good morning and welcome to the dinner garden at canterbury cathedral on this wednesday the 11th of august welcome to the little courtyard at the back of the deanery this morning it's a place where one can come and sit and think and even work a little bit and i want to think about that this morning later on at the moment you're looking at lovely bamboo leaves and to walk through any area of bamboo forest even if there are ones which have been planted up one thinks of bamboo forests in in chinese gardens on staten island for example and going through them with the light coming through the leaves or even just the sense of any what the chinese would call scholars gardens where the bamboo became so much uh a feature of all of that of thinking and also reflecting as we shall do this morning we come to the the next part of the story of noah of course in our our readings but but this will um suit us well with this type of reflection and i'm surrounded by beautiful plants in this garden and as we look along the blue sky being reflected with sunshine in the in the leaves and around two where i myself am sitting this morning we have the flowers of the hibiscus flowering beautifully at present with some dahlias and krikosmia we're thinking of areas of the world in our prayers which are being devastated by fire and the enormous danger which people are facing and the destruction and burning of all that they felt most secure so we're thinking of the mediterranean regions not just turkey and cyprus and greece but also algeria where many people have lost their lives in in the fires which are raging there and across on the other side of the world those huge fires still burning in california and in the western part of the united states and and of canada we also think of people who are in danger from floods in north korea and other areas there and those who are risking their own lives and safety sometimes in the fire services to travel across the world to help with expertise but at the same time we think of people whose political situations at the moment are about to be decided in various ways and we think of the huge country of brazil and brazil of course contains the crucially important ecological amazon basin and the the forests around the huge amazon river and then we think of the people of new york state where the governor has uh stepped down and the lieutenant governor now takes responsibility for that area it's it's a difficult time for anyone to take political responsibility with that all the decisions that have to be made so you will have areas of your own lives wherever you are in the world where you'll be thinking of people who today will have to make difficult decisions we also of course continue to pray for all those affected by the pandemic in areas of lockdown and in areas where there is a nervousness about opening up and coming together again so let's begin our prayers on this particularly lovely morning um and in england and we hear the noise around us of the sparrows uh chattering sparrows are gregarious creatures and you never know quite whether they're happy with the morning or they're quarreling with one another but wherever there are high leaves around and areas like this there's a passion flower flowering above me but the sparrows are all around so you will hear that twittering and shattering in their community so let's say our prayers on this morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the light 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 so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this 11th morning of the month is psalm 57 be merciful to me o god be merciful to me for my soul takes refuge in you in the shadow of your wings when i take refuge until the storm of destruction has passed by i will call upon the most high god the god who fulfills his purpose for me he will send from heaven and save me and rebuke those it would trample upon me god will send forth his love and his faithfulness i lie in the midst of lions people whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword be exalted oh god above the heavens and your glory over all the earth they have laid a net for my feet my soul is pressed down they have dug a pitch before me and will fall into it themselves my heart is ready o god my heart is ready i will sing and give you praise awake my soul awake harp and liar that i may awaken the dawn i will give you thanks o lord among the peoples i will sing praise to you among the nations for your loving kindness is as high as the heavens and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds be exalted oh god above the heavens and your glory over all the earth so we turn back to the book of genesis and we tell the next little portion of the story of noah which we've been looking at through the days of this week and i'm continuing from where i left off yesterday in chapter seven and i'm reading from verse 17 and we'll read to verse five of chapter eight the flood continued for 40 days on the earth the waters increased and bore up the ark and it rose high above the earth the waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth and the ark floated on the face of the waters and the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered the waters prevailed above the mountains covering them 15 cubits deep and all flesh died that moved on the earth birds livestock beasts all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth and all humankind everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died god blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground humankind and animals creeping things and birds of the heavens they were blotted out from the earth only noah was left and those who were with him in the ark and the waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days but god remembered noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark and god made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heaven were closed the rain from the heavens was restrained and the waters receded from the earth continually at the end of hundred and fifty days the waters had abated and in the seventh months on the seventeenth day of the months the ark came to rest on the mountains of ararat and the waters continued to abate until the tenth month in the tenth month on the first day of the month the tops of the mountains were seen let's leave that there for this morning tomorrow the story will go on but for the moment i want to think of the ark itself the ark has a symbol of refuge but also of seclusion enforced seclusion for noah and his family and all the creatures and plants that noah had taken into the ark in this story of a flood a story which no doubt had been passed down and down and down through generations and generations a massive flood in this story noah and those with him are there in a place which is necessarily frail and the the wonder of the creatures and particularly the humankind who are exercising a stewardship of obedience to the will of the creator in the ark they feel vulnerable and held up only by the will of the creator for the waters from above the windows of heaven and the waters below the fountains of the deep have threatened to close completely on all life a new beginning as we said by the creator like the potter's vessel when the clay somehow didn't come right in the potter's hands and was being reformed and yet this time it's being reformed by the obedience