Busy Ash Wednesday

A beautiful day with sunshine, clear sky, no wind, and the temperature hovering around 20C. I rose early and sang a birthday greeting to Rhiannon on WhatsApp before getting up for breakfast. It turns out that it's also Mother Frances' birthday, and that of Craig, one of St Andrew's 'swallows' who has served me at the altar since I found out he's from the Black Country Anglo-Catholic Parish of Kingswinford, not far from Halesowen where I was Team Rector in the eighties.

Then I walked to St Andrews to celebrate the Eucharist of the day. Father William joined me, assisting at the altar and reading the Gospel. There were twenty one of us. The first Lenten bible study was scheduled for a time after people got their coffee and cake, and caught up with their friends. I distributed all the study sheets Caroline had photocopied for me, but only two people were able to stay on to discuss Psalm 51 with me. Nevertheless, it was a lively and interesting discussion for three quarters of an hour. 

I wonder if a Wednesday morning is really the best time for this, or if there is a viable alternative time. Maybe people are actually happier with reading the study material for themselves, especially as my weekly homily serves as an introduction to the session. We'll see how it develops from here.

I  was late cooking and eating lunch when I returned, but still had some time to work on Sunday's sermon before driving up to Alhaurin for the second service of the day at six, for which there were eleven of us. We sat on benches arranged in a semi-circle in front of the altar. It works nicely for a small number of people. The microphone that's needed when there's a much larger congregation had to be disconnected as the connecting cable's insulation had fractured, leaving the device intermittently making a loud distracting buzz. Just as well we didn't need it.

The sun had just set as I drove down the switchback of a mountain highway back to Fuengirola on a forty minute slow journey, not just thanks to speed limits but my own caution. I had forgotten quite what a steep and winding road this is. It will take several more trips up and down the mountain. Alhaurin el Grande is a thousand feet above sea level. By the time you reach Mijas Golf course on the maritime plain, to follow the rio Fuengirola to the coast, your ears are popping. I was quite tired when I reached the house, just in time for the Archers and supper, and needed a half hour's walk afterwards to stretch my legs and clear my head. 

Ashley called as I was setting out and we chatted as I strolled. Then I called Clare and found she was still chatting with people at St Luke's where she'd gone for the evening Eucharist. We talked again later when she got home, and I heard reports of the current discussion about the desirability of welcoming a church planting expert to establish a base at St Luke's to work on fresh initiatives in ministry to young people. Evidently there are fears there will be a takeover of the building that will lead to a complete loss of its Catholic Anglican heritage, much as happened to St Teilo's under Bishop June. I feel confident Mother Emma is capable of negotiating a compromise agreement and sticking to it, as long as Bishop Mary is equally clear about supporting this. 

St Luke's has a century of Anglo Catholic urban missionary history behind it, but is much depleted and won't be able to pay its way much longer. During the pandemic the building was shared with one of Cardiff's two Romanian Orthodox congregations. This no longer happens, but it showed what's possible with a modicum of good-will on all sides. I wonder what kind of research has been done to establish  there's a need and an opportunity to be taken in this part the city. 

Evangelical outreach initiatives can and do attract people to form an eclectic congregation. As St Luke's did in its heyday. The Victoria Park area isn't the easiest place for parking at the best of times even if it is well served by buses. At least St Teilo's is well placed in a largely student area, across the railway tracks from the University Campus. Can the same be said to exist in Canton as it rapidly gentrifies? It's true there's a growing number of first time home buyers and young families in the vicinity, which the church needs to reach out to in order to secure its future. This is a moving target however, as turnover in jobs and the housing market don't necessary result in longer term commitment to this local church. It's a big and risky decision, for the host community and for those behind the initiative under discussion.

State of Alarm - day Eighty One

A cooler cloudier day today, if a little humid, but not unpleasantly so. I slept better as the new round of antibiotics slowly takes effect. I said Morning Prayer and prayed the words of the Eucharist to start the day, having first listened to BBC Radio Four Sunday Worship, an extended reflection on the Isaiah 40 first lesson of the day. It was very enriching indeed.

Yesterday evening at sunset I had the idea to go up on the flat roof and take a three minute video of the evening sky as a backdrop for the Trinity Sunday Prayer video whose words had been quietly forming in my head during the day. The result was that just before I went to bed, the finished product was uploaded to YouTube and sent the link to Dave, to add to the website today. I may get bouts of tiredness and need to rest, but when a creative spark fires off, as long as I don't push too hard, I can get jobs done which I was doubtful I could tackle. 

