good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of thursday the 7th of october wherever you are in the world feel welcome and bring your own concerns and intentions to our prayers we make no apologies for being in the same position as when you saw the baby hedgehogs the other day because we have new arrivals in the greenhouse here amongst the tomato leaves and they will become apparent a bit later on but at the same time we are showing or fletcher is showing you something which might give a clue to the little bit of exodus that we're going to read this morning later on in our reflection but meanwhile and enjoy this occasion and we are wishing archbishop desmond tutu our very very happy 90th birthday we remember him in leia on this day and give thanks for his vibrant ministry which always whenever he's here cheers us up as he takes services and and the energy with which he's always conducting services and and talk to us has been magnificent so thanks be to god for the ministry of archbishop desmond and happy 90th birthday as we begin our prayers here this morning oh lord open our lips and our mice shall proclaim your praise 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 as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this seventh morning of the month is psalm 36 sin whispers to the wicked in the depths of their heart there is no fear of god before their eyes they flatter themselves in their own eyes that their abominable sin will not be found out the words of their mouth are unrighteous and full of deceit they have ceased to act wisely and to do good they think out mischief upon their beds and have set themselves in no good way nor do they abhor that which is evil your love o lord reaches to the heavens and your faithfulness to the clouds your righteousness stuns like the strong mountains and your justice like the great deep you lord shall save both man and beast how precious is your loving mercy o god all mortal flesh shall take refuge under the shadow of your wings they shall be satisfied with the abundance of your house they shall drink from the river of your delights for with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to those who are true of heart let not the foot of pride come against me nor the hand of the ungodly thrust me away there are they fallen all who work wickedness they are cast down and shall not be able to stand so we are turning to the second chapter of the book exodus which we began to read yesterday chapter 2 verse 1. now a man from the house of levi went and took us his wife a levite woman the woman conceived and bore a son and when she saw that she was a fine child she hid him for three months but when she could hide him no longer she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and dogged it with bitumen and pitch she put the child in it and placed it among the bulrushes by the riverbank and the boy's sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him now the daughter of pharaoh came down to bathe at the river while her young women walked beside the river she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman and she took it when she opened it she saw the child and behold the baby was crying she took pity on him and said this is one of the hebrews children then the boy's sister said to pharaoh's daughter shall i go and call you a nurse from the hebrew women to nurse the child for you and pharaoh's daughter said to her go so the girl went and called the child's mother and pharaoh's daughter said to her take the child away and nurse him for me and i will give you your wages so the woman took the child and nursed him when the child grew older she brought him to pharaoh's daughter and he became her son and she named him moses because she said i drew him out of the water it's a wonderful story and a tender story and we've come into this greenhouse because it's a place of protection and shelter i don't need to remind you that yesterday we saw in exodus that pharaoh had ordered that every male hebrew child who had who was born was to be thrown into the river nile and killed hence the great care that the mother of the house of levi took of the boy and hid him for three months until he could no longer be hidden and then made the basket very famous story of moses in the bulrushes and the sense of protection which the bitumen and pitch and the bulrush basket gave him in the river but at the same time now we know moses sister was called miriam he's no she's not she's not mentioned as that name in this story but let's call her miriam because it gives a personal feeling to it miriam is there watching her mother probably has said just stay by and see what happens and who should come down but the egyptian princess with no downhill ladies in waiting and at that point they find the baby and the baby is crying and the noise which the baby makes gives a very human kind of atmosphere to this story and as the story proceeds the sister of moses is intensely clever she asks the princess whether she would like a nurse to look after the baby for her recognizing that the princess's heart has been touched by the crying of the hebrew child and then having got a an affirmative answer to that she runs off to fetch her own mother who is of course the baby's mother too and for a while as his his years increase the little baby is given back to his mother in safety under the protection of the princess and then at the right time the mother brings the child to the palace and the princess raises him as her own son we talked yesterday about particularity rather than great landscapes and huge swathes of time which have passed between genesis and exodus beginning and then we said how like a camera lens the focus narrows and narrows and narrows until it becomes particular and intimate intimate where people have names but intimate also in an intimate human story where a baby is in need of protection protection of two kinds protection from the danger of pharaoh's edict that all male hebrew boys should be drowned and also protection from the elements the bitumen basket and so on i said we'd we'd meet a new friend here in here today she herself is not new to you but you've not seen her for a bit here she is she's lizzy our wonderful turkey and lizzie disappeared and went into a position in the herbaceous border where she was sitting on eggs all was well while the weather was warm and when the weather was not too wet but you know well over the last week or so we've had torrential rain and as i said to you yesterday morning the uh the weather has got come much much colder and we were nervous about what was happening to lizzie and her baby or whatever was happening to the eggs beneath her if you try to approach lizzie when she's sitting on the nest you need to wear protection on your hands and arms because she's quite fierce with her beak but at the same time i think we both decided that she couldn't be left just there because it would be a chilly and wet time not only for her but for the chicks as they hatched we found when she was lifted that one chick had already hatched and we decided to bring her in to the protection of the greenhouse where she's here with the three pheasants and the three little hedgehogs