good morning and welcome to the dinery garden on this saturday morning the 9th of january as we come to say our morning prayers together it's a grey morning before the sun has come up yet and quite chilly but no wind at all and uh has has become our our custom though not last week at christmas tied but we've come out with clemmy and the girl pigs here and we must allow winston soon to to uh be in one of our morning programmes but not for today and we've got the girls and clemmy here in the front garden of the deanery enjoying their morning breakfast this is a day when we are continuing to think of the signs of the epiphany and all of that will come with our reflection later but we'll also find ourselves because of a certain anniversary in a very interesting period of the church for canterbury here and for this holy place and world heritage site so wherever you are in the world feel welcome you may be in as england is a a state of lockdown but different phases of combating this pandemic because this of course is a a problem shared by the whole of humanity we continue to keep in our prayers the citizens of the united states of america as they approach the important day of the inauguration of their new president on the 20th of january so let's begin our morning prayers in this epiphany season 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 sun 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever are men our psalm on this morning of the ninth of the month is psalm 46. god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble [Music] therefore we will not fear though the earth be moved and though the mountains tremble in the heart of the sea there the waters rage and swell and though the mountains quake at the towering seas there is a river whose streams make glad the city of god the holy place of the dwelling of the most high god is in the midst of her therefore shall she not be removed god shall help her at the break of day the nations are in uproar and the kingdoms are shaken but god utters his voice and the earth shall melt away the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold come and behold the works of the lord what destruction he has wrought upon the earth he makes wars to cease in all the world he shatters the bow and snaps the spear and burns the chariots in the fire be still and know that i am god i will be exalted among the nations i will be exalted in the earth the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold our reading this morning as with yesterday is taken from the first letter of st john and contains once again so many signs of the epiphany of light and life and above all love for god and for one another but over all things and before all things god's love for us as demonstrating by his sending of the anointed christ the son of god i'm in chapter five and reading from verse one everyone who believes that jesus is the christ has been born of god and everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him by this we know that we love the children of god when we love god and obey his commandments for this is the love of god that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome for everyone who has been born of god overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that jesus is the son of god this is he who came by water and blood jesus christ [Music] not by the water only but by the water and the blood and the spirit is the one who testifies because the spirit is the truth for there are three that testify the spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree if we receive human testimony the testimony of god is greater for this is the testimony of god that he has borne concerning his son whoever believes in the son of god has the testimony in themselves whoever does not believe god has made god into a liar because they have not believed in the testimony that god has borne concerning his son and this is the testimony that god gave us eternal life and this life is in his son whoever has the son has life whoever does not have the son of god does not have life images of the epiphany but images really precious to the disciple who testifies to everything in his gospel the false gospel and we give thanks for that testimony of saint john but in his letter also he in later life fulfills all of that too with these words and we have words of life and light but we also have definite symbols and signs of the water and the blood remember the three signs of the epiphany which we've been looking at the coming of the magi following the way and kneeling in their wisdom before the silent babe leaving precious gifts denoting the humanity of christ and kingship and the sacrifice of christ with the myrrh and then the kingship of christ in deity in the godhead with the frankincense incense offered to that which is beyond human understanding those signs go through all three signs of the epiphany the baptism of jesus the water and the descent of the spirit and then the turning of that water into wine the sign of the blood which will flow with water from the sacrifice of jesus at the end of the fourth gospel saint john can't say enough about the love of god nor can he find enough words to express the way in which we can perceive the logos the word the eternal word that's how his gospel starts in the beginning was the word but other signs quickly come into it the way the truth the life the living water and all the i am statements the true vine the door of the sheepfold all these things giving us in earthly signs which are all around us all the time the way in which the bread of life and also the sacrifice of the body of christ on the cross releases streams not only of living water but of the richness of the blood which shows the totality of the love of god for us this is the heartland of the epiphany i said this morning that we would be remembering a particular date which is important to us here in canterbury and that date is the 9th of january 1091 and on that day it's after 1066 which is the sort of turning point in english history but our story is going to take us well back before that on that day when after the archbishopric of landfrank and waiting for the archbishopric of center anselm to begin the newly completed rebuilt monastery of saint peter and st paul which is very near us here to the east of the cathedral received the the earthly relics and remains of sint hadrian or adrian he's mentioned in both ways bead in his history calls him hadrian into that new monastery and later the designation not only of saint peter and sin paul but of sin augustine was added to that monastery it's a monastery which is akin to this monastery of christchurch here and for hundreds of years they lived out their life side by side sometimes the relationship wasn't too good and at other times there was mighty respect and on this day we're going to think of the mighty respect and how it was formed for it came at the time when since theodore of tarsus was sent here as the archbishop of canterbury and the great scholar let's call him hadrian with bead who was born in north africa but was twice offered the archbishopric himself but declined it i think he felt himself more of a monk and a scholar and a teacher and declined it and suggested his his friend theodore of tarsus might be the best person and the pope said yes but you