The same was true after lunch today when I started thinking about Bible Study #12, probably my last. How to get eight long chapters of Acts covered in one session? Impossible of course. All I can do is outline the greater story and highlight pivotal events and anecdotes. I decided to take the study only as far as Paul making his appeal to Rome, as the way this came about was a remarkable and long drawn out tale, but worth telling for the way Paul kept on turning setbacks into opportunities which even he could not have planned. Anyway, aware of the size of the task of summarising the narrative thread of five chapters, I set to work, and to my surprise, it came together in a couple of hours ready to record tomorrow.

I cooked pieces of Merluza (hake) in a creamy lemon sauce with two veg to share with Anthony for Sunday lunch. I was especially please with the sauce as it didn't turn out lumpy.

In the evening, I went for a walk under a cloudy sky threatening to rain. There were a few drops, but no shower of cloudburst, and it was pleasantly cool. I realised that if I got wet my passport and IDP would get soaked, so when I got back I found a small plastic bag to keep them in. It's about time I did this, as I've been in the same position before and forgotten to do anything about it.

After this, we had a family Zoom meeting always good humoured, and good for catching up on the news. Jasmine was with Rachel now school is out in AZ. Unfortunately her internet connection is so poor that we only got snatches of them on video and sound throughout. Clare joined us late, as she fell asleep while waiting and needed a phone call to get her started. It's great to be together, even in this limited way, while we survive the onslaught of a virus which isn't going to be conquered soon, nor without wreaking havoc with the old world order.

State of Alarm - day Seventy Five

A warm night, broken but relaxed sleep, awakening to a cloudy day with a warm wind, tolerably humid. The wound is quiet almost pain free, still a little swelling, but I am feeling better than I have done for several weeks This is indeed 'watch and wait' time as Dr Jordan would say. Will it continue to improve or deteriorate? I returned to bed after breakfast, and thought about this week's Bible Study about which I've done nothing yet.

Chapter 20 looked promising so eventually I got up and started writing a reflection on its content. I was surprised at how quickly it came together. I had a recording done, and sent to Dave for uploading by half past one.

I cooked lunch for Anthony and myself. Having someone other than myself to feed for a change was a pleasure, ensuring that I sat down to eat. Nice that I can sit long enough to eat once more without much discomfort or pain.

After a siesta and a long chat with Clare, I walked down to the sea near Cala de Bou, then along the  coastal track to Cala des Torrents. Because the foreshore is rocky and inhospitable, there's a huge water-park on the land behind it. On the sea side there's a narrow 100m long splash pool with about twenty apartments facing directly on to the pool, each with its own set of steps. You can get out of bed, if you're a kid, and run straight into the water. The pool is in winter emptiness at the moment and won't be filled until holiday-makers arrive and apartments are booked.

The Cala des Torrents beach looked almost normal with a dozen families out enjoying sun sand and sea, all locals. Some wooden sunbeds had been put out. I think a beach cafe was open but nobody was sitting outside imbibing. Opening of bars and restaurants is happening slowly cautiously and according to government lock-down de-escalation rules.
 
On my return walk, up a long unmetalled road past a large urbanizacion, a man of my age stopped his car, smiled and offered me a lift, I thanked him and declined, explaining 'Yo camino para mi salud' which he acknowledged with another smile and went his way. I guess he was feeling in good spirits with the signs of a return to normality, and maybe just wanted someone to chat to.

It was lovely to hear happy sounds and see children playing on the beach, with not harsh voice of rebuke.  I hope it stays like that.

State of Alarm - day Sixty Six

That was the first night since I have been here, that I failed to sleep, or at least it felt like it. Remind me not to listen to the news last thing at night in future. It leaves me feeling so outraged and upset, in contrast to the long succession of peaceful nights I've had in this house, with the moon shining in through the shutters, and the occasional owl or other mysterious spooky bird in the distance.

'Onwards and upwards', as the saying goes. I made an effort to go and do my weekend shopping at 'Es Cuco' before lunch. For the first time I had to queue outside before being admitted. I didn't mind as I had a tiny sliver of shade under the shop's toldo to shield me from the bright hot sun, 26C today. I couldn't find soya milk - probably looking in the wrong place, and I forgot to buy a pack of beer, so after lunch I walked down to Sumo to get these. 

