good morning and welcome to Canterbury Cathedral on this Sunday the 5th of July it's an important day for us because later this morning the Archbishop will be celebrating the first Eucharist in the Cathedral Church itself and so we are both holding Services outside and services inside today and the morning services will continue to be streamed from our Gardens for the foreseeable future but at the same time we shall also be filming some of the services in the cathedral to allow you to to feel the presence of worship again in the Cathedral Church this day is tinged with a little sadness because this 5th of July 2020 had for 2 years now been earmarked as the day we would celebrate with a great celebration the 800th anniversary of the translation of Thomas Beckett from the old Shrine which he had uh been in in the Crypt for 50 years from his martydom until 1220 and the consecration of the new Shrine on the 7th of July in 1220 the occasion of the coming together of many important people from church and state and different nations from right across Europe I'll talk a little bit about that in our reflection but suffice it to say that everything has had to be should we call it postponed for the moment and we hope that something of that can occur next year we had intended to do it on this Sunday nearest to the 7th of July but let's say our morning prayers on this glad day when we re-enter the cathedral for our Eucharist oh Lord open our lips and our mouths shall Proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation and sustain us with your gracious Spirit blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your Dawn renews the face of the Earth bringing light and Life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep 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 of your presence oh God set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen the psalm on this fifth day of the month is Psalm 24 the Earth is the Lord's and all that fills it the compass of the world and all who dwell therein for he has founded it upon the Seas and set it firm upon the rivers of the deep who shall Ascend the hill of the Lord or who can rise up in his holy Place those who have clean hands and a pure heart who have not lifted up their soul to an idol nor sworn an oath to a lie they shall receive a blessing from the Lord a just reward from the god of their salvation such is the company of those who seek Him of those who seek your face oh god of Jacob lift up your heads oh Gates be lifted up you Everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in who is the king of glory the lord strong and mighty the Lord who is mighty in battle lift up your heads oh Gates be lifted up you Everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in who is this king of glory the lord of hosts he is the king of glory Sunday as always breaks into our regular reading of the Gospel of St Luke but there is a con continuity between last Sunday's lesson and this Sunday's lesson you remember the last Sunday we were reading acts 27 the story of the Shipwreck and St Paul and all on board being saved as they reached the beach and now today we continue that story in chapter 28 reading from verses 1 to 16 acts 28 after we were brought safely through we then learned that the island was called molter the native people showed us unusual kindness for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all because it had begun to rain and was cold when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire a Viper came out because of the Heat and fastened on his hand and when the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand they said to one another no doubt this man is a murderer though he has escaped from the sea justice has not allowed him to live Paul however shook off the creature Into the Fire and suffered no harm they were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead but when they had waited a long time and saw no Misfortune come to him they changed their minds and said that he was a god now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island named puus who received us and entertained us hospitably for 3 days it happened that the father of puus lay sick with fever and dentry and Paul visited him and prayed and putting his hands on him healed him and when this had taken place the rest most of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured they also honored us greatly and when we were about to sail they put on board whatever we needed after 3 months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island a ship of Alexandria with the twin Gods as a figurehead putting in it Syracuse we stayed there there for 3 days and from there we made a circuit and arrived at regium and after one day a south wind sprang up and on the second day we came to puoli there we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for 7even days and so we came to Rome and the brothers and sisters there when they heard about us came as far as the Forum of app and three taverns to meet us on seeing them Paul thanked God and took courage and when we came into Rome Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him the landing on the island and Paul and all the crew safely there and given Hospitality on the front cover of the Eucharist today in the Cathedral Church is a picture it's a copy of an oil painting rather an idealistic one which hangs in our chapter room where we have our meetings and it is a picture rather dramatic picture of Archbishop Thomas Becket Landing in pegwell Bay near sandwich coming back from his Exile in December 1170 not long before his martyrdom he has come to celebrate Christmas with the people who have been waiting for him and the picture shows the ship coming towards the