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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.

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.

Today鈥檚 service was recorded at Lambeth Palace and at other locations in London, as well as in Cambridge and Salisbury. The unaccompanied music was recorded in the Chapel of Lambeth Palace and all other music was recorded at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

听

REVD ISABELLE HAMLEY
Good morning. I鈥檓 standing in the grounds of Lambeth Palace, a busy hub of work and prayer for the living church. As well as being home to the present Archbishop and his staff, here can also be found the recently-formed St Anselm Community, a project inspired by monasticism, that enables young people to follow an intensive pattern of prayer for the work of the Archbishop and the worldwide Anglican Communion and service in charities and the world and its needs. Our prayers and readings today are led by those who live and work here at Lambeth Palace.

The grounds of the Palace have been a private garden since the 12th century - the oldest continuously cultivated garden in London. Today it covers just over ten acres, and offers a place of sanctuary and prayer for those who live and work here. A sacred space in the heart of this busy City, every month the garden is opened to the public. We begin our worship now with that great hymn which reminds us that God himself is the source of our life and of all that is beautiful and wonderful around us: Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the King of Creation.

HYMN: Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the King of Creation (t. Lobe den Herrn)

TRICIA鈥橲 REFLECTION

REVD ISABELLE HAMLEY

Lord Jesus, who prayed that we might all be one,
we pray to you for the unity of Christians,
according to your will,
according to your means.
May your Spirit enable us
to experience the suffering caused by division,
to see our sin
and to hope beyond all hope.
Amen.

The bible begins and ends in a garden, and some of the most important events of the story of the relationship between God and humanity happen in gardens and natural spaces.

The Garden of Eden was the first, lush, abundant, home to the tree of life. All was wonderful until human beings decided to go their own way, and disturbed the beauty and balance of the garden. And so it is in this first garden that pain, sin and sorrow entered the world.听 Towards the other end of the story, with many other gardens on the way, we enter another garden: Gethsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where Jesus prayed before his passion, and his disciples slept the night before his crucifixion. Three days later the resurrected Jesus meets Mary at the Garden Tomb. And finally, the last garden we鈥檒l be thinking about this morning is the Garden of the New Jerusalem, in the book of Revelation. There, the tree of life, planted by the river of life, is restored for the redeemed in Christ Jesus; there is no more sickness, sorrow or pain. A new, abundant garden gives us a picture of the perfect Paradise for the redeemed people of the God.

As we journey from the Garden of Eden to the Garden of Gethsemane, we hear two reflections, the first from the Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Revd Nicholas Holtam, lead bishop on environmental affairs in the Church of England, and then from the author Marie-Else Bragg, a priest in the diocese of London and an Ignatian spiritual director. But first, a reading from Genesis, Chapter 2.

READING: GENESIS 2. 4-9

REFLECTION: Rt Revd Nicholas Holtam, Bishop of Salisbury

MUSIC: Psalm 24 (sung to Anglican chant)

READING: MATTHEW 26. 36-46

REFLECTION: Marie Elsa Bragg

The seeds of ascension were in Gethsemane.

The apple became the olive;
The pain of knowledge turning to surrender.

Above was the Mount of Olives
where Jesus would ascend and light
would whiten our faces, so that, for a moment,
there would be no sleep; no day or night.

Ground would then reclaim us; our eyes
blinking as we fall back into the garden.
Falling again into doubt, prostrate in grief.

The weight of our lives now like a boulder
to be rolled once more towards the peak;
a storm, an avalanche, an absurd weight
ever cutting in to draw us back.

Sisyphus pushed his arrogance with
Persephone watching unseen from behind.
A winter rich in fermentation for spring.

Jesus grieved in Gethsemane
prostrate to the east,
the dark eye of a tomb
in the valley
behind. Its stone walls
painted with seasons and seas,
the linen soon imprinted.

I dreamt once that I pushed
my boulder so close to the peak it rolled
back and through Gethsemane
down to the tomb.

I dreamt it was the one they used
to close Him in. When I arrived in search of it
I set my shoulder to the chipped stone,
and pushed again towards the peak.

On my way, I passed a gardener
and a woman standing so still
it was as if they had no breath.

And somewhere in the evening chorus
I heard a noise that could have been my name.

I think the woman held a dusty veil.
I think the gardener鈥檚 palms were marked with seeds.

MUSIC: There is a green hill far away 鈥� Bob Chilcott (from 鈥楽t John Passion鈥�)

ISABELLE
our preacher today is the Dean of Clare College Cambridge, the Reverend Dr Jamie Hawkey. But first we hear words from the Book of Revelation, Chapter 22. The setting is a city, but there are fruit bearing trees and a clear stream there.

READING: REVELATION 22. 1-5

SERMON: REVD DR JAMIE HAWKEY
It has often been said that the witness of scripture begins in a garden (the garden of eden), and ends in a city (the new Jerusalem). It鈥檚 a nice neat image, but it鈥檚 not quite true. If anything, it ends in a garden city! The golden New Jerusalem with its jasper walls and jewelled foundations, has a great river running through it, and on either side the eternally fruitful tree of life, with its leaves for the healing of the nations; God heaping 鈥済enerosity upon generosity鈥� as one of the early Fathers puts it.

