[Music] uh [Music] [Music] happy new year [Music] [Music] music and singing and greetings for the chinese new year from our children in king school country in shenzhen in china on this very special day good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of tuesday the 1st of february it's chinese new year unless you're in any doubt what colors are appropriate for chinese new year then red predominates which is a a symbol of wellbeing everything you wish that is good for people and also gold for for uh really heaven's blessing on you good fortune so all those things and uh it didn't surprise me that uh soon after midnight my telephone bleeped and i sleepily picked it up and the screen was covered with a a red message a video message which then transformed itself into all kinds of greetings and pictures and fireworks and everything else from lincoln a friend of ours in in china and at the same time we've had many greetings since and we shall be looking at some of those and rejoicing in music from our sister cathedral of st john's in hong kong as the chinese in china and chinese communities right across the world celebrate chinese new year on this day we're going to spend this day thinking and looking about festivals but first i want to say and this will be a little bit amateur i want to say uh gong shay fatsai nyen qui lor that's happy new year and and all those greetings in mandarin first many of our our friends over there they speak cantonese so let me say it there as well fine look and if you don't understand in my chinese and i'm speaking to chinese people then we're actually using greetings for the new year and we we hope this is a really happy time as in all cultural festivals like this there's time to be together in community time to be with families special things to do and very very many uh celebrations and fireworks which of course find their providence first of all in china so long ago now are the order of the day in chinese cities and also in chinese communities in cities across the world so many of the big cities of the world will be enjoying that today too but these i would say them say gifts of god of the way in which the seasons go through the year become our theme for today and i got a special psalm and a special lesson as well to think of we're going to be going to three different locations now we've come here first because this is the year of the tiger and we're told that tigers are brave and patient and with all kinds of qualities of courage but also the ability to be affectionate if given the chance well everything about our friend tiger here is that but the tiger is so important in in china because it was said uh that the the patterns on the front of the head of the tiger were like the chinese character for king and so that sense of leadership in tigers and and the way in which there is that very special relationship uh is a quality of this year of the tiger in the lunar calendar of china but let's say our prayers today here in the working greenhouse as we come together i've even brought my sister's old tea cozy and flesh has made sure that we're surrounded by red so that this is a greeting for our chinese friends of all kinds across the world who are looking in and enjoying their day we are still in the season of epiphany this is the last day and so here behind me is the epiphany star leading the wise towards jesus and then tomorrow we have the feast of candle mass or the presentation of christ in the temple as a baby with mary and joseph coming to have a private family festival there are many occasions in the new testament when jesus is in the temple for the festivals of his own culture and all the things that went on with them in his own lifetime and so at that point we shall read something of the way in which those are set out but for the moment let's begin our prayers on this day 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen i said we'd have a special sound today and we will normally we would read psalm 1 on the first of the month i'm actually going to read psalm 81 because it speaks of festivals governed by the faces of the moon that jesus himself would have celebrated and his people had done so according to the law and this is something alluding to the feast of trumpets when trumpets were sounded for the new moon and here is psalm 81 but it also shows us that these festivals also come as a time of reflection and looking back and memory and then a sign of intention sometimes with penitence for a new beginning and the starting again in so many different ways here's psalm 81 sing merrily to god our strengths shout for joy to the god of jacob take up the song and sound the timbrel the tuneful liar with the harp blow the trumpet at the new moon as at the full moon upon our solemn feast day for this is a statute for israel a law of the god of jacob the charge he laid on the people of joseph when they came out of the land of egypt i heard a voice i did not know that said i eased their shoulder from the burden their hands were set free from bearing the load you called upon me in trouble and i delivered you i answered you from the secret place of thunder and proved you at the waters of meribah hear o my people and i will admonish you o israel if you would but listen to me there shall be no strange god among you you shall not worship a foreign god i am the lord your god who brought you up from the land of egypt open your mouth wide and i shall fill it but my people would not hear my voice and israel would not obey me so i sent them away in the stubbornness of their hearts and let them walk after their own counsels oh that my people would listen to me that israel would walk in my ways