Despite Covid 9 restrictions we have been able to hold our annual garden party on a reduced scale in Brenda Ross’s garden – in glorious weather on August 2 this year, after our monthly Holy Communion service, also held in the garden with effective social distancing in place.
We restricted numbers to 24 this year. We had a record church attendance and collection in ten garden. We had a very enjoyable lunch, served and not buffet style as required by current regulations.
Once more Brenda lent her garden – and ensured her gardener had cut the grass which was a good rich green thanks to recent rain. We had good weather and a good turnout. Pimms was drunk. Food was eaten and enjoyed. People mixed. Just as we were taking the tables and tents down it clouded over ominously and we just managed to finish as the rain came down heavily. Another successful event – thanks to Brenda and her helpers.
Bishop Robert, the Bishop of Europe, came to Barcelona before the diocesan synod to take the Sunday service and to confirm any adults who wished to be confirmed. As we are now part of St Goerge’s Barcelona, we were asked if any of our would like to be confirmed. So Janet Humphreys and John Pinnell set out to be confirmed by Bishop Robert in Barcelona. They went down with Bishop Jorge (see previous post) who had been visiting Andorra and with Brnda Ross who came as witness of the confirmation service.
This was a very special service as rarely does the bishop pass through Barcelona and a number adults took advantage of this opportunity to be confirmed.
Bishp Jorge, the Bishop of Peru, came to Barcelona to visit Deborah and John Chapman and it was decided that he should also see Andorra. So on Friday he came up by bus and stayed with Elsa & Michael Derham and was taken around, including a trip to caldea with Brenda Ross. We then held a short eucharistic service with him in the afternoon and on Sunday drove him back down to Barcelona where some of us joined in the service there – a very special service (see next post)
Sunday August 13 had us fill Brenda Ross’s garden with some 50 adults and four well behaved children for the 2017 edition of our garden party. Revd Deborah Chapman, who had come to lead our Holy Communion service, opened the party with grace, and her husband, Revd John Chapman arrived post haste from having celebrated the 11.00 service in St George’s Barcelona to say a few words about the link we now have in place between the two churches and his responsibilities as chaplain for both. Lots of spit roast chicken and oven baked salmon was eaten along with a large variety of salads brought by visitors. The equally large selection of desserts was simply demolished. All this was washed down with Pimms, wine and soft drinks in equal quantities. It seems that a very good time was had by all and Deborah and John met a new set of faces in Andorra. We will not forget that four adults (and two children) traveled up from Barcelona to join us for this annual event. Our thanks to Brenda for hosting us and for all the work she put in to make this possible.
For the three years 2017 to 2019 we are now a worship centre of St George’s Barcelona, under the supervision of the chaplain in Barcelona, Revd John Chapman and represented at synod by their synod reps. We have no churchwardens, officers or church council and will be represented at Barcelona church council meetings by John Pinnell, who will also keep our books under the supervision of the Treasurer in Barcelona, and act as local safeguarding contact for the Barcelona Safeguarding Officer. We have a small informal worship committee which will coordinate services and we have the invaluable assistance of Revd Deborah Chapman who will visit us eight tomes a year while Revd john Chapman will visit us four times a year. For our second monthly services we will continue to use worship CDs prepared for us by Revd Canon Mel Smith who is visiting us in April to renew his contacts with us and plan the next series of worship CDs.
We held the annual church meeting very early this year – on January 22 to be precise – before lunch at the Valet restaurant in Arinsal and after holy Communion led by Revd Deborah Chapman, who also presided at the meeting.
There was a very positive surprise presented by then Treasurer in his report – we have been then recipient of some very generous donations during 2016 and recorded what (for us) is a substantial annual surplus, sufficient to see us through the coming year or two and ensure that we can fund the new status we will have as a worship centre of St George’s Barcelona.
The first consequence of this status change is that Revd Deborah Chapman as agreed to visit us eight times a year for the next three years and to stay with us for a few extra nights when she comes so that she can get to know people and provide pastoral care to those who may need it.
The second and, from an organisational point of view, the more important consequence, is that Revd John Chapman has formally take responsibility for overusing us as part of his chaplaincy and will himself visit us four times a year.
At the annual church meeting, we thanked Michael Derham for his many years of services as churchwarden, noted that we no longer would have other churchwardens or a church council, noted that John would continue to act as treasurer and administrative liaison, and welcomed our new status with a general feeling of relief and positive motivation for the future.
Brenda and John went to synod for ten last of their three year stint as synod reps and potentially as the last synod reps from Andorra, as we are now organising ourselves as a worship centre of St George’s Barcelona under the guidance of Revd John Chapman, the chaplain there.
John and Revd John met with Bishop David during synod and “cleared” the arrangements that had been approved by both church councils and the annual church meeting in Andorra for this change.
Synod was full of things we need to know and a great opportunity to meet with reps from other chaplaincies and contrast and compare their life with ours. It seems that Andorra actually manages very well compared to chaplaincies used to having a resident chaplain but with a vacancy needing to be filled and that we have a good reputation for looking after visiting chaplains.
We went down from nine reedings to eight and moved the carols around and cut out some verses. As a result, the service ran exactly one hour and seemed to move along better – perhaps because out guest organist, Adrian Leonard, is more used to the pace of hymns and carols than our Andorran guest organist of the last two years. Outside the mulled wine crew of Tom, Jan and George had everything set up with lots of hot wine, and the mince pies were briefly there as well, but seemed to vanish down multiple throats in a very short time. Everybody seemed happy and pleased with the result. We have over e500 from the collection to give to St Luke’s Homecare too.
By now we should have been used to this – Brenda’s garden simply filled up. A week before the event we had very few people booked in. The day before we were scratching around to find more chairs we had so many extra visitors. Revd Roy Greenwood had given us an excellent uplifting sermon and service and we retired to Brenda’s garden where the positive mood was reinforced by good weather, good company, more than one glass of Pimms and plenty of good food. Definitely a positive contribution by the church to the community!