In between times I got to work on next week's Acts Chapter 19 bible study. It was very interesting to research, and got me reflecting on aspects of the content of the Acts which Pentecostal theologian Professor Walter Hollenweger taught his mission seminar students about in the Selly Oak Colleges thirty five years ago. He was a remarkable man, having found his faith in a post war Pentecostal church and being blessed with a remarkable inquisitive intellect. His published doctorate reviewed the field-work he'd done investigating third world Pentecostal churches, which contributed to the development of poor communities in an amazing way, through literacy and agricultural education schemes, often branded 'communist by US client states. I first heard him talk about third world Pentecostalism at a student conference in the early seventies. 

Maybe my memory is faulty, but I have a recollection that his formation as a theologian was influenced by Karl Barth, one of the great 20th century protestant reformers of thought. He offered students a very different way into thinking about biblical truth, not abstract and idealistic but rooted in the foundations of Hebrew thinking and acting. There's still a lot to learn!

I had a call from a congregation member who's been accompanying the family and friends of a friend suffering from coronavirus, who'd finally succumbed. He's been asked to go with them to the crematorium and 'say a few words'. It's what people often say when they ask a Funeral Director to recruit a parson for them, a trusted role which is a privilege to occupy and which I often do at home willingly. The trauma which the family has experienced seemed to me not to call for a stranger to be inserted into their time of grief, when there was a trusted Christian friend there with them, so I offered some resources from scripture and the Anglican prayer book for use at the crem. At my age, I'm less interested in performing my traditional role than I am in encouraging and supporting others as they are drawn into ministry by the Spirit. If we don't, I think the church will die anyway.

State of Alarm - day Forty Seven

What a lovely day! Blue skies and 25 degrees! BBC Sunday morning worship celebrated Salisbury Cathedral's 800th anniversary in the unexpected situation of the Cathedral being closed because of covid-19! It was a superb prayerful exercise in putting things in perspective and taking them in their stride. There's nothing like the Long View to keep us on track.

Official permission is granted today to leave the chaplaincy and walk out freely, though opinion differs as to whether this means for most of the day or hours specified, 10h00-12h00 and 19h00-20h00. In the countryside it hardly matters, as there is space a-plenty except for near the sea and the beaches. In highly populated areas it's a management issue, less so here however. Anyway, after spending time in worship and eating breakfast, I walked for over an hour along familiar byways within a couple of kilometres of home, rejoicing as I did so. 

A few couples were out wheeling their infants, a few more riding bikes or jogging. Plenty of time is allowed for those in sport training. Solveig thinks I can count myself in this number. She may be right, given my daily 10k fitness schedule. I can say if quizzed that I'm training for un camino de larga distancia. Which could be true in real life if I set my mind to it. More than anything else the sense of freedom rather than constraint was expressed in the way people walked.

It's funny, but after lunch I felt unusually tired, lay down on the bed and slept for an hour. It's ages since I last did that, reacting to, I guess, the relief of tension imposed by the strictness of measures due to the estadio de alarma. Everyone must keep behaving carefully and observe rules on social distancing to avoid a recurrent outbreak of contagion. This, takes getting used to and balancing with the responsible exercise of freedom as well. It's a long journey with many possible setbacks.

I took advantage of the opportunity to walk out again in the evening to complete my daily 10k walk an on orchard side road. In between times, ideas for the coming week's Acts bible study came to me, so now I have less work to complete tomorrow. I have enjoyed work on producing a commentary on the stories told in Acts, giving a cross cultural perspective on the events reported on. I think we need a more three dimensional perspective on the way things were in near middle eastern society two millennia ago, to make proper sense of it in today's diverse cosmopolitan world.

    

State of Alarm - Day fifteen

In addition to domestic tasks and exercising today, I had to focus on writing and recording the bible study commentary for tomorrow. Clare did me proud by recording the scripture passages from Acts chapter eight on her phone and emailing them to me for editing in to the sound file. Her sound files were better quality than mine. Annoyingly, they were in a proprietary .3GP file format which were playable, but wouldn't load into Audacity for editing. 

