大象传媒

This script may not be exactly as broadcast. For various reasons including copyright, some items have been omitted.

Leader: The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally

Sermon: Fr Marcus Walker

Prayers: Canon Jeremy Haselock

Director of Music: Rupert Gough

Organist: James Norrey

RADIO 4 OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT:

At ten past eight on 大象传媒 Radio 4 and 大象传媒 Sounds it鈥檚 time now for Sunday Worship.

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RECTOR:

Good morning, and welcome to the Church of St Bartholomew the Great in London on this Passion Sunday. I鈥檓 Rector Marcus Walker, and I鈥檓 joined by the Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, and our church choir, as we join together for this service of Mattins. In this penitential season of Lent we鈥檙e focussing on themes from the Lord鈥檚 Prayer, and today our worship reflects the phrase 鈥楧eliver us from evil鈥�.

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St Bartholomew the Great is the oldest surviving church in the City of London, founded exactly 900 years ago yesterday, so today is also a day of celebration to mark that anniversary.

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Our service begins with a Passiontide hymn, the original Latin words of which are thought to have been written in honour of the foundation of another religious institution, the French Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross in Poitiers. We sing 鈥楾he royal banners forward go鈥�.

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CHOIR/ORGAN:听听听听 HYMN: The royal banners forward go

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BISHOP:

St Bartholomew the Great was founded in 1123 by Rahere, a courtier and possibly jester in the court of Henry I.

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Founded at the same time by the same man was St Bartholomew鈥檚 Hospital next door to the Church, which also can lay claim to being the oldest continuous hospital in the City of London and which has provided healthcare free at the point of delivery and free at the point of demand for nine centuries.

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And so, from this place where service to God and humanity has been made for so many centuries we ask that Our Lord may open our lips in his praise.

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CHOIR/CANTOR:听听听 RESPONSES: (Shepherd)

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Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 O Lord, open thou our lips;

Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

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Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 O God, make speed to save us;

Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 O Lord make haste to help us.

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Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 Glory be to the Father, and to the Son:

and to the Holy Ghost

Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be:

听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 world without end. Amen.

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Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 Praise ye the Lord.

Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 The Lord鈥檚 name be praised.

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BISHOP:

Our first reading takes us from a wet London into the deserts of the Holy Land and to the promise of the Resurrection.

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READER 1:听听听 EZEKIEL 1:1-10

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Here beginneth the thirty-seventh chapter of the Book of Ezekiel

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The hand of the听Lord听was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the听Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord听God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the听Lord. Thus saith the Lord听God听unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the听Lord.

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Here endeth the lesson.

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BISHOP:

Passion Sunday鈥檚 theme of death and resurrection continues in our second reading, from John鈥檚 Gospel.

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READER 2:听听听 JOHN 11:30-45

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Here beginneth the thirtieth verse of the eleventh chapter of the Gospel according to St John.

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Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled. And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.

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Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.

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Here endeth the lesson.

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BISHOP:

St Bartholomew the Great shares with St George鈥檚 Windsor the architectural curiosity of having an internal Oriel window 鈥� a bay window put there by the second-last Prior before the Reformation, Prior Bolton, who annexed the church鈥檚 balcony, or triforium, to use as a breakfast room. The choir will sing Howells鈥� Benedictus from his St George鈥檚 Windsor service.

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CHOIR/ORGAN:听听听听 BENEDICTUS (Howells)

CANON HASELOCK/CHOIR:

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I听believe听in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholick Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting.听Amen.

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CHOIR/CANTOR:听听听 RESPONSES: (Shepherd)

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Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 The Lord be with you.
Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 And with thy spirit.

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Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 Let us pray.

Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

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Our听Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.听Amen.

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Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 O Lord, shew thy mercy upon us.
Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 And grant us thy salvation.

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Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 O Lord, save the King.
Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 Endue thy Ministers with righteousness.

Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 And make thy chosen people joyful.

Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 O Lord, save thy people.
Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 And bless thine inheritance.

Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 Give peace in our time, O Lord.
Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 Because there is none other that fighteth for us,

but only thou, O God.

Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 O God, make clean our hearts within us.
Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

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Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 O听God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom: Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 Amen.

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Cantor:听听听听听听听听听 O听Lord, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day: Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord.听

Choir:听听听听听听听听听听听听 Amen.

