good morning and welcome to the greenhouse of the daenery garden at canterbury cathedral as i said yesterday and the weather forecast is quite right the today is going to be full of wind and rain and even sleet and snow later on so we did well to be outside yesterday with clemmy and the girls and today inside with our friend tiger who couldn't be more delighted that we're here with him in the warm greenhouse and the greenhouse at the moment has wonderful sense of passion flowers you may be able to see some of them they're growing all over the roof together with the most extraordinary uh plant aristolochia a dutchman's pipe it's known as and it has an extraordinary shape but also massively beautiful is the sparmania which is flowering behind me and one of its younger plants is flowering here straight in front of me so we are actually enjoying plants that certainly wouldn't be growing outside at this time of year and we're enjoying the company of tiger as we say our prayers on this day which as you will see is full of particular anniversaries and we'll see to those when we come to our reflection later on but let's begin our morning prayers wherever you are in the world on this saturday morning of the 30th of january please join us with your intentions and your particular concerns in your nations and culture as as a world we face and combat the pandemic 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 and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen the morning psalm on this 30th day of the month is psalm 144 blessed be the lord my rock who teaches my hands for war and my fingers for battle my steadfast help and my fortress my stronghold and my deliverer my shield in whom i trust who subdues the peoples under me oh lord what are mortals that you should consider them mere human beings that you should take thought for them they are like a breath of wind their days pass away like a shadow bow your heavens o lord and come down touch the mountains and they shall smoke cast down your lightnings and scatter them shoot out your arrows and let thunder roar reach down your hand from on high deliver me and take me out of the great waters from the hand of foreign enemies whose mouth speaks wickedness and their right hand is the hand of falsehood o god i will sing to you a new song i will play to you on a ten string harp you that give salvation to kings and have delivered david your servant save me from the peril of the sword and deliver me from the hand of foreign enemies whose mouth speaks wickedness and whose right hand is the hand of falsehood so that our sons in their youth may be like well-nurtured plants and our daughters like pillars carved for the corners of the temple our barns be filled with all manner of store our flocks bearing thousands and ten thousands in our fields our cattle be heavy with young may there be no miscarriage or untimely birth no cry of distress in our streets happy are the people whose blessing this is happy are the people who have the lord for their god sound of enormous joy and fruitfulness which fits well with what we've been thinking about in sint mark's gospel with the parables of jesus with the seed and the plants growing and the mustard seed providing shelter and leaves for the shade of the birds of the air but today we come to a very different story it's straight on from yesterday the end of chapter four and at the end of that teaching we carry on at verse 35 of chapter four on that day when evening had come jesus said to his disciples let us go across to the other side of the lake and leaving the crowd they took him with them in the boat just as he was and other boats were with him and a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling but he was in the stern asleep on the cushion and they woke him and said to him teacher do you not care that we are perishing and he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea peace be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm he said to them why are you so afraid have you still no faith and they were filled with great fear and said to one another who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him peace be still is a great sign of the ministry of the jesus whom we've been looking at in mark's gospel and witnessing his ministry in teaching and in healing developing in rural galilee and here is the great sea which probably many of you as i have have been in a boat on and you see the dimensions of that sea but storms could arise at a moment and be terrifying for small boats jesus it seems is asleep and i remember my first tutor in the greek new testament pointing out the fact that in st mark's gospel you keep having little details like the green grass in the uh feeding of the five thousand or on this occasion sleep in the stern on a cushion only in syd mark's gospel wonderful little detail and it gives us that sense of the immediacy that this earliest of the gospel is introducing into the telling of the story which is moving along so fast in a particular way but today we have everything about the fear of the disciples who are fishermen after all but they are afraid of this particular storm and they called him how can you sleep they're saying when when all this is happening master get up and help us we're we're perishing and jesus gets up and we've no idea of time scale but he rebukes the wind and the waves and probably the words apply to his disciples and their fear as well peace be still and calm is restored we'll find that again tomorrow in a very different kind of story but at the same time that sense of reassurance of encouragement in danger of everything that jesus is to them and wants to be for the whole world is very apparent in this tiny story and yet a very powerful story which stays in our minds as through the words of jesus peace be still and the words to the disciples why were you afraid where is your faith and all of that just left like that as we'll see the story continues tomorrow we rejoice in these pictures these little cut-out pieces which saint mark has strung together for us