good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this monday the 8th of march it's a still and chilly day but uh welcome wherever you are in the world the frost which made my car look like an igloo when i went to matins earlier has melted and the day is becoming warmer we've come here for a very special reason and we'll talk about that in a moment but it's one of those days when what is happening in the present tense is going to be far more important to us in our thinking and reflection than what is hap than what has happened on this date in the past and so we'll see that today is international women's day celebrating the social economic cultural and political achievements of women and also taking the theme choose to challenge to call out inequality and the theme a challenge world is an alert world so we think of that and and and give thanks for that theme and we've come here because the the fine white birch trees standing behind us that the birch history has always been called the lady of the woods and so here we are on international women's day with the power of that white birch tree still leafless but beautiful because of its white bark behind us and then also today is commonwealth day march the 8th 2021 and last night we watched as her majesty the queen and other members of the royal family engage with young people uh women and men throughout the commonwealth and we've put the flags just as a bit of a visual aid on either side of leo and me this morning first the the commonwealth flag and then the flags of the 54 nations of the commonwealth throughout the world together with some territories which have their own flags but the 54 nations form with the population now one third of the population of the whole world and cover a quarter of the surface the land surface of the world it's a huge organization and when we look at its charter later on we will see great coincidences and coinciding and convergence with that international women's day in terms of gender equality and equal opportunities and all of those things and we remember that 60 of the population of the commonwealth are under the age of 30. and so it's a young organization it's the largest organization of nations in the world apart from the united nations and of course the uh queen is the head of the commonwealth and to hear her talking with the usual enthusiasm about the way in which the commonwealth breaks down barriers and gives nations a chance to understand one another becomes really uh encouraging for all of us the other thing that's happening today of course is that millions of children are going back to school and coming back to school so our precincts will be filled with children again from our own cathedral school the king school of canterbury and that would be a welcome sound as that signifies one element of a lockdown easing slightly we also think of pope francis and we'll think about what he has achieved in that really iconic visit to iraq and to those who were being so so persecuted as as christians so dear we've got some competition who wants to be on set but that's just part of life here so let's uh let's um talk now uh about our own prayers and this is a day when we remember in the calendar edward king who was the bishop of lincoln until 1910 and is best known for his pastoral care of his clergy in the lincoln diocese and of the poorer people and farmers and those in the towns and cities of lincolnshire during his episcopate and he's a figure much admired but i'll talk a little bit about him also in the reflection so let's begin our prayers oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice so 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 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 our psalm this morning on this eighth morning of the month is psalm 40 i waited patiently for the lord he inclined to me and heard my cry he brought me out of the roaring pit out of the mire and clay he set my feet upon a rock and made my footing shore he has put a new song in my mouth a song of praise to our god many shall see and fear and put their trust in the lord blessed is the one who trusts in the lord who does not turn to the proud that follow a lie great are the wonders you have done o lord my god how great your designs for us there is none that can be compared with you if i were to proclaim them and tell of them they would be more than i am able to express sacrifice and offering you do not desire but my ears you have opened burnt offering and sacrifice for sin you have not required then said i lo i come in the scroll of the book it is written of me that i should do your will o my god i delight to do it your law is within my heart i have declared your righteousness in the great congregation behold i did not restrain my lips and that o lord you know your righteousness i have not hidden in my heart i have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation i have not concealed your loving kindness and truth from the great congregation a wonderful psalm and it goes on but there's a verse in that which reminds me of that passage in the prophet isaiah where he is standing in the house of the lord among the great congregation and sees the vision of the lord high and lifted up and he says where is me more or less what am i doing here i'm a man of unclean lips and i dwell among a people of unclean lips you remember how an angel in the vision goes and takes a a coal a burning coal in tongs from the altar and comes and touches the lips of elijah of isaiah with it and says though this has touched your lips and your iniquity is pardoned and then this is the verse that reminds me the voice of the lord saying whom shall i send and who will go for me and isaiah says as the psalmist says here am i send me lo i come says the psalmist and the whole of jesus's ministry is a living out of the anointed one to that vocation of the christ so let's turn back to that story now in the gospel of saint john where in chapter seven you'll remember from saturday morning and we left jesus speaking with the people who are puzzled by his ministry and who he is and are asking questions on what we've called an earthly plane and rather not perceiving that which is divine and reaching beyond that so i'm starting at verse 37. on the last day of the feast the great day jesus stood up and cried out if anyone thirsts let them come to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of their heart will flow rivers of living water now this jesus said about the spirit whom those who believed in him were yet to receive for as yet