The Parish Meeting

Yesterday after the service at the Cristo del Mar Episcopal Church, there was a parish meeting. They invited me to stay. I'm not sure if this was the "annual meeting" (all Episcopalians know about that!) or if it was just a meeting of the parishioners.

Shirley Wehrs, the wife of the priest, and a couple ladies in the parish, provided a very nice lunch. We munched on croissant chicken and tuna salad sandwiches, delicious fruit salad and chocolate cake or chocolate chip cookies for dessert.




Here we are at lunch. The men moved the chairs we used in the church service, put up the "church tables" and voila! we had a parish hall in which to eat and have the meeting! Father Jack is the one in the collar!

Someone going back for seconds!

Father Jack gave the history of the church here in Vallarta and explained how they were able to buy the property for the church.

He said that 7 years ago, he and Shirley came to PV to go sailing and fishing and they held the first service, with a few friends, on their sailboat. The service outgrew their boat and they moved to a larger boat. Eventually they needed a still larger space so they met at various locations in PV. Last fall they found this piece of property, across from the airport and on a bus line, and were able to buy it.

They had to do extensive remodelling, including a new roof, electrical and plumbing work, putting up walls and installing windows. It is really amazing to see how lovely it is now. There are bathrooms, a kitchen (which has yet to be remodeled) and an office area. Upstairs there is more room for offices and an apartment which they would like to modernize so priests from the USA could come to PV for a vacation, have a place to stay, and hold services during the summer. That would be a nice thing for the church as well as for the vacationing priests and their families.

Buying property in Mexico us not an easy thing to do and they ran into all kinds of obstacles trying to complete the sale. (I thought it was difficult to deal with the phone company! You don't know "problems" until you try to buy a piece of land here!)Finding the money to buy the building is still a dilemma and, of course, they are asking for donations from churches in the USA, as well as pledges from the congregation. The thing that Father Jack asked for the most: your prayers for this mission. I think we can all help with the prayers.

Pentecost Sunday, May 11th, (?) will be the last service here in PV before the Wehrs return to their home in San Diego.

I look forward to next Sunday.

Hasta luego.