Relaxing Sunday change

A leisurely late Sunday start this morning, now that there's one service to take in the morning and one in the evening. Ron and Jenny picked me up, so we could share the journey. As Aldea now has a by-pass, the journey was a lot quicker than I remember, so we were an hour early arriving, and had enough time for a coffee in the English run Station Bar, next to L'Ampolla railway station, before getting into gear.

We were late starting as there was a baptism following the parish Mass of the day, so the congregation sat together and chatted in one of the rooms next to the sacristy, until it was time to begin. There were fifteen of us, including Stephen, a visitor from Britain who'd been one of the first lay worship leaders to serve the chaplaincy in its early days. Ten years on, he's as fond of Spain as ever, and has made the walking pilgrimage to Compostella from several different starting points during his summer holiday.

After the service we lunched together in the Azara restaurant overlooking the beach. It wasn't warm enough to sit outside in the sun, but we had a lovely view of the sea. The restaurant was run by an Argentinian/Uruguayan couple, and specialised in charcoal grilled steak dishes. I settled for the lenguado instead. It was preceded by a salad with heaps of meillones (mussels) in a gallego sauce. Most enjoyable, and reasonably priced with wine included - fifteen euros.

Stephen and I travelled back together as he intended going to the Vinaros evening service to meet up with old friends as well. We arrived early at the Fishermen's chapel early. Half the congregation were already there, looking around appreciatively and chatting. There were twenty one of us in the end.

 The chapel acoustics are good for singing, and the liturgical space is very worship friendly. Everyone seemed to enjoy the experience, and there was lots of chatting after the service before people went out into the early evening darkness. A serene and relaxed atmosphere for worship later in the day certainly helped. I do hope that people will keep up their support for this experimental change, which runs for the next three months before review.