at better's hangar but this morning we're thinking of wooden's breath and the church there and praying for kirili reed and robert stevenson in their ministry in those parishes and for east street church of england primary school and northbourne church of england primary school and also so northbourne school in those parishes so we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for emma bishop at lambeth as we say first of all the prayer for this week of advent and then the advent collect itself oh lord raise up we pray your power and come among us and with great might sucker us that whereas through our sins and wickedness we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set before us your bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us through jesus christ your son our lord to whom with you and the holy spirit the honor and glory now and forever amen the anthem collect almighty god give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life in which your son jesus christ came to us in great humility that on the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen moment then of silence and reflection as we say our own prayers so so so so so so so christ the son of righteousness shine upon you scatter the darkness from before your path and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory 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