good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of sunday the 5th of september it's a day when our diocese asks us to pray with thoughtfulness for creation and we tend as a garden congregation to do that every day but i've got in my hands here a little chap that we're i'm rescuing and putting back into the area here of the pond and the lilies he is a little common frog and this is an area around us of conservation i'll talk about that in a moment but i don't want to hold him for too long because he'll be a bit alarmed but i can let you see him now a bit here in my hand there he is if you're if you're focused on me i don't know whether you are or not but i'm going to take him back to a nice safe place hello little chap it's his little hand coming out uh and uh i'm wearing gloves because i don't want to give him anything on my hands that i've got there's no great danger from english frogs to any human being but there's danger from us to them so i'm going to go across here to the top of the ponds where there's no danger for him and it's a lovely habitat for him here under the aram lilies the autumn leafage now is so great that he will have much protection and there's water here and let's let him now go down and find himself there you go up straight into the pond and uh that's a nice safe place for him there's nothing in that particular pond which is going to harm him and they're very fast and fine little crevices but we found him lurking around as as one does sometimes on that part of the garden and although we we trust uh clemmy and winnie um it might be that he's safer on this side of the electric fence there where he can be absolutely cared for in his own habitat there are water streams coming down in every direction here it's a lovely september morning and it's a morning without any chill in the air and you see autumn foliage now here that the green arum lilies much foliage over here the the the uh raised bay willow herb and uh and the various growth around here but there beyond the lilac tree there's a top pond too where birds come and the little ones which need protection um and then the stream coming all the way down here where bigger birds can can come and drink and earlier on the guinea fowl themselves were going up here to to line up and drink with the with the turkeys beyond here but in that part of the garden tiny birds can come and find their protection for being uh washing themselves and and and drinking so the the willow tits and gold crests and warblers would tend to go there and the robins who are quite brave and black birds and thrushes and this actually there's a robin there i can see him now hopping about and coming down to get a drink but our friend the frog and beyond me here behind is an area of foliage and and piles of wood that we can use as a place where uh slow worms and newts and all kinds of other creatures hedgehogs find a refuge people bring animals and and creatures of that sort into here because our garden is walls all the way around although we're in the middle of a city the walls are high and it means that there is protection they were built for other kinds of protection but we're using them as a place of sanctuary as well so we'll begin our morning prayers and it's a morning when we're thinking of the protection and the saving of things and giving protection not only to creatures but also to humankind and the the areas of community that they create here we begin our morning prayers on this sunday morning the 5th of september and we are remembering of course scenes across the world which are of huge danger to to all humanity whether it be of of natural disaster or war or pandemic but at the same time i wanted to make a a prayer for the people of tokyo as the paralympic games come to an end and in this country where we're thinking of with great pride of our paralympic athletes and and competitors because we've come second in the list of gold medals and all the the points given second only to china whose population is is massively massively more than the population of these islands so well done you'll be thinking of your own triumphs across the world as well for paralympics but at the same time we think of tokyo because if we're thinking of creatures uh two little pandas have been born in the zoo there and a male and a female panda and they i think have not been named yet and tokyo is thinking of of asking the people what names they would like to give them and at the same time in himeji in japan a little white lion cub has been born and was born with some kind of medical problem so he was a heart problem was was dealt with and so the little chap is now recovering through and is looking quite chirpy on the the pictures we get on our television sets so the diversity of creation all around us becomes a theme for this morning as we say our prayers o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise bless the lord all you works of the lord sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord you heavens sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord you angels of his sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord all people on the earth sing his praise and exalt him forever o people of god bless the lord sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord you priests of the lord sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord you servants of the lord sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord all you of upright spirit bless the lord you that are holy and humble in heart bless the father the son and the holy spirit sing his praise and exalt him 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this fifth morning of the month is psalm 24 the earth is the lord's and all that fills it the compass of the world and all who dwell therein for he has founded it upon the seas and set it firm upon the rivers of the deep who shall ascend the hill of the lord or who can rise up in his holy place those who have clean hands and a pure heart who have not lifted up their soul to an idol nor sworn an oath to a lie they shall receive a blessing from the lord a just reward from the god of their salvation such is the company of those who seek him of those who seek your face so god of jacob lift up your heads o gates be lifted up you everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in who is the king of glory the lord strong and mighty the lord who is mighty in battle lift up your heads o gates be lifted up you everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in who is this king of glory the lord of hosts he is the king of glory it's a sunday morning and so we're not with jacob esau this morning nor even with the book of genesis our reading comes from the revelation to john just five verses the first five verses of chapter eight in the revelation forms our scripture reading for this morning when the lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour then i saw the seven angels who stand before god and seven trumpets were given to them and another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden sensor and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before god from the hand of the angel then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth and there were peels of thunder rumblings flashes of lightning and an earthquake it's a wonderful picture of the worship of the courts of heaven in john's vision as he writes it down for us and we're looking in his vision and the gift of that imagination at the worship of the courts of heaven the liturgy of heaven shall we call it it's impossible for words to describe that because of course we are describing in finite terms those things which are infinite in their quality but which distill rather as our psalmist said uh yesterday like honey dripping from the honeycomb the gifts of grace and the quality of the kingdom of heaven and its liturgy gives sweetness to our own sense of liturgy and worship and prayer wherever we are but there is to me the most startling combination of earth in heaven in the very beginning of that reading when john suddenly talks about silence in heaven for the space of half an hour and one is suddenly transported back into human time from the sense of being in a timeless sphere before in infinity and suddenly and i think that reflects the reflection of saint john and the heart of prayer and the writer of the revelation suddenly there was silence for half an hour and it gives us the quality that silence is as precious as music and as words and as images in the heart of god in silence there can be great communication here the half hour reminds us that we do this in a world of time and also a world where we have geographical and spatial limitations and yet all this is burgeoning out into the liturgy of heaven and its infinity and the drops of the sweetness of honey or the flashes of light come into our troubled world which ex exerts itself again at the end with the thunders and the earthquakes and the flashes of lightning all of that but at the same time one has for a moment being given a glimpse of that glory which in the second epistle to the corinthians paul speaks about when he was caught up into that sense of heaven in his prayers and heard words that were impossible to convey see how that the holy number which is a sign of the unity of heaven and earth and the unfolding of all things together it comes again and again it comes in the revelation but here in this reading it comes again and again the seven angels standing before the throne of god and the golden altar john can think of nothing more precious than gold and the way that gold is seen by us and the way it reflects the light to describe the altar there and the seven trumpets the best in instrument for trumpeting the one who is high and mighty king of kings and lord of lords and the psalmist himself this morning in writing on psalm 24 you get that sense of who is the king of glory and you fear trumpets sounding orchestral composers use them to give a sense of glory or warning but all of those things are enfolded in the seven trumpets and the breaking of the seventh seal meaning completion let's go back to the seven baskets of fragments gathered from the second of the feedings of the thousands of people in the gospel of st mark seven baskets and seven is a sign of the perfection of the good news which has to be given not just to the people of our lord's own culture where he grew up the 12 baskets and the 12 did all that the seven as a sign of this gift is for the whole world in its position within time and space but it's a gift of the perfection of that which is infinite linking that which is finite and in our worship we use symbols in the same way as incense in heaven is a sign of the prayers of the saints reaching up through our intercessions that we make for people across the world individually across the world you have different kinds of intercessions and at the same time as all that is happening uh one feels that in the same way that if any of you know the dream of jurontius where the huge music of heaven prays for the holiest in the heightened then gerontius says to the guardian angel in that image which cardinal newman gives us what's that sound i recognize a quiet sound and the angel said it is the voice of friends around your bed the sound comes even here to the throne of god and weaves into heaven's music all these lovely images which are used in liturgy to show our unity with the perfect worship of heaven but also back of course in isaiah chapter six i saw the lord high and lifted up around him to the seraphim and with their six wings but the house was filled with smoke and here smoke is seen in heaven as a sign of the prayers of the saints rising the prayers of the prophet rising and the unworthiness of the prophet you remember the burning coal which appears here again is a sign of cleansing of sins the making clean of things he touched my lips says isaiah i heard the voice of the lord saying whom shall we send who will go for us and at that moment isaiah felt himself empowered to say here am i send me all these images and in the middle of isaiah's vision of course the sanctus which we use in our own liturgies holy holy holy is the lord god of hosts heaven and earth are full of his glory all of those things weaving together in this vision on a sunday morning we remember that john was having his vision on a sunday morning as he was at his prayers and that half hour of silence so important in the middle of all of that too as we surround ourselves with worship and those images this morning well let's look uh with thanksgiving after we've we've had that vision given to us but let's look at other things that have happened in on this 5th of september in 1174 on the 5th of september canterbury cathedral suffered a catastrophic and disastrous fire and what had been there was unusable apart from the crypt beneath it was four years after the assassination of