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28 November<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Good morning

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One of the biggest movies of the year is a story of exploration. Human beings set out from a dying earth to find a new home somewhere in the universe in Christopher Nolan’s new film ‘Interstellar’. Round about the time this movie opened in local cinemas many of us celebrated the very real achievement of human beings in landing a craft on the surface of a comet.

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But on this day back in 1520 Ferdinand Magellan sailed around the dangerous straits which now bear his name at the tip of South America and entered the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first European explorer to reach the Pacific from the Atlantic.

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Five ships and 270 men set sail on this journey and by the time they entered the strangely peaceful waters of the new ocean they were out of food and chewing the leather straps of their gear to keep themselves alive. Not surprisingly Magellan wept with joy.

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It’s a reminder that not so long ago our maps of the world featured strange creatures at their edges, regions of our earth so unknown and uncharted we believed that dragons lived there. But in just 500 years we are sending vehicles on journeys of billions of miles.

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The staggering ingenuity and courage of human beings should give us pause to wonder. The indefatigable drive to explore, to search out and find, to push boundaries and expand learning is one of the things that makes us what we are.

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Our Creative God who made the earth and the heavens, and set it all within our reach. Who made us with an inquisitive spirit and a restless mind. we give you thanks for this beautiful cosmos and the desire to explore it. Amen.