good morning and welcome to the dinery garden on this morning of sunday the 13th of march as we come to say our morning prayers welcome wherever you are in the world of course our eyes and our hearts and our minds are fixed on the city of kiev this morning where the citizens are watching and waiting for the next move to be made against them and uh we ourselves were intending to film in in the front of the deanery this morning it's a windy morning and that's not what's caused us to move around here but we are also having later in the day at lunchtime and uh a bit before that groups of our old pupils from our king's school coming back for what's called a legacy lunch and they'll be given tours around the school to see how it's developed i'm saying all this because uh that means that our front four court is filled with their cars so that they've got ample parking but at the same time because our new events manager julia campbell and she's not been with us long but would have been organizing all this today we're not expecting to see her today because all her family are in mario pal in ukraine and you know that that seaside city has been really bombed to extinction and julia hasn't heard from any member of her family now for 11 days and she was interviewed this morning on national do appreciate your news but this must be a really really difficult time for you just just just tell us when when was the last time you spoke to your family in marietv good morning thank you for having me um today marks 11 days and i haven't had any contact with anyone from my family so do which members of your family are are still in the city at the moment so my mom um is there my uncle um my aunts my uncles my cousins my nieces um about 20 members of my family and they're all there my brother-in-law and lots of my friends they used to go to school with and half of my life is there so i love a lot of my friends and family we understand of course that the communications can often be difficult into ukraine at the moment and sell your communications at the same time you must have real fears for their safety right now given that the level of the the russian onslaught uh watching watching everything that is happening seeing the videos and the footage it's still it's difficult to imagine that this is what they're having to live through every single day of their life 24 hours a day the shedding does not stop um it is roughly from six in the morning till six in the evening and then most of the night as well so people do not get a break during the day to go and seek any food any water and also they can't get any rest at night because the shedding is relentless um and it is just absolutely unimaginable how people can live in those conditions for this long without any outside help without any supplies being delivered without any the water or medication entering the city for over 13 days now whatever they're eating whatever they're drinking now is what they had left it is minus seven at night they have no heating they have no water they have no electricity and they are collecting snow outside um for drinking well we hear from from president zelinski that that the humanitarian corridors will be used later today to try and get aid into the city at the same time there's not much of the city that remains is there i was just looking at those pictures there and all of the city basically in large ways that have now been to the ground to tell me a little bit about marion the city that it was before the russians came um it was the most beautiful place um um so so much effort has been put into restoring it rebuilding it after the situation um in 2014 and it is a beautiful seaside city um with so much gorgeous infrastructure there's it's a multinational community with lots of universities um you know it was thriving it was just at the best point of of its existence i think before this started we have a huge group community you know there's um about at this point there's about 100 people um have been trapped uh in the marupul um and they are turkish citizens and they're seeking shelter in one of the mosques in uh in my opinion um so that you know it it was a very very beautiful city but now it has been completely wiped out and there is really not much left and you know watching my my school be involved and the university they went to it just i cannot comprehend that still given what you were seeing and and of course giving it the lack of contact that you've had with so many members of your family and indeed your friends i'm wondering what your thoughts are of vladimir putin and indeed the russian people like that well i don't know where to begin that there isn't a little glimpse of humanity left i i cannot believe that one person can totally destroy a country and kill the civilians at such a large scale because what he's doing at the moment is is wiping away all ukrainians whether he wants to have ukraine without any ukrainians in it that's that's what i'm seeing um as you probably have heard um you know president zedensky has announced that um over 1300 troops have died since the beginning of the war however mariupol itself has lost nearly 1500 people if you think about the numbers they're all civilians 1500 civilians have been killed in the last 14 days and mobile is is just fighting its own battle because nobody's helping the humanitarian corridors are not working um humanitarian aid is not coming in um there was an attempt sixth or seventh attempt yesterday lost count um where the humanitarian aid was due to arrive from zapposia and um again ceasefire has not happened um it has not been abided uh by the russian troops and therefore they stay but this time i think in a desperate plight to help they um they've been accompanied by the members of the church and there was uh one member of the church community is in each of the vehicles just to to see if that might help um but to be honest at this stage i don't believe that anything will stop putting um you know he's he's bombing schools he's born in hospitals he's blowing maternity wards islam in churches all the churches in ukraine have now been mainly most of them have been destroyed and this is where people are seeking shelter because a lot of the homes have been destroyed people are living in these conditions in weather as i said in snow