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MUSIC: ORGAN PLAYS TUNE CLONMACNOISE

Played by David Goodenough

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FATHER PHILIP BLACKLEDGE

Good morning and welcome to Sunday Worship.
My name is Philip Blackledge and I鈥檓 the Rector of a church in the rural Scottish Borders. And I鈥檓 just getting a breath of fresh air at the moment walking around the churchyard as we prepare for our Music Festival.

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What sounds do you associate with a church? Do you imagine soaring plainsong, beautiful choral music, thundering hymns, organ fanfares, or peaceful silence? Perhaps all of them. I鈥檝e been the Rector of my church of Holy Trinity here in Melrose for ten years now, and although I am often in it when there鈥檚 no-one else here, it鈥檚 never silent.

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Some of the sounds are those you might associate with silence, the noises you hear when the normal sounds are gone. Sometimes, if the wind is still and the road is quiet you can hear the sounds of the river Tweed below the church. Sometimes after Evensong I鈥檒l stand at the door, birdsong in one ear, and organ music in the other, and feel like the luckiest person on earth.

But my favourite sound, is that little excited bubble of noise that happens just before the first hymn. Children playing in the back of church, people quietly greeting one another and saying those normal little things which say they are pleased to see you. Some may think that it鈥檚 not very prayerful, but I think it is a prayer of a sort.

Today there are quite a lot of expectant noises. Melrose has been having a music festival and we鈥檙e holding our final event, a service of Choral Evensong, with a choir gathered from all over the borders and beyond. And before we sing and pray and listen together, there鈥檚 that bubble of sound, which means something good is going to happen.

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Today we are going to celebrate those times 鈥� those liminal times that we share, the times between things which are often seen as unnecessary, but to me, as we worship together, they are as vital and as beautiful as the words and the teaching and the silence and the hymns. I invite you to share them with us.

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MUSIC:听 ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING (Tune: Lasst uns erfreuen)

Choirs of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Melrose, and St John鈥檚 Episcopal Church, Princes Street, Edinburgh

Conducted by Robert Marshall

Organist: David Goodenough

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PHILIP听 Our prayers are led today by Claire Nicholson, a fellow priest here at Holy Trinity.

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CLAIRE

Almighty and Everlasting God, when the Universe was created you were there. When the earth formed, and the stars began their dance, you were there. When we walk among your creation, you are there, and when we are too busy to remember your presence, you are still there with us.

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Look upon your children gracious God, see us for what we truly are.

Enable us to glimpse the vast sea of time, that we may see ourselves in perspective.

When we forget you, do not forget us.

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Be with us now, God of love and truth, in this time and this place. Find within us the room to make your home. Strengthen us by your Holy Spirit, that others may come to know you through us; and that we become the place where your spirit dwells. Amen.

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MUSIC: CHRIST BE WITH ME, CHRIST WITHIN ME (Tune: Clonmacnoise)

Sung by Quartet: Claire Taylor, Michael Wood, Robert Marshall, Philip Blackledge

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PHILIP

Like a lot of people, I鈥檝e found that in this post-pandemic world many meetings and gatherings which used to be in person are now online. And there鈥檚 a lot of benefit to that 鈥� a reduced carbon footprint, a lot of travelling time saved, because here in the Scottish borders, getting anywhere takes a lot of time.

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But it has also meant that many of the liminal spaces have gone 鈥� the staring out of a train window, the walk from the station to the meeting room, the small talk before the meeting begins, the getting of the cups of tea, the break in between, the non-work part of a work meeting. We often treat those things as irrelevant, but now that they happen less often, I鈥檝e begun to see how important they are.

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Much of what we do in church is liminal in a way. With God there is no business to do, no agenda to follow, no task list to achieve. All we do in worship is trying to communicate profound things between ourselves and God, with tools that at best scratch around the edges of God; music and silence, comforting words and communal prayers.

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One of the tools we use to negotiate that liminal space between us and God is silence. Alastair McIntosh is a Quaker who has found over the course of his life just how important those moments of silence can be.