then i should soon put down their enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries those who hate the lord would be humbled before him and their punishment would last forever but israel would i feed with the finest wheat and with honey from the rock would i satisfy them the trumpet marks a time of rest from work and celebration in all sorts of ways but at the same time it's a prelude to going forward in the right way and that we consider this morning we're going to go on a little journey we shall be in three completely different locations we've started here for the year of the tiger and we're giving thanks for this festival which which is known in china quite often as the spring festival and spring is a word all my fresh springs are in you that we're used to in our our own language here and so this is a time of new beginnings but for the moment there's a pause and those of you who have chinese friends will know that if you say should we do that on working i mean shall we do that on that then the diary is cleared at this time there's no possibility of doing that this is a time when the load is set down verse 6 of this psalm i eased their shoulder from the burden their hands were set free from bearing the load the ordinary business of the day is set aside it's the same as trying to do miss business for with the united states at the time of thanksgiving everything is set down to keep the festival with one's own families with one's own friends in special ways many memories many stories much music many games but also heart searching and looking forward for at the end of our two days we're about to celebrate ordinary time begins and then we pace on forward after the feast of the presentation in the temple candle mass tomorrow so as i said earlier during the journey from here to the next place we shall share music from the chinese new year and uh much of it from our sister cathedral of st john in hong kong and also um we're looking at music which they use in what we would call the the world's concept not the lunar calendar but the sort of international calendar of new year at that time too and they would keep a watch night on for for what for us is december the 31st as midnight strike says that concept of new year too so we're looking at many times of celebrations many kinds of of activities in different cultures and the way in which there is an underlying current of unity in all that diversity which we've grown more and more used to in the virtual world that we've been inhabiting much more during the pandemic so let's take a journey now to on our next step and here's the music [Music] oh is oh [Music] is [Applause] [Music] is is [Music] so [Music] so we've come inside now to the dinery and we've brought the epiphany star inside as our epiphany journey begins to draw to a close and will end tomorrow as the infant lord jesus is brought to the temple and then as i said before ordinary time will begin on thursday and the workaday world remains it's not our custom normally to keep christmas decorations up to candlemas some do and certainly cribs in churches in many countries are kept until that time but we thought because it was february the first and and also the chinese new year we would keep just one tree and give it more red and more gold to celebrate this festival day with our chinese friends across the world you've heard some music now and some of the music will also will be a tagalog song thinking of the many filipinos who work in hong kong and they too have a great festival day at this chinese new year and so there are languages of different types in the songs that you're hearing but at the same time we are commemorating the end of the epiphany with its many many signs and the signs are of course all around us leading us on to our god all the year through but for the moment we've come into the library here and we've continued our colors of festivity we were thinking of the tiger last year was the year of the ox and uh here is the one we used last year little little sign of help for that this year the year of the tiger and we've done that in reality with our tiger here but uh tiger may be one of the the great creatures of the the chinese zodiac and all of those the signs of the year the twelve signs but there is one creature that we do associate with the preservation of wildlife and uh we have the privilege this morning of having a visiting panda who's dropped into us to be here to remind us of the great success of china in protecting this symbol which has always been used as the symbol of the world wildlife fund the panda dangerously uh near to extinction earlier on and the graphs were going in a different direction and now there has been great success in breeding them and when one sees the baby pandas in zoos throughout the world one is actually always aware of the connection with china and there's still the danger of fires in the bamboo woods in the protected areas and we've seen that but nevertheless this symbol here of uh pat the panda patrick here who's uh so pat the panda is telling us that the world's creatures need to be protected and this is a day when we remember creatures because of course that the tiger has now stumped itself on uh our year if we remember with our chinese friends the chinese new year today so let's say this period of our our thinking this morning is about cultural celebrations and the way in which communities kept them and i'm going to read part of the book leviticus and this would have been really second nature to jesus in his life to mary and joseph and all the communities of his his people at that time i'm in chapter 23 and i'm reading from verse 23 of leviticus and in that chapter 23 is headed the little subtitles in the bible i'm using feasts of the lord feasts and festivals when there's a pause to think of different things some of huge celebration some of penitence and some of reflection just bringing pause marks in our ordinary time as every community and culture has done so we have there then in chapter 23 the sabbath that would be a pause once a week the passover we don't need to say a great deal about that we often see jesus in the new testament at passover the feast of firstfruits the feast of weeks and then this one is labeled the feast of trumpets we saw the psalm 81 blow the trumpet in the new moon verse 23 and the lord spoke to moses saying speak to the people of israel saying in the seventh month on the first day of the months you shall observe a day of solemn rest a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets a holy convocation you shall not do any ordinary work and you shall present a food offering to the lord and the lord spoke to moses saying now on the tenth day of the seventh month is the day of atonement it shall be for you a time of holy convocation and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the lord and you shall not do any work on that very day for it is a day of atonement to make atonement for you before the lord for whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people and whoever does any work on that very day that person i will destroy from among his people you shall not do any work it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all dwelling places it shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest and you shall afflict yourself on the ninth day of the month beginning at evening from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath again goes on to the feast of tabernacles the great joyful feast of booths when shelters are built in out in the the open air but the trumpet has blown for a solemn feast and it means that everyone puts down their work and that first feast was not a time of penitence but a time of celebration a time of being together a time also of reflecting back and telling stories and and enjoying the memories of the times past and that happens here at festivals christmas time particularly for us in this country when families get together and play games and have special music and everyone is keeps a a day when work is not done as far as possible except for very very necessary work for the safety and ongoing life of society here but the same would be as i said earlier for thanksgiving in the united states that everything will stop and in all cultures there are those feast days and this is a day for the chinese cultures of fireworks and song and different things but jesus would have been very used to that and since luke's gospel shows in chapter 2 if you will remember mary and joseph and the 12 year old jesus it must have been a very exciting journey because work would have stopped and they're all going together as a community of extended family and friends up to jerusalem and the journey would have taken some days said there will be camping along the way and that would be enormous fun for a 12 year old boy who would be there with his friends and every everything else but when they got to the temple if you remember in luke 2 jesus gets lost because he begins to feel those stirrings of vocation and is seated in the temple discussing all these things that are on his mind and in his heart with the doctors of the law and mary and joseph find him there it's a lovely story but it's about a feast and a festival when work was laid down and god's will was perceived and think in our hearts and minds how we use those festivals for ourselves but also the the way in which the sabbath was set there for the community of jesus and for the jewish faith now for having that day of of pausing and reflection not once a year but once a week and that was set in place as a grace and a gift from god to be used for the welfare of humanity as jesus is always insisting in his earthly ministry so this is a a good day for thinking of all these things it's an end and the epiphany journey comes to an end the following by the wise of the star which led them to the end of their journey which became a new beginning they went home by another way says the gospel of saint matthew and our journey our epiphany journey in the church's calendar ends today so that all things looking back towards christmas looking back towards the feast of the epiphany now tomorrow begin to take another direction jesus is presented in the temple and simeon declares as he takes the child in his arms and this we shall do tomorrow of course that here is the light to lighten the gentiles but also glory for his own people israel a gift a grace the revelation of the divine which can be accepted as a grace and become a revelation in our own lives so that we too may have those gifts and graces but then the day after is the ordinary journey when we use them uh there can't be too long a celebration in any culture because the the workaday world has to take over and that means step by step we follow through our earthly journey we've come in here today really to look back and give thanks for all the festivity and the glorious signs of the epiphany the following of a star and the baptism of jesus in the waters of the jordan and the turning of simple water into the richness of wine all signs of the epiphany which we've looked at and now that journey ends and the epiphany candles will be extinguished and a more ordinary light will light up our working days and yet our prayers and our worship won't cease we shall go on and that's exactly what we shall do today we're