This Sunday, the last in Trinity, or Bible Sunday, or Church Dedication Sunday, take your pick. After a good ten hours slumber, I drove out to celebrate the Eucharist with the Llanos congregation, fifty odd people, as I wasn't surprised that there was confusion around the choice of readings that were intended for use, due to a last minute change, not in my control.
The Revised Common Lectionary as authorised by the Church of England, and broadcasted by its marvellous web app, provides for all three of options for use on this day. Making the decision and informing others about which set of readings to use is not straightforward. It relies on everyone getting and reading emails in the event of any changes occurring between different congregations and preachers. The complexity of the lectionary doesn't help everyone to keep up to speed.
We're already messed about too much by having Continuous and Related streams of Old Testament readings to decide upon, let alone completely different sets of readings to choose from. It makes me long for earlier times and simpler schemes, much as I rejoice at the variety of scripture to reflect and preach on in the course of the year. Tolerance of so many choices speaks of committees unable to agree a clear set of objectives for each learning event for given Sundays of the year. The power politics of old fashioned churchmanship seems to be there somewhere in the background, plus we also have to cope with more Sundays designated as days of prayer showcasing special church social and missionary concerns.
Do we need all this as a given of arranging liturgy? Are our ecclesial overlords experimenting with a 'Let the market decide' long term strategy? Given that next Sunday could be observed as Reformation Sunday, given that Tuesday is the 500th anniversary of Luther's 95 Theses, perhaps it isn't such a bad time to ask the question. We've had forty years of liturgical enrichment on top of earlier reforms, so the basic regular diet of worship is now more complex than it need be, just as it was in pre-reformation times, occasioning radical revision and creative innovation.
After church, I drove back, making a deviation to discover the town of Huercal Overa, in the sierras to the east of the A7 autovia, near the provincial border with Murcia. It's a town that sprawls over a plateau overlooking the Almanzora valley, having outgrown its ancient centre. I didn't find much there to encourage me to explore in detail, so I was soon heading back to Mojácar for lunch.
Later in the afternoon, I drove over to Villaricos, and discovered a large lake situated to the north and west of the watercourse of the rio Almanzora. Back in history, this might have been an ox-bow lake, but there is what looks like a 25m high spoil heap offshore, suggesting that in times past it had been quarried for gravel. But no longer. The westernmost end is elevated, and water gives way to salt flats, with all the interesting wildlife this harbours. The shallower end to the east hosts a variety of aquatic wildfowl, ducks, herons and egrets, even a grey coloured flamingo, a fairly recent arrival following storms. Grey coloured, because the local ecosysten doesn't contain the tiny shrimps which form the flamingo staple diet, and afford the unique colouration of its plumage. I was there too early to see returning hosts of egrets returning to roost I was told of yesterday . The ones I snapped on lake islands were those with no need to commute to feed for whatever reason, I guess.
From there, I drove to Vera Playa, parked the car and walked a couple of kilometres along the beach to Laguna Pueblo, where the rio Almanzora becomes a somewhat larger charco than the one in Mojácar, where it reaches the sea, extending back a couple of kilometres inland, surrounded by tall reed beds full of watland birds of every kind. Another amazing place, not far from Mojácar! The sun was starting to set when I reached here, so there wasn't much time to explore. So glad to have discovered it, however. I will return.
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