the spirit had not been given because jesus was not yet glorified when they heard these words some of the people said this really is the prophet others said this is the christ but some said is the christ to come from galilee has not the scripture said that the christ comes from the offspring of david and comes from bethlehem the village where david lived so there was a division among the people over him some of them wanted to arrest him but no one laid hands on him the officers of the temple police then came to the chief priests and pharisees who said to them why did you not arrest him and the officers no one ever spoke like this man the pharisees answered them have you also been deceived have any of the authorities or the pharisees believed in him but this crowd that does not know the law is accursed nicodemus who had gone to him before and who was one of them said to them does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does they replied are you from galilee too surgeons see that no prophet arises in galilee well this concludes chapter 7 with that question among them still unanswered and in their hearts and minds they are divided there are uh questions in there to which almost the answer is being given as one goes along and the answer for the little question um have you also been deceived have any of the authorities or the pharisees believed in him and of course nicodemus says one of the sanhedrin is standing there and could simply have said yes i have but there's a nervousness still remember he'd come to jesus by night and then gone back out into the darkness symbolic in john of still not understanding in a divine way uh what jesus is trying to tell him and his mind is is too full of finite things but here he is again and so he chooses to ask them a question about the law saying but can our law condemn someone who's not had a hearing but they turn on him and says are you also a galilean which he plainly isn't and uh this is a an insult as far as the authorities in in mighty jerusalem are concerned but at the same time um when i hear the officers of the temple police give their answer to the pharisees and to the jewish authorities in jerusalem i'm instantly taken to a line of melody in elgar's oratorio the apostles and elgar in creating the apostles and the kingdom had used up new testaments cut them up and tried to make a pattern which would make sense to give the story of those young men who had followed jesus as the twelve and when jesus begins his teaching in part of the apostles early on his teaching is simply the beatitudes from the gospel of saint matthew blessed are the poor in spirit and all of that um comes in a particular melody as the eight beatitudes are given and then when one comes to this question and the answer the line later on in the oratorio that elgar sets in that melody and instantly you recognize it because you've heard it eight times with the beatitudes earlier in the oratorio the answer given in the the words of the king james bible which he was using never man spake like this man is in the same melody as the eight beatitudes which of course speak heavenly truths in uh sky language trying to break through and quarry within us the image of god in whose image we are made and our ability as we've said in body mind and spirit to reach out for that which is infinite this chapter ends here there's been nothing of the twelve no i am statement but we do get in in this little passage we've just read the image of living waters streaming from jesus himself which is an image of the spirit and we're taken once back once more back to the woman at the well in samaria when jesus is sitting talking with her and she is the one who is first given that message if you knew the gift of god and the one who it is who is speaking to you you would ask of him and he would have given you living waters and we can also anchor that in the prophet isaiah this time chapter 55 oh everyone that thirsteth come to the waters waters offered without price refreshment and streams of living water see what jesus says on this occasion streams of water will burst out from them the one receiving so there's a mutuality going on in this which will unfold as the gospel proceeds well we've much to do and to think about this morning say let's carry on for the moment first of all great thanksgiving for the vibrancy of international women's day and that choose to challenge well maybe that was a lesson for nicodemus this morning choose to challenge later on he will a challenged world is an alert world and if we link that with its convergence with all those nations the 54 nations and the the uh millions and millions i think it's 2.1 billion people who belong to 2.2 billion people who belong to the commonwealth of nations throughout the world of which the queen has been head or throughout her reign and she has championed that cause so often and shayna's pictures in her christmas messages and we give thanks for that diversity but also for the principles which the commonwealth enshrines and there's no better place to find that than in the commonwealth charter now each of the headings i'm going to read for the charter of all these nations which the colorful flags are showing you this morning each of these headings gets a paragraph to itself there's no way i can read all that this morning but i can read the 16 headings to give you a flavor of how this converges with the the intentions not only of the international women's day but also of the united nations organization here are the the charter headings of the commonwealth democracy human rights international peace and security tolerance respect and understanding freedom of expression separation of powers the rule of law good governance sustainable development protecting the environment access to health education food and shelter gender equality importance of young people in the commonwealth and throughout the world recognition of the needs of small states recognition of the needs of vulnerable states and the role of civil society well what a charter and if one chooses that and stands up for those then there is the commitment to choose choose to challenge where those things are not being respected and at the end of that there's a statement of commitment to which we pledged ourselves again uh the lord mayor of the city we can't have commonwealth services at the moment and we put a link on uh to both the uh westminster abbey event which was broadcast last night which is quite different because of the pandemic from last year so we've shown you both last year's