[Music] good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this sunday the 4th of july which is of course independence day for our friends in the united states of america and a great holiday a great family festival and a time of celebration so this morning we put out the 13 flags which are reminiscent of their beginning on this day in 1776 and at the same time we give thanks with them for all that that nation has meant to the world and for its high ideals expressed at the very beginning and we pray for all our friends in the united states and americans the world over so that um we've brought here this morning the turkeys here uh turkey not the national bird of the united states the bald eagle is but very much a bird of the united states and and a symbol of the fact that turkeys tend to be not only brave and inquisitive but careful of one another and also careful of small things around them we've seen that with the way in which they look after the smaller hens if any of them are getting picked on so here are lizzie and darcy and jane with us to celebrate independence day let me say also this morning that this is thank you sunday in in uh england and uh the the united kingdom for the national health service this is the uh eve of the 73rd birthday of the national health service but today we are saying thank you to all key workers and those in the front line of facing this pandemic but in general for all these stresses and strains put on the national health service during the months of this pandemic and at this time it's good to give thanks tonight the cathedral bell will will ring for that we're thinking constantly of canada where the fires still burn but also of cyprus which is asking for international help also with an enormous bush fire and behind me here on the wall is another symbol the virginia creeper climbing up but we've got the not only the the colors of the flags but also the red white and blue of the flowers of this part of the garden as we begin our prayers on this morning it's a day when we're thinking of new beginnings as you'll see and no greater new beginning than this day for independence day in the united states let's join together in our prayers bringing your own concerns and intentions from across the world o lord open our lips and our mouths shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made and as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this fourth morning of the month is psalm 19 the heavens are telling the glory of god and the firmament proclaims his handiwork one day pours out its song to another and one night unfolds knowledge to another they have neither speech nor language and their voices are not heard yet their sound has gone out into all lands and their words to the ends of the world in them has he set a tabernacle for the sun that comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoices as a champion to run his course it goes forth from the end of the heavens and runs to the very end again and there is nothing hidden from its heat the law of the lord is perfect reviving the soul the testimony of the lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple the statutes of the lord are right and rejoice the heart the commandment of the lord is pure and gives light to the eyes the fear of the lord is clean and endures forever the judgments of the lord are true and righteous all together more to be desired are they than gold more than much fine gold sweeter also than honey dripping from the honeycomb by them also is your servant taught and in keeping them there is great reward who can tell how often they offend oh cleanse me from my secret faults be exalted oh lord in your own might we will make music and sing of your power as we come to the end of our psalm we turn to the lesson but remember it's a special lesson today because it's the lesson from the acts of the apostles which we left off last week and no better lesson to think about new beginnings chapter 28 of the acts of the apostles and paul and his companions having lost everything including the ship are on an unknown beach on an unknown island who knows where in the mediterranean for they've been without sight of stars or moon or sunlight to give them any company as the storm beat upon them remember how last week paul said take something to eat and break bread and gave thanks and shared it on the ship and then all either swam or went on spas and bits of the broken ship to the beach but everything that was the ship is now in pieces and lying around them in wreckage verse 1 of chapter 28 after we were brought safely through we then learned that the island was called malta the native people showed us unusual kindness for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all because it had begun to rain and was cold when paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand when the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand they said to one another no doubt this man is a murderer though he has escaped from the sea justice has not allowed him to live paul however shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm they were all waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead but when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him they changed their minds and said that he was a god now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island named publius who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days it happened that the father of publius lay sick with fever and dysentery and paul visited him and prayed and putting his hands on him healed him and when this had taken place the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured they also honored us greatly and when we were about to sail they put on board whatever we needed after three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island a ship of alexandria with the twin gods as a figurehead putting in it syracuse we stayed there for three days and from there we made a circuit and arrived at regium and after one day a south wind sprang up and on the second day we came to putioli there we found brothers and sisters and were invited to stay with them for seven days and so we came to rome and the brothers and sisters there when they heard about us came out as far as the forum of the three ti of appius and the three taverns to meet us on seeing them paul thanked god and took courage and when we came into rome paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him well quite a wonderful story and you see it really is a new beginning first of all they discovered that the island is malta which means at that point they have met some of the people who live there so here is a good contact and good