good morning and welcome to the dinner garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of saturday the 17th of april welcome to you wherever you are in the world and bring your own prayers and and concerns as we come together what you are seeing are fritillaries growing up out of the grass in front of me and flowers have a way of accumulating legends uh in different cultures and one of the legends associated with fratillaries is that they're bowing their heads in grief in the garden of gethsemane these darker snakes head fertilities are of the color of mourning which suits probably this day when so many of us will be watching online or on our television sets the funeral of his royal highness prince philip with a mixture of thanksgiving and also shared grief with the royal family who have come to grieve a family member and at the same time give thanks for his long life of service to the nation the commonwealth and the world it's a time when we think of nations throughout the world who have particular troubles both because of the pandemic and for other reasons we're still thinking of those on st vincent where the volcano uh la soufflea uh caused so much damage and distress and one of our congregation at the eight o'clock communion yesterday said that his wife was there at the moment and so we're praying for those people still but other areas are suffering really badly from the pandemic as you will well know and we think of nations like india and brazil at this time even areas of canada with friends in ontario who are suffering a very very um definite lockdown at this time because numbers have increased you'll have in your minds and hearts so many across the world facing that danger and we pray for governments the world over who have to make hard decisions at this time and give thanks for those in front line care and in the vaccine um program is it as it rolls out in so many nations to give protection we think also of the people of cuba today where raul castro has stepped down after so many decades about six decades of a castro at the head of state there but you will have different thoughts and different concerns as you bring them this morning on this saturday morning in the easter season oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice alleluia blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as once you ransomed your people from egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your risen son may we the first fruits of your new creation rejoice in this new day you have made and praise you for your mighty acts 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 17th morning of the month is psalm 87 it's a hymn of reflection and of praise for our ability to create places of community cities and jerusalem becomes the earthly jerusalem becomes the image of that but the heavenly jerusalem becomes an image of the community of heaven itself in this song her foundation is on the holy mountains the lord loves the gates of zion more than all the dwellings of jacob glorious things are spoken of you zion city of our god i record egypt and babylon as those who know me behold philistia tyre and ethiopia in zion were they born and of zion it shall be said each one was born in her and the most high himself has established her the lord will record as he writes up the peoples this one also was born there and as they dance they shall sing all my fresh springs are in you lovely last sentence today in the funeral service at windsor an anthem will be sung which prince philip himself commissioned from the composer william loveday love lady brother and it's based on that magnificent psalm 104 which in our prayer book is set for the 20th evening each month it's a long psalm it pays dividends to read it on this day because it goes through the whole of creation birds making their nests and young lions roaring and and uh rabbits in the in the the rocks and all kinds of things but also the sense of the sea and the ships in it which is probably why prince philip chose it when he commissioned this some years ago so that will be sung this morning and showing the basis of salmony here in our worship and we each morning say a psalm of course so that was the one for or one of the ones for the 17th morning of the month in our prayer book and we are going to read from the gospel of saint john continuing the i am statements i'm reading from chapter 10 of st john's gospel this morning and this fairly short lesson contains two of the i am statements which are related to each other they're very strong images and helpful images to us and we'll have time to think about them in this morning sunshine jesus said truly truly i say to you the one who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way is a thief and a robber but the one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep to that one the gatekeeper opens the sheep hear the voice they know and are called by name and the shepherd leads them out when he has brought out all his own he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice a stranger they will not follow but they will flee from the stranger for they do not know the voice of strangers this figure of speech jesus used with them but they did not understand what he was saying to them so jesus again said to them truly truly i say to you i am the door of the sheep all who came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not listen to them i am the door if anyone enters by me they will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy i came that they may have life and have it abundantly i am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep the one who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them he flees because he has a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep i am the good shepherd i know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me and i know the father and i lay down my life for the sheep and i have other sheep that are not of this fold i must bring them also and they will listen to my voice so there will be one flock one shepherd two of the i am statements and pictures and images which are easy to focus on in that short lesson from the 10th chapter of the gospel of saint john we are in the sheep field and that's not rare in the scriptures which are so much part of jesus's life probably the most