Eucharist - Sunday, 12th September 2021 | Canterbury Cathedral

[Music] so good morning and a very warm welcome to the area of the choir for the first time since i think the 15th of march last year when we met as a a congregation here in choir so it's a wonderful thing to be back here together with you and um there are one or two things that are different because i shall welcome also all of you who are joining us online from right across the world but i want to say to the congregation because this is new don't forget that now you also are on camera because the choir is down amongst you and so don't be surprised when you see yourselves if there's anyone who'd rather not be on camera than the area of the transept is camera free but apart from that then the cameras will be showing the whole act of worship to those across the world so that they can enjoy the eucharist in that particular way i wanted to say first and foremost because it was on monday that the announcement was made that we as a congregation this morning congratulate archdeacon joe kelly moore at her appointment as the dean of saint albans and she's not here with us this morning she is fulfilling archdeaconry duties out of the parish of stevens elsewhere in the city but her last sunday with us will be the 24th of october and the 11 o'clock eucharist will be a time when she will be preaching to us and we'll have then an event afterwards in the auditorium when we can say a proper thank you the diocese and that can include you too as well if you like we'll have done the same here in the cathedral at evensong on the 17th of october that's it 5 30. all this will be set out for you um and then on december the 4th that's a saturday archdeacon joe will be installed as dean of st albans in saint albans abbey in the cathedral there and i'm sure there will be provision made for any of you who would like to go along to that on that saturday afternoon that will happen sometime in the middle of the afternoon three o'clock or something of that kind but the timing is not yet definite may i say that we have begun coffee and cold drinks over in the lodge after this eucharist so please if you're a stranger here do feel welcome there and come along because that's the way we get to know you even more important if you are new to the city are new to this congregation so that we can begin to get to know you i let me just say then lastly and again i apologize to those online i'm speaking to those who are actually here when we come to communion if you would rather not climb the pulp the um steps up to the high altar then communion is available in the transept and there are no steps going to there other than these two little ones by me but it's a flat flat walk to there if you would rather receive in your place then let a steward know and someone will come and give you communion still only bread i think it will be quite a long time before we go back to the the common cup but we we shall bring communion to you in your seeds i think that's all i need to say this morning too many things they are except of course there are plentiful eggs huge amounts of eggs at the deanery gate this morning fresh from the hen houses and there are all kinds of pheasants and and and guinea fowl and duck and as well as chickens so do go along no barriers these days so if you want to go down the steps or down in the lift walk to the deanery and then come back round to coffee over there everything is free from barriers now so let's keep silence after all those words just for a moment while we prepare ourselves to celebrate these sacred mysteries oh afterwards i should say sorry afterwards we'll then sing the hymn take my life and let it be consecrated lord to thee laughs [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit grace mercy and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ be with you almighty god to whom all hearts are open all desires and from whom no secrets are hidden lends the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your holy spirit that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through christ our lord god so loved the world that he gave his only son jesus christ to save us from our sins to be our advocate in heaven and to bring us to eternal life let us confess our sins in penitence and faith firmly resolved to keep god's commandments and to live in love and peace with all almighty god our heavenly father we have sinned against you and against our name thought we are truly sorry and repent of all our sins for the sake of your son jesus christ who died for us will give us all that is passed and grant that we may serve you in a newness of life to the glory of your name amen almighty god who forgives all who truly repent have mercy upon you harden and deliver you from all your sins confirm and strengthen you in all goodness and keep you in life eternal through jesus christ our lord oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] foreign oh [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] let us pray god who in generous mercy sent the holy spirit upon your church in the burning fire of your love grant that your people may be fervent in the fellowship of the gospel that always abiding in you they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service through jesus christ your son our lord who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever a reading from the book of the prophet isaiah the lord god has given me the tongue of a teacher that i may know how to sustain the weary with a word morning by morning he awakens awakens my ear to listen as those who are taught the lord god has opened my ear and i was not rebellious i did not turn backwards i gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard did not hide my face from insult and spitting lord god helped me therefore i have not been disgraced therefore i have set my face like flint and i know that i shall not be put to shame he who vindicates me is near who will contend with me let us stand up together who are my adversaries let them confront me it is the lord god who helps me who will declare me guilty all of them will wear out like a garment the moth will eat them up this is the word of the lord thanks be to god [Music] this is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] gracious [Music] um [Music] you [Music] comes from [Music] hear the gospel of our lord jesus christ according to mark jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of caesarea philippi and on the way he asked his disciples who do people say that i am and they answered him john the baptist and others elijah and still others one of the prophets jesus asked them but who do you say that i am peter answered him you are the messiah and he stanley ordered them not to tell anyone about him then he began to teach them that the son of man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders the chief police and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again he said all this quite openly and peter took him aside and began to rebuke him but turning and looking at his disciples he rebuked peter and said get behind me satan for you are setting your mind on not on divine things but on human things he called the crowd with his disciples and said to them if anyone to become my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me for those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it for what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life indeed what can they give in return for their life those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of them the son of man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with his holy angels this is the gospel of the lord praise to you o christ [Music] in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen you may notice a slightly tentative sense with all of us this morning because we are suddenly operating in a different theater having got used to a completely different scene at the other end of the cathedral and certain things stay in the mind but certain of us weren't here when what we call normality ended in march of last year and so we're just having to make our way around things and things will soon spring into place i'm a morning person more than an evening person i was delight in the early mornings in a wonderful way and when i was asked whether i wanted the old testament lesson or the epistle because we make a choice these days between the two i had no doubt whatsoever which lesson i would choose the isaiah 50 has in it one of my favorite sentences morning by morning he awakens he awakens my ear it's a beautiful line but it speaks to me of the new day it's i think probably why i love keeble's hymn new every morning so much and the freshness of the beginning which god is offering us as a gift morning my morning over the years i've had different images of that morning my morning he awakens he awakens my ear the sound of different bells of different churches that are nearby calling me to morning prayer and here in the cathedral sometimes the sound of belle harry sometimes the great booming of dunstan at the other end those bells awakening my ear or is it the sound of russell crowe our cockerel who begins a little earlier than the bells to waken the earth or in some way are we talking about divine noises which the lord is wanting us to hear but which no one else could hear as you look out on the freshness of a new day and sometimes your heart sinks in what that day might bring and other times you think this is going to be a fairly free day which is mostly for me and other times this is a day full of enormous busyness but at the same time it's joyful busyness then most days turn out to be mixed yesterday was one of the busiest days that this cathedral has seen since march of last year and even longer ago than that probably for so many different dimensions were added to the life of the cathedral and the life of the precincts and so many people were coming in groups with different needs the bringing of the hops into the building giving thanks for that hop harvest and really a sign of harvests throughout the world giving thanks for the bounty at the hop hooding and the dancing which followed in the precincts and at the same time the pride march which was going by outside with enormous noise and festivity and then at the same time a group later in the afternoon came to remind us of our responsibilities as a world heritage site not only of this holy place but of the context around it in the city and the countryside beyond people gathering for different reasons and many simply been coming because the building was open again and it was lovely to come as pilgrims or come to say a prayer here but at one time at 1 46 the whole place but into silence as we remembered 20 years before at that very moment for 146 here is 8 46 a.m in manhattan that moment when a morning so beautiful in new york that one writer said it's a morning that you forgive autumn for not being summer and everyone had begun a day in a normal way and suddenly in a moment the world changed i had to remind myself that most of the young scholars and even young staff at kings walking on the green court some of them not even born 20 years ago and yet it seems so near so immediate when we see those pictures all over again and those of us who do remember well will remember where we were for days can bring many many different challenges and here in the gospel jesus is trying to share the challenge that he's been given with his own vocation we've seen how difficult that challenge is to share for words have a hard task when they're trying to express things like this and how many of the gospels that we've read from sin mark over the last few weeks have shown those whom he's chosen getting it wrong and disappointing him really because he was reaching out for support and that support came in fast words but in the wrong way whether it be james and john responding to the attempt of jesus to share what will happen when they get to jerusalem by saying can we sit on your left and right hand side when you come to your glory and then again today with saint peter the one who is going to be the rock on whom jesus founds his church and he tells them what's going to happen immediately he's given that message several times and then he asks them who do people say i am and it's peter who at that moment in a flash of insight says you are the christ the messiah and jesus says don't share this yet and you can see why because they have no concept what that means yet but they will all too soon but meanwhile peter speaks in human terms just as a friend would we hear we hear