Epiphany Sunday Songs of Praise


Epiphany Sunday

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2,000 years ago, wise men followed a star on a journey to see

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a child who'd been born in a stable.

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It was a journey full of risk and uncertainty.

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But their reward was to witness what we're celebrating here today at

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Blackburn Cathedral - the revelation that God had become one of us.

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Today, I find out what modern astronomy tells us

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about the star the kings followed,

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about the Festival of the Epiphany in the Orthodox Church,

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and the Parable of the Prodigal Son as you've never seen it before.

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Plus, hymns by our congregation

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and performances by Carleen Anderson and Tessera.

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CHEERING

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Well, the turkey's finally been eaten,

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the tinsel and baubles are about to be packed away,

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and all you have left to do is to go back to the shop

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and ask for a refund for Aunt Dorothy's present.

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Christmas may be just about over,

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but the real story is only just beginning.

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We're marking Epiphany,

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the day we celebrate the visit of the kings to the Christ child,

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a scene magnificently depicted in our first hymn.

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People have been studying the night sky for millennia.

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And the wise men are traditionally said to have found

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the infant Jesus by following a star.

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I don't think the Magi were following a star specifically,

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there was no sort of celestial sat nav that was leading them

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by the hand across the deserts,

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through Jerusalem, down to Bethlehem to the specific stable.

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This wasn't required.

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They were told by looking at the heavens that there was going

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to be a new King of the Jews, and, of course, the goings on in

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the heavens also indicated to them when this new king would be born.

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And so, they then followed that message.

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Is there any indications, scientifically,

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that there really was a star?

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If you read the Bible, you're trying now to date the birth of Jesus

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and, of course, this happened after a taxation, you read in Luke, and

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before the death of Herod, you read in Matthew,

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and this gives you a sort of time window between 9 BC and about 4 BC.

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And then you become an astronomer

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and you start looking at the heavens in that time period to see

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if there is anything going on up there

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that might give the Magi a message.

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There was this thing known as a triple conjunction of Jupiter

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and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces,

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so here you have two planets, wandering stars in those days,

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coming together three times in one constellation.

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We also see a bright comet and we see a new star,

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and we see Jupiter getting close to Venus,

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so there are quite a few things that people can argue about.

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So, David, what sort of people were the Magi?

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Well, we think that they were Zoroastrian priests whose job would

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be to help the ruler of the country they lived in interpret what was

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happening in the sky. In essence, they were astrologers.

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Astrologers, not astronomers?

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Well, in those days there was no such thing as astronomy, which is

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trying to understand, in essence, the physics of what's going on up there.

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Yeah. And also the movement of what's going on up there.

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In the past, they were astrologers.

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They were, in those days, convinced that what was happening

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in the heavens did have a direct effect on our lives here on Earth.

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Any ruler worth his salt, in those days,

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would have had some wise men working for him

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so they were helping the ruler decide when to invade another country

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or when to go and pay homage to a new leader and all that sort of thing.

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Is it important that we know the date of Jesus' birth?

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Well, to me as a Christian, the answer to that is no.

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I mean, it's important that Jesus was born, but much more important that he

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was baptised, he ministered and he died on the cross for our sins.

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The word epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning revelation or

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manifestation. We celebrate the kings' visit to Jesus,

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because it was through them

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that Christ was first revealed to the world, but this isn't

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the only Biblical event associated with the festival.

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Jesus' first miracle was at the wedding at Cana

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when he showed his divinity by turning water into wine.

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Mary told Jesus that they'd run out of wine

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and then instructed the servants to do whatever he asked.

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I wonder what it must have been like for Mary all those centuries ago,

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giving birth to a baby who'd be visited by kings

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and then grow up later to perform miracles.

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# What child is this

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# Who lay to rest

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# On Mary's lap is sleeping

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# Whom angels greet with anthems sweet

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# While shepherds watch are keeping

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# This, this is Christ the King

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# Whom shepherds guard and angels sing

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# Haste, haste to bring him, Lord

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# The babe, the son of Mary

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# So bring him incense, gold and myrrh

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# Come peasant king to own him

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# The King of King's salvation brings

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# Let loving hearts enthrone him

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# O raise, raise a song on high

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# The virgin sings a lullaby

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# Joy, joy for Christ is born

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# The babe, the son

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# The holy one

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# The babe, the son of Mary. #

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That we may be worthy to be filled with

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the sanctification as we receive...