famous passage of scripture in that way is psalm 23 the song of the shepherd's king david the lord is my shepherd therefore i shall not want he causes me to lie down in green pastures and leaves me besides still waters wonderful images which jesus is picking up here and first he is simply describing what it means to have your voice known and trusted but then he turns to a much stronger image i am the door of the sheepfold the entry point for us each morning as we listen to his voice speaking through the scriptures in the present tense i am the door and the sheep will safely come in and out and find pasture so it's good for us this morning to sit on the green grass we're going back to our um garden forest or our forest garden that we've been talking about with the various layers of life and companion planting then yesterday you remember we were with the chocolate vine for i am the true vine and actually fletcher suggested yesterday the chocolate vine that should have been called the easter vine because of first of all the five wounds of christ in its leaves but also the scent of chocolate which gives it its name in its flowers well uh we can call it that and and enjoy that sense of easter tide but this morning where where's what i would call ground cover but i'm told by fletcher who's a purist that grass is not really ground cover it's actually herbaceous and can grow up high but for us it's ground cover that we like to sit on and enjoy in summertime and there's a sense also do you remember in the feeding of the five thousands where there was much green grass there was that time of year and jesus says cause the people to sit down on the grass and from the grass at the moment as i've said lovely flowers the uh fratillaries are popping up there it's almost the time for bluebells but fratillaries are beautiful and a great favorite flower of a friend of ours felicity in in in new haven in the states um and uh as we think of the green grass we think of the pasturage and the good things that our lord would have us enjoy when we look to him as our shepherd but that's the next image of course having used the image of the door and coming in by the right door and going out then he uses the image of himself as the shepherd i am the good shepherd and the sense of him coming that we might have life and have it abundantly wonderful sentences of growth and fruitfulness as things spring up and grow in our own lives as we follow the shepherd the shepherd is not driving he's inviting by his voice in the present tense that we should follow and as we follow so we trust him more and more but we have to continue to hear that voice and one of the ways in which we hear that voice is by our regular reading of the scriptures as we come to the the dates which are important to us and as i've said in the future this will be a date as people will look back and and think that was the day when we gave thanks for prince philip that becomes an historic date and how our queen will lead that morning but feel herself standing beside so many this morning as she sits alone in st george's windsor and others sit in their households everything according to the covet regulations and in few numbers but everything in that service has been planned by prince philip himself and there's a sense of his presence there and his constant worship when he was brought up in the greek orthodox church but for many many years now in the services of the church of england and other places where he has worshipped and tiger i'm going to move this down for you because you're a bit scared of the swing aren't you and i think wanting to have something to chew on while we're gathering there we are little boy um so uh we come to this particular day and there are other days which will fit into these dates rather that which will fit into this because in 1397 jeffrey chaucer first told his canterbury tales not in full of course but began the idea at the court of richard ii on this day telling of an april journey a pilgrimage following the way again and as they go along telling the stories of their own life to enrich that well of course that book is hugely important to us in canterbury the the the sense of the the canterbury pilgrims and as we think of them we think of our own journey on this day but it's not the main date i wanted to concentrate on this morning because this is a date when in uh 1621 the welsh poet and i would say in modern world was an the anglican poet because he is of our anglican and episcopal tradition was born he was born between the black mountains and the brecon beacons a wonderful area that we know well a beautiful area of this kingdom and uh he was sent off to the scholar he went off to jesus college at oxford which has a strong tradition of of connection with wales and then was trained as a physician but he was then in the time of the english civil war and in the middle of that war when things became so bad he'd been serving in the royalist armies and came back to wales but she then came back during the years after the execution of the king to be in wales again and to be a physician there that's not the important point i want to make the important point is that by reading the poetry of george herbert which we know well from hymns like let all the world in every corner sing uh reading the poems of george herbert he found himself converted in a a very special way and began himself to write beautiful poetry really beautiful poetry in a way that was inspired by creation around him as he walked around and rode around on his horse to look after the people in the villages there but there was one very significant difference between his poetry and george herbert's poetry george herbert was living out a parish ministry at bemidton in the compass and rhythm of the life of the church of england with its book of common prayer and as the parish priest he would go around and find christ in that rhythm and communicate christ in so many different ways and not only his uh his his poetry but also his little book of instructions to anyone who was a parish priest is something that is in the heartland of all that the church of england has in its history it was different for henry vaughan vaughan lived at a time when everything that he knew and loved connected with the rhythm of the life of the church of england as he knew it both in