good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this friday the 23rd of april it's st george's day and just as we kept andrew for scotland and patrick for ireland and david for wales we keep today the patron saint of england saint george he's been the patron saint here since the mid-14th century taking over from edward the confessor and the flag of the the white background and red cross is england's flag this part of the united kingdom and it's also the the flag of the church of england because we are church of england and uh there are other churches in this this land of the anglican and episcopal persuasion in scotland and wales and ireland so we fly that flag over the deanery but no no more important day than today as we keep it for saint george george of cappadocia uh a martyr in the fourth century but he's accrued many legends clinging to other martyrs and saints throughout the ages and become a symbol of of valor and adventure and of sacrificial service as all martyrs are let's pray today for the uh cathedral church in jerusalem and for dean hosam there for the college there which does very much the same kind of work that our international study center does for the anglican communion closed at the moment because of the pandemic but we pray to be opened again soon and already they're booking for study courses at that place of pilgrimage and also anglican hospitality we give thanks on this day for all the aspects of sin george's day and for the vocation of this nation like every nation to be in the service of the world so the flag of saint george represents that for us and we shall think of many things associated with that when we come to our reflection there are fairly desperate places to play pray for today one thinks of the situation with the pandemic in india and those on the front line facing that with with uh resources which are stretched absolutely to breaking point and we think also of other places like brazil where the the pandemic is is still very fierce and numbers are high there too we think of the submariners who've been caught in their submarine in indonesia and people are looking for them as the fresh air begins to run out their air there and all in a more happy note we say happy birthday to prince louis the youngest son of their royal highness is the duke and duchess of cambridge the flag is uh flying on the cathedral and just below in the gardener's eye look towards the flag is the great white magnolia the last to be flowering and one of those that wendy white thompson and her husband ian who was dean here planted and it's wendy's funeral tomorrow so we remember her and her family john her son and his family came to share some time with us yesterday and we were able to have lovely memories of wendy and remember again the huge contribution that she and her husband ian made to this place over so many years so let's say our prayers on this particular morning and um i'm sitting here in front of the meddler which is beginning to leaf with crown imperials blooming below it and on my right uh with the the the lovely fratillaries flowering in the lawn the trees which fletcher has recently planted which are there because the ash tree behind the great ash tree like every ash tree is threatened with ash dieback and these trees will grow up to replace for those who come after we are very much stewards of this place for a short time in its long history and we take that responsibility very seriously but also our responsibility for the planet in planting trees to help our climate and to care for the planet and all its life let's say our prayers then on this 23rd of april sin george's day our law o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice alleluia blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as once you ransomed your people from egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your risen son may we the first fruits of your new creation rejoice in this new day you have made and praise you for your mighty acts 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our son 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 our 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 special lesson for sin george's day so we leave our reading of the gospel of saint matthew to go to the epistle to the ephesians and i'm in chapter 6 and verse 10 it will become very evident why this is the lesson finally my brothers and sisters be strong in the lord and in the strength of his might put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places therefore take up the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of god praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints and pray also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which i am an ambassador in chains that i may declare it boldly as i ought to speak the armor of a soldier the breastplate and the shield and the sword and the helmet but the writer to the ephesians is speaking very much of spiritual weapons against spiritual forces of evil and it becomes a very powerful lesson and the emblem of saint george is very much an emblem which is there to help us take up those spiritual weapons and also to combat them in real form we keep speaking of body mind and spirit and to begin with this lesson is speaking of the combat and i i think that the the aspect of the dragon which is something which is very much for saint george and george and the dragon um is taken from the great emblem of sin michael and his angels fighting that great dragon a picture language of the eternal battle until the end of human time of the forces of good and the forces of evil in the heavenly places in the eternal dimension and also in the mental dimension and in the the physical dimension many people will be fighting evil today and doing it courageously and sometimes at the cost of their own life that is what george really is standing for i think it's it's why edward iii in the middle of the 14th century changed england's saint from edward the confessor