8th Januaryr 2010

A Chaplain’s Christmas Diary

 

Christmas Eve, 24^th December

Trying to work and celebrate a family Christmas at the same time just doesn’t work for me. This Christmas Eve as usual was taken up with house communions for those people who would normally have been in church tomorrow but are either house-bound or ill. The first house communion was at the home of some church members at Marratxi followed by another at Llucmajor and then it was over to Cala d’Or for the early evening Christmas Mass for our congregation at that side of the island. Normally there are not many people but this year there was quite a congregation. We didn’t have an organist  but we were helped in our carol singing by the organist and choir of Lincoln Cathedral. Now just in case you’re wondering, they weren’t there in person you understand, just on cassette but it does mean that you do have to check beforehand that the number of verses on your carol sheet coincide with the number of verses that they sing. I didn’t and no, they didn’t! So somehow we finished up with one extra verse of music that we didn’t have any words for! No one seemed to care and it was Christmas after all!

 

About half way through the service more and more people kept wandering in – I couldn’t believe that so many people had got the time wrong until I realised that the Roman Catholic Mass was due to start within half-an-hour and that I had got to get a move on, otherwise we would have two priests at the altar fighting for space… and we still had to have a short ceremony for the blessing and dedication of a new baby boy, Raphael, whose parents I had married a few years ago. Afterwards, Don Balthazar, the Roman Catholic parish priest, was very understanding, gave me a huge hug, wished me Happy Christmas, grabbed the vestments and he was on!

 

Barbara would normally have been at our service but wasn’t feeling too well so on the way home to Palma I popped in to see her at Santanyi, she was a little bit hurt that I wouldn’t have a Christmas drink with her but fully understood that I’d still got to drive and that my working day wouldn’t be over until the early hours of tomorrow morning.

 

It’s still Christmas Eve and I’ve now got a Midnight Mass in Palma. Just before 11o’clock our organist, Conway, who lives opposite the church, phoned to stay that people who had arrived early were outside waiting to get in, so with 45 minutes still to go I unlocked church, lit up the crib and turned the radiators on. The strange thing is that there were probably as many Roman Catholics there as Anglicans but it was lovely to know they felt welcome. We sang our carols, I preached my heart out, we celebrated the Eucharist and after much kissing and hugging amidst a general fog of alcoholic fumes we all went off on our separate ways into the night. I cleared up, locked up, turned off the lights and climbed upstairs into the clergy house where I slumped in a chair and watched the Midnight Mass from Westminster Cathedral on BBC 1 whilst the electric blanket warmed up the bed. I was too tired to move and eventually dragged myself to bed at just after 2 o’clock. It’s strange being home alone at Christmas but it really suits me, I could have eaten a dozen Christmas dinners if I’d accepted every invitation I’d had but then I would probably have finished up like the ‘Vicar of Dibley’ in that infamous sprout eating marathon – which I still laugh at just thinking about.

 

 

 

Christmas Day, 25^th December

The church was full this morning for our Christmas morning service. Fortunately there were only three people there who were also at the Midnight Mass but I’m sure that they would have spotted that it was exactly the same sermon – that will serve them right for coming twice in one day!

 

At lunchtime, after a quick visit to the hospital to see Katherine Welch who has had a hip replacement, I went with a friend to Sa Caseta Restaurant in Genova. The place was heaving with Spanish families and as we worked our way through jamon Serrano, chiperones and bacalao it all seemed a long way from turkey, stuffing and sprouts. By 3.30 I was back home, slumped in front of the television waiting for the Royle Family - no not that one, the Liverpool one!  Anyone watching me would have thought I was mad as I rolled around with laughter on my own for what I think was the best television programme of the whole Christmas period. I must visit Congleton one day…and I certainly fancy a holiday in the Bermuda Triangle.

 

Boxing Day, 26^th December

Thank God for Easyjet and John Lennon Airport, Liverpool. I’m starting my Christmas break and I’m off work until 2^nd January. At the airport I had arranged to meet up with Bob Short, the Anglican Chaplain of Ibiza, and his wife Claire for a quick coffee as we both made our way back to the UK. We were laughing and talking so much that I left myself short of time, panicked and thought I’d lost my passport. I searched high and low, emptied the contents of my case on the floor and in doing so broke the zip, so I finished up with my trouser belt around the suitcase looking like a lost tramp. Fortunately Bob found my passport hidden away in one of the compartments and so it was a very quick dash to the departure gate. Liverpool here I come!

 

Monday, 4^th January

Back to work. Alice has died. A member of her family phoned up this morning to tell me and to arrange the funeral for tomorrow at Bon Sosec Crematorium. Alice was quite a remarkable woman, she had worked for many years in the Council offices in Manchester, and then to her absolute surprise, whilst on holiday here, she met and fell in love with Vicente, a Mallorquian. He persuaded her to marry him and to come and live on Majorca. It must have been a huge life change for her but perhaps more so for her mother who she cared for and who came with her. Moving from Manchester to Majorca in those days would have been more scary and traumatic than it is in these ‘Easyjet days’. She was devastated when a few years ago Vicente died but she continued to live in her house in Es Molinar and I remember one summer evening sitting outside her front door in the street, chewing the fat and watching the world go by. Not that I did much talking myself, I just listened because where talking was concerned Alice was a real professional and could have out-talked anybody in the Guinness Book of Records. Two years ago her family found her collapsed on the floor and it was obvious that she needed looking after and moved into the Residencia Font Sana behind Mercadona in Son Armadans. But it wasn’t the same Alice, trying to get any conversation out of her was really difficult and talking, for her, was no longer the pleasure it had once been. Tomorrow we shall give thanks to God for her and with confidence commend her into God’s care.

 

Tuesday, 5^th January

I actually went out and bought a Daily Bulletin today. As a regular columnist I am sent a complimentary copy but it usually takes two or three days to arrive. I wanted to find out what time the Three Kings arrived at Puerto Andratx. According to the Daily Bulletin they were due to arrive by boat at six o’clock and then they would process to the Parish Church. We have previously seen the procession in Palma and thought it would be nice to see it in one of the smaller villages. We had no sooner got the car out of the garage than it started to rain. We pressed on in the hope that something might still be happening but arrived at the Port to find the place deserted and the rain pelting down. I suspect there were quite a few disappointed families and we simply swung the car around and headed home for a cup of tea and an evening in front of the television.

 

Wednesday, 6^th January  Epiphany

It’s Three Kings. For years the Terreno gang have held an alternative ‘Three Queens’ lunch at one of the Chinese restaurants on El Terreno. We are usually in the UK at this time of year but because of the way Christmas fell on a Thursday and I’m only allowed one Sunday off we are back on the island earlier than usual. So it was lovely to be invited by long term resident Estelle to join her table. I wasn’t quite sure what we were in for. Everyone takes a present and there is a secret Santa when everyone gets a present from an unknown person. The restaurant was packed with over 100 ex-pats piled in wielding their chop-sticks and devastating the extensive Chinese buffet. As quite often happens at these events the whole event was rounded off by musical renditions from former members of the Bay Entertainers, suitably cajoled by their Director, Graham Wesson, who assumed the role of Master of Ceremonies! And so another year begins.

 

Fr Robert Ellis is the Anglican Chaplain of Mallorca

St Philip and St James Church

Calle Nunez de Balboa 6,

Son Armadans, Palma 07014

Tel: 971 737279

e-mail:anglicanpalma@gmail.com

www.anglican-mallorca.org