and it's about minus seven every day and they there are no windows left um the homes are barely standing people are cooking outside and you know that that seaside city has been really bombed to extinction and julia hasn't heard from any member of her family now for 11 days and she was interviewed this morning on national news and was saying that what a beautiful city that was it was already damaged by the invasion of crimea but was being restored most beautifully and how all her memories are there and so many friends so that gives us a human contact right into that devastated city where so many have died and so much damage to the city itself has been done and these personal links bring the whole thing home to us the only thing that we can do is say our prayers so we're praying for julia this morning and we shall do so again with the school and in the school service tonight which will happen at 7 30 tonight in the cathedral but meanwhile at the legacy lunch i'll be able to say a prayer with all of them too for julia as a sign of all that is going on in ukraine as the world watches and waits and all our prayers are for the citizens of the whole of ukraine but especially this morning the city of kiev so let's think about that in our reflection but let's begin to say our prayers on this morning this lovely sunny sunday morning here with a blustery wind bring your own intentions and your prayers oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice o lord according to your faithful love according to your judgment give us life blessed are you god of compassion and mercy to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of our sin your light breaks forth like the dawn and your healing springs up for deliverance as we rejoice in the gift of your saving help sustain us with your bountiful spirit and open our lips to sing your 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 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 are men our psalm this morning is psalm 68 it's a long one so we shall read as we normally do just a section of it let god arise and let his enemies be scattered let those that hate him flee before him as the smoke vanishes so may they vanish away as wax melts at the fire so let the wicked perish at the presence of god but let the righteous be glad and rejoice before before god let them make merry with gladness sing to god sing praises to his name exalt him who rides on the clouds the lord is his name rejoice before him father of the fatherless defender of widows god in his holy habitation god gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners to songs of welcome blessed be the lord who bears our burdens day by day for god is our salvation god is for us the god of our salvation god is the lord who can deliver from death sing to god you kingdoms of the earth make music in praise of the lord he rides on the ancient heaven of heavens and sends forth his voice a mighty voice ascribe power to god whose splendor is over israel whose power is above the clouds how terrible is god in his holy sanctuary the god of israel who gives power and strength to all his people blessed be god sunday morning so we have a special lesson we leave the gospel of saint john and both here and at the cathedral eucharist which i'm praying in about an hour or so time um the lesson is from saint luke and both are similar but they're in different parts of saint luke's gospel the one at the eucharist that i shall preach on is from sin luke chapter 13 starting at verse 31. this one is in a different part of sid luke it's sin luke 19 and we're coming to the point where jesus is crossing the mount of olives before he enters jerusalem and i'm going to read from verse 37 of chapter 19 of saint luke's gospel we read to the um to verse 45 as jesus was drawing near already on the way down the mount of olives the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise god with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen saying blessed is the king who comes in the name of the lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest but some of the pharisees in the crowd said to him teacher rebuke your disciples he answered i tell you if these were silent the very stones would cry out and when he drew near and saw the city of jerusalem he wept over it saying would that you even you had known on this day the things that make for peace but now they are hidden from your eyes for the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground you and your children within you and they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold saying to them it is written my house shall be a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves and he was teaching daily in the temple on this occasion and in luke 13 jesus laments over the city of jerusalem here he is standing on the mount of olives looking down at that beautiful sight which lay below him there in all its glory stood the temple probably in the morning sunshine a blaze with the golden insets of the vine which was set into its stones it's still a wonderful sight if you look at jerusalem from the mount of olives and you look across the garden of gethsemane and see the city beyond but jesus on this occasion when he crosses the mountain and pauses weeps over the city i think there are only two occasions when jesus weeps in the gospels and one of them is of course at the tomb of lazarus and the people this is in john's gospel john 11. um the people say see how he loved him and here the weeping is for the city our hearts ache and so many situations cause us to weep not only just for the city of kiev but all these cities and communities of ukraine this morning at this time of watching and waiting but here is around jesus the song of his disciples and their singing and they'd be used to it the last of the pilgrim songs which was traditional to sing as a pilgrim as you came to jerusalem and the last was psalm 118 and in that you find the sentence blessed is the one who comes in the name of the lord and here is a welcome song being sung at the end of a journey and as they cross the mountain one thinks of jesus stopping there is at that point now a church which is set there looking across at jerusalem and the church is called dominus flavit the lord wept and i think it's one of the most beautiful