Surviving humidity

Clare came into town and joined us for the midweek Eucharist at the Church shop yesterday morning. It was so hot and humid that apart from some minimal necesssary food shopping we had no alternative apart from heading back to Church house, and finding our way to the swimming pool to cool down. I find these high humidity days very taxing. It's so unlike anything I'm used to that I can't decide whether I'm, feeling well or not - most confusing.

Today was spent getting ready for an afternoon wedding blessing at the Maro's parish church, which is dedicated to Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas, our Lady of Wonders. It's a lovely building, dating in present form from the sixteenth century, but architecturally resembling an earlier simple gothic style not uncommon in English churches. I still don't know quite how I managed to prepare a sermon and then leave it behind, but that's what happened. I was able to improvise easily but this made it more difficult to connect with the order of service, so I missed out a hymn accidentally, but managed to include it at the end, actually in a more suitable place for binding the service together. 

If something happens unexepectedly like this, I end up flying by the seat of my pants to make sure it ends up the way it's meant to be. I always feel bad about this, but my eye has to stay fixed on making sure that the whole service pivots around the making of vows and prayers of blessing, whatever the expectations imposed on the celebration during its planning. I'd rather everything went according to plan as I feel safer about this, but rarely is an event involving so many uncertainites error free. On this occasion, musicians, two guitarists engaged to play music for the entrance and exit arrived just a few minutes before the bride appeared with her father and bridesmaids in a horse drawn carriage. 

They hardly had time to tune up before the entry, but they coped well, and responded to my ad lib request to play some music to reflect by, after the nuptial benediction and before the intercessions. Getting celebrations of this nature to work so everyone feels blessed is nothing short of an art. Youngsters from a local Spanish dance school performed for guests on the terrace opposite the church after the ceremony, while they sipped Cava. The group had to adapt and create a performance space in the open air where they could hear their musical accompaniment delivered from a laptop. Not easy, but it's marvellous how we rise to the challenge of a special occasion. For visitors from the UK, several dozens of them, this was a special complement to a service held in a most memorable setting.

I didn't stay around for long afterwards. Leading the celebration in such heat left me exhausted and in need of rest and sustenance. Later in the evening, when it had cooled down somewhat, we went down to El Moreno beach restaurant on the Playa Burriana promenade for a seafood supper. Coincidentally, while we ate, three Spanish dancers performed in the restaurant for the benefit of diners. I wonder how they all cope with the heat?