Windows 10 was, as it is so often, unhelpful in resolving this. As it also was in refusing to connect to my four year old standard Samsung phone. It works a treat with any Linux device and with my ancient Chromebook, which offered a cloud based file conversion facility swiftly and effectively. It just meant transferring converted files by flash drive from Chromebook to Windows 10 which hosts the vital copy of Audacity I edit with. It was just before midnight by the time I emailed a audio file of twenty-one minutes length to Dave, and it was just inside the website's 25mb file upload limit.

Plenty of job satisfaction in hitting my deadline, with all the other daily tasks also completed. I think I shall sleep well tonight. Small signs of the infection rate slowing down in Spain, though the death rate remains high. The UK is gearing up now, preparing massive field hospitals for the flood tide of gravely sick patients which will arrive in the next two weeks. The rate of mass testing which has helped other countries grapple with covd-19 is still far too slow in being rolled out on a large scale. I don't understand why the UK government has been so slow to learn from others. Thinking we are an exception and can always afford to do things our own way could cost Britain dearly. It's yet more brexitis, sad to say.

Study day

Again I woke up early enough to see the light of the full moon shining through the shutters an hour before dawn, and then fell asleep again. After breakfast, I walked down to the Suma supermarket in La Cala de Bou to get some deodorant, and happily came away with a jar of tahini as well. It means I can make my own hummous now, with the jar of chick peas I've already started. With fresh lemon from the tree outside the front door. Wonderful!

I spent the rest of the morning and some time after lunch preparing for an early evening bible study group on Outreach in the Acts of the Apostles. Then I went for another walk and returned just before they all arrived. Seven women attended. No men. We explored scripture for an hour and then prayed for half an hour. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.

Afterwards, I thought I'd watch telly for a change. I haven't had time to switch it on since I've been here, there's been too many other things to do first. I got all the devices working OK, but kept on getting a 'no signal' error with no idea of how to remedy this. Whether it's a physical connectivity fault or something in the setup routine I have failed to engage with, I've no idea. No doubt someone will show me in due course.

At least I've got the computer to work, and was able to print off copies of the bible study schedule and a page of notes on Christian healing to give to the group as they left. The device is a minimalist desktop PC, linked to internet input from the huge satellite dish in the garden. It's connected to a peripherals, all of which look strange to me. They deliver signals for the telly and for the house phone, as well as internet for the computer.  It offer no temptation to tinker with. It works and does so pretty quickly, not surprisingly as the PC is a Core i7 job with 8Gb of RAM.

I work on the old Chromebook I first bought. It came back to me from Owain when I gave him a newer one. I brought this with me, rather than my newest one. It's every bit as dependable, and if it breaks or gets nicked, it's already had quite a long life for a digital device. I simply transfer files for printing on the office system via a USB stick. That suits me just fine. This is probably the most up to date office system I've used of all five of the Spanish chaplaincies I've worked in, on a par with the set up in Montreux. Generally these assets, if they work and serve their purpose, lag behind the currently accepted digital norm. Although I suppose that could all have changed in the eighteen months I have been away from locum duty. 

  

Productive Monday

I woke up an hour before dawn with moonlight streaming in through the window, as the moon was just above the horizon. It was an enchanting sight, which I don't recalled experiencing before. Then I started having ideas for next Sunday's sermon, and after breakfast got busy and wrote a first draft. Then I drove to Lidl's on the outskirts of St Antoni for some food shopping. It was very busy and I had to queue for ages to pay and leave.

After lunch I worked on preparations for tomorrow evening's Bible Study here at Can Bagot. I have no idea how many will come. At lunch yesterday I picked up the idea that outreach was a subject which needs exploring. The Acts of the Apostles has been suggested for study. There's far too much in it to over in half a dozen sessions, so the challenge will be to select suitable passages that have something to say, and resist other distractions.

I took a back road down to Cala des Torrents to find a shop where I could get the deodorant, which I forgot to buy this morning, but I couldn't find a single shop open. The place seems to be a ghost town out of season. Much of the evening was spent on the phone to Owain and to Clare. At home we have a leak upstairs caused by a faulty bath tap, that now needs replacing. Clare can cope with that, but I do feel a bit guilty about not being there with her because of this.

   

Looking to the future

Just after breakfast, my phone pinged notifying me of an email from my home surgery in Pontcanna confirming an appointment with Dr Jordan a week after my return. If needs be I can change it with a 'book on the day' alternative. Clare had been there already, to hand in the surgical report and my accompanying letter. The new booking system is working amazingly well.