places to worship in and certainly for a priest to celebrate the communion because you're looking down means you have to face east as used to be traditional with your back to the people but no one would deny you that pleasure because it is a pleasure and a privilege to stand there and to celebrate communion looking right out on that scene of the city of jerusalem today just as the lord looked down on the city and wept over it he wept for a very different reason from our tears for kiev he wept because he had found such violence in the city already and he prophesies in this lesson where that violence will lead for violence breeds violence and this sense of him wanting to give the good gifts of god in peace and the gifts of the spirit in love and in faith and in hope to the people but finding there many many amongst the people rather like the the greeks we've thought of recently who have been asking to see jesus and philip and andrew made sure they did but there are those though who those there who who challenge him and are violent towards him and already there are the pharisees standing around saying cause your disciples to be quiet and jesus answers with that sentence which we thought about recently if they were silent the very stones would cry out but he weeps over the city and that sense of sadness is something that for very different reasons we are feeling this morning and i'm sure that often when we're looking at the news bulletins our tears flow fairly freely because of all that we're seeing it becomes a tragedy unfolding and we still can't really believe that all this is happening we look at the pictures of that beautiful city of kiev with all its holy places for in truth it was the way in which christianity was given to the whole of of russia it's the the mother of all but think of the city of jerusalem as jesus knew it it was destined in the year a.d 70 to be totally destroyed as far as the imperial armies of rome led by the general ship of of titus who would become emperor himself one day and they made absolutely sure that they destroyed and burned everything they could thousands of the citizens were slaughtered thousands taken into slavery and all the precious objects of the temple were taken back to rome in triumph and the arch of titus with the emblems of the temple is of course still there able to be seen in the city of rome itself all of that happened and jesus's prophecy given in st luke of all the siege works and barricades and everything else that would go into the siege of jerusalem in in the year 70 has caused scholars to haggle over the fact of have that already happened when luke wrote or was it still yet to come and the answer is it's difficult to prove it one way or the other but it doesn't matter because what jesus is saying is that what should have been a house of prayer has become like a den of thieves and it's become greedy for other things than the gifts of god and he's longing to give it an extra uh um amount of the evangel to to to go and give the good news and the qualities of the spirit there so it takes us all of those things takes us take us to the the sense of where we are this morning and it's hard to use words to describe it i've spent half an hour this morning already on the telephone to the ambassador for hungary of the sovereign order of malta we've talked about that before and we've shown what wonderful work the order of malta the sister order of the order of st john which runs in john's ambulance here and is in order of chivalry like the order of malta but engaged in huge amounts of charitable work and the order of malta has many many stations of charitable work on the borders and actually inside ukraine itself and the ambassador that i was talking to uh and uh his name is imre ugron he's a hungarian and he last night when i first spoke to him on the telephone said let's talk in the morning i'm just driving back from the city of lev back home to hungary and that journey took hours and hours but he had been on a visit to the headquarters and the charitable sites of the ukrainian part of the order which is still functioning in relief terms and he'd gone to the city of lev and he described to me the journey there and what he saw along the way and described to me also what you found in the city itself and what has stuck in my mind from that conversation it was a long conversation and stuck in my mind was the chaos that he found at the railway station in lev anyone can travel free to the border and if they cross the border into hungary they can travel free to wherever they want to go on the railway if they're a ukrainian citizen but of course the the railway station surrounded by thousands of people desperately saying goodbye to each other desperately trying to find a a train which would take them to one of the borders to hungary to slovakia to poland to moldov all those places and here the ambassador was was actually describing it to me and i felt what a brave journey he said my wife who was back in hungary was really terrified she said i shouldn't make the journey but i felt i had to go and visit our relief stations to see first of all to impart good morale but at the same time to see how they were at this time and whether relief was getting through and the answer of course is that in some places it is and certainly on the border stations there is insta on both sides because the order of st john is working both on the hungarian side and the slovakian side and also in ukraine itself and at the border um the the uh people coming are helped on the ukrainian side to fill in where they want to go to put down their names to say what family they have in different parts of europe where they would want to be and all that is done for them by the volunteers of the order of malta so that when they then cross the border and the volunteers of the order of malta meet them on the other side not from the ukrainian branch of the order but from the hungarian or the the slovakian branch when they meet them there then no papers have to be filled in they simply hand over no translations needed they hand over what has been written out for them so that they can hand that on and then there is transport arranged first of all of course there's relief and if an instant accommodation or medical help is needed that is given i can't