to one who was going out to venture things for good sometimes human ideas of good become limited but the spiritual qualities of good in the heavenly places can never be limited and that image of michael and the dragon is one which is given to us in the same way for sin george as we read that epistle to the ephesians there are there are many things today which give this part of the united kingdom this england which was a kingdom on its own at the times of uh queens like queen elizabeth the first until the united kingdom became something in our history but we still our cultures have kinship with places whether we were born there or whether i like a and what should we call an immigrant into kent i'm learning kent with the help and all its beauties with the help of others who've known it since their birth and in the crypt of our cathedral church where huguenots fleeing from persecution and and assassination and and a terrible bloodshed in paris in the middle of the 16th century found shelter here in the cathedral and still worship every week and on the door of the chapel i think i've said before there is almost a poem it's written in prose of the way in which it's part of england's vocation to give shelter to those in danger or those who come here and make them into the kind of community we are full of diversity and always have been right from the beginning for people coming here to form the nation but taking on the qualities in which we believe and those qualities are then put at the service of humankind this was the day in 1348 when edward iii founded the order of the garter which has its home in st george's chapel windsor where all our eyes were focused as were so many from throughout the world 2.5 billion people i think looking at the service giving thanks for the memory of prince philip and his long service to this nation and so many causes which we were exploring for young people and for the commonwealth and for the world and the care of our planet and yet he came here fleeing from danger with his family and was given at first hospitality and then he served the nation in the royal navy flying under the white ensign and then became a citizen here and served this place to the end of his days all of that we remember as we remember the dean and canons of st george's windsor and we remembered the dean and those who care for sin george's cathedral in jerusalem on this day holding those qualities but this is a day when various dates have given us poetry about england first in all this is the date of the birth in 1564 so far as we can tell of william shakespeare it is certainly the day on which he died in 1616 so a double anniversary for william shakespeare and we could read so many of his poems and i will in a moment but let's just go on a little bit it's the day on which uh charles ii was crowned king of england at the restoration following our years of civil war which we've talked about and it meant also the restoration of the church of england and the liturgy and worship that we use it's the day on which uh the painter the landscape painter mostly jmw turner was born in 1775 a a painter of enormous fame and quality and his paintings hang in all are national galleries of inequality here and then in uh uh 1915 um let's say no first 1850 the poet laureate william wordsworth died and in 1915 the poet rupert brooke died it's a day of poetry and each have written things which give form and quality for our love for this place of which we at this time our citizens and its intention to serve for the welfare of the world and the vocation of sacrifice on this sin george's day i could read so many things from shakespeare we could read uh things like his john of gaunt's speech this royal throne of kings or we could read his uh henry v speech cry god for harry england and saint george all of all of those things it's not that that i'm going to read from shakespeare first of all this is the most lovely day and the countryside and the spring season is wonderful i'm starting with a little song from as you like it and uh it has been set by so many musicians my favorite is the setting by roger quilter but here it runs and you'll know it well these are the words it was a lover and his lass with a hay and a hoe and a hainani no that all the green cornfield did pass in the springtime the only pretty ring time when birds do sing hey ding a ding ding sweet lovers love the spring between the acres of the rye with a hay and a hoe and a hay noni know these pretty country folk would lie in springtime the only pretty ring time when birds do sing hey dinga ding ding sweet lovers love the spring this carol they began that hour with a hay and a hoe and a hain only know how that life was but a flower in springtime the only pretty ring time when birds do sing hey dinga ding ding sweet lovers love the spring and therefore take the present time with a hay and a hoe and a hainani no for love is crowned with the prime in springtime the only pretty ring time when birds do sing hey dinga ding ding sweet lovers love the spring a light-hearted song for springtime and love but the other perimeter read is a sonnet now i could have chosen the most famous of all shall i compare thee to a summer day but no i'm going actually to use the one which speaks most of the steely quality of love when it really is love here it is it's sonnet 116. if i should die oh sorry that's rupert brooke wrong wrong one let's get solid 116. too many papers here we are let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments love is not love which alters when it alteration finds or bends with the remover to remove oh no it is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken it is the star to every wandering bark whose worth's unknown although his height be taken love's not time's fool though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickles compass come love alters not with his brief hours and weeks but bears it out even to the edge of doom if this be error and upon me proved i never writ nor no man ever loved powerful sonnet and not of springtime's romances but the eternal quality in life and death that love can prove but let's just think of wordsworth because on this day too for this land i want to quote one of his and this is his lines upon westminster bridge talking of his love of the city of london but especially at sunrise when all is peaceful and he speaks of it as a city which his heart goes out to here it is earth has not anything to show more fair dull would he be of soul who could pass by a sight so touching in its majesty this city now does like a garment where the beauty of the morning silent bear ships towers domes theaters and temples lie open onto the fields and to the sky all bright and glittering in the smokeless air never did sun more beautifully steep in his first splendor valley rock or hill now saw i never felt a calm so deep the river glideth at his own sweet will dear god the very houses seem asleep and all that mighty heart is lying still sunrise over london from westminster bridge and the affection that wordsworth is feeling at that time for this special place that's the poem that we pay tribute to wordsworth with on this spring morning the anniversary of his death in 1850 and then the poem i nearly started but didn't um and if i've lost that now here we are it's the poem by rupert brooke which became an emblem of a love of england which had nothing to do with war he'd gone to war he died on this day of a mosquito bite which turned poisonous not in battle but he had written a poem which seemed to express so much more of the love of a particular place which gives people strengths and all of you will have those loves of particular places particularity is part of human life and a particular love is part of human life so think of that as rupert brooke talks of his love of england if i should die think only this of me that there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever england there shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed a dust whom england bore shaped made aware gave once her flowers to love her ways to rome a body of england's breathing england's air washed by the rivers blessed by sons of home and think this heart all evil shed away a pulse in the eternal mind no less gives somewhere back the thoughts by england given her sights and sounds dreams happy as her day and laughter learnt of friends and gentleness in hearts at peace under an english heaven expressing a love for a particular place blessed by i should have said the sun in this is the sun that's rising here an s-u-n not an s-o-n of the sons blessed by sons of home he's talking about sunrises sunsets and the bright sun shining on me this morning onto english soil as it it actually shines onto the soils of so many lands for which we have love but so many of us have roots in particular places which may have grown up in our own life or may have come from birth and maybe in a land which has adopted us and of which now we are citizens as we spoke with prince philip and then uh on the other hand it may be that we've grown here and have a responsibility for those values which george expresses i seem to remember when we talk about nightly armor a song which i've not heard is a hymn which i've not heard for a very long time but used to be very popular in schools i think it's by um uh um i've lost the person who wrote it i was going to say elena fargo and it isn't ellen a fortune um but i'll think in a moment but it went uh when a knight won his spurs in the stories of old he was gentle and brave he was valiant and bold with a long sword by his side and a lance in his hand for god and for valor he rose through the land and the verses went on and as they went on um we sang about how we weren't nights and we didn't have chargers and we didn't have lances and sword yet still for adventure and also for battle for combat for good we would go and uh we will then come on to to that uh and um uh it's jan struther that is so and we remember jan struther on this day for that and we know her so much better for for other hymns which she wrote but i remember that this morning and that lovely tune and some of you will remember it as well and all my words would have been wrong i'm sure but it was something like that so let's think of the armor that we're given spiritual armor mental armor physical armor but also the quality of love which we must protect and also fight for through sick and sin well let's say our prayers on this particular day saint george's day as we pray for this this land on this day of the patron saint and we are also praying on this day for justin our archbishop of course and the diocese of botswana in the church of the province of central africa and again on this day we are praying for listening and discernment in our diocese for each of its parishes and the clergy you look after them but especially bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lambeth so let's say first of all the colleague forcing george's day and then the easter collect for today bring your own prayers and intentions god of hosts who so kindled the flame of love in the heart of your servant george that he bore witness to the risen lord by his life and by his death give us the same faith and power of love that we who rejoice in his triumphs may come to share with him the fullness of the resurrection through jesus christ our lord amen and the colleague for this week almighty father who in your great mercy gladden the disciples with the sight of the risen lord give us such knowledge of his presence with us that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life and serve you continually in righteousness and truth through jesus christ our lord amen so we say together each in our own language the prayer our lord has 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 for our own prayers on this day god give you grace to follow his saints in faith and hope and love 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 [Music] you