good morning and welcome to the orchard at the dinery at canterbury cathedral on this saturday morning the 19th of september this is uh for our jewish friends throughout the world the jewish new year rosh hashanah and so we say to all of those shana tovah the great greeting of this festival when all look forward to the fruitfulness of a new year and we've surrounded ourselves by traditional symbols of that year uh especially two important ones apples which are hanging here on the tree and i have one of ours here beside me as well and also honey this from our own beehives behind and they are just here along the old monastic wall and as we think of that we remember that in the feast of rosh hashanah now today the sense of dipping of pieces of apple into honey will be a sign of praying for the year's fruitfulness and its sweetness this day comes after a period of preparation as it seems all religious festivals of celebration like our christmas following advent or our easter following lunch but here is a feast that jesus himself would have known well and looked forward to as a boy with his parents and we remember all of that today and remember our particular friends who are of the jewish community wherever you are in the world we remember john the leader of the synagogue in chatham where often we have spent uh feasts in a shall we say an interfaith way but it's felt so close because as we've gone to synagogue the psalms and the lessons from the old testament have not only been read but explained in a particular way we think of all of that today and pray for them because so many synagogues including the one in chatham are finding it difficult to open like small parish churches and mosques because of the restrictions placed on them and the lack of facilities there our friend phyllis who generally spends this day or part of it with us is coming this afternoon and will herself come to evensong afterwards but first we shall come to the orchard to enjoy the apples and honey of rosh hashanah this also in canterbury is friends festival day and so the deanery lawns would be covered with tables set out and and there'll be a band playing and there will be friends of canterbury cathedral from gathered from sometimes from across the world but also joining us in a way that was heartfelt but today of course nothing physical can happen in that way except for coral even song which some can attend this afternoon and will be live streamed with the friends banners and the friends him and that's a sign of our community just as rosh hashanah is a sign of the faith which our lord himself lived in through his ministry as messiah and in our reading from the acts of the apostles today we shall see the tensions growing up in uh saul paul's own mind and activity as he sets out on his second missionary journey one or two other things to remember today i think russell is proclaiming with the shofar the blowing of the ramshorn is traditional that the sound of the rooster is just as good to proclaim not only a new morning but a new a new year let's remember also that on this day theodore of tarsus the archbishop of canterbury from 668 to 690 was what died and is buried here in canterbury he had come originally having been born like paul in tarsus and then when the persian empire took over that he fled to constantinople and then to rome and became a leader there of the christian community originally the pope wanted his friend hadrian to come here as archbishop of canterbury and instead when hadrian said no he wanted to be a scholar theodore came and later sent for hadrian who was set up up at school almost a university here at the abbey of saint peter here the the twin abbey of christchurch which is our cathedral church and central augustine's is now called over the road and theodore himself a great scholar set about reforming the church it said that he arrived to find the english church a disorganized missionary church and after his years as archbishop of canterbury he left it a fully organized member of the universal church at that time and his diocesan and parish system which he established has almost remained intact in england today so that every every parish priest knows the area where he or she must look after not just the christians there but every human soul within those boundaries so for that we thank theodor on this his day i wanted also to mention george cadbury uh the quaker he was born on this day he became a chocolate maker and cadbury's chocolate and bourneville chocolate well known to us but he also became a pioneer in looking after the community of his workforce looking after their social needs looking after their spiritual needs looking after their education and forward development and for that we give thanks the whole cadbury ideal of what a working force and community should be this was the day also in 1946 when winston churchill made a speech in the university of zurich and from that speech developed the council of europe don't get that mixed up with the european union it's quite different there are 47 members of the council of europe and it is the this continent's foremost human rights organization look it up on on google and and see 27 of the members of course are in the european union but that's a separate organization the council of europe this vision of coming together for human rights and also democracy and the rule of law which survives very much today based in strasbourg well let's begin our morning prayer oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the true the only light banish all darkness from our hearts and minds 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 as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh god let's set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our son this morning is psalm 96 sing to the lord a new song sing to the lord all the earth sing to the lord and bless his name tell out his salvation from day to day declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples for great is the lord and greatly to be praised he is more to be feared than all gods for all the gods of the nations are but idols it is the lord who made the heavens honor and majesty are before him power and splendor are in his sanctuary ascribe to the lord you families of the peoples ascribe to the lord honor and strength ascribe to the lord the honor due to his name bring offerings and come into his courts o worship the lord in the beauty of holiness let the whole earth tremble before him tell it out among the nations that the lord is king he has made the world so firm that it cannot be