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OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT:

It鈥檚 ten past eight, and time now on Radio 4 and 麻豆社 Sounds for Sunday Worship.

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THE DEAN:

In the name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

ALL: Amen.

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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.

ALL: The Lord bless you.

I welcome you warmly to Norwich Cathedral and to our worship this morning as we come to the end of 2023. In this Christmas season we give thanks for the gift of Jesus Christ, who is God with us. And this morning we hear of God鈥檚 blessings through the voices of three women: The Blessed Virgin Mary, who bore Christ into the world; Mary Magdalene, who first proclaimed Jesus鈥� resurrection; and Julian of Norwich, who was blessed with revelations of Jesus Christ in this city 650 years ago.

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I鈥檓 Andrew Braddock, Dean of Norwich, and I鈥檓 joined by the Girl Choristers, Lay Clerks and Choral Scholars of the Cathedral Choir who lead our music. We begin our worship singing together 鈥楢ngels from the realms of glory鈥�.

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HYMN: Angels from the realms of glory (Iris)

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THE DEAN:

Julian of Norwich was a mystic who lived in a cell (a small, enclosed room) attached to St Julian鈥檚 Church here in Norwich. This year we have celebrated the 650th anniversary of her receiving visions and revelations of Jesus. Her work is thought to be the earliest surviving book by a woman in English. The prayer that follows picks up the themes of her life.

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Let us pray.

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Most holy God, the ground of our beseeching,
who through your servant Julian
revealed the wonders of your love:
grant that as we are created in your nature
and restored by your grace,
our wills may be made one with yours,
that we may come to see you face to face
and gaze on you for ever;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Throughout history people have discovered God鈥檚 presence near them in many different ways. The Bible gives us numerous stories of angels as God鈥檚 messengers. We joined in the angels鈥� song in our opening hymn and now, in a setting of the Magnificat by Charles Villiers Stanford, we hear of The Blessed Virgin Mary鈥檚 response to being asked to bear God鈥檚 Son into the world.

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CHOIR: MAGNIFICAT in G by Stanford

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THE DEAN:

At this point in the year this Cathedral is dark when we gather for Morning Prayer. We wait quietly for the sun to rise on the new day, seeking the light of Christ in our life and work. On this First Sunday of Christmas we embrace hope and celebrate the light of Christ. We hold together both the vulnerable baby in the manger whose journey to the cross we already know of; and as on every Sunday we celebrate the hope of the resurrection. We hear again now of Mary Magdalene鈥檚 encounter the with angels and the risen Christ at the tomb, in the account from St John鈥檚 gospel.

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READING: 听John 20. 11-18

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NARRATOR:听听听

Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her,

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ANGELS:

鈥淲oman, why are you weeping?鈥�

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NARRATOR:

She said to them,

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MARY:

鈥淭hey have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.鈥�

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NARRATOR:

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her,

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JESUS:

鈥淲oman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?鈥�

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NARRATOR:

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him,

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MARY:

鈥淪ir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.鈥�

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NARRATOR:

Jesus said to her,

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JESUS:

鈥淢补谤测!鈥�

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NARRATOR:

She turned and said to him in Hebrew,

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MARY:

"Rabbouni!"

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NARRATOR:

(which means Teacher). Jesus said to her,

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JESUS:

鈥淒o not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 鈥業 am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.鈥� 鈥�

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NARRATOR:

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,

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MARY:

鈥淚 have seen the Lord鈥�;

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NARRATOR:

and she told them that Jesus had said these things to her.

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THE DEAN:

It was in Mary Magdalene鈥檚 sorrow that Christ the light came to her. Julian of Norwich reminds us that sometimes it is 鈥榓t the end of sorrow that our eye shall be opened鈥�. The Girls of the Cathedral Choir, accompanied by harpist Elizabeth Green, will now sing a setting of those words in the motet Our endless day by Hilary Campbell, following which we will hear from our preacher, The Bishop of Norwich, The Right Revered Graham Usher.

