To Bristol Airport yesterday afternoon, for an evening flight to Malaga. My former colleague from the Halesowen Team Ministry, Fr Geoff Johnston is now pastoring the congregations of Nerja and Almunecar at the northern end of the Costa del Sol. I'll be standing in for him while he and his wife go on leave. We met up in the airport arrivals area, and were driven the 50km journey back to Nerja in darkness, which was really tantalising as this part of the world is terra incognita to us.
It was half past two by the time we got to bed, and were awoken by a big thunderstorm and rain just after dawn. The weather front was going east, however, and the rest of the day was beautifully sunny. After a late breakfast we went into Nerja old town, and lunched on the renowned 'Balcon de Europe', a promontory, once part of a military fortress transformed into a palm tree lined promenade with stunning coastal views. Photos can be found here
Late afternoon I was shown the local Catholic Parish Church of San Miguel, where Anglican Sunday services take place at noon. This dates from the early seventies, a building project in a poor barrio undertaken by a parish priest who made it his life's work. It's quite a plain building, with only one large crucifix and a couple of large statues. No stations of the cross or votice candle stands, a simple open confessional station was the only adornment of the nave apart from congregational benches, almost protestant in its simplicity, and quite fitting for churhc sharing with the Anglicans.
We were there for a wedding blessing. A Dutch couple with two children, on holiday, wanting more than just the bare civil ceremony to mark their life commitment to each other, following whatever journeys both had made before they found each other. With the organist, Fr Geoff and one of his churchwardens, I was the only congregation in this barn of a church that seats four hundred. On their way to the altar, I was entrusted with a digital camera, and took photographs of the occasion - less than easy, as I had never handled a Samsung digicam before, and had to figure out by trial and error how to switch off flash and get the telephoto lens to work without instructions. Fortunately, I'd got it right be the time they reached the vows, and was able to give them back a decent record of their Big Moment.
Blessings of civil weddings, whether in church or in hotels or restaurants are part and parcel of life for an English speaking priest of any denomination. A romantic wedding in a beautiful location all prepared as a package deal by a 'wedding arranger' is a commodity marketed these days to aspiring couples with plenty of spare cash. While we were having lunch, one professional 'wedding arranger' passed by and stopped to say Hello to Fr Geoff. This was timely, as she's arranging a wedding I'll be blessing on a restaurant terrace during my stay here.
Apparently the civil administration of Nerja has obliged to the Parish of el Salvador to restrict the number of weddings it does in any week in the church adjacent to the Balcon de Europe, as it can't keep up with the paperwork required for couples flying in for a combined wedding and honeymoon package deal. Curiously enough, the largest number of couples come from Ireland. Are they escaping from the weather? Or from clergy reputed for narrowness as well as disrepute arising from the actions of an abusive minority?
I find it amazing, the extent to which people are still prepared to trust clergy to play a significant and intimate role at an crucial moment in their lives, particularly when they are strangers in in a foreign land. And for me that's what makes expatriate pastoral ministry a special privilege, if anyone is willing to make the journey.
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