good morning and welcome to the garden of the deanery in canterbury cathedral wherever you are in the world welcome for saying our prayers together for morning prayer on quite a lovely morning but we've come actually into the turkey greenhouse for one very good reason um i could say because we've not seen them for a week or two and certainly darcy himself has has developed quite a lot in that time but at the same time this with the three turkeys darcy lizzy and jane is the day january the 28th which in 1813 saw the publication of jane austen's novel pride and prejudice so for a bit of fun we've we've come into the uh into the turkey greenhouse and they will be our companions through the morning i'm going to just give them some breakfast here and then we'll begin our morning prayers and this very much has a theme of exploration and discovery and also the courage to keep going in that journey of discovery let me put some some breakfast down for these and then here we are lizzy come on that's the way there we go so let's begin our morning prayers 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 so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever are men our psalm on this 28th morning of the month is psalm 132 lord remember for david all the hardships he endured how he swore an oath to the lord and vowed a vow to the mighty one of jacob i will not come within the shelter of my house nor climb up into my bed i will not allow my eyes to sleep nor let my eyelids slumber until i find a place for the lord a dwelling for the mighty one of jacob now we heard of the ark in ephrathah and found it in the fields of jr let us enter his dwelling place and fall low before his footstool arise o lord into your resting place you and the ark of your strength let your priests be clothed with righteousness and your faithful ones sing with joy for your servant david's sake turn not away the face of your anointed the lord has sworn an oath to david a promise from which he will not shrink of the fruit of your body shall i set upon your throne if your children keep my covenant and my testimonies that i shall teach them their children also shall sit upon your throne forevermore for the lord has chosen zion for himself he has desired her for his habitation this shall be my resting place forever here will i dwell for i have longed for her i will abundantly bless her provision her poor will i satisfy with bread i will close her priests with salvation and her faithful ones shall rejoice and sing there will i make a horn to spring up for david i will keep a lantern burning for my anointed as for his enemies i will close them with shame but on him shall his crown be bright perhaps the line to remember the parable line if you like as we go into the gospel of saint mark i will keep a lantern burning for my anointed well let's read our passage from saint mark's gospel yesterday we read the parable of the serra and thought of it if you like as a typical parable telling a story with all kinds of meanings and today we come back just after that parable and continue at verse 21 of chapter four jesus said to them is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket or under a bed and not on a lamp stand for nothing is hidden except to be made manifest nor is anything secret except to come to light if anyone has ears to hear let them hear jesus said to them again pay attention to what you hear with the measure you use it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you for to the one who has more will be given and from the one who has not even what they have will be taken away we're very much back with parables and this time it's a parable followed by another parable of a simple simple image and that simple image is of a lantern as the psalm said a lantern being brought in to give light and then jesus as with so many of the parables says something which he knows to be ridiculous you wouldn't bring a lantern into the house and then put it under the bushel basket the measuring basket for a bushel one of the measures and you certainly wouldn't put it under the bed i think the crowds you can hear them laughing as he says it and saying of course not and then he is really going back to all that we learned yesterday about the possibility of soils of different types being fruitful whether it be light bringing things that are hidden into the light for fruitfulness and that's a good gardening parable as well as an agricultural parable for the seed it first is hidden in darkness and then comes to the light for fruitfulness but roots itself in good ground so we said it's it's almost like the parable of the soils that's that that parable that we normally call the parable of the sower and then at the same time jesus goes on to the way in which one might measure out meal or flour or leaven and the measures that you're using and the creativity that you're using become the measure that is given back to you let's go back to the sour scattering the seed the the ground with stones and the ground with weeds and thistles receives the seed but then because of the nature of the soil which has been prepared to receive that seed even what they had in terms of seed is taken away from them jesus leaves these images simply there in his teaching there's no explanations given today for these parables just the image of light in darkness go back to holocaust day and the theme we had yesterday be the light in darkness and that's talking about a human life and at this time when the pandemic weighs so much on our mind in every nation then being the light in the darkness for one another by whatever means we choose becomes creatively the most important thing that we can do jesus points around to the beauties of creation and the way things develop when you're seeing how darcy here has developed since last you saw him when he's standing so proudly now displaying himself to lizzie on his right and jane on his left and all kinds of lessons of creativity can come from that but lessons also of beauty and of development let's look at some of the dates january the 28th throughout history and see how they prompt us towards voyages of exploration with our own soil and brave ways of receiving the seed of the word don't forget uh yesterday how we thought that the even the word word is capable of so many different meanings and especially in real terms of the humanity of jesus demonstrating the divinity of the creator and offered to us through the spirit i have kept a lantern burning for my anointed says the psalmist and here's the light in the darkness for jesus to be the light in our darkness on january the 28th in 15 in 1457 king henry vii was born who founded the tudor dynasty which took england through a very very significant part of its development and oddly in 1547 on the same date king henry viii his son died the in 1596 sir francis drake died and drake was the great explorer his wonderful prayer about being brave enough to sail out of sight of the shore and daring and just being there with ocean and sky and stars all of that is a wonderful prayer but the prayer that i will want to use was developed from a quotation from a letter of his which he sent to the secretary of state and in it if we just call the sentence which came from it he said um we have to remember that when we ever given something great to endeavor we must also know that it's not the beginning but the continuing of the same until it be thoroughly finished that yield is the true glory exploration and discovery that was turned by eric milner white into a most marvelous prayer and we'll use it at the end of our worship but the the meaning is plain the gifts which drake had he used and at the same time kept faith with those around him we could say the same really about jane austen in 1813 for in writing the story of pride and prejudice of mr darcy and elizabeth bennett and jane bennett and all the other bennetts and mrs bennett