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RECTOR:

St Bartholomew the Great has a formidable musical tradition. Among the momentous events to occur in the church was the first performance, in full and in German, of Bach鈥檚 Matthew Passion in England. This passage puts us beside the Lord in the grave as he, through the Cross, stands beside us in our grief.

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CHOIR/CHAMBER ORGAN/OBOE:听听听听听听 Ich will bei meinem Jesu wachen (Bach)

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CANON HASELOCK:

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For grace to seek out those habits of sin which mean spiritual death, and by prayer and self-discipline to overcome them,

ALL: Deliver us from evil, Good Lord.

For Christian people, that we may renounce the sin of disunity and there may grow a rich union in Christ,

ALL: Deliver us from evil, Good Lord.

For those who make laws, interpret them, and administer them, that they may resist the temptation to abuse their power and authority,

ALL: Deliver us from evil, Good Lord.

For those in the midst of war and conflict, battle and civic disorder,听 most especially the people of Ukraine.

ALL: Deliver us from evil, Good Lord.

For those in the darkness and agony of isolation, that they may find in Christ the light through their darkness,

ALL: Deliver us from evil, Good Lord.

That we, with those who have died in faith, may find mercy in the day of Christ,

Son of God: we beseech thee to hear us.

ALL: Son of God: we beseech thee to hear us.

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RECTOR:

Son of man, can these bones live?

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

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Can these bones live? I look out over the bare bones of the building, the stones that have been here for nine hundred years, the stones that have been placed upon them since, the stones that have been slotted in to replace stones that have crumbled, and you could be forgiven for asking 鈥渃an these bones live?鈥�

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Can this church, whose gates witnessed the peasants鈥� revolt, the execution of William Wallace, the burning of Protestant and Catholic martyrs, which has played host to Benjamin Franklin, Charles Dickens, John Wesley, and even 鈥� by repute 鈥� the Blessed Virgin Mary鈥� can this church live?

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The bones of a building do not mean that building is alive, the history of a building does not promise it a future. On this Passion Sunday, a day after marking our 900th anniversary, I am acutely aware that the gift we have been given in earthen vessels, is a fragile gift beyond measure.

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No church has a right to survive: not here, not anywhere. Fire, which spared us in 1666 and in 1940 might have enjoyed a spiteful laugh last week as flames tore through flats not ten feet from the church, threatening to make good the oversight of its fiery forebears.

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The stones, these dry bones, tell the story of other near misses. The building, if you find us down an alley in Smithfield, is down that alley because two thirds of the church were taken down at the Reformation, setting us far back from the road. The walls of the north transept are black from the fires of an ironmonger who set up shop in the bare bones of the old church; a non-conformist school was found in the balconies, a printers鈥� workshop in the Lady Chapel, and a stable in the cloisters.

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Can these bones live? Well once they lay abandoned in the valley like the bones before Ezekiel. And now鈥� they live. Like those dry bones they have found sinews and flesh and skin and breath. And this tells a story, this Passiontide, of hope. Of hope not just for churches 鈥� although our beleaguered parish churches need that hope desperately now 鈥� but for us all.

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It is the hope of the resurrection that draws us, here, at St Bart鈥檚, to give this old church its flesh, and it is the hope of the resurrection that gives us the breath to be the life within the walls, within the stones, within the bones.

Actually, no, it is not just the hope of the Resurrection. It is the Resurrection himself. The Resurrection and the Life that gives these bones life, as he gave Lazarus life, as he has breathed life into people and places and gave them the power to live 鈥� now, here 鈥� as people who hope to live, with flesh and breath and hope, in the resurrection that will come.

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BISHOP:

John and Charles Wesley were regular visitors to this church, and the pulpit here remained open to John long after all the others were closed to him in the City of London. After one particularly fierce sermon on money, he wrote in his diary 鈥淕od gave the audience ears to hear, so that they appeared as far from anger on the one hand as from sleepiness on the other.鈥� Our next hymn 鈥楯esu, lover of my soul鈥� honours this Wesleyan heritage.

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CHOIR/ORGAN:听听听听 HYMN: Jesu, lover of my soul

BISHOP:

Christ, whose glory is in the heavens,

fill this house and illuminate your hearts;

and the blessing of God almighty,

+the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,

be among you and remain with you always.

Amen.

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ORGAN:听听听听听听听 VOLUNTARY: Prelude in B minor, BWV 544 (Bach)

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