A lovely warm spring day with lots to do, a Last Supper celebration and sermon to prepare for this evening and a service of readings for the Vigil of the Passion occupying most of the day apart from exercise and domestic tasks. But there was one extra special thing to fit in during the morning. The Bishop's team arranged a special diocesan liturgy making use of the Zoom app, for clergy and lay readers to re-dedicate themselves to ministerial service. Normally, this is tacked on to the Chrism Eucharist at which the diocesan holy oils are blessed, but this service has been postponed until it is possible to hold it during a Synod gathering, for which no plans can be made at the moment.
I have never been keen about the 'modern' (ie 1970s) addition of the renewal of ministerial commitments to the ancient Chrism Liturgy, dating back to the fourth century, and have usually been committed to taking a morning service, and thus unable to attend anyway. In this exceptional circumstances, I felt that I wanted to join in, and was very glad that I did. The Zoom service had 162 participants from over forty countries, with varying bandwidth capacities, some only able to be present on audio.
It was good to see the faces of many people I only know the names for from using the diocesan prayer list daily, including Robert Donkin, retired like me from Llandaff diocese, now in a coastal town by Murcia's Mar Menor. Bishop David Hamid preached a superb relevant sermon for the occasion. I came away feeling inspired and encouraged. It helped me maintain my creative flow in producing necessary extra worship material for today. Thankfully I've escaped writer's block so far.
It did mean, however that I finished my daily walk after sunset, when it gets quite chilly. This was a bit of an effort but nevertheless worthwhile. Britain is now contemplating the possibility of a longer lock-down deaths and infections may not be on the Spanish scale, but they have yet to reach their presumed peak. Spain's rates are frightfully high but the rate of increase shows signs of slowing. We all have to be thankful for small mercies.
Roy talks about coming over to visit me by ferry from Denia when the State of Alarm is lifted, but I wonder how long it will be before they are useable again by the public? If so that could be a return route for me to take if there flights are slow being re-established. Ibiza Denia, Alicante, Elche, Parkway and an assortment of trains back to UK. Maybe. I'm not holding my breath on this one.
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