and two tortoises and the most gentle creature in the world who's sitting here on the basket beside me tiger who will do them no harm whatsoever and where we tied him if he goes to near them i think because lizzy is quite a force to be reckoned with but at the same time now we've discovered that it's not just lizzy that we have in here but five little turkeys and the little uh turk is underneath her at the moment having the protection of mother and also the plants around her and the warmth of this greenhouse which already has a gentle heat in it for the protection of everything that will come into here now that the colder days of autumn are starting these are stories which warm the heart and there is an instant desire to protect when a creature especially a human baby is vulnerable and here we've come down to the the narrowest focus of the lens from that wide focus of the 430 years between the book of genesis and exodus then the wide focus of the land of egypt and pharaoh's huge political decisions about what is going to happen to the israelites as they're put into slavery and made to work hard with bitter labor as it said and then a narrower focus still as we come to a particular family the man from the tribe of levi and his wife and then as we go narrower still the baby and his sister miriam and finally when he goes to the princess the baby has a name moses the moment we mention that name we are mentioning a name that is going to have a a long and powerful story through the book of exodus yes through the five first books of the scriptures right up to the end of the book of deuteronomy but also moses is representative of something right through the scriptures and into the writings of the new covenant the new testament yet hear his name for the first time a small baby crying in the nile given protection and then brought up in the palace of the pharaoh here's a story beginning indeed and we shall follow that story over the next few weeks as it unfolds again the lens begins once again to widen out and get bigger and bigger and all kinds of things according to god's purpose begin to happen it's an exciting book to start and we shall enjoy the stories but at the same time they will give all kinds of signs about themselves as we go forward well let's look at some dates this morning which happened on the 7th of october i want to start with a conference which happened in 1944 on this day it began on this day the 7th of october and took a few days it happened on the outskirts of washington dc in the beautiful town of georgetown there by the river and with its lovely houses but at the top of the hill there and just beyond you find the house which is called dumbarton oaks and the minute we say it into our minds because it's a very favorite place for us the gardens there are to die for they are so beautiful but the house itself is lovely with its lovely music room and it was bought by mildred barnes bliss and her husband robert woods bliss and they made of it from 1920 onwards the most lovely house and gardens they were scholars they were musicians they were very wealthy people but at the same time they were gardeners and they knew how to plan and use a garden i'll say more about the conference in a moment because that's what this state is about really but what i would want to say is that it's a dream of a garden because it's a 27 acre site on what you might call a stream side valley park so in fact when you're standing at the house behind it the hill drops away quite sharply and you can go down in the gardens quite steeply so that the trees planted at the bottom by the waters are actually and they're huge trees very tall but they're showing their tops to you as you stand in the garden so all we've said about the different layers of protection in gardens and the way in which different creatures and birds and different types of trees and plants grow are all acted out in that garden which stretches out into a fairly beautiful wild stream side 27 acres and beyond and dumbarton oaks also has lovely planned gardens mostly on the other side there's some on the side of the creek down as it goes down but there in those gardens uh mildred and robert planted rose gardens and set them out in patterns and in other parts little ponds were created in other parts you can walk through lovely cut flower gardens and then out into almost a woodland atmosphere it's the most wonderful place to visit but at the same same time when you go into the house and experience the music room you can see what a wonderful place this would be if you wanted to bring people together to make a peaceful accord and and have thoughtful and good decisions for the welfare of the world on their 30th wedding anniversary which was before the war in 1938 uh mildred commissioned igor stravinsky the composer to write a concerto to celebrate their wedding anniversary and he wrote a wonderful concerto which is quite often broadcast now and the concerto has now been called the dumbarton oaks concerto so that one associates dumbarton oaks with the garden and with the wonderful library and the foundation to help people study and it's a financial foundation as well which has been placed in the care of harvard university and at the same time you associate it with the the music of stravinsky dumbarton oaks and the uh the the um conference which i'm about to mention for in 1944 they are gathered in dumbarton oaks in the house their representatives of the united states of the soviet union of china and of the united kingdom the second world war was still going on in europe but already people were making foundations and plans for the future the league of nations had run its course as an international body and new plans were afoot and so the representatives of the nations came together and in a small accord there it wasn't a big group they they planned something that would take over from the league of nations so dumbarton oak saw the seed planted of the united nations organization as we see it today and as it has developed not from just not as just four nations but as so many nations representing all the nations of the world and coming together in that way so that the harmony of the garden and the harmony of the music room and the protection given and people wanting to come together from the for the protection of the whole planet in that lovely place began life there at dumbarton oaks in 1944 on this day the 7th of october we give thanks for that in a very big way and pray this morning for the life of the united nations organization and for all its members across the world and the many organizations which help in so many different ways people in distress but also signal places of significance that people can go and find creative inspiration from they're called world heritage sites and as you go there it could be a natural landscape or it could be something like this place a holy place or it could be a a very significant place in some part of the world which has been built and treasured by people and is a creative wonder but always there's an atmosphere there which inspires and we make up our minds when we're in particular places to go and see that and if it carries the united nations mark of being a