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'In Eastern churches, Epiphany is one of the most important

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'feast days, though it's known by another name - Theophany.'

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Let us pray to the Lord.

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'Theophany is celebrated more in the Eastern Church than Christmas,

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'because the beginning of the ministry of Christ,

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'at his baptism, is considered by us

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'to be fundamental to understanding our vocation as Christians.'

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Now, of course, Christmas is important,

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because it's the incarnation of the Word, the birth of Christ,

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but the beginning of his ministry at his baptism, for us,

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is a greater celebration.

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# O, voice of the Father... #

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'In church, on the Feast of Theophany,

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'we have the water in the font and we bless it.

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'We're using a very ancient prayer of a patriarchal Jerusalem,

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'and we insert the cross three times into the water'

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to bless the water and we sing a hymn appropriate for the feast,

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and, after that, the water being blessed is then taken to

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'people's homes and, in that way, people connect themselves to

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'the baptism of Jesus and to the gift of the Holy Spirit.'

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Icons are in important part of the Orthodox Church

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and the Icon of Theophany is particularly special.

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You see the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and Christ in the waters,

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and we see the hand of the Father proclaiming the Word,

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"This is my beloved son."

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It's important to me, cos we see Christ in his baptism,

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the voice of the Father and the Holy Spirit descending on him

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in the form of a dove.

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This reveals to me, and to the whole world, a new life.

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What's the significance of icons?

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Well, as St John of Damascus says, "We paint what we have seen."

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So, now God has taken on human flesh, we can depict him.

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On the one hand, you could say they're important as

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someone would have a picture of their Grandmother

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and love it and adore it

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and kiss their Grandmother who's departed.

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On the other hand, it could be an encounter

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with the eternal, with the divine.

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Do you know who this is?

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It's Archimedes sitting in his bath shouting, "Eureka!"

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as he discovers the law of hydrostatics.

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He had an epiphany, a flash of inspiration, if you like,

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when he suddenly realised

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and developed the mathematical principle that bears his name.

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Today, the word epiphany means sudden insight or realisation,

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just like Archimedes had as he sat in his bath.

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Such moments can occur anywhere.

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Not far from Blackburn Cathedral is the magnificent Pendle Hill.

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Just 40 years after the famous witch trials that took place here,

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a young Christian man named George Fox was walking on Pendle Hill

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when he had what might be described as an epiphany.

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George Fox is arguably the most important founder

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and leader of the early Quaker movement.

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He was born in 1624

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and lived through the turmoil of the English Civil War period.

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Like many people at the time, George Fox was dissatisfied with the

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established church and was seeking a purer form of Christianity.

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He'd already had an epiphany, in a sense.

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He'd come to the conclusion that what mattered was

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focusing on the workings of the Spirit within all people.

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He'd already been travelling around areas of the North Midlands

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and Yorkshire and preaching to people.

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When he came to the Pendle Hill area, he felt the Lord calling him

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to go up on the hill

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and when he got there, he had a particular vision

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of people to be gathered. He was looking to the North, actually,

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and the early Quaker movement really started in that area of the country,

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before it spread out across the whole of England and beyond.

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It's always been important for Quakers to recognise that the

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Spirit is available to all people and, therefore,

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the possibility of an epiphany is always there.

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Quaker worship is very much based on sitting quietly

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and waiting for the Spirit to guide and transform us

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and so, at any moment,

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we might experience an epiphany that completely transforms our lives.

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The three centuries after George Fox's epiphany on Pendle Hill,

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Ray Lovegrove walked into a Quaker meeting one day

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and had an epiphany of his own.

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'When I was a young adolescent,

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'I had the normal kind of problems that adolescents have.

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'I was angry...'

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and didn't know quite where to turn to

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and I'd found an encyclopaedia with religions in it.

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I started looking at them

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and going along every week to see what they're all about.

