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Please note:

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

听It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

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Opening announcement from Radio 4:大象传媒 Radio 4 and now we join the Swansea Bach Choir and the congregation of Christ Church, Carmarthen, in West Wales where, on the third Sunday of Easter, the Rev Canon Dr. Patrick Thomas reflects on The Tree of Life 鈥� A Symbol of the Resurrection.听 The service is led by the Reverend Delyth Richards and begins with a verse of a favourite Easter carol.

ITEM 1听听CHOIR听听 This joyful Eastertide听

ITEM 2: POEM: 听MICHAEL & RHIAN

READER 1

Welcome glorious Lord!

May church and chancel praise you;

May chancel and church praise you;

May valley and hillside praise you;

May the three wellsprings praise you:

Two above the wind and one above the earth.

听[READER 2]

May darkness and daylight praise you;

May wild woods and orchards praise you;

Abraham, faith鈥檚 chieftain, praised you;

May eternal life praise you;

May birds and bees praise you;

May stubble and green grass praise you.

[READER 1]

Aaron and Moses praised you,

May male and female praise you;

May the seven days鈥� planets and stars praise you;

May the lower and upper sky praise you.

听[READER 2]

May books and literature praise you;

May fish in flowing water praise you;

May sand and turf praise you,

I praise you, Lord of Glory,

听[TOGETHER]听听听听听听 Welcome glorious Lord!

听

ITEM 3: LINK听听听听听听 REV. DELYTH RICHARDS

Good morning and welcome to Christ Church.听 Carmarthen is the oldest town in Wales and in the mid-thirteenth century an Augustinian canon from the local Priory compiled the Black Book of Carmarthen, an anthology which includes the earliest collection of Welsh religious verse, a translated example of which you鈥檝e just heard.听 Even though it was written in an age that we would scarcely recognise, that all embracing call to prayer and praise still speaks today.

In this church we always hand out brightly coloured paper butterflies on Easter morning: the butterfly being one of the most ancient of Christian symbols depicting the resurrection. The caterpillar is our humdrum earthly existence. The chrysalis is the tomb where Jesus lay. The butterfly that emerges from it is the new life won for us by the risen Christ.听听 It鈥檚 another way of affirming the joy at the heart of our faith.

But any intense spiritual experience can sometimes be followed by a degree of disappointment or disillusionment as the usual daily routine reasserts itself and we come back down to earth with a bump. Suddenly we鈥檝e become caterpillars all over again. The car won鈥檛 start. The washing-machine breaks down. There鈥檚 a family crisis, or problems at work. Gloom sets in. Has anything really changed, we wonder? This morning we reflect on Symbols of the Resurrection, and particularly the Easter Cross. This sign, formerly linked to suffering and death, is transformed by Christ鈥檚 self-giving loving-kindness into the Tree of Life, whose leaves and fruit bring hope and healing to humanity.

ITEM 4:听 REMAINDER OF HYMN 1 听听听听听听听听听听听听 CHOIR / CONG / ORGAN听听

ITEM 5:听听听LINK听听听听听听 DELYTH:

Let us pray:

Heavenly father, we thank you for the new life and growth which surrounds us.听 As we contemplate these signs of Resurrection, may your loving-kindness bud and blossom in our lives and our community, through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord. Amen.

Despite the joy of new life Christians celebrate at this time of year we still fall short of Christ鈥檚 goodness. Let us humbly confess our sins to Almighty God.

Almighty God have mercy upon you; pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness; and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

As we consider those thoughts and actions by which we have sinned against God and our fellow men and women and seek God鈥檚 forgiveness for them, the Swansea听 Bach Choir sing Purcell鈥檚 鈥楻emember not, Lord, our offences鈥�.

ITEM 6: CHOIR: 鈥楻emember not , Lord, our offences鈥�. (Purcell)

ITEM 7:听听 LINK听听听听听听 DELYTH:听听

The story of the Garden of Eden has inspired the human imagination across the centuries. The concept of a lost Paradise, ultimately regained for us by Christ鈥檚 death and resurrection, retains its power in a world flawed by human selfishness and destructiveness

ITEM 8听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 BIBLE READING 1 听听听听听听听听听听听听 MALCOLM听

A reading from the Book of Genesis, Chapter 2

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up 鈥� for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but s stream would rise up from the earth and water the whole face of the ground 鈥� then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east: and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

ITEM 9: LINK听听听听听听 DELYTH:

The Book of Revelation, written in a period when early Christians faced intense persecution, culminates in St John the Divine鈥檚 glorious vision of a life beyond the limitations and anxieties of our present existence.

ITEM 10:听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 BIBLE READING 2听听听听听听听听听听听听听 JUDITH

Verses from The Book of Revelation, Chapters 21, and 22,

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: 鈥淪ee, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there anymore.

