Malaga - Maundy Thursday

As I was preparing breakfast this morning, and pouring myself a cup of tea, the handle of the trendy glass bowl kettle broke spontaneously, causing the  bowl to break on the counter and spill scalding water everywhere. Fortunately I avoided injury, but there was a lot of clearing up to do as a result, and for the time being we'll have to use a pan to boil water, Spanish style.

After breakfast, we heard the sound of distant drums. This was puzzling, as all the day's eight processions were due to set out at different times late afternoon. I think that so many clergy and church officers not involved with last minute preparation would be at the Cathedral for the Bishop's Mass of the Chrism. We didn't plan to attend this, but walked to the port instead, to investigate the the sound we'd heard.

Large crowds of people lined the barrier overlooking the Palmeria de las Sorpresas, where a Spanish navy vessel was moored, and the sound of martial music came from the quay below. The ship had arrived earlier from the Spanish colonial enclave of Ceuta in North Africa, with a detachment of Spanish Foreign Legionnaires, assigned to escort the Mena cofradia del Buen Muerte in procession this evening. It was impossible to get more than a passing glimpse of the band as they marched up and down the quay while the ship's commanding officers took the salute from the top deck. Then they marked off at double time through the Alameda over the bridge and off to their local barracks. Thankfully, being tall and benefiting from the camera's telephoto lens meant that later we were able to see on screen what we'd been unable to get more than a glimpse of in situ.

We walked over into the Old Town, and saw crowds of tens of thousands of people, many of them freshly arrived and either looking for a place for lunch, or trying to locate their assigned seats for the first day of the Triduum. As there was nothing more to see, we walked back, had a drink in one of the beach chirungitos that was open, then did some shopping and had lunch.

At seven in the evening, we held our Maundy Thursday Eucharist. Disappointingly only four people turned up. It's important to realise how difficult it is for members of a gathered congregation to get to church when the city's roads and public transport are so disrupted. The important thing is, to make the offer, and remember those who cannot make it.

Clare stayed in and sewed fabric loops on to all the kitchen towels, so that they could hang properly from the hooks provided. A little something to help make the kitchen work better. A new kettle will have to wait until Saturday, when all shops will resume normal trading. I walked to the Cathedral as the sun was setting, and spent a couple of hours there photographing the comings and goings, as part of the huge crowd that had gathered there.

A trona of Maria Desolata, standing at the foot of the cross, after the death of Jesus emerged from the main north door, and then it was closed for the night. A little later the trona of the Last Supper arrived and passed by, moving down the Calle Cister to solemn music, followed by another trona of Our Lady. I followed the latter as far as the Calle Alcazabilla, and then returned to the apartment. I was quite tired from all the exercise of the past five days, and needed some rest before tomorrow, the Great Day Viernes Santo.  You can find today's photos here

Maundy Thursday teamwork

I walked to the Eucharist at St John's this morning, picking up fourteen piece of litter on the way there, and dumping the bag in a litter bin outside Tesco's, nearly making myself late, as this move invovled a diversion. I went not because I'd been asked to officiate, but to take the opportunity to join worship as a member of the congregation, as Fr Phelim was celebrating. There were twice the number of people present compared to the usual Thursday service, which was good, and afterwards Fr Phelim and I were able to talk about his plans for the coming month, his final one in Canton Benefice.

I spent a quiet afternoon at home, preparing a sermon for the evening Mass, and drove St St German's for a half past seven start. There were twenty six of us, including a full serving team of five. The sun had set by the time we came to the Lord's Supper, and this encouraged me to slow down and recite the Eucharistic prayer more reflectively and slowly than usual. I hope people didn't mind. I noticed that the congregation still said the Lord's Prayer at the habitual brisk pace. It's not easy for a whole community to slow down together and think about the words. Maybe it takes years. I know how quickly I can speed up on some occasions.

The Lady Chapel was bedecked with greenery and flowers for the Vigil which followed. A friend of Fr Roy's who is a trainee florist had volunteered to do floral arrangements to cover the Triduum, and had paid for them as well. They looked magnificent, and will look great in the sunlight on Easter morning - please let there be sunlight, lots of it! After the singing of Pange Lingua during the procession with the Blessed Sacrament to the altar of repose, I said a few appropriate devotional interspersed with Taize chants, which it seems quite a few members of the congregation are familiar with, though not all, as it ever was. 

I discovered that I was redundant when it came to the stripping of the altars. The servers just got on and did it with quiet devout efficiency, and summoned me discretely to join them for the concluding closure of the doors of the high altar reredos, prodding them doors shut using a long up-ended candle snuffer. I cannot ever remember a Maundy Thursday when I haven't been obliged to give the lead in stripping the altars, or do it all myself. The history of sacred team work in St German's goes back many decades, and makes it so easy, indeed luxurious for any priest to work with. It's something I remember when I work, so often nearly on my own when I'm abroad.

Home, the relax for an hour with a TV programme, then start on a Good Friday sermon for the Liturgy of the Passion tomorrow afternoon. Thankfully it came together easily, though I would have preferred to finish and go to bed earlier.

  

Prayer Book reminiscences

This morning I celebrated the Maundy Thursday Eucharist at St John's Canton for a dozen people, thus setting the Parish clergy free to attend the Bishop's Chrism Mass at the Cathedral. This is an important occasion in the year for bonding between the bishops and their full time clerics, I'm happy to support them in this way, plus I get to use the 1984 Church in Wales equivalent of the Book of Common Prayer, the substance of which dates back to revision which began in 1966, just before I entered St Mike's. It's the traditional element of worship that defined my generation, one we moved away from in successive modernising revisions and return to for a sense of continuity. After a lifetime advocating modernisation and liturgical renewal, I still know it off by heart and enjoy being leading a congregation which is still at home with it.

As a student we studied the English Book of Common Prayer, the 'Urtext' of Anglicanism, translated first into Welsh in 1567. I got to use it once or twice a month in English for the first time after becoming priest in charge of St Paul with St Barnabas in Bristol in 1978. The other churches in the St Paul's area were already into modernising liturgical innovation when I arrived there, Advent 1975. Once I became Team Rector of Halesowen in 1989, I learned it by heart, having to use it weekly at the eight o'clock Communion, and other occasions. The classic register of liturgical English is as familiar to me as the modern. Likewise the language of the first post-Vatican II Missal of the Roman Church, from my days in an ecumenical university chaplaincy team over forty years ago. So many good experiences to give thanks for.

After lunch at home, I went into the office for a while before making my way on foot again over to St Germans for the evening Eucharist of the Lord's Supper. Having preached four times this week so far, ad extempore, I thought that I'd at least prepare some notes to contain my homily safely. After working on this for a quarter of an hour, MS Word crashed on me and the document eluded recovery - such an unusual occurrence, and I will read nothing into it - so I had to extend my extemporising run, although this was a little easier as I had done this in the morning Eucharist also. It's funny, I'm unused to feeling quite so unsafe when preaching. Trouble is, I'm far too used to vetting my own work before delivery.

The Eucharist was conducted with a full team of servers and catholic solemnity, with the sacrament in a monstrance for adoration for the Watch of the Passion at the end. This something I know is customary in some places, though not universally practised. It's certainly the first time I've ever had to do it, and I'm none the worse for that, although I felt tired afterwards, and left the others to set things straight after the stripping of the altars, and went straight home.