say how brave these people are being and also they're working all the hours that the lord gives them in order to do that and and certainly this man himself the ambassador had in a a card traveling through all of that had seen both terrible things and also things which gave him great hope he'd seen in the middle of the city of lev that all things were running almost normally there was still meat in the meat market and there were still vegetables and supplies seem to be getting through but at the same time of course that city is beginning to pack up its treasures as we did here in the uh at the beginning of the second world war and my predecessor who was known as the red dean uh hewlett johnson was laughed at for taking out the stained glass and and and placing it in the safety under earth and things in the crypt because it was felt that canterbury would never be touched by uh any kind of bombardment and of course it was in a huge way uh at the biotica raids of 1942. so here is levi beginning to pack up as a world heritage site as we are pack up treasures but at the same time to look after its people and on the outskirts are young men and maybe some of you have seen the bbc's little film that it made yesterday of students and two of them who were students one an economist one a biologist one aged 19 one aged 18 who'd just been had volunteers and now are in military uniforms and you felt um that their passion for their country but it made you weep to hear them say well of course we're we're afraid anyone would be afraid because it's natural for a human being to to fear death but some things are more important than that those two young men were a sign of all those volunteering but of course they're the ones who are left and others have been sent to safety and mothers and children are being received and the order of malta again their executive their chief executive here philippa leslie is in constant touch with us and telling us of the work in beragovo in tapa in georg in budapest itself i'm talking hungary because we've been in touch with the hungarian ambassador for the order of malta and the pope's representative to that order cardinal michael cerney last week visited all the places that he possibly could in order to give something of a sense of um of encouragement from the outside world all those things are going on and at the same time the headquarters of the order have the accommodation database with the offers of accommodation all the time coming in um this morning 4422 vacancies coming in volunteers saying that they will want to help and and going to the borders and going where the order places them and donors also and there's an opportunity for you we'll put the link on again to be able to contribute to the work of the sovereign order of malta and particularly their relief arm in ukraine itself at this time this urgent time when we're thinking of the cities that we would weep over if i go through the the list of the places which are the order of malta was giving us this morning inside ukraine berigovo and tapa and guillaume those places were having projects beautiful things like a children's play bus in berigovo and that detail had been given to us by philippa so i asked the ambassador about it and he said well i'm afraid um we can't now do anything with that kind of activity there because all our volunteers if they're that young enough and their men are being called off to um be part of what the students are doing to fight for their country and mothers and children are being advised to make their way to to safety so many of the wonderful charitable things that are going on have been completely taken over by the need to contribute money in order that food and medicine and health and health can be supplied and so lots of projects of course will start up again when peace returns but at the moment everything is geared to the help of refugees and the way in which the young volunteers are having to face uh the threat of violence towards them because they're now ready with the sandbags and the border that the the the way in which the roads are guarded and the ambassador said as he drove back through so many villages seemed to be either deserted or the people had locked themselves in if they were still there but the old and the very poor and those who are uh solitary um are still there and he found one place where a school room was just filled with people asleep on the floor and there were very few resources he's now put the teams in touch with that but there may be there must be many of places like that think of your your own school rooms your own village schools and things of that sort and thing think how in a peaceful time they'd be full of happy children learning and now it's quite different and so many of the schools which have had to close and emptied and the mothers and children have gone and the husbands and the young men are are there ready to fight for their country but at the same time the the the schools are are filled with people who sought shelter there on the way there's so much to say but we're we're talking about ways in which you can help and it's mostly by sending donations to places where you know that's going to be used in ukraine itself and at the places where welcome is being given on the borders so all of those things will supply the details of how to get in touch in that way let's keep thinking that with the people like julia campbell and all her family uh in mario paul and uh the the two young student everything is a personal story and that's how the good news of the gospel is is translated everyone is is given a particular quality of life where their creative gifts can be used yesterday we were looking at violinists playing and surrounding a young man in a shelter as he was playing as a ukrainian song which someone had the imagination just set up with famous violinists from all over the world a zoom which became a kaleidoscope of violinists growing and growing and growing playing together the ukrainian song which was being played by the young violinists there [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] who was a young man just like the two students the economist and the the um biologists who had given up their books to go to war and uh so um i actually wanted something that's not good for him um so let's