This is the word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

ITEM 11: LINK听听听听听听 DELYTH:听听听听听

Shortly the Vicar of Christ Church, the Rev鈥檇听 Canon听 Dr. Patrick Thomas will give the Address, but first we sing Isaac Watts鈥� adaptation of Psalm 72,听 鈥楯esus shall reign where鈥檈r the sun鈥�.听听

ITEM 12:听 HYMN 2:听CHOIR / CONG / ORGAN听听听听听听

JESUS SHALL REIGN(Truro)听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听

ITEM 13:听 ADDRESS PART 1听 PATRICK

My first acquaintance with Carmarthen came through a poem. I was an undergraduate reading English, and my father had mocked me, saying 鈥淲hy are you studying English when you don鈥檛 speak your own language?鈥� Then I discovered that I was entitled to take a subsidiary course in medieval Welsh. The first task which my distinguished lecturer set me was to translate some verses from the Black Book of Carmarthen. They were entitled 鈥楽adness in Springtime鈥�.

The poet was probably standing on a hillside overlooking Carmarthen Bay. He described the beauty of the landscape at this time of year, with the evidence of new life everywhere. The birds were singing, the grass was green, yoked oxen dragged ploughs carving furrows through the fields, while the sea sparkled beyond.

Yet all this loveliness, combined with the first call of the cuckoo from blossoming branches, only left the poet feeling depressed. At night, as he lay in his smoke-filled hut, he was unable to sleep. His mind was filled with memories of his friends who had died. He was suffering from what is described in Welsh as hiraeth 鈥� a desperate longing that is far deeper than mere nostalgia. It鈥檚 a heart-rending realisation that much-loved people and places are lost forever.

But then suddenly the poet鈥檚 mood was transformed. He became aware of that glorious paradox at the heart of the Christian Gospel which the twentieth century American theologian Jaroslav Pelikan expressed with dazzling simplicity: 鈥楨ven though you lose, you cannot lose鈥�. The Black Book poet wrote:

On hills, in valleys, on the islands of the sea,

Wherever you may go,

Because of holy Christ there is no desert place.

The Easter message of re-creation and resurrection by which Christ鈥檚 Cross, the tree of death, became the Tree of Life, revealed a power that could plumb the depths of hiraeth and vanquish it forever.

The message of holy Christ had been spread through the hills and valleys and islands of West Wales by three sixth century saints : David, Padarn and Teilo. I spent seventeen years as rector of Brechfa, a Carmarthenshire hill parish which, according to a marginal note in an ancient Gospel Book, had been 鈥榞iven to God and St Teilo forever鈥�.

One of my parishioners visited Landeleau in Brittany, an area also evangelized by St Teilo, and discovered that the Welsh holy man was regarded there as the patron of apple-trees. On his missionary journeys he apparently combined establishing churches and planting orchards. It seemed an admirable precedent.

Unaware of the need to obtain the archdeacon鈥檚 permission, I planted two apple-trees in our churchyard in Brechfa听 鈥� and was fortunate to escape with a stern rebuke from the diocesan authorities!听听 We copied the Breton custom of celebrating an annual feast of St Teilo and the apple-trees. It always included the delightful American folk hymn, 鈥楯esus Christ the Apple-tree鈥�.

ITEM 14: 听CHOIR 鈥楯ESUS CHRIST THE APPLE-TREE鈥櫶� (Poston)听听

ITEM 15:听ADDRESS PART 2听听PATRICK

A clue to St Teilo鈥檚 motives in combining the planting of both churches and apple-trees came when I attended a funeral in a village some miles away. One of its windows included a stained-glass roundel depicting a tree with thick green foliage and abundant fruit. Christ hung from it, crucified. Entwined around the tree was a quotation from the Book of Revelation: 鈥榯he leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.鈥�

However, the stained-glass Tree of Life took my thoughts in a rather different direction. It struck me that St Teilo鈥檚 apple-trees might have been an expression of Paradise restored: the Garden of Eden won back for us by the Cross of Christ which became the fruitful Tree of Life. Each of his churches, with their apple-trees, were intended to be outposts of the Kingdom of Heaven: places of hope and healing on earth that gave a foretaste of the life to come.

Several years later, as the result of a small ad that my wife had spotted in the Church Times, I found myself on pilgrimage in Armenia. The courtyard outside the Matenadaran, the capital鈥檚 museum of illuminated scripts, was suddenly filled with a crowd of boisterous children on a school trip. Some of them noticed an ancient carving set into the wall. 鈥淜hatchkar! Khatchkar!鈥� they shouted enthusiastically.

As their teachers ushered them into the museum, I went to examine the cause of their excitement. It was a stone slab with a cross carved on it 鈥� the word khatchkar means 鈥榗ross-stone鈥�. The cross had sprouted leaves and fruit. It had become a Tree of Life: a sign of hope and healing after suffering and despair. Beneath it was the round symbol that represents eternity in Armenian tradition.听听听 It reminded me of our Celtic crosses in Wales, where the circle behind the cross is often interpreted either as the earth made whole by Christ鈥檚 self-sacrificial love, or as the sun rising behind the cross as a reminder of the Son of God, rising to new life at Easter.

