good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this morning of tuesday the 14th of july as we join together in morning prayer welcome to you wherever you are joining us across the world we hope that you will bring your your own concerns and your own prayers for those whom you love and those who are on your hearts and minds this morning 14th of july is the day when in our church of england calendar we remember john keeble a country priest who on this day july the 14th 1833 went to oxford to preach the ordinary assai's sermon at the church of saint mary the virgin in oxford and as he stepped into the pulpit he had no idea that what he was going to say which he regarded as the teaching his father also a priest had given him what he was going to say was going to transform the church of england over the coming years for that morning he is counted to have begun the oxford movement and it was based on the fact that the authority of the holy catholic church did not rest in any human origin or power but in christ himself that may seem simple to us now but that was the import and content of his sermon and we thank god for it keeble though was also a poet and his poems have been turned into hymns so after our first vertical this morning i'm going to use what is one of my favorite hymns it's a mourning hymn and it's a mourning hymn by john keeble oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night so here is john keeble's mourning him new every morning is the love our waking and uprising prove through sleep and darkness safely brought restored to life and power and thought new mercies each returning day hover around us as we pray new perils past new sins forgiven new thoughts of god new hopes of heaven if on our daily course our mind be set to hallow all we find new treasures still of countless price god will provide for sacrifice old friends old scenes will lovelier be as more of heaven in each we see some softening gleam of love and prayer shall dawn on every cross and care we need not bid for cloistered cell our neighbor and our work farewell nor strive to wind ourselves too high for sinful man beneath the sky the trivial round the common task would furnish all we ought to ask room to deny ourselves a road to bring us daily nearer god only o lord in thy dear love fit us for perfect rest above and help us this and every day to live more nearly as we pray 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm is psalm 71 for this 14th morning of the month in you o lord do i seek refuge let me never be put to shame in your righteousness deliver me and set me free incline your ear to me and save me before me a stronghold to which i may ever resort send out to save me for you are my rock and my fortress deliver me my god from the hand of the wicked from the grasp of the evil doer and the oppressor for you are my hope o lord god my confidence even from my youth upon you have i leaned from my birth when you drew me from my mother's womb my praise shall be always of you i have become important to many but you are my refuge and my strength let my mouth be full of your praise and your glory all the day long do not cast me away in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength fails or as for me i will hope continually and will praise you more and more my mouth shall tell of your righteousness and salvation all the day long for i know no end of the telling i will begin with the mighty works of the lord god i will recall your righteousness yours alone o god you have taught me since i was young and to this day i tell of your wonderful works forsake me not oh god when i am old and grey-headed till i make known your deeds to the next generation and your power to all that are to come your righteousness oh god reaches to the heavens in the great things you have done who is like you o god what troubles and adversities you have shown me and yet you will turn and refresh me and bring me from the deep of the earth again increase my honor turn again and comfort me therefore will i praise you upon the harp for your faithfulness oh my god i will sing to you with the liar o holy one of israel my lips will sing out as i play to you and say will my soul which you have redeemed tongue also will tell of your righteousness all the day long for they shall be shamed and disgraced who sought to do me evil say we turn to the gospel of saint luke and continue in chapter 19 jesus and his disciples and the crowd of those who follow him have crested the ridge of the mount of olives and below them lies the city of jerusalem and when jesus drew near and saw the city of jerusalem [Music] he wept over it saying would the jew even you had known on this day the things that for 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 jesus 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 the chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him but they did not find anything they could do for all the people were hanging on his words jesus wept over the city there is the most wonderful chapel on the side of the mount of olives dominus slave it it's called the lord wept and if you have the privilege of celebrating the eucharist the communion at the altar there you are as you face to the east looking out over the city of jerusalem below you the site over which the lord wept because of all the violence and the trustworthiness which was missing there and at the same time the sense of violence around him for they wanted to destroy him on that altar is a picture of a hen because earlier in duke's gospel do you remember that there are some people who come to him in in galilee and say look out that king herod is is after you and he said go and tell that fox that the destiny of messiah is in jerusalem it's there he knew that he must meet all that was asked of him in human suffering and finally lay down his life