good morning and welcome to the dinery at canterbury cathedral on this morning of friday the 7th of january we have entered the season of epiphany but for all those of the orthodox churches throughout the world and vast areas of russia and ukraine and of greece and eastern europe but also those orthodox who worship in churches in other lands across the world even here in our own city of canterbury an orthodox congregation worships in one of our school chapels here and so this is christmas day in the orthodox calendar and so we are praying for our friend sasha in st petersburg and all his family our friends in throughout russia in ukraine and also in greece and you'll be having many friends that you want to pray for too as they begin to celebrate christmas so we're giving christmas one last look as we continue to think of the visit of the magi to the holy child which begins our epiphany thinking and really is part of our thinking until sunday with the baptism of jesus and that feast then takes us on further but for this morning we give thanks for the orthodox churches of the world for their spirituality and for their music which is a very distinctive kind but has influenced western christendom more and more oh [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] let's begin our prayers then on this 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 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 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 [Music] our psalm this morning on this seventh morning of the month is psalm 36 sin whispers to the wicked in the depths of their heart there is no fear of god before their eyes they flatter themselves in their own eyes that their abominable sin will not be found out the words of their mouth are unrighteous and full of deceit they have ceased to act wisely and to do good they think out mischief upon their beds and have set themselves in no good way nor do they abhor that which is evil your love o lord reaches to the heavens and your faithfulness to the clouds your righteousness stands like the strong mountains your justice like the great deep you lord shall save both man and beast how precious is your loving mercy o god all mortal flesh shall take refuge under the shadow of your wings they shall be satisfied with the abundance of your house they shall drink from the river of your delights for with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light o continue your loving kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to those who are true of heart let not the foot of pride come against me nor the hand of the ungodly thrusts me away there are they fallen all who work wickedness they are cast down and shall not be able to stand with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light verse 9 of the morning psalm 36 it's true that in the western tradition now christmas decorations will be taken down and we are just giving them a last um presence here on this day when we celebrate with the orthodox their christmas time but even though the christmas decorations are coming down there is a a custom in western catholic christendom of keeping cribs standing with the magi kneeling before the christ child and that until candle mass on february the second i mention it because i remember going to paris and being there in the middle of january one year it was in my time in the mid in the the um as dean of hereford and i had gone across there for a few days break and i went into the church of the madeleine in paris and the crib was still there and imaginatively they had asked the students of the art college nearby to create a crib for them and the students had made the crib an oasis really an oasis where the christ child was the well of refreshment and there were the trees of an oasis with the wilderness all around and the magi having traveled had found the oasis and were kneeling to offer their gifts at the well of life it's an image that i pondered and went back to several times in my visit there for it was a wonderful image and it stayed in my head the manger as the well of life taken of course from this verse in psalm 36 for with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light and the visitors from the east kneeling to take refreshment and for the major orthodox communions we we look towards the east on this day but i ought to say when i'm talking about french things that our uh lovely um cafe that i was talking about the cafe saint pierre who normally supplies us with a galette de gua and said that difficulties with the passage of goods between france and england had stopped them coming suddenly rang up yesterday and said the gallet de voir is here so early this morning i went down and uh i got the gale dough and here is the gallet de wa of france with its crown on top inside this lovely pastry will be almond paste a different kind of sweet meat for the epiphany and inside there too somewhere the bean that would make someone the king of the occasion it's the magi that we are concentrating on and what they found when they got there but the reading i'm going to use is from the book chronicles the second book of chronicles in the old testament and it's chapter 9 and i'm beginning at verse 1. now this scene takes place at the very height of the power of king solomon who was clearly a magnificent king with all his resources the temple has been built he's said his prayer to god that the temple will be blessed in that memorable scene calling down blessings on this place of worship the levites are daily singing the psalms the sacrifices are taking place and the sweet incense is rising like the prayer of the people and the visitor comes from the east who has heard of the wisdom of solomon which was of course legendary she is called the queen of sheba and possibly you know that name best from the piece that handel wrote for his uh his oratorio solomon uh the arrival of the queen of sheba well here is the story of the coming of the queen of sheba a visitor from the east to see a king now when the queen of sheba heard of the fame of solomon she came to jerusalem to test him with hard questions having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones and when she came to solomon she told him all that was on her mind and solomon answered all her questions there was nothing hidden from solomon that he could not explain to her and when the queen of shiva had seen the wisdom of solomon the house that he had built the food of his table the seating of his officials and the attendants of his servants and their clothing his cupbearers and their clothing and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the lord there was no more breath in her and she said to the king the report was true that i heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom but i did not believe the reports until i came and my own eyes had seen it and behold half the greatness of your wisdom was not told me you surpassed the report that i heard happy are your wives happy are these your servants who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom blessed be the lord your god who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the lord your god because your god loved israel and would establish them forever he has made you king over them that you may execute justice and righteousness then she gave the king 120 talents of gold and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones there were no spices such as those that the queen of shiva gave to king solomon moreover the servants of hiram and the servants of solomon who brought gold from ophia brought algum wood and precious stones and the king made from the album wood supports for the house of the lord and for the king's house liars also and harps for the singers there never was seen the like of them before in the land of judah and king solomon gave to the queen of sheba all that she desired whatever she asked besides what she had