and mr bennett when she wrote that she couldn't know that that that book and the development of lizzie bennet in terms of the lessons she learns both from the proud mr dark darcy and also on her own with her sister jane she couldn't know that that would prove an exploration of discovery in relationships as people read the book from then on and others took inspiration from it i only have to to mention the the uh film of bridget jones diary where colin firth who played uh played uh darcy in the great bbc television pride and prejudice with jennifer ale as the as lizzy colin first plays actually a modern character called mark darcy and so much is echoing the same kind of learning lessons and jumping to wrong suppositions and going on through that's why the book becomes so enjoyable it's been used so many times and we still enjoy base reading it but at the same time seeing the interpretations that have been given journeys of discovery from simple things um in 1918 a man called harry corbett was born and after the second world war he bought a simple glove puppet of a little bear and wanting it to have some more features he with some soot marked his nose and ears and that glove puppet who became gave pleasure and humor to all of us through the 1950s through the 1960s and still carrying on with others and in the beginning it was only harry corbett and the glove puppet being creative with such imaginative ways of amusing and characterizing people and then in came sweep if you remember and then the the fun began even even more so this day also in terms of creativity in 1958 saw lego patented and that children and adult toy with bricks that can fit together so well in great patterns of building and creativity has proved an inspiration to creativity and also the the kind of things that that people can do to attract people in in we visited in uh washington national cathedral uh uh the year before last uh a huge model of the cathedral in lego that we could buy a brick and put the brick on and helped build the lego of washington cathedral but contribute to washington national cathedral by buying the brick lego is endlessly inventive and so much easier than meccano which we used to use before lego arrived where you were in danger of swallowing the little screws nuts and bolts and everything else lego's so so adaptive to all the things that people want to create well we could we could we could use so many stories of that kind this morning but also there are stories of tragedy with invention and and exploration and i'll mention that january 28 in 1986 was the day that the space shuttle uh challenger exploded 73 seconds after takeoff before the eyes of a horrified world and also the seven astronauts lost their lives among them christo mcauliffe the first teacher an american civilian to travel into space that afternoon the president ronald reagan made a broadcast to help the citizens and especially the children who'd seen her say goodbye to to to understand what was going on and he said in the middle of that the future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted it belongs to the brave the crew of the space shuttle challenger honoured us by the manner in which they live their lives we will never forget them nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for this journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of god a terrible moment which people had to realize was was part of exploration and travel but exploration and travel can happen in so many different ways in the mind with the body and its creative capacity and in the heart and in all of these in our spirituality in our mental thinking and in our physical activity however small that be may be at this time of pandemic and lockdown we ourselves develop and i wanted to mention also that on this day in 1944 john taverner was born a great composer i i remember him really well from times in dorset where he and mariana his wife lived at child oakford but he would he would join musical weekends and be with us through those weekends and walking around the garden at minton house and hearing him talk to my sister about her disabilities and seeing the way he dealt with that but also because he himself was was a very frail person in physical health but he was endlessly creative and his faith was what set him on fire he had become a member of the orthodox church because that that spirituality suited him but he used all kinds of aspects of other faiths too and we remember him for things like the lamb which we sing as an ansem the protecting veil the song for a sini and all kinds of other beautiful works john rutter said of him john taverner had the rare gift the very rare gift of being able to bring an audience to deep silence and the cellist stephen isilis who had been used for the protecting veil said john had his own voice he wasn't writing to be popular he was writing the music he had to write let me remind you it was his music that saw us into the millennium just before midnight struck and the words he used for that little anthem let there be respect for the earth oh lord peace for your people o lord love in our lives delight in the good o lord forgiveness for past wrongs o lord and from now on a new beginning oh lord alleluia it was such simple music but heartfelt and heart meant at that time well let's say our prayers remembering that this day is um the day when the uh calendar of the um catholic church remembers saint julian of cowenka in the spanish calendar who died on this day in 1208 we absolutely love the city of cuenca it's a monastic city with its cathedral perched on a ravine in spain and the sunrises there are amazing but the parador is in a monastery and it's never lost that feel and to say the daily office in one's morning prayers as the sun rises up on the top there in cuenca is one of the wonders of of uh of the world for me when when i'm able to do it and we try to do that every year but at the moment of course it's a lockdown also today is the feast day of st thomas aquinas it was moved to this day because his his day of year's mind is in lent but i'm intending to keep that on march the 7th the the actual day that that he died but we remember him this morning and uh i'm going to use in our prayers of course the prayer that i mentioned of sir francis drake and his exploration and our own explorations venturing in body mind and spirit at this time we pray today in our anglican communion for an english diocese the diocese of saint albans in the church of england and at the same time we pray for this diocese for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and the parish of west sheppy the clergy there paul kite paul rush jeannette mclaren and their people and we bring our own prayers and intentions wherever we are let me first say the conic for the week and then i will use the prayer of sir francis drake formed around the sentence he used 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 and then drake's prayer lord god when thou give us to thy servants to endeavor any great matter grant us also to know that it is not the beginning but the continuing of the same until it be thoroughly finished that yield is the true glory through him who for the finishing of thy work laid down his life for us our redeemer jesus christ amen so we say the prayer our lord taught us to say in whatever language you'd like to use 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 brand 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 silence now as we say our own prayers on this day and think about our own journeys of discovery and exploration 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 well darcy and jane and lizzy you've been good hosts to us this morning and you're looking very fine darcy when you show yourself to your brides here and you're a quiet host as well come on here we are hey [Music] jane you're the quietest of all aren't you always