28th March, St George, Malaga, 7pm, Eucharist for Maundy Thursday and Stripping of the Altar

Occuring
for 1 hour
Venue
St George´s Church, Malaga
Address
St George´s Church, Malaga, English Cemetery Avenida de Pries 1 MALAGA, 29016

In our Holy Week services, we are no longer spectators but participants. Tonight, we sit with the disciples eating and drinking at a solemn and haunting meal with Jesus in the Upper Room. As Jesus invites us to share in bread and wine, he says those mysterious words that have become central to our celebration of the Holy Eucharist: ‘this is my body, this is my blood’. And soon afterwards, that trusted disciple, Judas, makes a hasty exit.

At the end of the Eucharist, the altar is stripped. Why? The altar represents Christ, and the stripping of the altar reminds us how he was stripped of his garments and was exposed naked to the insults of his persecutors.

After supper we go to the garden of Gethsemane to pray. Or in our case, at the end of our Eucharist, we go to the cemetery garden to watch and pray. Jesus didn’t sleep that night, and his disciples slept only fitfully. In fact he didn’t hesitate to rouse them….as if perhaps he wanted companionship during those late night hours. So let us give him ours.

And then, suddenly, Judas returns, the disciple now turned betrayer, and we share the shock and fear of the disciples as he is accompanied by armed soldiers, and Jesus is arrested. And so Maundy Thursday ends ... in chaos.

The preacher at this service, and others at St George's for Holy Week, is Brother MIchael Jacob SSF

Good Friday Stations of the Cross, 29th March 12 noon, St George, Malaga

Occuring
for 1 hour
Venue
St George's Church, Malaga
Address
St George's Church, Malaga, Avenida de Pries 1 Malaga, 29016, Spain

The Stations of the Cross are a series of 14 images depicting Christ on the day of his crucifixion. The stations were a way of re-enacting the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, the path that Jesus took to Calvary and his crucifixion. The idea was to help people make a spiritual pilgrimage through contemplation of Christ´s final steps.

Here in Spain many towns have created a pilgrim route in the form of the stations of the cross and most churches have the 14 stations around their walls.

We will meet in church at 12 noon and follow the stations on the church walls and on the altar (see photo attached). As with other events in Holy Week, we are no longer spectators, but participants. As we walk the 14 stations with our Lord, we meet Simon of Cyrene, the women of Jerusalem, St Veronica who wiped Christ's face with her veil; we feel the weight of the cross and the weight of betrayal, and we suffer the pain as Christ is whipped, as he stumbles and falls, and the humiliation as he is stripped of his clothes. And the despair as he carries his cross up that sweaty hill, to be nailed to it at the top. And to die...in agony.

"Lord, … You accepted patiently and humbly the rebuffs of human life, as well as the torture of the cross. Help us to accept the pains and conflicts that come to us each day as opportunity to grow as people and become more like you……… that we can come to live more fully - only by dying with you, that we can rise with you." (Mother Teresa)

Holy Communion

Occuring
Every Sunday at for 1 hour
Venue
Velez-Malaga Anglican Congregation
Address
La Antigua Capilla de San José Calle Linares 7 Velez-Malaga, 29700, Spain

Holy Communion (occasionally Morning Prayer) is celebrated at 10.30 am each Sunday.

Eucharist of the Resurrection, Sunday 31st March 10.30am

Occuring
for 1 hour
Venue
Velez-Malaga Anglican Congregation
Address
La Antigua Capilla de San José Calle Linares 7 Velez-Malaga, 29700, Spain

One of the things people challenge Christians with is the apparent absence of God in the world. When there is tragic loss of life, where there is famine or gross injustice, where then is God?

So it is an extraordinary twist of fate that at the heart of the greatest Christian festival of Easter, there is an absence – the absence of a body in the tomb.

When Jesus died on Good Friday, his disciples scattered - confused, fearful, without direction, without a future. But the absence of a body on Easter Sunday was altogether different. Now they saw Jesus everywhere – in the garden, on the road to Emmaus, as they fished, as they gathered together. And not as some spooky ghost of the past, but as the recognisable presence of the Son of God, risen from the dead.

This is what we are celebrating this Eastertide – our God, real, alive, recognisable and present. Martin Luther wrote: “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime”. He has also written that promise on every human heart.

Monthly Service on Zoom

Occuring
Monthly. Every Last Tuesday at for 30 mins
Venue
An online service using Zoom
Address
An online service using Zoom, so no need to download software. Simply click the link we provide, or use access codes: Meeting ID 869 1894 5160, Passcode 978313

We are a small friendly ZOOM congregation, quite relaxed and we share out the tasks of readings, prayers, etc.

We started the ZOOM service when COVID forced us to close our churches. We then met every Sunday. When the Churches finally reopened at the beginning of 2022, we switched to a monthly service.

You are very welcome to join us next last Tuesday of the month. The service begins at 10.30am and you can join via ZOOM from 10.20am.

If you'd like to join in, contact Peter Read: [email protected].