hospitality and the island with their chief man publius is very significant in fletcher's family because his grandfather was uh very very uh instrumental in bringing the right supplies from a ship that hardly got there but was brought into the harbour at malta it's a longer story for a another day but at that point we we we remember the island of malta in dangerous times throughout history but on this day we're thinking of paul making a new beginning on the beach and as the new beginning is made we think that he has crossed from the predominantly greek speaking eastern mediterranean now to the predominantly latin speaking western mediterranean paul has always wanted to go to rome he wrote that wonderful letter to the romans and we've been reading that uh at um matins in the cathedral recently as that lesson is read and we we finished it with the ordinance on uh friday morning and as that lesson is read a host of people that he is greeting in rome come out of the the the letter and some of them are really important and some are unknown to us but there are a wonderful list of christian brothers and sisters in rome some of whom paul knows but many of whom he doesn't and the letter speaks of his longing to be there but his vision told him that he would go there he testified to me for me in in jerusalem said the vision now you will speak in rome and the same vision on the ship you will go to rome and speak there give the gospel there a new beginning but very different and not taking any of the belongings they thought they'd be taking though paul's letters of course exist in all the communities around that he has sent them to and he must have left many many other items of possessions in jerusalem and in other places but for the moment it's just them arriving and notice that first of all there's the the sense of um the the native people's punishment for a for the some wicked deed that paul must have done and they're waiting for him to drop down dead because he's escaped a shipwreck but now a viper's got him and they are then ready after that to hear the gospel i'm sure paul instantly put aside the sense that he was a god of any kind but he began to heal and give good news and when he did that for the chief man of the island and his father well then that also was powerful but let's think part of the next bit of the journey which is fittingly hospitable they load him with gifts to take with him to go to rome and they they go across and first of all they land on the toe of italy and then set sail again and get to putioli which again is shipped to land and there the centurion allows paul to be entertained and stay with brothers and sisters who know of him so his apostolic ministry has gone ahead of him and then everything else is done by land up through and brothers and sisters come out from rome to welcome him what a good new beginning we're seeing i i've brought i brought out with me because there's a sentence in it which always gives me a nice feeling about new beginnings a novel by dodie smith some of you will know it yesterday we were thinking about kafka's castle which was impenetrable through bureaucracy and today this book is called i capture the castle and those of you who've read it will know it's the story of a really charming heroine called cassandra mortmayne i'll read the back of the book for you because it's a favorite of mine and then i'll read the sentence about new beginnings cassandra begins by saying i write this sitting in the kitchen sink and then the person commenting says this is the first line of a novel about love sibling rivalry and a bohemian existence in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere cassandra mortmayne's journal records her fadingly glamorous stepmother her beautiful wistful older sister and the man to whom they both owe their isolation and abject poverty their father he is the author of one experimental novel and that was a minor cause celebre he has since suffered from writer's block and is determined to drag his family down with him but if the iron has entered father's soul it hasn't penetrated cassandra's and she all the way through is is full of brightness despite hunger adversity cold the house leaking and all sorts of things she writes in her journal with great hope and there's a moment when she's sitting at the end of a horrendously cold winter in that house with very very few comforts and very little to eat she's she's sitting with stephen who lives there with them and she's looking out of the window and she smells in her mind and maybe in her nose the warmth and beginning of spring so she says we stood sniffing the air there's quite a bit of softness in it isn't there i said i shall think of this as spring rain or am i cheating stephen you know i always try to begin things too soon stephen leaned out and took a deep sniff oh it's beginning all right miss cassandra he said maybe we'll get some setbacks but it's beginning and then stephen suddenly smiled not at me but looking straight in front of him and added well beginnings are good times and that sentence i think is for us today as well because we shall suffer more setbacks before this this time of social distancing and and lockdowns and face masks and everything else is over but nevertheless one has a sense of new beginnings just as paul has new beginnings and taking nothing with him other than memories of the past for the moment and companionship with luke and the others and going on to rome to who knows what but he knows that his vocation lies there just as we've seen jesus knowing his vocation lies in the holy city now paul comes to the city which is often called the eternal city and there in that latin-speaking city though the koine greek would be understood there but in that latin-speaking city paul's ministry will continue now i want to think a little bit today about the beginnings and how we all by faith and hope and love and courage can capture the castle so to speak and not be kept out by the red tape or the the processes or the bureaucracy or the faces all of those things which tend to get in the way and make us down-hearted here's a lesson from cassandra mortmain saying beginnings are good times and here's the beginning 1776 the american congress voted for independence from great britain and ideals were shaped there are so many ideals that we could go to from that early time and the way that they've developed since and every nation will have disappointments and violent times and parts of their their story they would rather forget and parts that they're feeling sorry for but the ideals lie at the base of everything perhaps their their sort of homer their dante in america is walt whitman or you might say among