everything following on from the parables of calm and healing and growth and sprouting and the soils receiving the good seed and the soils being pointed back to us that we may develop good growth good seed daily as we contemplate the ministry of the christ in galilee and through his spirit now daily in a world which needs the sense of peace be still in encouragement we also see the wonder of the disciples as they begin to sense his power and that also fills their humanity with fear and later on the the fear becomes one that might mean that they're going to disappoint him because they're really not understanding the depths of all this ministry that he's introducing them to we should look forward to that development as we go through mark's gospel but today i want to deal with one or two very important anniversaries let me deal with the the ordinary ones first because it's good to look back it gives perspective to the dangers that we face and perhaps the earliest i wanted to mention was that in 1600 an enormous flood of the river seven uh rose and uh two thousand people a lot of people at that time from the city of bristol lost their lives all around there so that kind of disturbance within the natural order has always been an aspect of of what goes on um this day also oopsie this day also is the day on which in 1945 the greatest maritime disaster in history happened as a result of the ending months of the second world war when the military armed transport which had been a cruise liner of germany wilhelm gustloff was sunk by a russian submarine in 1945 it was carrying people back to germany from the baltic states but 9 000 were killed in that terrible disaster and we remember the loss of human life that in the midst of conflict the first flood in the midst of natural disaster it puts everything into the perspective of what it means to live as humanity in on this this this earth and the way we need to encourage and protect one another well today also in 1933 adolf hitler became chancellor of germany and that was going to develop into something which was uh culminating in the second world war of course so we remember that we also remember that hd 1882 on this day franklin de nino roosevelt was born and in 1965 on this day the state funeral of winston churchill happened and we as a nation stopped and i remember watching that on the television at that time all those are memories from the past today uh perhaps i might might say just in performance terms in 1969 on this day the beatles had their last public performance which is an interesting fact and in 1889 crown prince rudolf of austria the great habsburg empire uh was found dead with with uh the person that he was at that time with and he and she both committed suicide mileing on this day and that was a a shock wave across that huge empire at the time he was the heir to the throne well all those things uh and at the same time some birthdays uh today phil collins the singer is 70. he lives in kent and we wish him a happy birthday he was the lead singer in the rock group genesis and as we remember him performing in live aid in 1985 to huge crowds in wembley stadium and in jfk stadium in philadelphia and we put a link below to the live aid con concert as a memory of that initiative at the time today also is the birthday of king felipe of spain so we wish his majesty there happy birthday too well if we go to the dates that i wanted to cover in a great way today is the date on which in 1649 the king of england charles the first was executed uh beheaded in whitehall at the order of parliament it was in the midst of the english civil war and the nation was deeply divided king charles and we've special connection with here because he and queen henrietta maria had their english ceremony of marriage here they'd be married by proxy but charles came to meet his queen down here at uh dover to start with came on to canterbury and then came into the cathedral for that ceremony and we remember the reign of chance the first which ended with years of civil war and the loyalties of citizens were also intermingled with the way in which they worshipped for the parliament led later by oliver cromwell was very much of a puritan stamp and therefore the liturgy of the english church the anglican as we call it now episcopal church with its bishops and sacraments and regular liturgy of morning and evening prayer was was anathema to them so that when the civil war was lost then the book of common prayer was made in a criminal document to be using parishes had to get a new directory first of all a presbyterian worship and all kinds of different things began to happen in english public life of great severity but at the same time bishops were abolished in 1646 and then after the execution of the king who was very very firmly uh an anglican episcopal personnel and therefore was a follower of the of the episcopal ministry and the and support of the episcopal ministry and the prabhu indeed the rhythms of my all of that that the divide was so sharp that in 1649 cathedrals were abolished and people went into a new way of worship and it it took the restoration of the king in 1660 charles the second chance of her son who came and spent his first night in canterbury to allow that restoration but on the scaffold well let's start first before he walked to the scaffold and it was said he walked so fast to the scaffold that his guards could hardly keep up with him bishop jackson who had been the bishop of london and in charles the first mind certainly still was had said prayers with him and read the passage from the gospel of saint matthew which was dealing with the passion of our lord and king charles said you changed the reading and and the bishop said no no no that your majesty is the reading set by the book of common prayer for today which pleased the king and gave him comfort as he went to the scaffold what we know is that when he was on the scaffold then he before he was executed he turned to the bishop and said remember and jackson who later on in old age was made the first archbishop of canterbury to be