Planning mishap

Last Thursday, we learned through a third party with local ecumenism at heart, that the Almuñecár Catholic parish council had take a decision to re-arrange service times to meet increased holiday season demand by an hour earlier start at the Fishermen's chapel Anglicans use, without considering the impact, or consulting us. The arrangement was made while the new parish priest was on holiday. But there's no guarantee that if he'd been there to question the change, he'd have remembered an arrangement that's been in place for the past twenty years, simply because he's new and not yet fully familiar with parish commitments. 

Así es la vida! Committees, like individuals, suffer from amnesia when there is no reason to recall the full facts on the ground. For a number of years there have been no Almuñecár services in August, but this year, it's July and August, with just a few days warning to allow us to avoid an embarrassing encounter at our usual time of meeting for worship. There wasn't enough time to do anything else. In due course, suitably dignified representations will be exchanged between church hierarchies to review and restore the status quo, but in the meanwhile, all that's possible is contacting Almuñecár church members to let them know what's happened and re-direct them to the noon service at Nerja. 

This is what happens when there's little or no social contact between the indigenous church and the linguistic religious minority groups that benefit from local parish hospitality. There are perhaps many points of contact between expats and their Spanish neighbours, but few of a religious nature, along which concerns of this nature might naturally flow. If it wasn't for the kind efforts of one Catholic expat of good will towards non-Catholic compatriates, there might have been a very awkward start to this Sunday's round of services.

My mind rolled back on similar situations thirty years ago, when a couple of the churches in the Saint Paul's Area Team Minstry in Bristol, which I led at that time, hosted black pentecostal congregations, either for occasional or regular services. They were appreciative, trustworthy, and left everything the way they found it - what more could one ask? But, every now and then, there'd be a special occasion when we'd need to use a church at a time when the other congregation would be booked in, and we'd forget ... There was plenty of mutual good-will, and we'd survive the awkward moment, but yet again there was little natural social contact between our congregations, and amnesia took over. Things like this will happen from now until the Second Coming because Church is a community of communities, still learning the real demands of that unity which Christ came to reveal.

So, this morning, no early trip to Almuñecár for a Eucharist. I enjoyed being able to walk to church after a relaxed late start, to find many of the Almuñecár regulars had arrived for the service. It was an occasion to commission several new Assistant Ministers of the Eucharist - entirely suitable that this should be done at an united chaplaincy service, by accident if not design.