world heritage site then it means we feel that must be worth a visit let's go and see and different ones will be our favorite ones to go to but let's think this morning of those beautiful gardens of dunbarton oaks and the inspiration is given to us in many ways when we've been there to come back and do something or other here in our own gardens which we've learned from there this is the day also in 1571 a long time ago when the battle of lepanto was fought it was a naval battle and you might think well that was rather unimportant uh it's not a battle i know about in fact it was a a really important battle for the confidence of western europe because the fall of constantinople which had happened in 1453 meant an end of the eastern roman empire it was taken over by the ottoman forces and the ottoman forces were pushing on pushing on towards the gates of vienna and their navy was about to sail round to attack italy and threaten the the old capital of the western roman empire rome itself and a navy was gathered from what was called the holy league and that was a combined fleet of the papal states of venice and of spain and spain at that time uh was run uh was was was uh uh how does his monarch we say that the the the holy roman emperor and as that happened don john of austria who was one of the habsburg family became the leader of that fleet and they went to battle and on this day demolished the ottoman fleet and from that moment onwards the ottoman navy was not a threat to the mediterranean or to the culture of the western part of europe battles have different results but this one gave a new confidence for the creativity and trading of certain nations across western europe so we remember the battle of lepancho as being significant in the development of the history of europe as something which gave protection once again to various nations who had feared that the ottoman threat which had taken over constantinople would come across to this part of the the continent as well and then uh lastly on this date and this is a date i would want to to to mention um with uh thanksgiving for the create creative life which had preceded this death date and year's mind so hubert hastings parry died on this day the 7th of october in 1918. now parry's music is of intense beauty and one feels and perry himself had a an estate in gloucestershire which was his family a stage but there is a tranquility and a beauty of his music which was reflected were showed by his own character and he was often the person who conciliated between people like elgar and stanford and stanford was an irratible man but people all liked parry in including stanford himself and parry was the person who wrote of course the great the music for for blake's words jerusalem and did those feet in ancient time walk upon england's mountains green that was just a hymn tune but at the same time he wrote large anthems like i was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the lord i was glad was a coronation anthem our feature will stand all of that in thy courts o jerusalem and you can hear the music in your in your in your mind as a coronation anthem but it's sung uh also as anthem as an anthem on great occasions the setting of psalm 122. at the same time the little and some one of his um songs of of uh farewell the little anthem of my soul there is a country with the winged century guarding the courts of heaven unaccompanied anthem with which is is beloved of of choirs to sing but i wanted most of all to mention his oratorio judith from which was taken a tune which when he set this historic oratorio was about exile and the slavery of people the israelites in egypt told by someone who was with her children in a second exile in babylon and the tune goes to the words in that oratorio judith long since in egypt's plenteous land our fathers were oppressed but god whose chosen folk they were smote those who long enslaved them there and all their woes redressed and the tune long since in egypt's plenteous land our fathers were oppressed but god whose chosen folk they were smote those who long enslave them and all there was redressed and all there was redressed you won't know to those words but i bet you know it because it's sung to dear lord and father of mankind forgive our foolish ways we clothe us in our rightful mind in purer lives i service find in deeper reverence praise and so that that beautiful hymn goes on parry had an ear for melody and his blessed pair of sirens that that not an oratorio not an anthem a sort of cantata in his own right really is another case in point we give thanks then for sir hubert hastings parry and the quality he gave to music but the way also he could tell a story as in his oratorio judith and the reminiscence of what we've been talking about the exile and enslavement of the people of israel in egypt as told by the book of exodus but their savior is on the way for the baby has been born in the bulrushes and is now beginning to grow up let's say our prayers then on this morning and we are praying this morning in the anglican communion for the diocese of gasabo in the anglican church of rwanda and continuing to pray in the diocese for our focus on the harvest well we are focusing on the harvest i can smell nothing but tomato plants as i sit here and of course we're around in a place where um protection to little plants and creatures is given and we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover uh for emma bishop at lambeth and you will be praying for all those that you would like to pray for on this morning as we say the college for this particular week of the year [Music] almighty and everlasting god increase in us your gift of faith that forsaking what lies behind and reaching out to that which is before we may run the way of your commandments and win the crown of everlasting joy through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language we say the prayer our savior taught us our father what 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 power and the glory forever and ever are men no much of quiet this morning as you say your own prayers [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 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 the bell for the early morning communion service is ringing but i'm not answering that today because i'm on a journey today to herefordshire to the apple orchards of herefordshire to take a funeral in a lovely and ancient village church there and a funeral of someone i've known for um well the whole of my life 12 years older than i but lived in the over the hedge in the the land next door to us when i was growing up and his father had a lovely apple orchard and he became a fruit farmer and as he grew up he always kept in touch said that everything that i've done he's taken an interest in and he sadly has died and so i'm going to take his funeral there near to his own apple orchard and it will be a lovely journey to make today but i might just tempt lizzie with um a handful or two of uh dried mealworms that she might like she might come out but she might not let's have a look and see whether that will be the case here we are i'll go very 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