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INTERVIEW WITH ALASTAIR McINTOSH 鈥� Quaker and author

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MUSIC:听 ROBIN鈥橲 CELLO , Performed by Phoria
From album Caught a Black Rabbit, Akira Records

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MUSIC:听 ETERNAL RULER OF THE CEASELESS ROUND (Tune: Song 1)

ALASTAIR: READING听 Psalm 19

The heavens are telling the glory of God,
听听听听and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
2听Day to day pours forth speech,
听听听听and night to night declares knowledge.
3听There is no speech, nor are there words;
听听听听their voice is not heard;
4听yet their sound goes out through all the earth
听听听听and their words to the end of the world.

In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,
5听which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,
听听听听and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
6听Its rising is from the end of the heavens
听听听听and its circuit to the end of them,
听听听听and nothing is hid from its heat.

10听More to be desired are they than gold,
听听听听even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
听听听听and drippings of the honeycomb.

14听Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
听听听听be acceptable to you,
听听听听O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

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PHILIP

They say Music is a universal language, and of course that鈥檚 true, but sometimes we forget that any language, music included is about communication and that means engaging with others. Often we consume music by ourselves, with our earphones tucked in, shutting out the world. When I was first ordained twenty odd years ago, if you sat on a train it was almost inevitable you would end up talking to someone, having one of those liminal conversations that weren鈥檛 part of your reason for travelling, because听 newspapers and books didn鈥檛 make us so hermetic.

These days many of us are shut inside our phones, watching or listening to things solo, closing off those opportunities to share space and time.

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One of the joys of a music festival, one of the joys of Choral Evensong, is that we share that liminal space together. It is, or can be, communion with one another and with God.

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Have you ever been at a concert or festival and felt that feeling of being part of something far bigger than yourself? When you listen to something that takes you out of yourself, where you feel that you鈥檙e an essential part of something that is both beyond you but of which you鈥檙e still a part?听

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I remember my first experience of that - singing in a cathedral choir as a student in Edinburgh. We were singing a mass by William Byrd, and there was a moment when we stopped all being a group of individuals and we became one instrument. We were moving and breathing and singing together, and we had a communion with one another. And I felt that every person in that building, those singing, those listening, those praying, were somehow an essential element of what was going on. I remember thinking as I was singing that we were not just in communion with one another, but in communion with everyone who has ever sung that piece, or heard it, from the first people who experienced it gathering together in secret, for fear they would be caught as recusant Catholics, to the many churches and cathedrals whose stones have echoed that music since, and everyone who will sing centuries after my time.

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For me as a young man, who believed himself to be an atheist at that time, it was almost devastating to feel something that was way beyond what I thought was possible. I remember sitting down after we had sung it, and to my surprise, the church robe I was wearing was wet with tears.

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MUSIC:听 Byrd Mass for Four Voices 鈥� Agnus Dei

Sung by Quartet: Claire Taylor, Michael Wood, Robert Marshall, Philip Blackledge

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PHILIP
A sacrament, according to the church鈥檚 teaching, is an outward sign of inward grace.听 An externally visible symbol that God loves us. I鈥檝e always believed that to be true, but I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 just confined to the sacraments that the church offers.听 An outward sign that we are loved 鈥� if that is actually what a sacrament is, then maybe a smile is a sacrament, or an arm round the shoulder when we need it.听 Maybe that friendly buzz and chatter before church is sacred, sacramental. Maybe those smiles and greetings are the outward signs of something far more profound than we have words for.

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Two of my friends here in the Borders, Paul and Katriona, were parents to a child whose profound disabilities meant that they only had liminal ways to communicate with him. Matthew鈥檚 life was a relatively short one, but because they found their way into his liminal world, they were able to make sure that his life, and theirs, were full of joy and blessings and love.

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INTERVIEW WITH KATRIONA AND PAUL GOODE

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MUSIC:听 QUARTET SING MELODY OF 鈥榁IEW ME, LORD鈥� (Composer: Richard Lloyd)
Sung by Quartet

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MUSIC: CHRIST BE WITH ME, CHRIST WITHIN ME (Tune: Clonmacnoise)

Sung by Quartet

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PHILIP

As part of my spiritual formation, I spent a year in a Franciscan Friary. We had lots of silent liminal time there, an hour of silent prayer before breakfast, an hour of silent prayer before dinner, and many short times in between. And the strange thing was that although I didn鈥檛 know many of the brothers who prayed there very well- we were off doing our different jobs during the day and we only got together in the chapel and at meal times, many of which were silent, somehow praying with them every day meant that I felt I knew them really well. It is a binding thing, praying together, just like all liminal time.