The Armenians are often described by their neighbours as 鈥榯he people of the Cross鈥�. Their tragic history has meant that they have at times been forced to descend into what has been described by some as a 鈥榟ell on earth鈥�. Yet their Christian faith has given them the resilience that rediscovers, beyond the tree of death, the Tree of Life.

Over the past ten years I鈥檝e learned a great deal from that resilient faith, and the prayers that it has inspired. Every life has challenges. My wife and I care at home for two daughters who suffer from severe mental illness. It can be stressful, draining and difficult at times, particularly when combined with other demands and responsibilities. Our daughters have to face and cope with a desperate and desolating experience which often comes close to breaking our hearts, let alone theirs. And yet my wife never ceases to astonish me by the patient, practical love which she shows each day, and which is the bedrock of our family life.

Symbols only have meaning if they express a reality. For me Welsh apple-trees, Celtic crosses and Armenian khatchkars point to a hope that is at the heart of the Easter story, and of my daily life.

Christ鈥檚 rising from the dead at Easter brings the promise that, as Mother Julian of Norwich said, ultimately 鈥榓ll shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well鈥�. That isn鈥檛 a glib and painless promise. It doesn鈥檛 guarantee an easy pilgrimage through life. The cross is a cross before it blossoms into the Tree of Life. And yet, as St John the Divine glimpsed in his vision, the time will come when God will indeed wipe every tear from our eyes.

ITEM 16: LINK听DELYTH

My soul thirsts for the mighty God who is ever living:

when shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my bread day and night,

while it is said to me each day: Where is your God?鈥�

Palestrina鈥檚 setting of Psalm 42 鈥� Sitivit anima mea.

ITEM 17:听 CHOIR: 鈥楽itivit anima mea鈥� (Palestrina)

ITEM 18: PRAYERS听听IAN听听

Let us pray :听听听

Heavenly Father, as we give thanks for the beauty that surrounds us, as spring brings new life to the land, we pray that that same renewing power may, through God鈥檚 Holy Spirit, bring fresh hope to our homes, our churches and our communities.

Lord in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

We pray for all those who feel crushed or daunted by the weight of the cross that they have to shoulder. Sustain them in difficult times. Lord Jesus, give them courage and comfort and faith, and a constant awareness of your presence with them.

Lord in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

We pray for a healing of the nations, remembering those many countries in our world torn apart by war or civil strife. We remember all victims of war, especially refugees and hostages, the traumatized and those who live in constant fear.

Lord in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

We hold before God all those who find themselves in desert places as a result of illness in body or mind, bereavement, loneliness or anxiety, asking that the wounded hand of the risen Christ may reach out to them and bring them healing and hope. And we pray especially for all doctors, nurses, paramedics and auxiliary staff in our hospitals, surgeries and medical centres.

Lord in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

We give thanks for the Communion of Saints, the church on earth and the church in heaven, and we remember with gratitude those men and women whose actions and words have enriched our lives and given them direction and purpose.

Heavenly Father, accept these prayers for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

ITEM听 19听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 DELYTH / ALL:

We join together in the prayer that Jesus taught us:

ALL:听听听听听听听 Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come.听 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.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,

For ever and ever.听 Amen.

ITEM 20听LINK听听听听听听 DELYTH:

Our final hymn, written by Bishop George Bell, the great prophet of reconciliation and pioneer of ecumenism, is a glorious expression of the hope that the risen Christ brings us.

ITEM 21听听HYMN 3听听 CHOIR / CONG / ORGAN听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听

鈥楥HRIST IS THE KING, O FRIENDS REJOICE!鈥� Vulpius (Gelobt sei Gott)

ITEM 22听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 BLESSING听听听听听听听听听听听 PATRICK:

BLESSING 1听 [An Armenian blessing]听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听

Keep us in peace, O Christ our God,

under the protection of your holy and venerable cross;

save us from our enemies, visible and invisible,

and count us worthy to glorify you with thanksgiving,

with the Father and the Holy Spirit,

now and forever, world without end.

Amen.

ITEM 23: ORGAN VOLUNTARY听听GLEN CROOKS听听

Siegfried Karg-Elert - Chorale Prelude on听'Nun danket alle Gott'

CLOSING ANO:

This morning鈥檚 Sunday Worship came from Christ Church, Carmarthen, in West Wales.听 The service was led by the Rev鈥檇 Delyth Richards and the preacher was the Rev鈥檇 Canon Dr. Patrick Thomas.听 The Swansea Bach Choir was directed by Greg Hallam and the organist was Glen Crooks.听 The producer was Karen Walker.

Next week鈥檚 Sunday Worship comes live from Sunderland Millfield Salvation Army as the International Staff Songsters celebrate 150 years of the Salvation Armys鈥� worldwide influence. And you may like to know that 大象传媒 Radio 2鈥檚 Young Choristers of the Year competition is now open. A link to information can be found on the Sunday Worship web page.

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