he also says o jerusalem jerusalem how often i would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks under her feathers in safety but you would not have it all those things showing his devotion to the temple knowing it must not be a place of violence it must not be a place of faction and division it must not be a place of trade it must be a house of prayer and day by day he teaches the people in the temple courtyard and they hang on his words the 14th of july in 2005 was the day on which dame cecily saunders died in saint christopher's hospice i remember her coming to the theological college where i was trained to talk to us in the late 1960s to talk to us about her vision of the beginning of the hospice movement of palliative care gathering into a wonderful atmosphere of creativity and life and hope all those who were suffering in the last stages of their life to us now a hospice may seem an ordinary thing but when we step inside them we realize the atmosphere is quite different and i remember this lovely lady sitting amongst us when we were training for our priesthood and talking about her vision of palliative care how with the skilled and sensitive control of pain and an atmosphere where creativity in human life of different gifts was encouraged everything changed in the journey of those who were going towards death and made it not so fearsome for them and for their families the quotes that one gains from her writings give that sense here is one of them you matter because you are you and you matter to the end of your life we will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully but also to live until you die as the body becomes weaker the spirit becomes stronger she herself was a very firm person of faith and when she wondered whether this leap of faith in founding the first hospice and creating its atmosphere i remember going to us in christopher's hospice and being shown around by her and for me it was a revelation a revelation of people enjoying their families enjoying their creativity and being kept as free as possible from pain and she turned one day to psalm 37 when she was doubtful about whether she would leap forward with this venture and vision and she found the verse commit thy way unto the lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass and believing that she grasped that hope and began a great movement which has given comfort and not healing for this life but healing for the situation that the people found themselves in with their families who could then trust that they were being looked after and all the things that a hospice does treasured right to the last day and moment of life and given hope even for beyond she wrote suffering is only intolerable when nobody cares one continually sees that faith in god and his care is made infinitely easier by faith in someone who has shown kindness and sympathy i knew that when i was listening to her all those years ago in 1969 i think i was listening to someone remarkable the spirit of whom was also remarkable and was communicating itself to us in kindness in sympathy and also in medical knowledge of palliative care and the control of pain thank god for her vision thank god for her trust in that vision and for all the hospices which have developed and grown since then for so many are cared for by them in a way which is imaginative and loving so on this day we think of our lord's image of the desire to gather the people of suffering jerusalem into his arms but we also think of dame sicily saunders who affected that in her life using the gifts of grace that she was given and daring to pursue her vision on this day in our prayers this morning we pray for the ashford town ministry in our diocese and that includes not only the town of ashford but also great chart singleton and saint francis south ashford kennington king's north shadowhurst willsborough sevington and christchurch lovely communities in that part of kent pray for the clergy there caroline mansley eve lanchantin pigott dawn stamper kathy aldis richard bellamy and andrew brown and the curate bruce watson and the life of all those communities we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and in the life of our anglican communion today for the diocese of northern malawi and central africa for faneuil emmanuel the bishop there and his people the diocese of barbados in the west indies and michael maxwell the bishop there and his people and the diocese of kampala in uganda and there the bishop is the primate most reverend dr stephen samuel qasimba and we pray for him in his ministry and all the people he cares for and ministers too so we pray the prayer for this day almighty and everlasting god by whose spirit the whole body of the church is governed and sanctified hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people that in their vocation and ministry they may serve you in holiness and truth to the glory of your name through our lord and savior jesus christ amen and a prayer at the end of psalm 71 faithful lord living savior in youth and old age from the womb to the grave may we know your protection and proclaim your great salvation to the glory of god the father amen so as we give thanks for the vision of name sicily saunders and the whole hospice movement we pray that we may have grace to follow our own vision and dare so much for god and for humanity at this time we say the prayer our lord taught us in whatever language and in whichever way you like 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 are men moment of silence now this morning as we say our own prayers for those whom we love and would care for unto god's most gracious mercy and protection we commit you the lord bless you and keep you the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you give you his peace 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