Although the weather has been sunny and a little warmer, I didn't venture out today, except for the Tuesday afternoon bible study in church with the same handful of faithful people, always keen to explore and ask questions. Following from Sunday's gospel about defilement coming from within, I found myself fielding questions about spiritual ailments and the nature of the demonic, and the need to resist the impulse to take revenge and seek retribution. We also explored the difference between a decision based on Judgement and on Discernment. 

As always with this particular group, we returned to the question of what should we do to make St John's more alive and attractive to newcomers? It's not just a matter of concern because of a period of decline. The life of the church is valued and seen as worth sharing. But how can opportunities be recognised and acted upon? How to discern God's moment? I pointed out that asking the right kind of questions and exploring together through study and prayer was essential. Praying together outside the liturgy, it was admitted, didn't come easily for many. It has to be shown and taught, after all. 

Much emphasis is placed in ministerial leadership today, on good management and communication skills, and helping congregations develop SMART mission plans with a clear sense of purpose, and even vision statements! I've done all this kind of stuff in the past, and am not sure really what it was worth in the development of congregations I cared for. In fact, I'm not sure how faithful this is to apostolic teaching as expressed in the Acts of the Apostles. Prayer, proclamation of the Gospel, openness too and responsiveness to the promptings of the Spirit, and discernment in an ever changing situation are, to my mind, the key themes. Talking about Vision - i.e. what you see, isn't nearly as good as seeing then acting. 

In Acts, there's plenty of spontaneity, and unplanned action. It all seems haphazard and messy, yet it turns out to be fruitful, even the setbacks encountered in mission. If any of the apostles were potential managers, it must have given them a crisis of confidence to have to respond to the promptings of the Spirit. Administration is certainly one of the gifts of the Spirit, but one among a variety of ministries of the spirit, and not the most dominant.  Discernment of the gifts of the Spirit which are there in a church community must be done together, through reflection and prayer. It takes time, this kind of 'seeing'.

I hope that the appointment of a permanent chaplain, to start in January, but whose name is not yet made public, will help. They will need to ask, maybe even pester their new priest about learning to pray together in different ways. It's not easy to admit, even though St Paul himself admitted "We don't know how to pray as we ought." All I can do is encourage them to be bold in asking.

Patiently waiting

Tuesday, Joy took me to have the wound dressed at eleven. In the afternoon there was a bible study session in church. We used Ephesians 6:10-20 and discussed aspects of spiritual struggle, using the Charles Wesley hymn 'Soldiers of Christ arise' (sung twice at Villars on Sunday) as a parallel text, as it is based on this passage of scripture. Sitting down properly all the time wasn't possible, but I got through it without making things worse for myself. Olive baked some wonderful rum-laced chocolate muffins, doing an extra three for Clare Rhiannon and I since she remembered what I had said about Rhiannon coming. How thoughtful! What a welcoming treat for a teen chocolate lover!

This morning wasn't very comfortable, I had diarrhoea half an hour before I was due to celebrate the midweek BCP Communion. I had a congregation of four adults and a child, bigger than usual, so I had to battle on, occasionally making verbal mistakes, which is unusual for me, probably due to the shock of the unexpected.

Before I could go and have the wound dressing changed, I had a meeting with Bruce and Tatyana, to prepare them for Saturday's wedding blessing. She and I have corresponded over months past. As a Bulgarian Orthodox Christian, I was keen that we should find ways to include traditional music from the Eastern liturgical tradition as well as the Western. It's involved a certain amount of on-line research, to obtain suitable material, but that's been a pleasant occupation, and they were pleased with the ideas I presented them.

After the rehearsal I took the bus into town for the surgery appointment. Mr Cotton himself treated me rather than a nurse, Being a hand-on sort of medic he was keen to inspect how the drainage was going. He declared himself satisfied, and said that the earlier bout of diarrhoea could probably be due to the blocked gland functioning properly and signalling to the bowel a return to normality. An interesting thought. I did a small amount of shopping after the treatment, then took a bus back to the house. I was able to use the same ticket, as I was within its hour's usage limit. 