and this year because last year we were still able to gather in that way but here's the act of commitment which the lord mayor broadcasts for this city of canterbury and i on behalf of the people responded to we are committed to ensuring that the commonwealth is an effective association responsive to its members needs and capable of addressing the significant global challenges of the future that's what this flag on each side of me the big one represents in that charter well let's also think um of the brave visit of pope francis to iraq those pictures almost brought tears to one's eyes when you think what christians in iraq they've been christians in iraq from the very beginning from the first century and they have suffered so much in these last years and when one thinks of the the place they found themselves fleeing from their homes but many staying many losing their lives many suffering terrible things and coming back back to find so many things destroyed christians in mosul in qarakosh we think of both those places because in mosul his holiness the pope stood in the middle of church square mosul and around him were four ruined churches destroyed churches from different denominations and then to go on to karakosh and find one of the churches now having been rebuilt and able to celebrate his sunday mass there but the great occasion of course was in the stadium at irbil where thousands had travelled christians in iraq who'd suffered so much to be there on this glad day when uh the pope pope francis was able to celebrate mass with them and give those signs which saint john's gospel gives the bread of life and also the flowing blood of jesus at the the end with the blood and the water and those three signs which so much blood had flown in iraq for iraqi christians but this was a day of celebration and gladness and we give so much thanks for the courage of pope francis as he went there and as we said yesterday was involved in conversations with the grand ayatollah of the shia muslims and we think also of the town of bata in equatorial guinea where explosions have happened leaving hundreds wounded and 15 dead and we remember that and it looks like a case of negligence again which we were looking at at beirut i think last year now and we pray for all those attempting to deal with the extreme cases of being wounded by explosion and the call for for blood to to to replenish the stocks which they need so much all part of our humanity and all part of our choosing to challenge for safety's sake and for the sake of all those who are making this a better place to live not only now but in the future then also we remember that today there's a gladness at returning to school for so many millions of children here and we give thanks for that they're coming together learning has continued as we know only too well online but at the same time being together and learning together physically is something which no amount of virtual teaching can really replace and so there's a little bit left of the term until the easter holidays i think something like two and a half weeks of our term here for our king's school our cathedral school here in the precincts um but after that an easter holiday and then we hope a summer term without interruption of the lock down again so if we do look at one or two of the dates in history itself we see and this is just a quick tour this morning 1859 kenneth graham was born in edinburgh he of course was well known for writing the reluctant dragon and the wind in the willows with all those amusing characters in animal form that book which i read over christmas is still on our website if you want to revisit it but we give thanks for his imagination and what he gives us not only for the creatures and the different personalities but also the beauty of the countryside that he is describing in that book and then we remember on this day also that in 1702 another powerful woman who altered our history queen anne became queen and she sadly having given birth to to many children and also uh was pregnant 17 times but all the ones to whom she gave birth died before she did and so sadly she had no air to hand on to she was the last of the stuart monarchs but she began her reign in 1702 by being queen of england and of ireland and separately of scotland and i should mention wales but that was seen in the title as being part of england and so that special culture was not recognized separately but we do know and uh then um in 1707 the act of union was passed so from then on she signed herself and queen of great britain and that meant a united kingdom of scotland and england and wales and also of ireland and so that unity of the united kingdom which was then uh um broken when the southern part the major part of ireland became separate but that that's a an early 20th century um time and so we we give thanks for queen anne she also was generous to the parish clergy of the church of england and saw that they were in great need and so she gave a great sum for their help and their welfare in their parishes because she knew that the parishes the people depended on them for their pastoral ministry which then brings me to edward king edward king who is a a really saintly figure in our calendar was the principal of constant theological college studies at oxford it was the seminary in which i was trained when uh robert runs the archbishop ramsey as he became was the principal that king was first the chaplain there and then the principal so he was in charge of the training of ordinance and then he became the regis professor of pastoral theology now it's called moral and pastoral theology in those days pastoral theology at christchurch oxford and again found himself teaching pastoral theology to so many who would be ordained and then he became bishop of lincoln and died on this day in 1910 but he's remembered as i said at the beginning for his pastoral care of his clergy in the diocese of lincoln getting to know them and being careful of their welfare and at the same time the the the poorer people of his diocese got his attention most those living in the city and the villages and communities of lincolnshire and the farmers in their their farms and the rural poverty that was being experienced in the late 19th century in england there so we think of edward king and he was a great writer mostly of letters one day when i was a charity in shows but i went into the second hand bookshop and i found a copy of his spiritual letters the spiritual letters of edward king late lord bishop of lincoln so i bought it and took it