will go with him so you have a duality of the archbishop theodore and the abbot of central augustine's as it became called over the way saint peter and st paul in those days a huge monastery in medieval times with an enormous library and great wealth at certain times but at this time this was the formation theodore came first they'd travel together as far as gaul but theodore went on as the guest of king ethelbert asking him across we're now in the middle of the 6th century that kind of time and as the king of kent asked him across then we're thinking of the three aspects of the um world heritage site that we are in canterbury this great tower of belharry behind me is the big symbol of that but there are two other locations which when you come here you need to see as part of that site because it's part of the story little saint martin's church which queen bertha at the time of the reign of ethelbert and remember that augustine came here in 597 and so at that time the the little church had been used in earlier roman times when this part had been christian first and queen bertha was already christian ethel bert was a pagan and had a temple just to the east of the site i'm sitting at now outside the city wall and there the kings of kent were buried and his successors uh were the ones who then invited theodore to come but ethelbert had made them christian through the influence of augustine and i think the encouragement of his wife bertha we know this story but the next site s-i-t-e to become acquainted with is the monastic ruins of the great abbey of central augustine and also bits and pieces like abbott finland's gate which still survive and are part of our cathedral school our king school establishment now used still for learning but it was hadrian who came and made this place into a center of excellent study and learning he traveled also with theodore around the nation and we get something of the civilization of the anglo-saxon world at that time remember england wasn't united there were several kingdoms but the travelling of the archbishop did unite the nation as he went around he re-ordered into dioceses set out the system of parish systems which began there where every square inch of england is given pastoral care by the parish priest in some way and every citizen has the right to ask for that all of that came first from theodore but he was a great scholar himself though nothing like hadrian this north african monk who came here with an enormous amount of theology and latin and greek learning and mathematics and rhetoric and astronomy and astrology and we get all this from the writings of his students the one i know best is saint oldhelm the first bishop of sherben many of his writings are still in existence and he speaks about the way in which his master his school master hadrian gave him all that learning and alfred the great looking back at the multitude of scholars that hadrian gathered around himself and the way in which the english church became renowned for its learning in the 7th century alfred the great much later looked around and said if only it were like this now and he tried once again to restore the education of the clergy that they might educate their people in all these things but hadrian was the foundation stone of all this in saxon times and we give thanks for him on this day when his remains were buried in the new monastery which the normans had created with the influence of land frank who rebuilt the cathedral here and whose crypt still survives here these are historic stories but there were times of turmoil and there were times also when the light of learning was lost for a while and then the torch was picked up by someone else and went on through i'm saying all this because it gives us what we want imaginative encouragement from the stories of the past and the stories of the present and the intentions of the future which will be a mixture of both the story of hadrian as told by the venerable bede in his history of the church at that time is a wonderful one and the story of all that learning the way he searched the hebrew scriptures with a knowledge of that language too and encouraged his students in their singing of the offices and the way in which the office was sung in great simplicity at that time which is relevant to the plain song which without the children here to sing because the schools are closed at the moment the men use often in their singing of the salmady and you will hear that again and again well that's enough history but really it's not so much history as the fact of hadrian being a foundation of all that we enjoy now in terms of the life of holy places and the parishes of the christian church and christian communities flourishing in their way and giving encouragement to one another the world over well now let's come to the saying of our prayers this morning as we bring our own concerns and our own intentions together and today we are praying in our anglican communion for the diocese of adelaide in the anglican church of australia we pray for jeffrey smith the archbishop there and the life of the diocese and the province in which it sits and also um we generally pray for el smith and posey when we think of of adelaide but i've got a new friend whom i never met who is canon jenny wilson the uh cannon presenter of saint peter's cathedral in adelaide and she is one of our garden congregation here and has kindly sent me a lovely book of her sermons and it's key it's called keeping watch for kingfishers so we give thanks for the life of saint peter's cathedral in adelaide and we also give thanks for the ministry of the clergy there and across that whole diocese this morning and wherever you are name your own places of faith and your own communities but also your own friends that you would like prayed for today and keep them in your hearts and minds as we say the collect for the epiphany a 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 in this diocese today we are continuing to pray for the offspring deanery the group of villages and communities gathered around offspring which is very near our neighboring town of favisham and all those little villages around there which we're now going to pray for day by day as this week unfolds and that the days ahead unfold so let's say together then the prayer our savior taught us as we remember the ministry of justin our archbishop and rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth with the life of this diocese too 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 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 make our own prayers and as we think of hadrian and theodore give thanks for our community life and our ability to pray for one another right across the world [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 well now let's see how clever is getting on here i think she's found something very tasty indeed haven't you okay it's an old carrot that we put here hi little girl how are you this morning okay it's a nice morning with no wind and some nice frosty winter air isn't it okay good girl your daughters are growing up now they're almost as big as you hello you've all come now nothing like a bit of company is there spotty come and join them come on hey come on good we shall leave you now to enjoy your breakfast come on hey splotchy bit of carrot no you