As I got off the bus, there were two burly black clad ticket inspectors on the pavement checking people's tickets. It's rare to see an inspector on much local public transport apart from trains, but even rarer to have one on only my second bus use in three duty tours here. Getting single use tickets from a machine here is far too complex, though Clare has now mastered it, which is why we have tickets. Previously I've just given up in frustration and walked instead. 

Clare and Rhiannon's flight was subjected to a half hour delay, but without cabin baggage they were able to walk through and dash for a train which arrived Territet at eleven thirty. The happy arrival was celebrated with chocolate muffins!

  

Late arrivals

Yesterday afternoon, Joy and Geoff took me up to Monica' house up the mountainside at Les Avants for a Bible study session and afternoon tea. We were treated to a deliciously light chocolate sponge cake which her sixteen year old grandson had baked. He has no ambition to be a chef or pastrycook, he just loves baking, and works with recipes researched on the internet. Our study compared Mark and Luke's versions of the Transfiguration story, and then looked a 2 Peter 1 "We were eyewitnesses of his majesty ..." I'm impressed at how this regular group meeting has persisted since the last Chaplain left. I can't think of any chaplaincy bible study group that's survived an interregnum apart from here. It doesn't matter that it's rarely more than half a dozen people, it's core commitment that counts.

Both Clare and Ann's flights were due to land mid evening, with a connecting train arriving at half part ten. After celebrating the midweek BCP Holy Communion service with Geoff, and doing some shopping, it was a long day of waiting with a couple of hours spent cooking a spicy veggie soup for a late supper. Clare's flight was delayed ten minutes on leaving. For interest, I tracked it down to its final approach run on the EasyJet app, but then had an unexpected wait, as the aircraft was hindered from discharging passengers and luggage by a heavy downpour and thunderstorm. For this reason they missed a connecting train which would have delivered them to Territet gare, across the road from the house by eleven, but arrived  at Montreux gare instead just before a quarter to midnight.

Joy very kindly offered to meet them and bring them back to Church House, and I went with her. As they were still on British time, they weren't too tired for such a late supper, so it was a good hour before we got to bed, and longer before sleep took over, due to the heat and the excitement. So, we all slept late. After lunch, Clare and Ann went for a walk as far as the Chateau to Chillon, but I had to stay behind, as pain from my problematic piles left me feeling quite unwell. I stayed in bed much of the day. Thankfully, as Ann is a retired nurse familiar with this affliction, she, proposed a routine to manage the episodes of extreme discomfort with regular low doses of ibuprofen and buscopan. Needless to say, I'm willing to give it a go!

In at the deep end

There were eight of us for this morning's midweek celebrations of Communion, and all stayed for a lively bible study on last Sunday's Gospel. Four of those present come out regularly from Britain and stay a good while. Unfortunately they'll be leaving this coming week, so the regular group will be smaller next time.

I stayed chatting afterwards for rather too long, and didn't leave myself quite enough time to cook a meal, and then drive at a leisurely pace to Velez Málaga by three for the bible study session there in the Capilla de San Juan. Even so, I was only a couple of minutes late, but taken aback to find the place locked, and nobody else waiting. Had I come to the wrong place? No, Doreen told me when I rang. I was half an hour early. That meant I could go for a walk up the main street in the direction of the old town. It's a town that sprawls down the plain from the ancient settlement below the moorish castle, probably half an hour's walk, and I only had twenty five minutes available. It wasn't all that interesting a street either, but at least I got some brisk exercise.

One noteworthy feature was a couple of buildings belonging to the Guardia Civil, and a roundabout in the middle of the dual carriageway with a bronze statue of a uniformed Guardia officer. It's an armed military police agency, a member of the European Gendarmerie Force, with public protection and criminal investigative powers exercised in rural areas, on the coast and off-shore. It even plays a part in some international peace keeping operations. It provides accommodation for its members and their families. Britain doesn't have an equivalent civil institution.

Outside the Guardia station stands a memorial to officers killed in the line of duty in the form of a simple stone pillar surmounted by a bronze effigy of the characteristic tricornio ceremonial headgear, the equivalent of a British bobby's helmet. It's a curiosity to passing foreigners who know nothing of this aspect of the culture. In fact, there's a lot that's different about policing and public protection in different European countries for any Brit to get their head around, as I am often reminded when I watch Euro-crimmies on TV.