landing place and the hands of the crowd young and old in great numbers reaching out for blessing and Becket is blessing them before he lands he goes on and up to the cathedral and there he celebrates Christmas this Feast that we were about to celebrate is not about his martyrdom but more about the flowering of pilgrimage first in the around the old Shrine in the Crypt and later the the new Shrine which was consecrated on that day the 7th of July 1220 but let's think first about becket's Journey for his life had brought him through many different scenes and many different kinds of experiences he had been England's Lord Chancellor and had acted for the king and it was the king who then insisted that he be Archbishop of Canterbury thinking that that would give Henry II control over the church too and Becket on the other hand the moment he was ordained and consecrated as Archbishop meant in his mind to turn his loyalty absolutely to the church hence the enormous tension that immediately arose with the king who had been his close friend well we know the story well and this Landing is a Prelude to his death just as St Paul's Landing in molta meant that his life had been spared from the ship and spared from the Viper but when he gets to Rome the end is going to be a tragic one for him though on the other hand his martyrdom and the martyrdom of St Peter in Rome at the same time meant that Rome became the focus and center of the Christian church at that time and from then on during those years our festival today was designed to have been a totally ecumenical one and you will have read how the tunicle of Thomas Becket which he had been wearing at the time of his martydom was going to be brought from Rome as a a a a a gift this loan for a while during these days not only of the Becket Festival but also of the lambus conference of bishops from throughout the Anglican communion who would have been meeting here soon after at the end of July and August all of that has has to be postponed but we still remember today the flowering of pilgrimage they coming together and our prayers today as we pray for our friends in Rome who were planning this with us and I'm bound to name Father Robert mccullock who has been in instrumental who had the vision for all this to happen and who yesterday on July the 4th would have celebrated his golden jubilee of priesthood here at Canterbury he is celebrating it this weekend in Rome and we wish him well and many congratulations but we look forward to continuing the Festival of Becket on the 29th of December at the date of the martyrdom and also next year at this time when perhaps we can come together physically in an ecumenical Festival of unity with that Shrine destroyed by Henry VII but where a candle now Burns constantly that Shrine as a focus of unity pilgrims come there constantly and what it means and what the festival would have meant is a coming together of many nations constantly we can talk about pilgrimage a great deal here and the number and variety of pilgrims who come and are sent off on the Via Fran the way to Rome or have come here along the Becket pilgrimages to this place the candle burns still as a focus but meanwhile we give thanks that another Focus will happen in our Cathedral today a focus of freedom from having to be locked in our homes and the ability to come together once again to Worship in the Cathedral Church even though at a social distance from each other well it's a beginning just as the consecration of the Shrine in 1220 with so many crowned heads and mited heads from all over Europe there was a beginning and from that moment onwards pilgrimage flourished and always has and still does thank God for that because it becomes a sign of what Christians were right at the beginning as we've been thinking this week followers of the way let's say our Sunday prayers and today we are praying in the Anglican communion for the United Church of Pakistan and we pray for the primate Humphrey Peters Bishop of Pasar and moderator of the Church of Pakistan pray also for the parish here in Canterbury dasis of hedge corn and the Sutton and Fiona haset in her Ministry pray on this day for Justin Archbishop of Canterbury as he celebrates here for Rose Bishop of DOA who will be here beside him at the altar Tim Bishop at lth and we remember all our friends in Rome who've been planning this festival with us and ecumenically Christian leaders throughout the world on this day so we say first the prayer for Thomas Beckett Lord God who gave Grace to your servant Thomas Becket to put aside all Earthly fear and be faithful even to death grant that we disregarding worldly esteem May fight all wrong uphold your rule and and serve you to our life's end through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen and the collect for this fourth Sunday after Trinity oh God the protector of all who trust in you without whom nothing is strong nothing is Holy increase and multiply upon us your mercy that with you as our ruler and guide we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not our hold on things it Eternal Grant this heavenly father for our lord Jesus Christ's sake amen so we say on this Sunday morning the prayer which Jesus taught us to say whenever we come together in worship and whenever we say our prayers alone we say it in whichever language and in whatever way you like normally to say it 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 so moment of silence for your own prayers on this Sunday morning God give you Grace to follow St Thomas Becket and all his Saints in faith and hope and love and the blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be amongst you and remain with you Those whom you love and those you would pray for today and always amen