Lest We Forget - Remembrance Sunday 2008

We look forward to welcoming you to our Service of Remembrance in Cómpeta on Sunday 9th November at 5.30pm.

The Last Post & Rouse will be sounded live by a former Member of HM Forces who now lives in Cómpeta

Friendship Recipe Book published

You will be pleased to know that the long awaited Friendship Recipe Book has now been published & is available for purchase.

Priced at a give-away 8 euros, you can get your copy (or perhaps even copies) from Jean Roberts by emailing her on jean.mike@telefonica.net.

This book will make an ideal Christmas present & should be on everybodies list of 'must-haves' for 2009.

Sales of the book will support Chaplaincy funds.

So - don't delay, email today and order your copy.

Songs of Praise - Programme 1

So the day arrived, and we all settled back in our chairs to watch the first of two programmes recorded earlier in the year for Songs of Praise.

We all joined in lustily with the hymns and did some people spotting. And who made the centre stage - yes Paul Gath!! and not once but twice!

Paul will now be accepting invites for personal appearances, supermarket openings & after dinner speeches on - How I was on Songs of Praise from Fuengirola! He will also be signing copies of the service sheet next Sunday, which might make a nice Birthday or Christmas present for that person in your life who has got everything else!!

And then to finish off the day - Spain won 4-2 on penalties!

Catholic Priest asks for information to be put up in his churches

When Paul Gath went to the Church the other day to collect something from our cupboard, the Catholic Priest was working in the vestry & had a chat with Paul.

It seems that the priest has been asked by people if & when there is an English Service in Cómpeta, and so he has asked us if we will produce some posters - in English - to be put on the notice board at the entrance to the church.

But it is better than that even. He told Paul that he also looks after the Catholic Church in Cannillas, Archez & a satelitte congregation somewhere else close by, and if we let him have more posters he will put them up in those churches aswell!!

So, we have produced the posters, laminated them to make them look 'posh' and left them in the Church Vestry last night for the Priest.

We are really pleased about this development, because - it spreads the word about our congregation and our services; it is a good example of both faiths working together, and it is a cracking example of ecumenicalism at work (ecumenicalism - big word eh!).

Hopefully, the word will spread in other Catholic Churches, and they will soon be following Cómpeta's lead - where Cómpeta goes today, the rest will follow on later!

Well done Paul, and thanks for practising your Spanish with the Priest!

Chaplaincy Council

The Chaplaincy Council met yesterday, for the first time since the AGM last month. There were two new members of the Council - your own Congregational Warden - Adrian Wilkinson & Stuart Smith from Torre del Mar.

The agenda for the meeting was a mixture of routine business, such as Minutes of the last meeting, Treasurers report, when Mike Smith presented several spreadsheets showing the current state of the Chaplaincy finances, along with new items such as the times of the summer services & a look at priorities & plans for the future.

Rather pleasingly amongst the financial figures was a comparison of offertery giving by each congregation year on year, and Cómpeta for the first 4 months of 2008, showed a 58% increase in its giving compared with the same period last year.

The Council agreed to move forward on a plan to have a look at the publicity for the whole of the Chapliancy , and a small sub-committee is being brought together to produce some proposals.

The Chaplain gave an upbeat Report to Council on his work and progress that he has made with things, such as involvement in wedding & funerals, which had been something of a difficult area to get into. This he told Council had allowed him also to become more involved in each of the local communities that form the Chaplaincy, and to begin to extend his pastoral ministry.

A discussion also took place about the development of the congregation at Torremolinos, which is part of the St. Georges Chaplaincy, and a wide ranging number of views were exchanged, which will in due course allow the Council & the Chaplain to move forward again in this part of the Chaplaincy.

The meeting close with the saying of the Grace.

If you ever want anything to be discussed by the Chaplaincy Council - why not have a word with one of your Congregational Wardens, and ask them to have it put on the Agenda.

Remember - this is your Chaplaincy - your congregation - and TOGETHER we shall move forward in the service of God.

More from 'the blogger' soon!

Today is Trinity Sunday - so what does that mean?

Many of us, have been gong to church since we were children, and have grown up in the faith of Christ. And yet what do we really know about the background to the key dates in our church year?