There were eight of us for the bible study group at three thirty. I enjoyed doing this second one, as it was made up entirely of regular congregation members I'd met before, and the conversations were quite different. I'm looking forward to Sunday worship with them again, a week on Sunday.

On the journey back I stopped at the Carrefour hypermarket and shopping centre beside the MA24 motorway linking the A7 Mediterraneo with the N340 coastal highway. I've passed by many times on my previous stays in Malaga, but this was the first time to negotiate the access roads and take a look inside. I just wanted a simple colander for draining veg. I needed light bulbs as well since both the bedroom ceiling fan light have died. I haven't yet been able to remove the cover and check the type of bulb required, but now I can navigate my way to the 'household goods' aisle to find them without losing track of why I'm visiting. So easy to do that in such a vast cathedral of consumerism.

If I'm passing that way it's as easy to call in as it is to walk into the Old Town and hunt for a shop which has the right kind of bulb. There are many more worthwhile distractions to enjoy there than in any shopping mall. That's the trouble.

  

Legacy questions

I had a pile of washing to do this morning, and although rain threatened, it remained warm and dry, so I was able to leave clothes drying on the narrow upstairs terrace between church and house, just in the shelter of the house eaves, where they'd escape all but torrential rain. Very convenient.

After lunch I was again collected and taken to Monica's house for afternoon coffee and home made cake and a free ranging discussion about church, spirituality and bible. It was meant to be focused on St John's first epistle, which I'd commended the congregation to read and re-read in my sermon on Sunday, but we did no more than touch upon it from time to time. 

Similar questions are being asked here as in so many places in Britain as well as the diocese in Europe, about how a small and vulnerable minority of worshippers can maintain their faith and witness when support for historic patterns of church life seems to be in terminal decline? What works to generate success in some places doesn't work in every place, and so many people want to be carried by the familiar routines of church life rather than making the effort to respond positively, faithfully. Sometimes it's hard for an older generation to consider what their spiritual legacy should be, let alone prepare to hand it on to rising generations.

It was already dark when I went out for my daily paseo. This time, I walked as far as the Montreux ship landing station, which is well lit all the way. Being a mild evening, many people, mainly youngsters out walking and a few were sitting on seats at the low platforms used by swimmers the water's edge, chatting quietly. This is such a safe and civilised environment. It's extremely rare to witness unruly, rowdy or bizarre behaviour in public, and not that often, except at big events, that you see police patrolling. I wonder what it must be like in peak holiday seasons?

    

Home alone

My turn to do the week's shopping yesterday, and buy food to cater for myself, as Clare will be up in Kenilworth looking after Rhiannon. In the afternoon, I went into town and met Ashley for a planning meeting in John Lewis' over a cup of tea, for a change. We're preparing very carefully for some developments in our radio network in the coming months that are likely to stretch us and keep us busy. The business is never routine for long without some new challenge to stimulate us.

In the evening I finally got around to responding to a request from Bishop Dominic, episcopal Visitor to Ty Mawr Convent to contribute to his enquiries, addressed to friends, associates and supporters about the life of the community and its relationship to the wider church. Having to write this was a pleasure, as it caused me to look back on the part played in my life by the Sisters and the place itself over the past forty years. I go there less often these days, but it's often in my thoughts and prayers. In fact, Ty Mawr been influential on my spiritual journey, sharing its hospitality, its beauty and the silence of its peace generously, all of which are things I cherish now, wherever I live.  

After breakfast this morning, I drove Clare to the station to take the train to spend a few days of half term week looking after Rhiannon in Kenilworth. The rest of the morning I spent in the office, preparing documents requested yesterday, which I found were never digitized for inclusion in our Cloud archive. Not an onerous task, once I'd located the hard copies, but hindered by finding that the HP scanner/printer wasn't installed on the PC I'm now using. I recall finding the location of the driver download when I configured my home PC to use an identical device recently, so it was easier than last time. I just had to learn how to use a new scanning app, to get the job done. The time taken just accumulates.

Having woken early, I had a siesta in the afternoon. I'd meant to go for a walk, but the sky clouded over, so I stayed in and worked on my Lent blog. I'm finding things to write about prayer based on texts in the Psalms, not surprisingly. I work on an idea I want to develop, and then find Psalm verses and other scripture texts gather around by a process akin to association of ideas. The process works itself out in a way that doesn't seem to need much planning, so there's an element of discovery and surprise I find most enjoyable.