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MOTET: Our endless day (Hilary Campbell)

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THE BISHOP OF NORWICH:

At this time of year, the sunrises and sunsets in Norfolk and Waveney can be spectacular. In this diocese you can see the sun rise in the most easterly point over the sea at Lowestoft, and set over the sea in the west as you look out across the Wash. At dawn, in the north of the county, pink feet geese rise from their roosting grounds and fly in great ribbons to feed on inland fields, adding the soundtrack of a thousand wings to the panoply of colour in the sky.

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As I return home from morning prayer, here in the cathedral, my garden is often bathed in the warmth of pink light. In my imagination I am taken to that other garden, the scene on the first Easter morning, which we heard of in our reading earlier. Dawn鈥檚 light comes into the garden of Resurrection.

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Gardens are important as we turn the pages of scripture. God creates a garden in which Adam and Eve are to make a home. God walks in that same garden in the cool of the evening breeze. Jesus prayed and agonized in the garden of Gethsemane. And he was laid to rest in a new tomb in a garden, wrapped in grave clothes smelling of sweet plant oils, just as years before he had been laid in a manger wrapped in swaddling bands smelling of new birth.

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An angel had called his mother by name. Angels had announced his birth. An angel had told his father to gather up his family and go to Egypt for safety.

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Now in the garden of resurrection, angels wait attentively. They wait listening in the tomb as Mary Magdalene arrives.

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For that is the task of angels. They listen and name, announce and send.

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But then in this garden, it is Jesus who takes on these roles. He waits attentively listening to Mary Magdalene. It is Jesus who calls her by name. He announces his risen presence to her. And he sends her off, not to flee in fear, but to go and tell.

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Until Jesus calls her by her name, Mary Magdalene presumes she is speaking to the gardener, walking not in the evening breeze, but at dawn.

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In Julian of Norwich鈥檚 Fourteenth Revelation we see a parable unfold about a Lord and a servant who was, in his humanity, Adam, and in his divinity, Jesus. He was sent to garden in the soil of our humanity 鈥� sweating, digging, turning up the earth, and watering the plants.

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Julian recognizes that the Lord God breathes life into our souls, while Jesus tends and plants the seeds of faith, hope, and love in each human being to flourish as a garden. If we help nurture the garden, it will live and grow with a gentle confidence. And with faith in Jesus, we will be able to see that despite the evil in our midst we will be able to see, that as Julian said, 鈥渁ll shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well鈥�.

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Pope Francis wrote earlier this year regarding these words of Julian, 鈥淚 pray that all who face the pressing challenges of war, injustice, ecological disaster or spiritual poverty, may be consoled and strengthened by these enduring words of wisdom.鈥�

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For Julian lived in a time of deep concern herself. Plague and war stalked Europe. It was a time of political instability. Death was all around her during successive waves of pandemic. Yet, through all this Julian held out hope, precisely because Jesus is one of us and transformed Adam鈥檚 fall into glory.

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As we turn the page of the year tonight, we are much in need of Julian鈥檚 gentle confidence being sown into our lives so that hope might grow in our families, our communities, our nation and world.

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That gentle confidence seems to have come from her life as an anchorite. A life waiting with the angels, attentively listening for Jesus鈥� voice in the garden of our lives.

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I suggest we hear his voice on the lips of those about whom Mary sings her exuberant Magnificat: the Godly awestruck, the humble, the lowly, the hungry.

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Julian鈥檚 ministry of spiritual counsel and encouragement included such people who were drawn to her cell鈥檚 window onto the world. Why? Because they instinctively knew that God had given Julian a glimpse through a window into heaven. For them, she had slowly taken on the voice of Jesus, and they listened attentively to what she had to say, and she to them.

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Tonight, the sun sets on 2023. In the morning a new year will dawn as pink feet geese fly inland from their marshland party. Some of us will nurse hangovers and will half-remember resolutions. The year turns, and Julian continues to teach us to listen. What, I wonder, might God be wanting to say to each one of us in this coming season?