brought to the king so the queen turned and went back to her own land with her servants it's an um an old covenant precursor if you like to the scene of kings from the east magi from the east the wise coming to visit a king but the scene is very very different here is solomon in all his glory with wisdom to answer every question an insight which not only gave the queen what she wanted but much much more and the wise when they come the three kings the magi the astrologers who have looked up in the stars and seen the sign of a birth of a king they first travel to such a place as the queen went the palace of a king but their answer was not found there instead the star led them on and they came and found the child newly born marry his mother as matthew tells us and when they'd entered they fell on their knees and worshipped and like the queen of sheba offered gifts but what answers did they get none in human wisdom none in human words for the eternal word is there in the form of an infant and in terms of human words is silent the juxtaposition of the two is dramatic but remember that all that glory and splendor of solomon was destined to be thrown down because later on to begin with of the foolish actions of his son rehab and then gradually the corruption of the kingdom in so many different ways until we get to that period of exile when the psalms are sung in sadness by foreign trees and the harps that were speaking about were hung up on the trees because of the sadness it's singing the songs of home [Music] the true eternal word is there in the manger for the three kings to adore and worship but as we saw yesterday they go home by another way and that way is lit by the light of life they've come like that crib the madeleine to the well of life and they clearly felt and knew deep within them that they had found it but their wisdom was not satisfied with neat human answers it was fed and refreshed by the silence of the world made flesh entering their hearts and minds with a new light of exploration and journeying which would never end until the gates of eternity opened for them and a completely new kingdom was theirs and that message of the epiphany sprouting from christmas which our orthodox friends are keeping now and we have kept for the last 12 days and now go on into the light of the epiphany that is fed often in our silences when god speaks to us and orthodox spirituality as you know has a rhythm and a mystery and a concentration on icons which draw you in so that your spirit is fed so we give thanks for the different spiritualities of the church and the way in which we learn from one another but we continue to give thanks for the gift of the world made flesh at this epiphany season [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] i read a little bit from thomas hardy at christmas time but at this time of year there's another book of thomas hardy which i'm very fond of it's called two on a tower here's my old copy of it here and in it those of you who know the story know that it's the story of swithin sint cleave a young amateur astronomer and he without permission has found a way to the top of an ancient tower which is like a folly really uh built on the land of the local uh important lord who's away but his wife is there lady constantine and one evening lady constantine goes up onto the tower and finds within there and she takes an interest in what he's doing with his telescope looking at the stars and he said well i can i can help you my lady in understanding the stars if you would like and there is a wonderful passage when one night she goes up there and is talking with with vincent cleve about the stars and says she talks about them as something that is immutable unchangeable and he talks about the size and dignity of the universe lady constantine was heedful and silent swithin tried to give her yet another idea of the size of the universe never was there a more ardent endeavor to bring down the immeasurable to human comprehension by figures of speech and apt comparisons he took her mind into leading strings compelling her to follow him into the wilderness of which she had never in her life even realized the existence there is in the stars a size at which dignity begins he explained further on there is a size at which grandeur begins further on there is a signs at which solemnity begins further on a size at which awfulness begins further on a size at which ghastliness begins that size faintly approaches the size of the stellar universe so am i not right in saying that those minds who exert their imaginative powers to bury themselves in the depths of that universe merely strain their faculties to gain a new horror standing as she stood in the presence of the stellar universe under the very eyes of the constellations lady constantine apprehended something of the earnest youth's argument and to add a new weirdness to what the sky possesses in its size and formlessness there is involved the quality of decay for all the wonder of these everlasting stars eternal spheres and whatnot they are not everlasting they are not eternal they all burn out like candles if you are cheerful and wish to remain so lady constantine leave the study of astronomy alone i'm not altogether cheerful said our leadership then if on the other hand you are restless and anxious about the future study astronomy at once your troubles will be reduced amazingly but your study will reduce them in a singular way by reducing the importance of everything [Music] it's an amazing sequence of thinking and the story goes on in a wonderful way but that dimension of a depth even in the stellar universe which is too big for us to grasp is given us in the quality of the human life in the manger and the silence of the stars and yet it reaches on to something even more immense that which is an eternal kingdom where the well of life has refreshed us just to seek a way which will lead us there in body and mind in this finite world but to eternity in the world of the spirit which we embrace at all times but especially at this time of the epiphany let's then say our prayers on this day we're thinking uh on this day of the diocese of western eisen in the church of nigeria the bendel province and we're also in our own diocese praying for archbishop justin for bishop rose of dover for bishop emma at lambeth and for the little village of not not so little of bridge and also patrick's born this morning for estella last and miriam hinksman in their ministry and we shall think of other villages that they are caring for on other days but let's give thanks for their ministry there and for the life of bridge and patrick's born church of england primary school as schools begin to go back to their lessons at this time of pandemic so let's say the prayer for today the epiphany prayer as we worship together o god who by the leading of a star manifested your only son to the peoples of the earth mercifully grant that we who know you now by faith may at last behold your glory face to face through jesus christ our lord amen so in whatever language we like to use and uniting east and west in our christian response to god's grace we say the words 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 of reflection now on this day of epiphany for us and this christmas day for those of the orthodox churches [Music] r [Music] right [Music] is [Music] [Laughter] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and of his son jesus christ our lord 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 are men so leo we can go and have breakfast and then we can begin the day's work so happy christmas to all our friends of the orthodox communion and churches wherever they are and also happy epiphany day for the rest of us foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] we foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] say [Laughter] send me i [Music] [Music] if [Music] me foreign [Music] is you