of the company within the ark and that enclosure is something which responds well to our situations of lockdown when a nervousness about the dangers all around us and the nervousness of governments wondering how to keep people safe cause people to be together in places of lockdown and some of you will still be in a place of lockdown here things have opened a little and it's a great pleasure to be receiving members of our gardening congregation our garden congregation who actually have chosen to come because they've only known us virtually and although the cathedral is restrained in where it can take people nevertheless it's been a pleasure at morning prayer in the cathedral to meet people who've come here and said we've been with you virtually and now we've managed to make a journey mostly from areas not too far away to see the cathedral and pray in it for ourselves now that clearly is not a possibility for many but there is that sense of just beginning slowly to remember how it is to greet people and pray with them in the cathedral physically and we pray for that for all of us but for the moment here we are in a situation where noah and his family and the creatures of his stewardship are there in the ark there are two dates two dates today which i want to remember and the people that we should remember are people who benefited in their ministry from seclusion the first is sinclair of assisi a wonderful and lovely saint and it takes me back again to the beauty of the holy place as sisi itself for claire was born in assisi of a very rich and and uh noble family there and she chose having heard the preaching of saint francis she was born in 1194 and in 1212 she heard saint francis preaching and knew that the call that he had had was for her also and with her aunt bianca's help she left her father's house on palm sunday evening in 12 12. and went to see saint francis at porciancola and there she expressed her vocation and in insight francis took that straight away and knew that this was god's purpose for claire she was clearly very strong-willed saint francis set her in a benedictine community and her father came to get her but there was no way that she was going back to the life she had she had renounced all that but the benedictine community did not suit her uh and in on two occasions she was placed in a benedictine community and so back to francis and our house was created for her and others who joined her beside the church of san damiano which um many of you will know i've described the importance of that place at one particular point in my life and sitting there by the wall and looking out along the valley of the river torto a place of silence and of reflection at that time which was broken and you'll remember this story because i told it i think not long ago broken at the end of probably about an hour by a franciscan sister who was on retreat in assisi and she came and was was there and we talked for a little while and as she left she said um let's pray for one another prayer is the only thing really that matters and i remember her her statement i i hardly remember her face now but i remember those words being said to me at an important time just by the church of san damiano looking along the valley but claire gathered her sisters there and there now in the uh basilica of of of sinclair one has that community now it was a wandering ministry for saint francis and the brothers although they were based at assisi but that was not a possibility for women at that time and francis felt for claire's safety it should be a mainly enclosed life and that she embraced and embraced also the total poverty which francis had prescribed for himself so she wrote her own order of life and then so much of that time was bent in silence and prayer and at other times being an inspiration for those who came to assisi and still do she would meet francis from time to time and was there tending him in his final illness but she lived on all the way through to 12 53 and died on this day the 11th of august and the seclusion that she practiced through her life bore so much fruit and flowering for us now and for the sisters to form that community which has become worldwide now known as the poor class and i think it was probably an oblate of of that order that that interrupted me that day on retreat the other person i wanted to remember in the same way who didn't know this would be so was john henry newman who was canonized in 2019 and we remember in our calendar today the calendar says commemoration of john henry newman priest and tractarian for me that's a very dry description of all that newman was and is in terms of teaching in the faith the poetry his hymn writing and the very um ecumenical ministry that he had unwittingly building bridges between different communions of the holy catholic church so that anglicans tend to own him in their minds because for a long while he was a a priest in the church of england and catholics tend to own him but newman defies ownership he is of himself absolutely john henry newman and we remember that with great gladness through his life he went through many journeys of different shall we call it ecclesial traditions he was converted as an evangelical and became almost a calvinist evangelical in his first essence of embracing heart and mind and soul christianity and then began his journey influenced by so many influenced by those who met at oxford and we remember that in um 1833 he went on a voyage with his friend huddle food and fruit's father who was in archdeacon and archdeacon food and his son and food was already suffering from the consumption which would end his life they went across the land and and then came to rome and all of that was part of their journey and down to sicily and back and then harold fruden and his father came back home and newman was left alone and went back to sicily and then caught a boat from palermo to marseille which was becomed and at that time wondering what to do with his life he at night looking out at the calm waters of the mediterranean wrote a hymn it wasn't a hymn at the time it was a poem he called it the pillar of the cloud and i'm reading it for my own handwriting in my little travelling office book here you will know the words well because it became a hymn lead kindly light amid the encircling gloom lead thou me on the night is dark and i am far from home lead thou me on keep thou my feet i do not ask to see the distant scene one step enough for me i was not ever thus nor prayed that thou should lead me on i love to choose and see my path but now lead thou me on i loved the garish day and spite of fears pride ruled my will remember not past years so long thy power has blessed me sure it still will lead me on or more and fenn or crag and torrent till the night is gone and with the mourn those angel faces smile which i have loved long since and lost a while that became probably his best loved him but he wrote it as a poem as he loved to write poetry and arrived back in england into oxford where he was and he found that on the 14th of uh july in 1833 john keeble preached his sermon in mary the virgin at oxford which began what was called the oxford movement and was a revolution to newman and at that time newman himself uh began to write with others tracts little pamphlets to teach what keeble was teaching that the church had an authority of its own which it didn't derive from the state and it ought to