ourselves saying this to one another when someone shares some really difficult news about what they have to do we reach for a fragment of comfort and peter does that says to jesus it simply says in sin mark's gospel begins to rebuke him says don't talk like that and i think jesus not looking peter in the eyes so much is sensing that here is the temptation he himself has had many times get behind me satan you're setting your mind not on divine things but on human things and then to all the teaching the crowds with the disciples if anyone wants to become my followers let them deny themselves take up their cross and follow me for those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it i brought across this volume of ae houseman the poet normally a little hardback copy of the shropshire land which is well worn from having been in the family for years and years and years travels with me i think probably i would always take elliot's four quartets and houseman shropshire lad and also a volume of hopkins which is well worn when i'm traveling together with a pot of marmite and a jar of coleman's cup mustard so that i can flavor food that's being given to me in difficult situations but uh here is a completely different volume which i bought because it had in it not only poetry and house wouldn't wouldn't have seen himself as a parrot he'd him have seen himself as a professor of latin and he certainly was that a a meticulous scholar honoured for his scholarship but at the same time he published in his lifetime two little almost bouquets of verse and while some of them are intensely depressing others in a couplet or two seem to capture the moment but he was asked late in life to give a lecture in the senate house on the name and nature of poetry what is poetry and there's a moment here i've even got the train ticket in from the time i bought the book and was reading it on the train on the way back there's a moment here when he says how difficult it is to discern what is poetry what needs to be said in poetry and what is best said clearly in prose the professor of latin and the one who always said my poetry came unasked for and he's talking about this and he then quotes when he's talking about what poetry is the sentence we've just heard he says whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life shall find it that is the most important truth which has ever been uttered and the greatest discovery ever made in the moral world but i do not find in it anything which i should call poetical now that's not a criticism he's saying that truth has to be established in that sentence of prose and yet when he then comes to discuss psalm sentences which often we sing to music or and some sentences that we sing to music he finds himself moved to know that this is poetry it'll be different for each of us but he mentions when he comes to the seventh verse of the 49th psalm in the book of common prayer that's the coverdale translation not king james but no man may deliver his brother nor make agreement unto god for him that is to me poetry so moving that i can hardly keep my voice steady in reading it poetry is not the thing said but a way of saying it and even when poetry has a meaning as it usually has it may be inadvisable to draw it out for as coleridge says poetry gives most pleasure when only generally and not perfectly understood and perfect understanding will sometimes extinguish the pleasure that to me strikes all kinds of chords and it tunes in with how i was feeling yesterday with the way in which as i stood in the pulpit of the cathedral and looked at the people who'd been called into silence at that moment it tuned in with the fact that words weren't going to be enough to express how we felt silence perhaps could do it better and a poetic prayer which i found helpful was also something that could attempt it but usually these things come in snatches to all of us we see as in paul says the deepest truths in our human state through a glass darkly or if you want a modern translation puzzling reflections in a mirror and when saint paul describes the incident when he's caught up into heaven he is the one who says words can't express that those words were deeply meant for him but he found it impossible to say even in a beautiful passage like 1 corinthians 13 that's when he says in our human state puzzling reflections in a mirror sometimes when the choir is singing a sentence of sound the music will carry it and something speaks to us at a deep level morning by morning he awakens he awakens my ear and different things will awaken you but never be afraid simply to pluck a sentence and explore its meaning in mind and spirit for yes poetry does convey and the psalms are poems hymns and hymnady conveys meanings far deeper than literal words but sometimes as houseman says those things which are most important in teaching have to come in straightforward sentences so we find ourselves with that puzzle of our humanity that we are given glimpses of that which is divine and infinite and there are glimpses which day by day as our ear is awakened might call us into a vocation or an act of self-sacrifice which we might have been so amazed that we'd be actually fulfilling and that day in new york when towers were burning or aircraft were hijacked and people had suddenly to confront their own mortality still those acts of heroism heroism and the the giving of the finite human life for something that was much greater than that for another all those things are part of our humanity and as we worship and stretch out our hands to receive christ then something literal is happening and something physical but oh so much more poetic if you want that word but i would choose infinitely a gift of that which is divine and from the kingdom of heaven mortal words which are trying to contain a truth too big and yet we know when we hear it because as with houseman we're shaken body mind and spirit by that revelation morning and by morning awakens awakens my ear i'm in we believe in one god the father the almighty maker of heaven and earth of all that is seen and unseen we believe in one lord jesus christ the only son of god eternally begotten of the father god begotten not made of one being with the father through him all things were made for us and for our salvation he came down from heaven was