good morning and welcome to the dinner garden on this morning of thursday the 30th of july here in canterbury cathedral we are about to say our morning prayers so wherever you are in the world feel welcome and feel in your hearts and minds that you can bring your own prayers and concerns for those you love and for those you know about who need them on this morning it's a day when our calendar remembers the abolitionist of slavery william wilberforce who worked hard particularly after his conversion in 1786 to achieve politically the abolition but after that he became very convinced that he would want to see the end of all slavery throughout the world and we couple with his name olada equiano who died in 1797 and thomas clarkson who died in 1846 who also joined that early campaign we think therefore in our prayers of all those who are still striving to abolish slavery in all its forms throughout the world and also on this day we remember wilberforce's conversion there is in the memorial garden here the most beautiful stone and carved on it from a letter wilberforce wrote on easter day 1786 his experience after his his recent conversion of being alive in god's world and enjoying all creation so when you're able to come to canterbury go to the memorial garden and really enjoy will the forces words on that stone as we do as we read them so we say our prayers together on this morning of the month 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 oh come let us sing to the lord let us heartily rejoice in the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving and be glad in him with psalms for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind and 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 this 30th morning of the month we say psalm 146 hallelujah praise the lord o my soul while i live will i praise the lord as long as i have any being i will sing praises to my god put not your trust in princes nor in any human power for there is no help in them when their breath goes forth they return to the earth on that day all their thoughts perish happy are those who have the god of jacob for their help whose hope is in the lord their god who made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them who keeps his promise forever who gives justice to those that suffer wrong and bread to those who hunger the lord looses those that are bound the lord opens the eyes of the blind the lord lifts up those who are bowed down the lord loves the righteous the lord watches over the stranger in the land he upholds the orphan and widow but the way of the wicked he turns upside down the lord shall reign forever your god o zion throughout all ages hallelujah so we turn back to the gospel of saint luke to continue our reading of that gospel day by day and we're in chapter 22 and we've come to verse 47. you remember from yesterday that jesus has now said to his sleeping disciples in the garden of gethsemane rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation while jesus was still speaking there came a crowd and the man called judas one of the twelve was leading them he drew near to jesus to kiss him but jesus said to him judas would you betray the son of man with a kiss and when those who were around him saw what would follow they said lord shall we strike with the sword and one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear but jesus said no more of this and he touched his ear and healed him then jesus said to the chief priests and the officers of the temple and elders who had come out against him have you come out against me as a robber with swords and clubs when i was with you day after day in the temple you did not lay hands on me but this is your hour and the power of darkness then they seized jesus and led him away bringing him into the high priest's house and peter was following at a distance and when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together peter sat down among them then a servant girl seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking closely at him said this man also was with him but peter denied it saying woman i do not know him and a little later someone else saw him and said you also are one of them but peter said man i am not and after an interval of about an hour still another insisted saying certainly this man also was with him for he too is a galilean but peter said man i do not know what you are talking about and immediately while he was still speaking the crowed and the lord turned and looked at peter and peter remembered the saying of the lord how he had said to him before the crows today you will deny me three times and he went outside and wept bitterly a really tragic story but full of the way in which luke the evangelist would tell a story like that there are as there were in the garden of gethsemane and in the last supper moments which are only in luke really powerful moments and at this time when judas comes in leading the band of people who have come to arrest jesus carrying swords and clubs the panic is writ large lord shall we strike with the sword and jesus in a rare imperative normally his imperatives are about watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation knock and the door will be open to you seek and you shall find but here stop enough of this for the sword would mean a resistance to his own vocation and he knows of their fear he knows all about this but then they seized jesus and luke spares the disciples the sentence and they all deserted him and fled we've got that from mark and from matthew but here luke just saves their blushes really desertion happens at once they are afraid and jesus is led away but first he addresses the group and luke says to them that the law says in his gospel they are the chief priests and the elders and the temple police he addresses them and says why did you not arrest me in the temple you come out against me as you you come out against a bandit he knows why they didn't arrest him in the temple they feared the crowd whom we saw hanging on jesus's words day by day and then the most telling moment of all but this is your hour you have to work in darkness the darkness and the light now plays an enormous part and they have come in darkness because they cannot let this deed be seen by the people and they lead him away to the high priest's house and peter is following at a distance scared stiff utterly afraid and lacking the courage to be nearby and now in front of the brazier the fire light shows him up and three times he denies even knowing the lord and here's the sentence which only comes from luke because the crows the lord turned and looked at peter only in luke that sentence what did that expression of jesus say we don't know we only know that the lord turned and looked at peter the way we look at people says an enormous amount in tenderness in happiness in compassion in gratitude in anger in disappointment you can go on and on but you have to see the expression of the face one of the things that has been taken from us so much at the moment apart from the ability to be physically together is seeing the expression on a person's face when they are masked by a face covering i find that very difficult and i'm sure you do too we know why we have to wear them but we lose so much and here in the garden of gethsemane jesus's expression is not told us it's an intimate moment between peter and jesus but the look completely undoes peter for he remembers the lord's words and the crowing is singing out the dawning of the day when the light will flood over the whole scene and make all things evident and it's a scene for peter which is filled with shame and the lord looks at him as the day of crucifixion is heralded by the cox crowing which means to peter that he has had not had the courage to even own to knowing his lord and master whom just hours before he had promised to follow to prison and to death we know that that denial from peter is set down in all the gospels it came from peter himself set down how i was and see what the lord made of my shame we shall later on come to that new role for peter but one of the foundation stones of his faith as it was for wilberforce was a review of the shame of things he had done in the past and his acceptance of forgiveness the light and the darkness and the has heddled it in on that friday morning tomorrow the beginning of the day of crucifixion jesus has suffered betrayal desertion denial and stands alone on our behalf let's say our prayers on this morning we are praying this morning for the diocese of nzara in the south sudan and pray for richard aquila the bishop there and his people the diocese of blackburn in england and pray pray for julian henderson the bishop there and his people and the diocese of beau in sierra leone and pray for solomon scott manga the bishop there and all his people pray for our whole anglican communion but also for this diocese of canterbury for archbishop justin for bishop rose of dover for bishop tim at lambeth and today we begin to pray for a new area of our diocese all the villages and parishes of the elam valley elam dinery and pray for the area dean who looks after things there jane weeks in her ministry and the nature of that area deanery of parishes and communities david donald we give thanks for the life of all those communities and bring also our own prayers for our own communities let's first though say the prayer of thanksgiving we bring to our prayers also those who we know are in need of our prayers in sickness or sorrow and we ourselves remember archbishop yan and his wife kamla of the anglican center in rome kamla has to have surgery today so we pray for her in that here's the prayer of william wilberforce god our deliverer who sent your son jesus christ to set your people free from the slavery of sin grant that as your servant william wilberforce toiled against the sin of slavery so we may bring compassion to all and work for the freedom of all the children of god throughout the world through jesus christ our lord amen the prayer at the end of our psalm lord of all our breath and being come from you yet our earthly end is dust as you loose the bound and feed the hungry so bring us in your mercy through the grave and gate of death to the feast of eternal life where you reign for ever and ever amen we say together the prayer our lord taught us asking for courage to make us faithful as the new day dawns 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 of silence now for our own prayers this morning the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and if 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 you would pray for today and always amen [Applause] foreign