england and wales and the book of common prayer in all the way in which it gave daily readings and psalms had been not only abolished but made a criminal activity and so what he was doing in terms of using that book was a criminal activity and all worship of that type had stopped the archbishop of canterbury william lord had been executed the king had been executed and it looked to everyone as though the old way would never return and yet in reading herbert's poems as a companion to the book of common prayer and the way in which he used the prayers in that book and the rhythms and the seasons as he walked about although it was forbidden to him he began to create the most wonderful poetry not only of the seasons on earth but also of visions of heaven and one can have that in the brecon beacons and the black mountains as one looks up at the sky and the beauties of creation which psalm 104 will give in the funeral service today but vaughan handed those things on and composers have set the words when we ourselves gave thanks for the life of prince philip last sunday morning and the archbishop preached and an anthem was sung it was an anthem with words by henry vaughan one of his his verses here it is it was set to music by the composer parry my soul there is a country a far beyond the stars where stands a winged century all skillful in the wars there above noise and danger sweet peace sits crowned with smiles and one born in a manger commands the beauteous files he is thy gracious friend and oh my soul awake did in pure love descend to die here for thy sake if thou canst get but zizza there grows the flower of peace the rose that cannot wither thy fortress and thy ease leave then thy foolish ranges for none can be secure but one who never changes thy god thy life thy cure beautiful poem reaching beyond even as vaughn about his business of caring for people reached out for god as shown in the incarnate word born in a manger shows himself in intimations of eternity within him we so much give thanks for his poem but we give thanks for all his poetry he worked under the uh shadow of that terrible war when there was so much bloodshed a civil war of the english nation when a bigger percentage of the population was killed in any other conflict and he was coming to terms with all that that sorrow and that warfare but seeing images of peace all around him and his uh book of poetry that he created he called silex sinterlands which is silence is the word for flint and the sinterlands is the word for sparkling and he's thinking of the way in which hardness of heart by heaven's blow in a sense because that's how he saw his conversion when he was reading herbert's poetry can strike fire and that fire burns within and all around as heaven showed eternity to him he took as his uh motto almost moriendo revici which means by dying i gain new life he was thinking of it on earth as well as a future hope which is poem which parry is set to music gave and he also created that as a companion to those who were shut out from worship which had become criminal and couldn't receive the sacrament and were in a sense of lockdown because everything that they believed in in terms of the rhythm of worship had been abolished by act of parliament at that time they didn't know that in 1660 that would be restored to them at that time it seemed as though it was lost forever and vaughn's poetry speaks of that loss he wrote also a companion version of those poems called the mount of olives and i said we would get back to gethsemane because he's speaking then of scenes like the garden of gethsemane and these snakes had fertilities bowing their heads in sorrow and as we think of him we give thanks for the way in which composers not only parry with that poem which is called peace but also finzi who sets gerald finzee set the perium which was the tribute to the eucharist which at that time the sharing of the bread according to the the rights of the church of england had been abolished and made as i say a criminal activity but vaughan's paying welcome sweet and sacred feast was set by finzi to beautiful music and host who set the evening watch a dialogue between body and soul vorn had written it as a night prayer of his body going to sleep and his soul-keeping watch and he was there in the brecon beacons where he died and where his grave is but we give so much thanks on this morning for the birth of henry vaughan on this day in 1621 and for his sharing the kind of loss we feel it not being able to come together to receive the sacrament together on this day but also he gives us words not only of mourning but of the life beyond so fitting for a day when we shall gather together virtually so many of us to watch a funeral service of a family grieving at this time so let's say our prayers on this particular day and we have here in our list the diocese on the 17th of april within our communion the diocese of beau in the church of the province of west africa and the people who live there in our own diocese as we pray for just in our archbishop who will of course be giving the blessing at the service this morning at windsor um we pray for him we might pray also for the dean of windsor he'll be leading the service david connor and then also we pray for this area deanery the parishes are in the city and around the city of canterbury and we're praying today for all those with permission to officiate all the clergy you help out we pray also for uh rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth as we say our prayers bring your own prayers and intentions as we use the collect for this day almighty father you have given your only son to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth through the merits of your son jesus christ our lord amen so we pray 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 ever and ever are men moment of silence now as we sit i'm surrounded by the green grass from which flowers are popping up all around at this time of growth and freshness the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus christ that great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those who you pray for and remember on this day and always are men you're still here tiger are you okay hey you're using me as a shelter from the wind hey come on come on come on thank you being very shy this morning you