thomas beckett and all that stood above the crypt was shall we say not totally destroyed i'll speak about that in a moment but certainly damage beyond being used for worship there had to be a new beginning but the wonderful thing is that we have discovered that from that earlier building beams of ancient oak from oak tree a type of oak tree which no longer grows in england but such a strong oak that the fire didn't damage those beans entirely and some of them and we know this from dendrochronology are used again in the beams of the new building which was built to the glory of god in a completely different way and then also what we have discovered and you know this very recently indeed that some of the beautiful stained glass with the pictures of the genealogy of christ and those patriarchs and prophets and figures that are mentioned in the genealogical lists of the line of david which we had always taken to be created all of them after the fire in the 1180s at the earliest have now been proved some of them to be from before the fire so things of that kind were saved and the stained glass which is already to be known as one of the the wondrous things of this cathedral church that so much was saved throughout history and certainly that forms now without doubt the oldest collection of that type of stained glass in the whole world but some of it dates right back into the cathedral that was there before and who knows we can't then date that back to say that came from when landfrank was creating his first cathedral and their architectural patterns above ground as well as in the crypt which are landfrank's cathedral from before but the using of things from before to create something wondrous and new because by 1220 of course one of the greatest liturgies that the european church and catholic christendom at that time had seen was an act of worship here as the new shrine of becket was consecrated with the royal presence and episcopal presence from right across christendom there in a fine act of liturgy which again was reflecting the wonders of the worship of the courts of heaven we think of all that of how things which seemed disastrous when that fire occurred on this day 5th of september 1174 it must have seen catastrophic and yet on the foundations of those ashes came the new cathedral which we recognize now and that took years and years and years to build and of course day by day our stonemasons and our glaciers are still working not only at conservation but creating new stone and often new glass to give reflection for the light which passes through it and again gives a sense of wonder which is in a finite world but catching the light and sweetness of the infinite world joining our worship with that on this day the fire of great fire of london in 1666 at last was put out and the citizens beheld a a scene of utter devastation the great gothic cathedral of saint paul's lay in smoking ruins and later of course the city would employ uh sir christopher wren to rebuild that and many other churches in the london that we now see is the result of building on those ashes but certain things were saved and we remember here a book from the early medieval times a set of gospels being sent here for conservation to our conservation department and they wanted it rebound and it had to be done in the way that it would have been done at the period that it was created and ariane had to involve not only our conservation department but she went to our carpenters and others to to make that an absolute replica of the binding that that book would have had at the time of its creation it was sent back to saint paul's so certain things rather like the glass here were saved as the sign of what had been before going forward into the future new beginnings and at the same time i i'm thinking that on this day in 1646 the office of the archbishop of canterbury was abolished and at that time there was no archbishop of canterbury because archbishop lord this is in the english civil war had been executed on tower hill in 1645 january 1645 in 1646 the puritans declared that the office was abolished and that they thought would be that but of course we know well that that wasn't that but there were to be then years when the worship of the church of england was a criminal activity and i was reminded of that last night by a very wonderful thing that i was asked to do and it was a very human thing uh it was a baptism there are a little family um professor kenneth fincham and his wife dorian who is one of the house ministries is our king school here and their little baby son paul uh come each week to our song eucharist and professor fincham kenneth fincham is the expert on the early modern period the professor at the university of kent here and he is the expert on a particular aspect of the cathedral's life at that time and especially the cathedral font now the font was a gift in 1633 of one of the cathedral cannons cannon john warner who would be made bishop of rochester and as a thanksgiving to canterbury he created the most marvelous and paid for the most marvellous marble cathedral font it's vast and it is decorated with the um four figures of the evangelists matthew mark luke and john with the creatures that represent them the the human um being with matthew and the calf with luke the lion with mark and the eagle with john they stand in white marble at the base of the font and then over the font is a huge hood which works on pulleys very grand from the 17th century perspective and on that are the 12 apostles standing and underneath as the hood goes up looking down onto the waters there is the symbol of the dove not only breathing on the face of the waters at the beginning of creation but a lighting on christ at his baptism the spirit breathing life into that situation now it's a font that we use because it's it's it's back at the back end of the the nave on the northern side it's a very big font but in it was created in 1633 in 1642 puritan soldiers smashed it to pieces and the cathedral lawyer william somner who was called the proctor saved some of the parts but it was damaged beyond repair and during those years when church of england worship was a criminal activity uh it was of course there was no font and at that time the the war ended in 1660 with the restoration of king charles ii he i've said this before in our broadcast came here to canterbury first held his first privy council made many decisions here and met uh gilbert sheldon here the