The new creation which the heavenly Garden City symbolises is not a return to perfect Eden, nor a simple mechanical reversal of the curse of the fall. It is something richer than that. In the parish where I was brought up, a beautiful Calvary stood in the middle of the Church garden, as a memorial to the dead of the Second World War. Around the Cross were inscribed the words 鈥淎ve Crux, Spes Unica鈥�, Hail, O Cross, our only hope. Many years later, an overly enthusiastic curate with a penchant for gardening had it repainted with the text from John鈥檚 Gospel, 鈥淲here they laid him there was a garden.鈥� An outcry ensued in the parish, led, rather naughtily by a former Vicar, who wrote an angry letter to the PCC asking rhetorically, 鈥淎re we to believe that we were saved by a garden?鈥�

The heat around this little contretemps rather obscured any possibility of serious reflection on that question! The Christian typological tradition has since earliest days spoken of Christ as the new Adam, the Cross as the new tree and the crucified himself as its fruit. The site, the locus of all this, is perhaps not incidental: the Garden of Eden may be the place of the fall, but firstly it is the place of creation and grace, which God declared to be very good. To push this further into New Testament terms, Jesus was betrayed in a garden, a mystery of our salvation to which the knarled ancient Olive Trees which litter Gethsemane still bear silent witness, but he also arose in a garden, as the day dawned and the promise of new creation became a reality. This Jesus Christ, the one 鈥渓aden with fruit and always green鈥� 鈥渨hose beauty doth all things excel.鈥�

MUSIC: JESUS CHRIST THE APPLE TREE 鈥� ELIZABETH POSTON

The garden and the city, creation and new creation, all underpinned by the fruitful Christ who is both origin and promise. The apse mosaic in the Roman basilica of San Clemente gives us a clue as to how all this relates to the rhythm of daily life. There, the cross of Christ is found at the centre of a great vine, in whose curling branches the birds find a home. But there are also figures ploughing the fields, feeding the birds, monks working in the scriptorium 鈥� there is a homeliness about salvation; all the humdrum of existence found within the life of this even as deer drink from the stream which flows from its roots.听

The fruit of this tree we can taste now through and in the love of Christ, as creation is held fragile but glistening with the promise of fruition and fulfilment if we have the eyes to see it. In Eden, creation and fall; in all our earthly cities, progress and greed; how we are in need of the promise of the Garden City, the new Jerusalem, the place where it is never winter and where there is fruit abundant enough to satisfy all hunger. We may stand with one foot in Eden now, gazing across, but we shall be natives of this new reality.

For so much of our world at the moment, this feels at best, far off. In the Za鈥橝tari refugee camp in Jordan alone, there are 80,000 Syrian refugees. But this situation, too, is held within the life of the Vine: since 2014, some charities have been running gardening programmes for traumatised children and families in the camp. One resident said to a reporter, 鈥淕reen space is God-given beauty, it calms the soul and the nerves. The situation is bad and everyone is worn out, so this gives us some serenity - it鈥檚 a change of scenery. This garden gives me hope.鈥� When children arrived at the camp, many were introverted, violent and struggled to make friends. 鈥淏ut,鈥� one of the team leaders said, 鈥渁fter we started implementing gardening classes, the children learned to work in a team, and started to build friendships.鈥�

These refugees鈥� engagement with the fundamentals of nature is an act of protest against destruction and decay, and an activity of reconnection to the creative and fundamental dynamics of God. For those of us fortunate enough to live in security and affluence, such stories should be a much-needed reminder of the need to recommit to our fundamental nature as created beings, about how we are called to communion with the natural world, rather than competition with it, to stewardship of the earth, rather than its exploitation, however passive. 鈥淒ig for victory鈥�, the wartime propaganda posters proclaimed, 鈥淒ig for virtue鈥�, we might say, as if we take time to consider it, each trowl or rake or prune, can help free us from the idolatry of self-sufficiency, and open us once again to the gift of creation in which we have been made participants, and the eternal vine,
promise of its renewal in Christ.
Better Music here I think鈥�if needed
The river which flows through the Heavenly Garden City comes from the throne of the slaughtered Lamb: the crucified himself is the source of our joy, he is the revelation of a love which cannot be defeated and which blazes most brightly with its promise at the very heart of the darkness. Ultimately, as the Easter Liturgy puts it, our fall is a 鈥渇elix culpa鈥�, a 鈥渉appy fault鈥�, and in God鈥檚 providence through the life of the world, its bitter sorrow as well as its joy, we may learn more of the inexhaustible depth of God鈥檚 love. No simple return to Eden, rather the consummation of all that is, as language and metaphor break down.

A well-loved Easter hymn recounts the meeting of Mary Magdalene with the Gardener at the break of day. She asks him where Jesus鈥� body has been laid. 鈥淏ut he turned towards her, smiled at her and said: 'Mary, spring is here to stay, only death is dead.鈥�

HYMN: Walking in a garden

PRAYERS
Father, we praise you with all your creatures.
They came forth from your all-powerful hand;
they are yours, filled with your presence and your tender love.
Praise be to you!

Holy Spirit, by your light
you guide this world towards the Father's love
and accompany creation as it groans in travail.
You also dwell in our hearts
and you inspire us to do what is good.
Praise be to you!

Triune Lord, wondrous community of infinite love,
teach us to contemplate you
in the beauty of the universe,
for all things speak of you.
Awaken our praise and thankfulness
for every being that you have made.
Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined
to everything that is.
Praise be to you!

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,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

REVD ISABELLE HAMLEY
May God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the source of all goodness and growth,
pour his blessing upon all things created,
and upon you his children,
that you may use his gifts to his glory and the welfare of all peoples;
and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with us all, evermore. Amen.

MUSIC: Now thank we all our God (t. Nun danket)

听