then just think of that situation and the way that jesus wept over the city the city itself of jerusalem and longed for its welfare and peace and for very different reasons we weep this morning in our prayers over the cities of ukraine and long for their peace well i think that all we can do on a morning like this is to pray and we do pray both here in the garden across the world and also um we pray in the cathedral in our services i shall pray with our school and the same kind of stories will be told but each will have seen different images because we now live in a world where images can pass quickly across but at the same time i felt privileged to be speaking to uh the ambassador for the uh order of malta who had just been in the last 24 hours going from place to place to place and finding out what was needed where encouraging the teams finding where more volunteers were needed arranging the shifts so that they don't absolutely wear themselves out completely and use all their human resources which need to be given at the moment to one another all of these things become crucially important we're going to say our prayers in a moment but i wanted to mention the music of a hungarian pianist composer and singer who's called matias baxo we've actually played some of his music before it's very beautiful music but at the moment she is very keen that we should use his music and again we've been in touch with him and uh i think we shall use his music from time to time and fletcher will put on what the music is one of his pieces is called prayer and he wrote it so that it could be played as a background to the our father in whatever language that's being said it comes from something called fragments from everyday life and at the same time he's written a piece called sunday morning well sunday morning when he was writing this piece was giving thanks for the fact that sunday was a day of rest and and didn't mean getting up for work and all of that well of course it's anything but that now for ukraine it's a day of waiting and for many it's a day of of really hard work for far too many hours because they aren't dealing with jobs that are too big for them and too dangerous and at the same time he has written a lovely piece called raindrops which simply speaks of the the glory of god's creation refreshing the earth all these things are precious but at the moment we give thanks for the quality of matches baxo the hungarian musician and everything that he writes we're going to pray this morning let me find our list i'm going to pray for the anglican church of melanesia in the south pacific and uh we've um many contacts with that which the brotherhood of of melanesia of young men and women giving part of their life to a a spiritual community uh rather like a someone going into the army for a couple of years in training this is a different kind of thing the the melanesian brotherhood we pray for today they were important to us especially at the time of the last lambeth conference when uh seven of them had been martyred and they brought an icon which is now hanging in our chapel of modern martyrs so we give thanks for the faith of the church of melanesia but at the same time we are praying for our own diocese and in a general prayer this morning and for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for emma bishop at lambeth and you will have many images in your minds and hearts as we watch and wait and weep over those cities waiting to see what their fate will be and the consciousness of our prayers this is what the ambassador said this morning the consciousness of our prayers of this garden congregation is more precious than you can possibly know but let that consciousness also move you to to action as well here is the collect for today the second sunday of lent almighty god you show to those who are in error the light of your truth that they may return to the way of righteousness grant to all those who are admitted into the fellowship of christ's religion that they may reject those things that are contrary to their profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same through our lord jesus christ amen and the colic for lent itself almighty and everlasting god you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may receive from you the god of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through jesus christ our lord amen so let us then join together in our different ways in different languages in the prayer 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 now for your own reflections on this morning [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] during your reflection you've been looking at um wonderful pictures of glass by the hungarian who came here as a refugee in the years of the second world war to escape from persecution there in hungary and then made his life in the united states later but created glass of the uh prisoner being called to the light in release and also that the children of of of different nations so we give thanks for that work of the hungarian bassani there's some also in the cathedral church at washington uh the national cathedral at the same time we have a very strong link indeed with hungary with estegon because the archbishop of estagom had been with beckett at the sorbonne and one of the original relics of beckett was given to estergom to to right at the beginning to take back to estegam it's always been there it was a sign of the christian life of hungary during the years of the soviet occupation but at the same time when that was over we had a huge pilgrimage come from estagon uh led by their ambassador here who became a friend and uh we i remember a wonderful party on the lawn here as well as services in the cathedral they brought the relic as a sign of pilgrimage across and then took it back to estagon so there's that strong link between canterbury and the shrine at estagon as well christ give you grace to grow in holiness to deny yourself take up your cross daily and follow him and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you would pray for and those whom you love today and always are men may god bless your sunday and make it a day of um enrichment uh spiritually and in all sorts of other ways as as far as he's able and you are able to accept that today [Music] do [Music] you