going to move on now to a different location say thank you to pat the panda for reminding us of our responsibility for uh uh the the natural world and also the the tiger and the panda reminding us this morning of our responsibility for for keeping them um absolutely i won't let me bring the tiger up um it's done not looking much like a tiger but it's in red and gold this is festival day for that but those creatures are reminding us of endangered species still and our responsibility not only for them but also for our whole planet so many signs and wonders on this day of chinese new year and some more music as we go on to our next place [Music] foreign me [Music] oh [Music] oh me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Applause] so [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] so we've come to our last point for our journey this morning and we've come into this room which is really the most sociable room in the house it's a room that people tend to make for and during the time of pandemic when we've all had to keep ourselves to ourselves it's been a room that lost something of that character but it's all set to take all that over again and it's a room where the morning sunshine absolutely floods in and a room where in the winter the lovely far light here gives you a chance just to be together in this space in this large house so it's lovely this morning to gather here at our two-day event shall we call it for we have been keeping celebration with millions and millions of people across the world who are celebrating the lunar new year and that celebration is infectious when they're friends and uh that means that that we've we've joined our own celebrations as we've come through from our visit to tiger the year of the tiger and then our time of pondering the journey of the wise following a star but tonight as the sun begins to set here the christian feast a principal feast of the presentation of christ in the temple candle mass begins and will take us through tomorrow as i say this is a two-day event of celebration at the same time our friends who are celebrating the new year will be continuing their celebrations and we pray for all of those with thanksgiving and pray for the insights which any cultural festival and the way that different cultures do things give us and as we focus as we do as christians always on the earthly life and the divine gift in revelation of our lord jesus christ then that too fills our hearts with gladness as we pass through from epiphany to that presentation of jesus in the temple and the rejoicing of simeon that this gift is now for the whole world and then ordinary time will begin so it's really been the most lovely journey this morning and as we come in here there's a scent of winter box which has been placed on the table and the the color red uh of of gifts in the sense that just as the wise brought gifts to the manger so the red envelopes that are given between the the people celebrating this particular feast are given across the world and that's a sign of health and well-being it's also as we were remembering a sign of our care of the planet and its creatures and and wildlife of all kinds and uh that takes us back to the stories which go back and back and back of the ideal jade emperor who himself was the one who called the creatures to come and stand before him so that he might name those who would be set in those 12 positions in order and it takes us into the realm of you know something like an esop's fable which we love to tell the children or any any story which has a very deep meaning it's like a parable the story's meaning is different but what the story here gives us is the very different characters of all those animals and there's an amusing story attached to it which i think we may have mentioned last year but it is one that always amuses us between the cat and the rat because all the animals were jockeying for position as they made for the gates of the ideal jade emperor's palace and they had to cross the river to get there and some animals were determined to get there the cat had asked the rat to wake him early so that he would be first but the rat knew that the cat was such an elegant and clever creature that if he did wake him he'd have no chance of being faster so he didn't and the cat never arrived so the cat as opposed to the tiger the cat doesn't appear amongst the 12 characters the rat dance in pride of place but then the characteristics of each of those creatures is drawn differently for the diversity of qualities in the animal kingdom is actually well known to us and we've seen that day by day but it gives us also the sense of the seasons passing and the signs that jesus keeps pointing out you you look at the sky and you know what that means and you look at the fig tree or you look at the olive and say this or that and these signs are always around us and um i've got here uh a a lovely old uh ma zhang set which has belonged to the family for a long long time and these is a lovely chinese game which which many of you will know how to play but i just love pulling out the drawers and looking at the should we call them the tiles they make a a specific sound when you're playing and building the emperor's palace and gradually the game unfolding but the characters the decorations and the the designations of the tiles have a sense of the seasons the four winds the east wind the north wind the south wind the west wind the dragons who are really signs of blessing and then the various circles and bamboo and characters and special decorations for all of those things and finally tiles which just have a wonderful decoration on them which give you the chance