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I don't think I found Quakers under Q, I think

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I found them under R for Religious Society of Friends and I went along

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and, instantly, there was something different about them.

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"..are striving towards a flourishing, just,

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"and peaceful creation."

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'I started going regularly to Quakers and, eventually,

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'found myself with a copy of George Fox's journal.'

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The most important thing that came through it for me

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was the idea that you had this channel of communication

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within you and all you have to do is give yourself space

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and silence and open that corridor, if you like, to communicate with God.

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I've read lots of other accounts of people having epiphany moments,

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moments when their life's changed

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and Quakers don't generally use the word, but I think it's quite

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suitable to describe the change that that brought around in me.

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Being a Quaker has effected me in all kinds of ways and it's made me

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live as a Quaker really from when I get up in the morning to

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when I go to bed at night.

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I try to live as simple a life as I can.

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I live by growing our own food.

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Most of the things we eat on the table actually

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come from our own garden.

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I also dress very simply.

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I dress in a way that many Quakers do around the world

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and that reinforces to me, "I'm not just a Quaker at a meeting.

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"I'm a Quaker when I'm feeding the chickens.

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"I'm a Quaker when I'm digging the garden.

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"I'm a Quaker when I'm cooking food." And that's important.

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# All to Jesus

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# I surrender

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# All to him I freely give

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# I will ever

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# Love and trust him

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# In his presence

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# Daily live.

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# Ooh...

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# Ahh...

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# To Jesus

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# All to Jesus

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# Ahh...

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# Surrender

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# I surrender all

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# I surrender, I surrender all

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# I surrender all

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# I surrender, I surrender all

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# All...

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# I surrender...

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# I... I surrender...

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# I surrender all

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# Ah...

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# I surrender all

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# I surrender all. #

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Last year, the Diocese of Blackburn hosted some visitors from afar

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and they brought their wisdom with them.

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'The Simply Living Mission Team is a group of young monks and nuns

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'from the Solomon Islands.

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'They've come a long way to share their message

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'and have been accompanied on their journey by Brother Clark Berge.'

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'We live and work in the Solomon Islands in Vanuatu,'

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in the South Pacific, where it's really hot,

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but the people are really warm too.

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THEY CHANT IN OWN LANGUAGE

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'To be a brother or a sister of a religious order is

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'incredibly popular in the Solomon Islands.

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'In the Church of Melanesia there must be, well,

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'just shy of 1,000 and the average age would be 20 to 30.'

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There was an old man...

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Yes! Here I am!

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'The Mission Team's programme includes their unique interpretation

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'of the Parable of the Prodigal Son.'

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..who had two sons.

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Where are you from?

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The island of...Solomon.

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Solomon? Yes!

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My name is Nathaniel Ru.

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And I came from the Solomon Islands.

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I joined the Living Mission Brotherhood,

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um, at the age of 21 years.

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'It is my first time out of my country.

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'I've never met the young white people in my life.'

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We just came to show other people how we live, how we worship,

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and how we do things in Solomon.

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Wow! Great!

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It's for my hat!

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No!

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Wear it on your leg, boy.

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'The Mission is like the Magi that come from the East to visit'

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the baby Jesus.

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We've come from the Solomon Islands to England to show people that

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Christ is in the midst of them and to worship him and to adore him and, in

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a sense, to encourage them in their own life and their own ministry.

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'Being on the Mission is, in a sense, what the Epiphany is about,

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'showing forth the power of the Gospel to the whole world.'

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Like the wise men...

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teach us to seek you by desiring you

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and let us find you in loving you

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within the light of Christ...

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..and the blessing of God Almighty.

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May the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit sustain you in your search.

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Amen.

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ALL: Amen.

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The kings worship the infant Christ and give him gifts of

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gold, frankincense and myrrh. The words of our final hymn suggest

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that we too bow down and worship him,

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not with gold and incense, but with humility and obedience.

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Next week, Bill meets artists inspired by

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the beautiful Holy Island of Lindisfarne,

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and sets the scene for some hearty hymn singing in the ancient

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parish church with its intriguing brand-new stained glass window.

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Plus, music from popular band Iona.

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