So this set me thinkinng about Trinity Sunday, and here is the answer -

Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Western Christian liturgical calendar, and the Sunday of Pentecost in Eastern Christianity. Trinity Sunday celebrates the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, the three Persons of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In the early Church no special Office or day was assigned for the Holy Trinity. When the Arian heresy was spreading the Fathers prepared an Office with canticles, responses, a Preface, and hymns, to be recited on Sundays. In the Sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great (P.L., LXXVIII, 116) there are prayers and the Preface of the Trinity. The Micrologies (P.L., CLI, 1020), written during the pontificate of Gregory VII (Nilles, II, 460), call the Sunday after Pentecost a Dominica vacans, with no special Office, but add that in some places they recited the Office of the Holy Trinity composed by Bishop Stephen or Liège (903-20). By others the Office was said on the Sunday before Advent. Alexander II (1061-1073), refused a petition for a special feast on the plea, that such a feast was not customary in the Roman Church which daily honoured the Holy Trinity by the Gloria Patri, etc., but he did not forbid the celebration where it already existed. John XXII (1316-1334) ordered the feast for the entire Church on the first Sunday after Pentecost. A new Office had been made by the Franciscan John Peckham, Canon of Lyons, later Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1292). The feast ranked as a double of the second class but was raised to the dignity of a primary of the first class, 24 July 1911, by Pius X (Acta Ap. Sedis, III, 351). Since it was after the first great Pentecost that the doctrine of the Trinity was proclaimed to the world, the feast becomingly follows that of Pentecost.

So now you know!

Chaplaincy Council - Tuesday 20th May 2008

The first meeting of the new Chaplaincy Council will take place next Tuesday at St. Georges, Malaga.

The Council is made up of the Congregational Wardens from each of the churches in the Chaplaincy, plus the Chaplaincy Wardens, Synod representatives, the Honorary Treasurer, the Honorary Secretary, and is chaired by the Chaplain.

It is responsible for overseeing the work & ministry of the Chapliancy, and meets about every six weeks.

We will be featuring a report of the Council's activity at regular intervals on the weblog.

Congregational Committee meeting - 13th May 2008

The Congregational Committee will meet tomorrow, for the first time since the recent AGM, and amongst the topics it will be discussing - in addition to the standard items like the Chaplains Report & Treasurers Report etc are -

 Nativity

 Service books

 The church inventory

 The Church Recipe Book

 Publicity

 Meeting & greeting

A report of the meeting will appear on the weblog in the coming days.

If ever you having anything that you would like the committee to discuss or reflect upon, just send an email to competacongregation@stgeorgemalaga.org

The Songs of Praise recording

Sorry that I have not updated the weblog for a bit, but have been really busy with SoP and then recovering from a very busy weekend.

On Saturday 3rd May, the airwaves around Fuengirola Castle were filled with the voices of over 1500 people singing popular hymns & worship songs at the recording of the popular BBC Songs of Praise programme.

After months of planning, the sun shone down on the many people – old & young, who had gathered from churches and congregations all along the Costa del Sol, and who, led by worship leader and well known hymn-writer Graham Kendrick & his band, followed patiently the instructions of the Conductor, Programme Producer and cameramen, to record two programmes which are to be shown later this year in June & October.

Also at the recording were Aled Jones & former premiership footballer Gavin Peacock, who will each be introducing the programmes when they are broadcast.

The hymns & songs were a mixture of traditional & modern, ranging from Blessed Assurance & the Old Rugged Cross, to Shine Jesus Shine & Heaven is in my Heart, but all were met with approval and hearty voices throughout the three hour recording.

The recording was also attended by the British Ambassador – Denise Holt & her husband and by the British Consul in Malaga – Bruce McIntyre & his wife, as well as by guests from the Ayntamiento in Fuengirola.

At the end of the recording, everyone was invited to enjoy refreshment of paella & sangria, before settling back into their seats for a concert given by Graham Kendrick & Band. As the sun went down over the castle, the floodlights came on and torches lit the walls of the castle, creating an atmosphere that remained with everyone as they made their way home.

I have put a couple of pictures at the top to give you a flavour of the event

Cómpeta holds it AGM

'Tis the season of church AGM's!