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Sometimes, when we are in that busy mode, we will only try and 鈥渕ap鈥� people, work out what they are like in relation to us. Are they academic, educated, or the same class as us, where they come from, who they know, what are their opinions on things like religion and politics. And all of those things can be quite divisive. If we live out lives on that fact-based level, we will never get to know who they truly are.

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Who are we, outside of all those things? Outside of who we vote for, or what faith if any we have, or what our hobbies and our interests and our knowledge are? When our time comes and we stand before God, he will not love us because of the football team we support, or the party we vote for, or the clothes we wear. Because we trust that He knows us at a deeper level than that.

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Recently I decided I needed some of that liminal time. So I was fortunate enough to spend some time on sabbatical, researching the celtic monks that used to live in this area nearly fifteen hundred years ago. The activity that put me most in touch with them, was growing things to eat. Growing things to eat means that you have to spend lots of time not doing very much. It鈥檚 truly liminal time, but it鈥檚 also essential.

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All of that liminal time was prayer to them. Just quiet time with God. They would have prayed when they scattered the wheat seeds, they would have prayed when it rained and when the sun shone, they would have prayed into the fields as they walked them, pulling weeds and mulching the ground. They would have prayed at the harvest and they would have prayed as they threshed the wheat and as they ground it into flour. So by the time that bread got on the table it was as much prayer as it was bread.

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And they would have walked the paths of this country as I do 鈥� perhaps with friends,听 perhaps with that excited chatter that sometimes happens, perhaps in companionable silence, always with God.

When you are up in the hills of the borders, when you鈥檙e walking quietly alongside somebody, you realise something really beautiful.听 The stuff down in the town, the traffic and the noise and the efficiency and the business and the stress and the news 鈥� people think that the silence, the music, the countryside, is an escape, that we鈥檙e running away, 听these are moments of escape from the real world. But the noise is the running away; the bustle, the news, the anxiety and the anger 鈥� that鈥檚 running away from the real world.听 The real world is the one that God creates, in God鈥檚 space and God鈥檚 time.

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And it is in fact what we call liminal, the chatting while we鈥檙e waiting for a service to begin, the tea break in the choir rehearsal, the putting of the chairs back after a meeting, the cleaning and the preparation of vegetables taken from the garden, the silence of a monastery at prayer, the music that we share communally鈥� this is the stuff that matters. This is real life. This is where God breaks through.

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MUSIC: 听VIEW ME, LORD (Composer: Richard Lloyd)
Sung by Quartet

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PRAYERS 鈥� Claire Nicholson, Paul, Katriona, Alastair

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Lord, the heavens tell of your glory and the universe is the work of your hands,

Day and night, sunrise and sunset speak of your beauty in a language that is beyond words.

Help us to understand your language, to know you through the things you have made, to hear your voice in the spaces between sound.

Help us to hear you in sounds that are not words. Help us to hear you in our deepest emotions for which we have no words.

We pray for those whose voices are unheard.
We pray for the places in the world where the messengers of peace are silenced, and the machines of war drown out the still small voice.

We pray for those who have lost loved ones, and who ache to hear their voices again. We ask you, gracious God, to be with them in the noise and in the silence.

And we pray for ourselves, that we may have the courage to perform those small sacraments of love, by feeding those who are hungry, comforting those who mourn, allying ourselves with those who suffer injustice, just as your son did when he walked this earth.

Help us to speak your language 鈥� to communicate your love by caring for one another, by showing compassion.

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MUSIC: ORGAN PLAYS TUNE CLONMACNOISE

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Claire, Paul, Katriona, Alastair;

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Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,

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The Spirit helps us in our weakness; with sighs too deep for words.

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The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

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
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,

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Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

There is no speech, nor are there words;
yet the sound goes out through all the earth

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

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For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

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Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

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PHILIP听 Blessing

Now may the one who is the composer of all things,

The fire of the Spirit,

The life of the creatures,

The spiral of sanctity,

The bond of all nature,

The light of charity,
Be with us and hear us.

And may the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

Be with us and those for whom we pray, now and always. Amen.

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MUSIC:听 I BIND UNTO MYSELF TODAY (St Patrick鈥檚 Breastplate) (Tune: St Patrick)