Stephen's Church activities

Since returning to England in October 2011, we have been attending various Anglican churches within a twenty mile radius of Yoxford, and wait to see what God has in store for us. At this stage I don't seem needed, but ..... "Here I am Lord."
When we moved to Spain in 2004, we soon looked to find our nearest Anglican church. We discovered a web entry which suggested there was a church in Alcossebre, some 35 kms to the south. We found it was an Anglican service, organised by Rev John Phillips, who had retired to Spain for reasons of poor health. He held services once a month. The services were held in the Alcossebre Roman Catholic church in the centre of the town. Imagine our amazement when, at the end of the first service we attended, he said "Is there anyone here who can help me increase the number of services we have each month?" I think it took me about two seconds to volunteer! So I became a Worship Leader, and almost instantly the services became fortnightly. Rev. Phillip's wife, Judy, also took services.
	We formed a Church Council to look at how the church might grow. In 2006 it was agreed to take on [and pay for] a part-time priest to develop the Anglican church in Alcossebre, and Rev. Paul Needle was duly appointed. The services became weekly. The congregation grew. It became apparent that there was a real need for a church 30 miles north in the town of Vinarós. In June, 2007, we held our first service in the cliff-top Chapel "Capilla of our Lady of the Ascension" in Vinarós.
Again, we were encouraged to use the Roman Catholic church facilities, and this worked admirably during the summer of 2007. Then we were told the "Capilla" wasn't available in the winter months. As three quarters of the congregation had to sit outside the Capilla during services, changes had already been envisaged. So, in November 2007 we moved our services to the Church of the Virgin of Carmen. I was then given total responsibility for half the services, including running them, giving the sermons etc. and from that time onwards, really took Vinarós 'under my wing'. There were minor inconveniences with the church - we had to slot our services in with the Catholic services, which occasionally inconveniences them, and we began looking at alternative arrangements......
	So, in a leap of faith, we rented premises from May 2009 and named our new venue "Portico". It was an ex-shop premises close to Vinarós Port. It costs around 600€ a month for rental and the main bills [council tax, water and electricity], However, the premises were "ours" and we could hold services anytime we liked. We could also hold other events and fund-raising activities. And that is our current church position in Vinarós. I took Morning Worship services on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sundays in the month. Rev Paul gave Holy Communion on 2nd and 4th Sundays. If he was on holiday, I often took all of them.
We also opened it as a 'drop in' centre on Thursdays, for the disposal of paperbacks, bric-a-brac and somewhere to meet your friends and have a cuppa. It became popular for Brits and Spanish alike, church goers and non-church goers. There is one final 'complication' in this story. It became apparent that there was also a need for Anglican services a further 40 kms to the north in L'Ampolla! So, like Vinarós a year ago, the folk up there were encouraged to develop their own Committee and start organising readers, prayer leaders etc.
The Roman Catholic church in L'Ampolla.	And this is the church in L'Ampolla where we held services twice a month. So much happened in this little corner of Eastern Spain in just six years. I felt my work there was useful. I enjoyed taking the services, leading Wedding Blessings, even taking funerals. Thanks be to God! Stephen taking the San Antonio service in Vinarós, 2009.