So, following the service last evening, the Congregational AGM was held at La Taberna (better known as 'Oscars'), where the reports for 2007 were presented in a very relaxed & informal atmosphere.

Peter presented his first Chaplains report, in which he looked at the past, the present & the future, both for the Chaplaincy & for the Cómpeta congregation in particular. He paid tribute to the work done by the Wardens and other church officers, and ended on an optimistic note saying that he thought that Cómpeta was now beginning to thrive and move forward.

Peter's report was followed by reports from the Wardens, the Secretary & the Treasurer, who also introduced a speaker from one of the charities that the congregation has supported through tithing in the past year.

The election of Wardens was held, after thanks were given to Lisa who was not standing for re-election as a Warden. The meeting re-elected Paul Gath for another year, and he will be joined as a Warden by Adrian Wilkinson.

The Congregational committee was elected for the coming year, and after a number of questions, and observations from the meeting, the meeting was closed by the Chaplain, but only after a vote of thanks from the congregation to Peter & to Elaine, for their work in the Chaplaincy since they arrived amongst us in May 2007.

The Chaplaincy AGM is on Sunday 27th April at 1.15pm at St. George's Malaga, to which all those on the electoral roll are warmly invited to attend.

Songs of Praise is coming to the Costa del Sol!

Hope that you all had a good Easter & enjoyed whatever it was you were doing.

Now on to the next exciting event - Songs of Praise!

The popular BBC Television programme is coming to the Costa del Sol on Saturday 3rd May to record two episodes of the programme. The recording is taking place at Fuengirola Castle

Easter Day Holy Communion

Palm Sunday Gospel - Mark 11: vv.1-11

The text below is the Gospel set aside for Palm Sunday, which you might like to use as a meditation in the days leading up to Palm Sunday

Mark 11:1-11 (New Living Translation)

Mark 11
Jesus’ Triumphant Entry
1 As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. 2 “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it and will return it soon.’”

4 The two disciples left and found the colt standing in the street, tied outside the front door. 5 As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it, and he sat on it.

8 Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others spread leafy branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,

“Praise God![a] Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10 Blessings on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David! Praise God in highest heaven!”[b]

11 So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples.

We look forward to seeing you at our Palm Sunday Service

Women's World Day of Prayer 2008

Several ladies from the Cómpeta Congregation attended the Women's World Day of Prayer service which was held at the Lux Mundi Centre in Torre del Mar on Friday.

This years service had been written and devised by the Christian Women of Guyana, and the service in Torre was led by Jennifer Hartsmith-Foy from the Torre Evangelical Church.

Following the service those present enjoyed light refreshments, and had time to chat and share fellowship together.

For more information about the Cómpeta congregation email -

competacongregation@stgeorgemalaga.org

Palm Sunday - 13th March 2008

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, and we hope that you will be at our special Palm Sunday Holy Communion, when we will have the traditional presentation of a palm cross to each member of the congregation.

Did you also know that by tradition, you should keep your palm cross until the following year and on Ash Wwednesday you should burn it to mark the start of Lent, before getting another on Palm Sunday.

For more information about the Anglican congregation in Cómpeta, please email -

competacongregation@stgeorgemalaga.org

Mothering Sunday Service

At our Mothering Sunday service yesterday, we were able to give out a posy of flowers to each of the ladies in the congregation. Indeed, because we had some left over, we were able to give one to each of the men in the congregation as well!!

The flowers were blessed by Raymond Taylor before being handed out to the congregation

Mothering Sunday - 2nd March 2008

We hope that you will be able to be at our special service this coming Sunday. There will be a posy for each lady in our congregation - Mum or not!

For more information email us on -

competacongregation@stgeorgemalaga.org

Forthcoming Services

Make sure that you have these dates in your diary!

We would love to see you there

Welcome to our weblog (posh name for Blog!)

Welcome!

As part of our work to try and increase the attendance at & knowledge of the Anglican congregation in Cómpeta we have recently established this weblog.

Over the coming weeks and months we will be bringing you news and information of what we are doing, and of our special services.

If you would like to us to keep you up to date about what is happening send an email to

competacongregation@stgeorgemalaga.org

and we will add you to our email list, and then you will automatically receive emails from time to time.

In the meantime, why not add this site to your favourites, and make a note to have a regular look at what we are up to.