Remembrance Sunday

The Ermita de San Pascual de Baylon was full to overflowing for this morning's Eucharist with act of Remembrance, altogether about a hundred people. We started at 10.45, and reached the appointed hour just as we finished singing Abide with Me before the Gospel reading. I'd have been less tense if we'd had a shorter hymn at that point, as singing it in full can drag and lose a minute or two, causing some old soldiers to inspect their watches.

As a locum priest, you take things as you find them. Left to my own devices I wouldn't have integrated the Act of Remembrance into the Eucharistic Ministry of the Word, but kept it as a stand-alone ceremony before Mass, as a number of people turn up for the ceremony and leave straight after, rather than stay for the full service. In fact, that was what I'd expected, or forgotten from last year! Presented with a printed order of service minutes beforehand, I had think on my feet too quickly for comfort. And, it didn't help that I'd slept badly and didn't feel as if I was on my best form. Anyway, by the time I preached, the adrenalin generated by an audience started working its magic.

At the end of the service, Val the Treasurer came to the front and read the formal announcement of the name of the coming new Chaplain, Canon Vincent Oram, currently working in St Alban's diocese, although his ministry began in the Anglican Province of the Church of South Africa, back in the time of apartheid. He's been in rural ministry there and in UK, and won't have any problem adjusting to a ministry involving long drive times for himself and his several flocks. It was for me a satisfying thing to be here when the announcement was made, having met him briefly just after I arrived for duty. I may never pass this way again, and look at my many photo albums of the region with nostalgia, but to have been here to help prepare the way for his arrival is a pleasure of its own.

I joined sixty members of the RBL Branch for lunch at the Bella Vista restaurant after church, but nearly came un-stuck. I arrived at the restaurant, same one as last year, thinking I was only just about on time, and the place was empty apart from three waiters waiting for something to happen. I could see no welcome to the RBL panel in the foyer, and thought I'd made a mistake about the venue. I was too dumbstruck to enquire, went back to the car and tried calling the organiser to check what I'd done wrong. No answer. So, I drove back to the apartment, unable to figure out what Id done wrong. Half an hour later, my call was returned. I was at the right venue, only half an hour early! If there were any diners present, or organisers, they were in a back bar, and not making any noise. I felt such a fool, but jumped in the car, and returned, saying Grace only ten minutes later than proposed. What an idiot!

After an enjoyable meal in pleasant company, I made my excuses and left, to be sure I was ready on time for the drive to Aljambra for Evensong. As I made my way up the Almanzora Valley, the setting sun was just above the horizon, right in my eyes, and slowing me down somewhat, but I was there a quarter of an hour before time, just enough to get organised with Duncan leading the office, and me preaching and baptizing. There were thirty of us present, almost full, and baby Tallia Sophia's three siblings were there taking part, along with parents, godparents and friends. It was a delightful finale to my Aljambra sojourn, and there were some warm and kind words of farewell to send me off into the night, back to base in Mojácar after an eventful day.

 

Liturgical karaoke

A warm and bright Sunday for the twenty minute drive to the Ermita de San Pascual de Baylon to celebrate the Eucharist and preach for a congregation of four dozen. We had no organist, but for the first time a new digital hymn reproduction system to use. I would have preferred to lead singing unaccompanied, being aware of the many pitfalls of recorded music, but agreed to go along with the proposal, having made a few adjustments to some hymn settings before we began. I guess people have to learn for themselves the challenge they take on, when they let themselves be led by a machine, however thoughtfully designed.

Instead of an organist accompanying a congregation, and adjusting to the variable pace of singing, a congregation must follow the music if they can. One can vary the speed and the pitch on modern equipment, use a musical introduction or not, but it's not straightforward. It works best with simple metrical hymns. Anything syncopated is a nightmare. In any singing group, people will have different ideas of rhythm and phrasing. Singing together coherently in a congregation can be learned with even modest musical leadership. Doing so from scratch, as happened this morning, was a hit and miss affair. Singing together with recorded music needs to be taught. It doesn't help if the music isn't audible to singers at the back. Operating the device, and how adjustments can be made to fit the natural pace of the congregation needs to be learned. It's not the quick easy solution I imagine it's marketed to be. But, with good will and good humour, we survived.

After lunch and a siesta, I walked along the coast road, eight kilometres to Garrucha and back. I needed the exercise after several days of relative inertia. On the way out from the charco bridge, I saw three egrets, two more than last Tuesday's sighting. I wonder if more will return, or if this is a stray family separated from the huge flock which was roosting here at night this time last year? 

I enjoyed the convivial buzz of people out walking along the Paseo de Malecon, as the sun was setting. It's a more compact town than Mojácar, and the walk along the sea front promenade is the most natural one to take for socialising during the paseo. 

Worship travels

I woke up yesterday morning conscious that a chest cold was developing. Whether it's a late development of the bug that laid Clare low last week, or a bug picked up on the journey here is anyone's guess. The roads were almost empty as I drove the twenty minute journey to the Capilla de San Pascual de Baylon to celebrate the Eucharist there were over sixty of us present. I was glad the Chaplaincy's resident retired Church Army Captain Edwin Bates was there to assist on my first Sunday back here since this time last year. 

After stopping off for a drink with half a dozen fellow worshippers on the way back to the apartment, it was half past two by the time I was cooking lunch. Then I had an hour to prepare another sermon for Evensong, before setting off on the forty five minute journey to the Almanzora Valley to Aljambra, where there were fifteen of us for the service. Instead of going out for supper with members of the congregation at a favourite Chinese restaurant, I decided to head back to Mojacar and bed, as the effects of the developing cold became more apparent.

Sure enough I woke up with a miserable cough, and though it took me a while to get going, I knew I would be able to cope with another drive up the Almanzora Valley to Arboleas Thanatorium for the funeral at midday, this time a forty minute journey. There were about thirty mourners there, many of them from the neighbourhood where all had bought homes and settled in retirement back in the early nineties. Afterwards, the hearse drove the coffin to a crematorium on a separate site elsewhere. Mourners stood outside, and gave a round of applause as it went past them.

On the way back, I stopped at a hardware superstore in Los Galliardos and bought a small saucepan, one of the few essentials lacking in the apartment kitchen. Then, the week's main grocery shopping at Lidl's in Garrucha, before returning to the apartment to lie low for the rest of the afternoon. I did go out later in the evening, in search of something to take for my cold, and decided to try thyme tea, a herbal remedy much used in France apparently. It has a distinctive taste and a wonderful aroma. I hope it makes a difference, or I'll have to move on to something stronger. At least the 4km walk in the dark warm evening air (21C), didn't make me feel worse. We'll see what tomorrow brings.