incarnate from the holy spirit and the virgin mary and was made known for our sake he was crucified under pontius pilate suffered death and was buried on the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end we believe in the holy spirit the lord the giver of life who proceeds from the father and the son who with the father and the son is worshiped and glorified who has spoken through the prophets we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church we acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come amen us pray lord bless with wisdom with your wisdom just in our archbishop the whole anglican communion and especially today the anglican church of tanzania that we may have the insight to know your will and the courage to follow where it leads lord in your mercy lord grant your encouragement to our diocese of canterbury to rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth and especially today to our ministry of prayer and action in this diocese to protect our natural environment lord in your mercy lord strengthen the ties that bind together people and nations that we would work together for the prosperity and well-being of all your children lord in your mercy lord grant your gift of love to our local community that in all our actions words and relationships we may show our care for one another bless all our cathedral musicians in this new term and all those starting at new schools colleges or universities at this time lord in your mercy lord we pray for all those who are sick that they may find healing and wholeness in you lord in your mercy lord welcome those who have died into the peace of your kingdom that to their they may rejoice with you forever lord in your mercy in a moment of silence let us offer our own prayers to the lord merciful father accept these prayers for the sake of your son our savior jesus christ amen oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is so [Music] foreign [Music] christ is our peace he has reconciled us to god in one body through his cross we meet in the name of christ and share his peace peace of the lord be always with you let us share with one another a sign of christ's peace respecting distance where necessary [Music] so [Music] wise and gracious god you spread a table before us nourish your people with the word of life and the bread of heaven jesus christ our lord amen the lord be with you lift up your hearts let us give thanks to the lord our god father we give you thanks and praise through your beloved son jesus christ your living word through whom you have created all things who was sent by you in your great goodness to be our savior by the power of the holy spirit he took flesh as your son born of the blessed virgin he lived on earth and went about among us he opened wide his arms for us on the cross he put an end to death by dying for us and revealed the resurrection by rising to new life so he fulfilled your will and one for you a holy people therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we proclaim your great and glorious name forever praising you and singing [Music] [Applause] so [Music] yes [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] lord you are holy indeed the source of all holiness grant that by the power of your holy spirit and according to your holy will these gifts of bread and wine may be to us the body and blood of our lord jesus christ who in the same night that he was betrayed took bread and gave you thanks he broke it gave it to his disciples saying take eat this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way after supper he took the cup and gave you thanks he gave it to them saying drink this all of you this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me rate is the mystery of faith christ has died christ is risen christ will come again and so father calling to mind his death on the cross his perfect sacrifice made once for the sins of the whole world rejoicing in his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension and looking for his coming in glory we celebrate this memorial of our redemption as we offer you this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving we bring before you this bread and this cup and we thank you for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you send the holy spirit on your people and gather into one in your kingdom all who share this one bread and one cup so that we in the company of all the saints may praise and glorify you forever through jesus christ our lord i whom and with whom and in whom in the unity of the holy spirit all honor and glory be yours almighty father forever and ever amen as we join our prayers with the church universe so we say each in our own language the prayer that jesus taught us our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it and forgive is our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil we break this bread to share in the body of christ jesus is the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world blessed are those who are called to his supper [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] crazy [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] yes [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you let us pray heap o lord your church with your perpetual mercy and because without you our human frailty cannot but full keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation through jesus christ our lord amen almighty god we thank you for feeding us with the body and blood of your son jesus christ through him we offer you our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice send us out in the power of your spirit to live and work to your praise [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 blessing of the living god father son and holy spirit be among you and remain with you always r go in the peace of christ [Music] you

Channel: Canterbury Cathedral

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Keywords: Worship, faith, pray, prayer, church, holy, eucharist, Christian, Anglican, Episcopal, cathedral, Canterbury, England, mother, communion, archbishop, saint, service, online, leo, cat, cats, black prince, becket, tiger, st paul, durham, Lincoln, notre dame

Id: ME0LQWufD8o

Length: 82min 51sec (4971 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021