others but there is a a poem that he wrote simply called america fletcher and i listened to him read it all those years ago well over a century ago and we'll put the link on he has recorded walt whitman himself reciting what he said was his favorite poem it's not the ones you might expect it's a short one and it's really full of words and the words speak of an ideal and hearing his old voice he who thought so much and loved so much of that huge land where vast rivers are nature's water courses and for people from here they they almost beg a belief in their size and the water which runs through and so many of american songs are about those rivers i only have to think of moon river and my huckleberry friend uh as the the companionship goes through but here's whitman on the poem america center of equal daughters equal sons all all are like endeared grown ungrown young or old strong ample fair enduring capable rich perennial with the earth with freedom law and love a grand sane towering seated mother chad in the adamant of time wonderful words speaking of high ideals and for our world and for their own nation may our friends in america today rejoice in those ideals as they celebrate and we celebrate with them some other beginnings on this day it's fun looking at dates from the the past um on this stage july the 4th uh in 1829 britain's first regular schedules bus service began between marylebone road and the bank of england not a motor bus of course a horse-drawn omnibus meaning for all and uh the the buses now are a great sign of london the red buses of london have become something but there's a beginning beginnings are small and the two turkeys have come to rejoice in their independence on this particular day in 1840 the cunard shipping line on this day july the 4th began its first atlantic crossing a paddle steamer called britannia from liverpool to halifax and it took 14 days to cross the atlantic over to nova scotia in 1947 a new beginning for a different subcontinent the indian independence bill was put before the house of commons a beginning and on july the 4th 1826 this will take us back to america just as songs always do take us to particular places the songwriter stephen foster was born july the 4th 1826 he's so well known for lovely songs beautiful dreamer wake unto me or i dream of genie with the light brown hair or my old kentucky home which is used as a state song there or one that is probably best known to us as the swanny river normally called old folks at home lovely tunes from stephen foster to words that speak of home but it's the tunes that bring us there too just as i've always said you remember the words and the ideal from the tunes it's so with hymns say with any kind of poetry anything set to music in your head will bring the words straight back to you and just one more musician 4th of july 1623 this isn't a beginning well it's a new beginning uh for eternal life of william bird the great musician who died on this day in 1623 very well known for his madrigals his music for virginals for organs but probably best known by us for his masses in latin which we sing for one for three voices another one for four voices another one for five voices how the music speaks and the songs are being uttered and echoed by our friends here on this particular day well enough of reflection uh and uh an embracing in our own lives of new beginnings and a hope that for all of us new beginnings may soon begin it's a new beginning in the cathedral this morning it was i think on monday on monday the uh the um the morning prayer i said we were going to interview and they were really stringent interviews of our new director of music a new position an overarching position which will be in charge of all cathedral music and and you will have seen from the website if not have a look because the detailed uh announcement is given there that uh dr david newsham who has been the the conductor of our girls choir and also the assistant organist here and the the the interim uh organist and director of the choirs has now attained the position a new position of director of music across the cathedral so here's a new beginning for him and he will be conducting the choir in the cathedral at the sun eucharist this morning so in our prayers today we are remembering uh where are we the fourth of july we're remembering in the anglican communion the anglican church of papua new guinea and we remember archbishop justin and bishop rose of dover bishop tim at lambeth and today the ministry of the wansom group ministry so we think of the people in the communities of minster and moncton and saint nicholas at wade and chislett and their uh ministry there of the clergy team richard brady vicky coneys and michael dawkins and the schools there at the church of england primary schools of chislet minster moncton and saint nicholas it wade all those things to think about and your own intentions and prayers to think about now as we say a new colleague for the fifth sunday after trinity 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 each may serve you in holiness and truth to the glory of your name through our lord and savior jesus christ amen moment of silence now for your own prayers on this morning of new beginnings [Music] so [Music] so [Music] you [Music] you [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 will pray for today and always amen fletcher's corrected me on the malta story because it's very much deep in his family history and i should say we can't tell it in detail today but what his pop his grandad did with the suggestion which was a desperately dangerous one was to scuttle the ship at the entrance to valletta harbour saint paul's bay where paul's shipwreck took place was round the corner but uh the the the seven sisters of valletta harbour which was so essential to the allies in their uh fight against nazism if that had fallen it would have been very very difficult to to to continue through and the ship stopped german u-boats and and uh and ships getting in the scuttled ship but at great danger to themselves so um that was a a cause for thanksgiving because it gave time for reinforcements to be sent there and then to continue the fight against nazism at that time that dangerous time so uh a little bit of uh history correction as we we go on on this day of new beginnings so to all our friends in the united states as the turkey leads through the flags in their procession happy independence day [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] waiting from the bed [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'm going away [Music] oh [Music] uh [Music] is [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] so [Music]