moved he will judge the peoples with equity let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad let the sea thunder and all that is in it let the fields be joyful and all that is in them let all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the lord for he comes he comes to judge the earth with righteousness he will judge the world and the peoples with his truth so we turn to the acts of the apostles and we find ourselves where we left the story yesterday where paul and barnabas have remained in antioch and silas and judas barsabas have gone back to jerusalem they'd come as messengers with the council's letter and also to authorize and affirm that with their own words and prophecies but paul and barnabas spend some time now in antioch with the group of new christians remember that's where they were first called christians and not simply followers of the way and you have there then the mixture of the jewish christians still very much rooted in the faith that we're remembering on this rosh hashanah today and also the hellenistic christians greek speakers for some of whom this was an entirely new adventure they didn't have the rootedness in the law the prophets the psalms and therefore as we saw with paul's preaching in asia minor the one thing that they shared was the glory of god's creation and the fruitfulness of the seasons so i'm beginning this morning in chapter 15 and verse 36 after some days paul said to barnabas let us return and visit the brothers and sisters in every city where we proclaim the word of the lord and see how they are now barnabas wanted to take with them john called mark but paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in pamphilia and had not gone with them to the work and there arose a sharp disagreement so that paul and barnabas separated from each other barnabas took mark with him and sailed away to cyprus but paul chose silas and departed having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the lord he went through syria and salisia strengthening the churches paul came also to derbe and to lystra a disciple was there named timothy the son of a jewish woman who was a believer but timothy's father was a greek timothy was well spoken of by the brothers and sisters at lystra and iconium paul wanted timothy to accompany him and he took him and circumcised him because of the jews who were in those places for they all knew that timothy's father was a greek as they went on their way through the cities they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in jerusalem so the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in numbers daily and they went through the region of phrygia and galatia having been forbidden by the holy spirit to speak the word in asia and when they had come up to maisia they attempted to go into bystania but the spirit of jesus did not allow them so passing by maisia they went down to trash and a vision appeared to paul in the night a man of macedonia was standing there urging him saying come over to macedonia and help us and when paul had seen the vision immediately we sought to go into macedonia concluding that god had called us to preach the gospel to them several hugely important things in that lesson first of all we said yesterday that when we were talking about the council of jerusalem with the apostles and elders sitting together that that kind of debate in the church's life and the councils and synods that had met right across the world theodore of tarsus held a synod or a council here the first one that the english church had held at hartford and at that many of the things that he established in the ordering of the church took place and they last till today as i said in diocesan boundaries and parishes and the vision of ministry to the whole nation well all of that can be a good resolution on the other hand it might be a cause of division and the resolution may be years sometimes hundreds of years away but in god's good time the speaking of the truth in faith has resulted in many good things but also in division now look this morning at the lesson paul and barnabas our two companions so sharply divided on the issue of whether they will give mark a second chance because his nerve had failed him on the first missionary journey paul was not willing to take that risk barnabas absolutely knowing he must take that risk and thank god he did for the ministry of mark's sake and the life of the whole church but what happens in the end they agree to separate the division was so sharp we're told that they separate and barnabas taking mark with him sails away to cyprus to visit the communities there that mark had been present at when they were formed so that he could start a bit back and take up the ministry with barnabas for their of the same family and then continue and thanks be to god for that that second chance barnabas sails out of the acts of the apostles at that time doesn't appear again but we know that ministry is going on with barnabas and mark just as we know that ministry is going on in northern africa at the same time it's just that we don't have an account of it or even letters from it they're a great friend of mine whose scholarship i trust believes that it was barnabas who wrote the epistle to the hebrews so on we go with this because paul then is without companionship so what does he do he sends for silas sylvanus another roman citizen who has been with them in antioch silas comes from jerusalem and they set off on the second missionary journey remember all those maps at school of lines going here and there these are real places with real people in this story that luke is telling luke hearing the story from the eyewitnesses at the moment and off they go through the areas to which the letter had been addressed in syria and silicia but then they cross the sea and come back to those communities that they first came to and here the companionship is extended for when they come to lystra they find someone who is very very well spoken of by the christian community there a young man called timothy whose father was a greek noticed that paul at that time who later on will in his epistles write very strongly against the need for that physical right of circumcision at that time is still so rooted in the faith in which he was brought up and also tender towards the feelings of those in the christian church at that time who was still so rooted in it that they cannot let go of that that he has timothy is circumcised at that point to take him on with him and on they go the christian community of missionaries is building up i want really