who was to be when bishops were restored created bishop of london and then soon after archbishop of canterbury a guiding hand for the king but their relationship was struck up here in canterbury and king charles and his court went to worship in the cathedral to give thanks for the life of his mother and father charles the first who'd been executed like archbishop lord and henrietta maria who was still alive who had been had had their their marriage at their first meeting it had been done by proxy before and they had worshiped together here in 1624 but not too much history now let's go on cannon john warner was then the bishop of rochester and had lived through the civil war and he came back and found that somna had pieces of the font and he then had the whole thing remade and paid for it again and there it stands it's so big and it's also in the busiest part of the cathedral that we tend to do baptisms we always do baptisms either in the crypt or bring a great copper bowl up into the trinity chapel but kenneth had asked that his son paul because of his huge interest in it might be baptized in the font so last night we created a liturgy there of baptism at that font and i had never baptized anyone in it before i've sprinkled people from it and candlemas morning or something of that sort or when they're renewing their baptismal vows it easter eve but had never baptized and no one here can remember a baptism having taken place in it but last night i stood on the plinth with kenneth and his wife doreen and little paul and around were quite a gathering because it was the university and our school of a company not the pupils but the staff and their families around and many friends of kenneth and dorian who had traveled to be there now the restrictions are easier but there was one moment and we'd sung and we'd we'd had the liturgy of baptism and all of all of the things which which you associate with baptism was a moment when little paul had just been baptized and they his his father and mother had held him over the side of the the great marble altar it's so high it comes up to here on me when i'm standing there uh and i'd baptized him and then i i wiped his head and he looked up and gave a chuckle and uh at that moment the silent congregation burst into laughter it was a wonderful liturgical moment there had been silence when paul had been uh baptized and i'd finished and i was just wiping him dry and his big smiling face he's only a little chap about 18 or 19 months old and uh he then chuckled and everyone laughed with him and one was thinking instantly that in the middle of liturgy is the sign which jesus gave us as the the one who goes into the kingdom of heaven is one who is child-like he set a child and put them before him and said unless you turn around to become like children you will never even enter the kingdom of heaven a wonderful liturgical moment which just transcended heaven on earth last night and i give thanks for it myself because those moments become very very precious and god bless that whole family this morning well so many things to remember so many things to give thanks for but so many things also to keep in our prayers which rise like incense to the very throne of god as uh the finite world transcends in worship the infinite world so at this point let's say our own prayers on this sunday morning we're praying in the anglican communion for the church of the province of the sudan very much dear to my heart with many friends there from earlier days and much imagination about so many liturgy so much liturgy under the mango trees at that time when so many of the churches were destroyed now in a a time when there's still tensions that we think of those people in in the south sudan and the whole episcopal church of the sudan um so now uh we also pray in this diocese i said right at the beginning we're praying about creation we're praying for the work of theresa redfern the canterbury diocesan environmental officer but also we would like to pray for the wildwood trust for peter smith and his team now they are local here and work with local organizations too to breed those things those creatures in england which are in danger and then to re-release them into a protected habitat and it's a place that we love to go to the wild wood and recently then with the breeding of harvest mice of red squirrels and also even bisons which used to roam in english forests and woods but haven't for years they have re-released bisons into the bleen woods and they have one or two wardens there to look after them so we pray for wildwood and for peter and his team and also we pray for damian aspinall and the team at port lemon howlitz now damien aspinall and his team look after the breeding of those breeds throughout the world sometimes mountain gorillas and elephants and all sorts and then make connections with local partnerships in the right habitat there and transport them across the world to allow them to be in their own habitat in that way so we are praying for those organizations here in kent you will have organizations like that across the world that you know of it too we pray for archbishop justin for bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lambeth and here's the connect for this sunday almighty god whose only son has opened for us a new and living way into your presence give us pure hearts and steadfast wills to worship you in spirit and in truth through jesus christ our lord amen so we say thee our father in whichever language you like to use 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 moment of silence now for your own prayers so just as our prayer time is protected time so you can see the the little electric fence which keeps the pigs from the conservation area of other creatures down here and so that's giving space and time for all of them in a safe atmosphere 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 now and always are men you're you're used to seeing lizzie the turkey but uh we have inside in a a nice surround um a little english lizard they're they're quite rare and we call her lizzie and we're wanting so much that she should come out here but fletcher's searched in vain for another because she can't come out alone and so we are trying to find a companion for lizzie the lizard to come out and enjoy the protection of the garden because it's ideal for lizards in that way but we've got to make sure that the companionship is right first so enjoy your day so foreign you