of a special hand and this the special hands that you can have are so beautiful in their names gathering the plum boss blossom from the roof or fishing for the moon really from the bottom of the sea and it's our habit when playing to call one circle full moon which goes well with all of this well to explain mahjong with its plum blossom and orchids and lilies and everything else would be a life's work really but if you know how to play it then you will enjoy playing it but meanwhile we can see that this playing of this game takes us again to the sign of coming together in season and out of season how the seasons change some celebratory and festive others quite different work a day and ordinary just building on from day to day but finding suddenly a time of change or a time of transformation or a time of spiritual calling and rejoicing in it embracing it with the characteristics which we have ourselves for god has made each of us utterly distinct to live in this world and offers gifts and graces appropriate for that if we're watchful and if we're waiting and if we're not too impatient and that will take us back not tomorrow but the day after to our tensions between king saul and the prophet samuel and prince jonathan which we were looking at yesterday so on this day we give thanks for all our friends who are celebrating across the world a new year and we give thanks for one another as we come to the end of our epiphany journey with the star which we've brought in here behind me our epiphany journey ends but in many ways that star is given to us in signs and wonders and ordinary human situations which just cause us to pause and think in our total diversity as human beings and are watching and waiting for the gifts and graces of god to be set before us and that will be very very prominent in what we're doing tomorrow but also the next day we shall return to those tensions between king saul and his son prince jonathan and the aged prophet samuel whose role in all of this is not ended yet rather like simeon's role and anna's role tomorrow in old age suddenly finding fulfillment [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] is us is [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] is 3. [Music] see [Music] let's then say our prayers on this particular day and we are praying on the 1st of february for the diocese of kansas in the united states in the episcopal church of the united states in our anglican communion pray for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and the sanet deanery missional learning community across the area of thanet which parishes we've been looking at from day to day and we'll return to those not tomorrow because that's a very special day but the day after when we go to pray for all saints margaret margate so then bring your own prayers of celebration of thanksgiving for friends across the world whether celebrating new year or not and also for the diversity of cultural celebration and the different kinds of messages they teach about the overarching gifts and graces of our creator who offers himself constantly to us here is the colic which we use for the last time today the fourth sunday of epiphany god our creator who in the beginning commanded the light to shine out of darkness we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of christ may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief shine into the hearts of all your people and reveal the knowledge of your glory in the face of jesus christ your son our lord amen so each in our own language we say 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 are men so we now have a moment of reflection and some more music suitable for the day [Music] us [Music] your r is [Music] if we know how to [Music] turn your face [Music] your life [Music] you your face [Music] is [Music] christ is is [Music] uh [Music] my [Music] [Music] [Music] the choir of uh st john's cathedral in hong kong singing john rutter's new year carol turn your eyes to the light no better message for the receiving for the last time of the epiphany blessing christ the son of god perfect in you the image of his glory and gladden your hearts with the good news of his kingdom 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 well thank you for joining us in our journey this morning to the different spaces and also as i keep reminding you the beginning of a two-day event which will lead us into the principal feast of the christian church of candlemass or the presentation of christ in the temple happy new year to all of you celebrating the lunar new year and chinese new year and i hope you have the happiest time together and thank you for all your greetings which have already been received in in in great numbers here thank you [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] um [Music] [Applause] okay the lord be with you go into this new year with faith and hope and love [Music] uh is [Music] is [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] oh is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh is [Music] ah foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] two little [Music] [Applause] [Music] really strange [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] yes [Music] [Music] wish everyone a healthy and a wealthy [Music] [Music] happy chinese new year hello everybody [Music] foreign [Music] support one another through the second thing and enjoy sweet after sweat in the europa tiger hello everybody i hope that the year of the tiger brings great blessings for you your family and to the king's school have a wonderful wonderful holiday [Music] [Music] yes [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you