Extract from a sermon by the Dean on the First Sunday in Creation: Ocean Sunday (1 September 2019):
On this first Sunday of Creation we pause and reflect on the ocean, where all life began. We appreciate our intimate connection with oceans, seas, lake and rivers. And we reflect that our own lives took form in the secret ocean of our mother’s uterus. Before the waters broke.
When we stand on the seashore and watch the immense ocean flowing up to our feet, we are in a sacred space; just as when we hold a new-born baby in our arms. On the edge of mystery. On the edge of the deep.
For those of us who are fathers, we are conscious of being in a line that stretches back into the distant past and beyond us into our children and their children.
Our fathers and grandfathers held us in their arms as our life began, and we gently place their remains in the ground after their lives have ended.
The web of life. We are all connected. We are all one.
All this and more is swirling around us today as we celebrate Ocean Sunday.
The full text of this sermon together with video may be found online.