rest secure in that authority which came from god and the commission of jesus to go forth and preach the good news to all nations and baptize people in the name of the father the son and of the holy spirit all of this began to base itself in the tracts that were written by a group of friends at oxford at that time between those years 1833 and 1841 and by the time newman wrote tracked 90 his journey had gone further and he was facing huge hostility so when tracy's then his removal from saint mary's out to little more in 1840 one or two around and then in 1845 his risk being received into the catholic church which was to be followed by 40 years of more or less quiet seclusion as an oratorion in birmingham at edgeboston and if you go there and i remember going there to the oratory in birmingham you're shown into newman's room and there's his desk his ministry from then on became enormous amounts of words written to friends and the publication of his letters and papers and books no one has been more charted in their life shall we say and the way in which their mind and heart and spirit began to develop than john henry newman and we give thanks for that but at the same time in 1864 as a response to people who were attacking him in his seclusion he wrote his apologia pro vita sua and that meant an apology not in the word that we mean apology but an explanation as far as he could give it of his life and his spiritual journey and that apologia is still something that we value as do we value also his poem in written in 1865 the dream of jurantius and from that poem of course come two more hymns that we love to sing from newman praise to the holiest in the height and in the depths be praised in all his works most wonderful most sure in all his ways and that hymn together with family i believe and truly god is three and god is one all of that is very important and at the same time important too is the companionship which was an understanding companionship which our lord found also from those who walked with him in a particular way the companionship of ambrose sinjan who was one of the folk who were always with him until his death and after newman's death he asked to be buried quite simply where his companion ambrose had been buried to and all of that we remember both the need for companionship but also the creative quality of the seclusion and that desk that simple room speaks of newman so let's give thanks for both of those today i brought out what i showed you once before this uh little bust of of uh newman who were this little bust was given to me by two of my parents dearest friends alice alec and becker brain who was were tremendous supports to me in the years of growing up and development and through my ordination and this had belonged to them and so they gave it to me and newman had always sat on my desk at uh uh every house that i've had but he's always carried very carefully from one house to another but particularly in the place where i would sit and think and pray so i'm going to put him very carefully here and i want to say just something else about him you'll remember and it's not too long ago since that we did this there is one particular meditation of cardinal newman that i i love and i was asked because it's a fairly long meditation and some of you will already be thinking i know what uh this meditation is going to be but i was asked by harry christopher's the conductor of the 16 the sublime singing of the 16 and a great friend of ours but he got in touch and said i'm i'm wanting james macmillan to compose uh a piece based on newman's meditation but at the moment the way it's written doesn't really equate to that happening can you do something with the words which keeps the sense but makes it more lyrical for a composer to do and i i went back to find on may the 5th last year i was sitting not here but in the bay window of the of the drawing room in the deanery and i wrote down this afternoon though i have done a job for harry christophers who wanted a reflection of cardinal newman reduced to lyrics of anthem size for james macmillan i have done that and sent it to him and then i've written the little meditation this is the paired down one that james has now set and it's been performed god has created me to do some definite service some work which has not been committed to another i am a link in a chain a bond of connection between persons i shall do good be an angel of peace a preacher of truth in my own place if i do but keep god's commandments whatever i am i can never be thrown away my sickness my perplexity my sorrow may serve god who does nothing in vain when i am among strangers and friendless when my spirits sink and my future is hidden still i may serve for god does nothing in vain and the anthem is now called nothing in vain and we remember at this time as we read this section of the story of noah that the protection of the ark was in the faith of someone who was obedient to the creator and fulfilled their own vocation through all the dangers and we give thanks for on this day saint claire of assisi and for cardinal john henry newman so let's say our prayers together on this day and first let's see who we are being asked to pray for and it's the 11th of august so we're praying for the diocese of don quinn often in the church of the province of west africa the ghana province and we pray also for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth and today for the north downs benefits that's a whole group of parishes i'm going to read them all um a whole group of parishes under the um rectorship of john corbyn who's one of our in non-residential cannons of the cathedral and it covers the villages of hollingborn bursted boxley broomfield detling grove green hucking kingswood langley leeds autumn and thurnum so today we're praying for the whole group and for john and his assistant catherine gangira and tomorrow uh we shall pray for the northern half of the the uh uh area along the pilgrim's way and then the southern parishes the day after and we'll think of those who care for those particular parishes a very large group of parishes but a very beautiful area and the pilgrims way of course having a very special relationship with canterbury so let's say our prayers for today bring your own intentions and prayers i'm going to say first of all the prayer for claire of assisi and then john henry newman then we'll say the our father together god of peace who in the poverty of blessed clare of assisi gave us a clear light to shine in the darkness of this world give us grace so to follow in her footsteps that we may at the last rejoice with her in your eternal glory through jesus christ our lord amen almighty god by whose grace john henry newman kindled with the fire of your love became a burning and a shining light in the church inflame us with the same spirit of discipline and love that we may ever walk before you as children of light through jesus christ our lord amen thanks be to god for both of those but also at the same time for any whom we would want to pray for today as we say our prayer which the savior taught us in our own languages 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 amen so we ourselves pray for whomsoever crosses our mind and hearts in a moment of silence [Music] so so so [Music] foreign so this me thank you 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 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