just to say one more thing about this lesson this morning and it's an important one we are on the cusp of luke being not simply a hearer of other people's experiences a recorder of other events which he had not been present at were on the cusp of his being an eyewitness himself a member of the team for we saw how they reached troas and suddenly instead of the pronoun being they went on they did this they did that we come to the first person plural we were ready to do this we set sail and so on and so forth there will be passages in the acts of the apostles where one feels that luke is actually present and writes in the first person plural he's a member of that team and silas timothy paul and as from that sentence luke himself with others i'm sure go from place to place strengthening the brothers and sisters there we get a real sense of a community of faith growing it's so important to every faith to have times when folk can come together in celebration or in sorrow in acts of worship in acts of preparation for an act of worship in times of decision-making in times of creating order for the church as theodore of tarsus did so wonderfully for this land when he was archbishop of canterbury he died aged 88 in the year 690 still in full health and strength as the psalmist said he shall still bear fruit in old age and shall flourish well theodore certainly did as did his scholarly companion whose range of subjects in teaching the faith to those who would go and evangelize england i think particularly i've seen old town of sherman who was so well respected in the parish that i had at sherman and he had been taught here in canterbury taught immaculately by adrian or hadrian he's called both um and had gone off with a really disciplined education a theological education and we remember how important that is for those who are leading people in the faith helping them to study and to reflect so paul takes timothy that's a name that will be with us through the epistles and he takes silas sylvanas that name also will be with us from time to time through the epistles and also in the epistle of saint peter the first one well all those things show us communities that physically need to be together let's remember on this day how difficult it is for communities not to be able to gather together physically we do it virtually but this week we've had several meetings for the first time physically with groups well spaced in big rooms and the difference particularly when you're chairing the meeting of watching body language and being able to come together in a shared meal obeying all the rules is profound of course we give enormous thanks for my ability to speak to you across the world for friends festival which will happen like that today but it causes us more and more on this rosh hashanah for the jewish people to think it's only really second best coming together physically is the stuff of faith being able to care for each other since each other physically is something that we have learned to value more by this time of lockdown made us more determined probably to search and value search for and value those things which are so important to us so here surrounded by the apples and the beehives as a sign of our sister faith's an intention to celebrate a new year and we wish them so much good on this day across the world we pray for them as we say our prayers and bring our own prayers to the prayer that we shall say together i'm praying this morning in our own list of prayers for the diocese of pakkong in south sudan and for joseph maker atot the bishop there and his people the diocese of central newfoundland in canada and john watson and his people and the diocese of qatar ali in kenya and for stephen kawasis and his people there we pray for justin our archbishop and for uh rose the bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth we're continuing to pray for all those villages for the last two days i've read them all out but this is the east bridge scenery and i think i won't read them all out again today but remember all those beautiful villages under stephan thomas their area dean but today we're asked by those villagers to pray for those who act as chaplains to any organizations right across the valleys and beautiful places in that area deanery so bring your own prayers as we say our prayers think of all those you would want to pray for on this day those who we long to be with but at this moment are held back from being with and also those who are fighting this pandemic as it it threatens to break out again in various places those things we bring before the throne of god in the wonders of his creation in a spirit of thanksgiving for any time of new year and for the music which the psalmist bids us give in our thanksgivings we're going to use the prayer for theodore of tarsus today giving thanks for all those who are leaders of the faith almighty god the light of the faithful and shepherd of souls who set your servant theodore to be a bishop in the church to feed your sheep and to guide them by good example give us grace to keep the faith of the church and to follow in the footsteps of jesus christ your son our lord amen so we say each in our own language the prayer our lord taught us perhaps having in mind the excitement he would have felt as a boy and young man in rural galilee with devout parents for this beginning of a new year for them and a time of new creation new ideas new vision which was developing within him as a sense of his own messiahship so in your own way and in your own language 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 are men time of silence for our own prayers wherever we find ourselves on god's earth sometimes we have with us in our own houses you go into someone's room and uh there are objects around which speak of special events in their lives the way in which that their faith was built up i've got beside me here a little torah which our friend phillis gave us and that reminds us of those books of the law which we hold precious when we read the old testament scriptures but also i've got beside me signs of this day of new year and this is a pot of our own honey which i've not opened yet it's as clear as anything in the sunlight and that comes from the beehives behind me and of course an apple and so on this day and uh we think of our friends in the jewish community and dip the apple into the sweetness and say chana tovah with the sharpness of the apple and the sweetness of the honey wake up the morning as does the sunshine 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 amen you