home and sat down and opened it and out of it fell a letter from edward king and it's a little letter since barnabas day 1896 the old palace lincoln it's headed and it's written to someone who had written to him and told him of their confirmation and king suddenly was reminded that he hadn't written back and here's the letter my dear basil i fear i may have neglected to thank you for telling me of your confirmation if so please forgive me god bless you keep on bravely and trustfully yours affectionately edward lincoln well there's a notion of pastoral care to someone uh who was not in his diocese clearly but she knew in some way or another and the letter found his way into this book by a previous owner i treasure that letter and also treasure all the stories of edward king and one could go on quite a lot about that as well but i remember the beautiful portrait of him which hung in the refectory at the seminary that i was talking of earlier and looked down on us as we were training to be clergy and his eyes seem to say never forget the pastoral care of the clergy and the people well let's say our prayers this morning and we are praying today for um the diocese of athabasca in the anglican church of canada in the province of rupert's land and also in this diocese we we break away for the moment from the area deanery of elam which we're we're dealing with throughout the the days ahead um because we're praying for the ministry of the mission and growth advisor steve konis and uh he is is uh um advocating that we listen and discern on the way you can do that way with a capital w so we do that and pray for steve in his ministry let's then say our prayer this morning first of all the prayer which is for edward king's day and this is in our little prayer book god of peace who gave such grace to your servant edward king that whomever he met he drew to christ fill us we pray with tender sympathy and joyful faith that we also may win others to know the love that passes knowledge through him who is the shepherd and guardian of our souls jesus christ your son our lord so on this day we bring our own intentions and we pray for archbishop justin for bishop rose for bishop tim at lambeth but we pray for all bishops particularly we remember the lincoln diocese today of edward king but we pray for bishops in their duty of pastoral care for their clergy and people and we give thanks for that duty laid across the shepherds of the flock and we also bring our own concerns as we say our prayers on this monday morning here is the colic for this week almighty god whose most dear son jesus christ went not up to joy but first he suffered pain and entered not into glory before he was crucified mercifully grant that we walking in the way of the cross may find it to be none other than the way of life and peace through jesus christ our lord our men so each in our own language 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 of silence now for your own prayers so thinking of edward king and his advice in that little pastoral letter written just on a sheet of paper and uh sent to that person who had told them about their confirmation keep on bravely and trustfully and the theme of the international women's day choose to challenge christ crucified draw you to himself to find in him a sure ground for faith a firm support for hope and the assurance of sins forgiven 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 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] people [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] every man woman and child sits on the shoulders of previous generations inheriting the courage and discovery of those who went before and the opportunity to learn the lessons of the past and to build for a better future in this way on the 26th of april 1949 the modern commonwealth was born out of the international collaboration that had been generated throughout the first and second world wars in an act of continuum the political leaders in the second half the 1940s were determined not to lose this spirit of international brotherhood and mutual support [Music] with king george vi at its head the commonwealth of nations was first established as a voluntary group of eight independent countries australia canada ceylon india new zealand pakistan south africa and the united kingdom today the commonwealth comprises 52 nations across all six inhabited regions of the globe africa the americas asia the caribbean europe and the pacific each of the 52 independent nations is an equal stakeholder and with national populations ranging from 9600 to 1.3 billion and with multifarious races and faiths the commonwealth encapsulates the concept of embracing diversity when king george vi died on the 6th of february 1952 the commonwealth heads of government invited the young queen elizabeth ii to become head of the commonwealth for 65 years her majesty has been and continues to be a constant and supremely uniting influence with a unique presence and personal style which can never be replicated the 21st century commonwealth now in its 68th year is building on its dynamic legacy and heritage with international engagement and diversity at its core and the opportunity to maximize individual national and international potential it offers the possibility to be a model of mutual human respect support and understanding [Music] foreign [Music] everyone has the right foreign [Music] is [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] free [Applause] [Music] is me [Applause] [Music] [Music] which woman in your life inspires you for me whilst i am inspired all the time by so many women and girls i would like to name three phenomenal leaders in our commonwealth that's jacinda arden the prime minister of new zealand mia motley the prime minister barbados sheikh hasina the prime minister of bangladesh for their leadership during covet 19 in their roles in their respective countries all three alongside so many other women have given me hope for a world that delivers a common future for women and men and serves all of our common good so i want to ask you to join me in celebrating women's leadership in homes communities and governments ahead of international women's day by telling the world who inspires you you can do this by following two simple steps first post on social media a short video of yourself mentioning a woman who has inspired you second in your post tag three people to do the same and use the hashtag she leads the way let's take this opportunity to inspire each other to aspire to a more equal future [Music]