created again by charles ii never said what that word meant remember it's very powerful word indeed and at a house nearby here there is the actual prayer book that was used on that day which jackson was holding and which is always a massive privilege to use and i was able to use it at a marriage ceremony for members of that house recently so all of that we remember as the storm that a nation can have in civil war and most nations across the world have times when they're riven by civil war and then have to work out how they behave together and unite one another afterwards and this also is the day in 1948 when mahatma gandhi was assassinated gandhi who had worked solidly for peaceful methods of resistance and had come through to indian independence but he'd wanted the whole of what had been the indian empire to be a one nation respecting diversity in in fact he lost that battle and of course the the india as a predominantly hindu nation and pakistan as a probably predominantly muslim nation were created for the first time nevertheless gandhi was respected not only as the father of the indian nation bapu they call him father but also by the world for his deep spirituality and also his holding on to that philosophy and belief in non-violent resistance and he gave and i'll read them now seven social principles his his social sins he called them which uh are to be watched for and he early in his life he he printed those in a newspaper that he was publishing but he later in life gave the list to his his grandson as well here they are the seven social sins wealth without work pleasure without conscience knowledge without character commerce without morality science without humanity worship without sacrifice politics without principle they're really fine maxims to guard against even now and always will be but perhaps one can think also of the statement which was attributed to him and certainly it was at the basis of his philosophy be the change you want to see in the world well that's a very firm instruction be the change you want to see in the world it's like the earlier instruction we had be the light in the darkness and that comes to us very powerfully from mahatma gandhi today this too is a day when we rejoice in the music of thomas talis who was born on this day in kent in 1502 and was one of our late clerks and singers here in 1540 but best known for his composition he was a roman catholic till the day he died but he lived right through the the reigns uh up from henry viii when he was of course earlier composing catholic music in latin with many notes for each syllable and then afterwards when edward vi became king he followed the new cranmarian principle of one note one syllable much simpler music some of his anthems come from there if ye love me keep my commandments and i will pray the father and he will give you another comforter even the spirit of truth and that uh that ansem we still very much sing at this time so we give thanks for the creativity of thomas talia setting the words of the scriptures in our minds but we give thanks also for the spirituality of people like mahatma gandhi which cross boundaries of faiths and cross boundaries of cultures and we are very glad we told that story a little earlier a few days ago that gandhi himself came to stay here and has said his prayers in this particular house and then discussed with my predecessor hewlett johnson possibly elements of those seven principles which no doubt they shared uh their experiences of and and then gandhi as i've said earlier went with hewlett johnson to say or sit beside him as morning prayer was said in the cathedral so let's say our morning prayer today and give thanks for the the ability to be in our lives the change we would want to see in the world here we're going to use the colleague for today and it's the last time we shall use it but i just want to look at what diocese we're praying for today ah here we are anglican communion we're playing for the greater episcopal anglicana del brazil so we think of all anglican and episcopalian people within that episcopal province and at the same time we're praying in this diocese for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and the clergy of the wheeled deanery that's all across the villages across the world of kent and the clergy with permission to officiate there to help out when they have time and we pray for their safety at this time of lockdown so let's wherever you are bring your own prayers and we join together in the prayer for this week last time we shall use it almighty god whose son revealed in signs and miracles the wonder of your saving presence renew your people with your heavenly grace and in all our weakness sustain us by your mighty power through jesus christ our lord amen and the day for this particular day the collect for this particular day king of kings and lord of lords whose faithful servant king charles prayed for those who persecuted him and died in the living hope of your eternal kingdom grant us by your grace so to follow his example that we may love and bless our enemies through the intercession of your son our lord jesus christ amen so we say together the prayer our lord taught us each in our 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 and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power in the glory forever and ever are men moment of silence now for your own prayers as the rain keeps on outside the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and if his son jesus christ our lord the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy ghost be amongst you amongst those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always amen so this isn't a day for bird watch for us we'll have to do that tomorrow but uh if you're doing bird watch today have a lovely day in the various places that you are don't forget in england to send that through to the rspb and across the world if you want to send them to the link given below in canterbury now tiger i don't think you'll be going far today will you just all a bit wet and a bit windy