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HYMN: I heard the voice of Jesus say (Kingsfold)

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THE DEAN:

We bring our prayers before God this morning, praying for God鈥檚 beautiful creation, and for all those whose lives are darkened by pain and sorrow. In this week when we have kept the feast of the Holy Innocents, we remember all who have suffered in innocence and those who in our own time suffer with no defence.

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Let us pray.

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CHORISTER 1:

For our troubled and distracted world.

For those who have no place to call home,

for refugees, for prisoners, for the lost and the weary,

and for those who feel no love.

Lord, in your mercy

Hear our prayer.

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CHORISTER 2:

For this year at its ebb and for all that has been good;

for those moments when we have glimpsed God鈥檚 glory in the world and the people around us; bringing before God our hopes and dreams and plans for the year ahead.

Lord, in your mercy

Hear our prayer.

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CHORISTER 3:

For those who have gone before us in the faith and whose prayers continue to sustain us in our daily life;

for Julian of Norwich

that their closeness with Christ may inspire us,

and that we may meet Jesus in word and sacrament.

Lord, in your mercy

Hear our prayer.

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ALL:

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.

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THE DEAN:

Approaching the west front of this Cathedral, two stone figures challenge the pilgrim. St Benedict on one side with his finger to his lips, not to urge silence, but to remind the pilgrim and visitor to listen.

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On the other side stands Julian of Norwich, clutching a copy of her book 鈥楻evelations of Divine Love鈥�. Only a few hundred yards from here is the Shrine Church of St Julian where Julian devoted much her life to listening. There, she heard the Lord speak to her and she wrote down messages that the world still needs to hear 鈥� that there is no short cut from pain 鈥� that God in Christ knows our suffering, but also that the meaning of everything that God gives is love.

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Despite the darkness and difficulty of the world, as St John鈥檚 gospel reminds us each Christmas, God has loved us continually from the beginning of time.

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Fr Richard Stanton, Priest Administrator of the Julian Shrine reads from Chapter eighty six of Revelations of Divine Love.

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FR RICHARD: READING: from Chapter 86 of Revelations of Divine Love

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I often desired to see clearly what our Lord meant鈥�I was answered in my spiritual understanding when I heard a voice: 鈥楧o you wish to see clearly what your Lord means in this? Know it well: love was his meaning. Who shewed it you? Love, What did he shew you? Love. Why did he shew it? For love. Hold on to this and you will learn and understand even more about love. And so I was taught that love was our Lord鈥檚 meaning. And I saw with utter certainty that before God made us he loved us; and this love has never failed, nor ever shall.

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MOTET: A prayer of Julian of Norwich (Carson Cooman)

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THE DEAN:

We stand at the ebb of the year, looking forward toward new opportunities. Our final hymn is a hymn of hope and commitment as we acknowledge the frailty of our human condition and recognise the light of Christ within each of us.

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HYMN: Longing for Light (Christ be our light)

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THE BISHOP OF NORWICH:

May Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one things earthly and heavenly, fill you with peace and goodwill and make you partakers of the divine nature;

and the blessing of God almighty,

the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,

be upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

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ANTHEM: Wolcom Yole (Britten)

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VOLUNTARY: In dir ist Freude BWV 615 (Bach)

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CLOSING ANNOUNCEMENT:

Bach鈥檚 Chorale Prelude 鈥業n Thee is gladness鈥�, bringing to a close Sunday Worship which was recorded in Norwich Cathedral. The service was led by the Dean, The Very Reverend Andrew Braddock, and the preacher was the Bishop of Norwich, The Right Reverend Graham Usher. The Master of Music was Ashley Grote, the organist Robbie Carroll, the harpist Elizabeth Green, and the producer was Ben Collingwood. In next week鈥檚 Sunday Worship, on the first Sunday of 2024, the Bishop of Manchester and the Reverend Grace Thomas look for hope in the season of Epiphany.