Holy Week in Mexico City

See above under "Things are different here." 

See also "The Book of COMMON Prayer" since the words and the ceremonial of our worship are held in common, i.e. things are the same, to some extent no matter where one worships within the Anglican Communion.
 
That said, one thing that is VERY different here is that Holy Week (Semana Santa) is a huge vacation week, and lots of folks leave for a week or more and are out of the city and onto the beach instead of at Holy Week services.  Most schools, for example, have two weeks of vacation -- both Holy Week and the week after Easter.  Evidently, this is the only family vacation time that many Mexicans are able to take.  So I was prepared for smaller congregations.  That plus for the last two years, during the interim period, Christ Church has really NOT had a regular schedule of Holy Week services.  So I really had to start (or, more accurately, restart) the Holy Week tradition. 

Maundy Thursday was a kind of a bi-lingual service -- not completely, since it was mostly in English,  with the gospel read in both languages, and the paragraphs of the Eucharistic prayer alternating between Spanish and English.  We did  the stripping and washing of the altar, but not the ceremonial footwashing.  (Although they have done it in the past)

Good Friday was entirely in English, and went very well.  But  -- and this is different -- a group of Christ Church parishioners have the tradition of a Good Friday barbecue!!!  So after a beautiful and intense Good Friday service, I went to the home of one of the priest Associates where we enjoyed carned asada, grilled chicken, chorizo.  There were about 25 people there -- priest associate Susan Dennen de Rodriguez called them the heretics -- mostly from the South of the city.  It was great fun, actually, and I suppose that is the heresy -- not only NOT to be fasting on Good Friday but to have so much fun.  One touching moment happened at the end, when Susan (the priest associate and hostess) presented my in a private moment with a cross she had been wearing through the whole two years of the interim -- as a kind of prayer for the church and for the next rector. It was a small silver cross botonee with Christ Church engraved across the side piece.  I will treasure it. 

In fact, I wore the cross the next day for the Great Vigil of Easter.  One of the best parts of the service was lighting the new fire outside on the patio, with the choir and congregation gathered around.  Missue, the sexton, had prepared the fire in a tiny hibachi.  I don't know what she used, but that fire REALLY BURNED.  What didn't burn as well was the wick of the Paschal Candle, which we had a very hard time getting lit.  The Paschal Candle is enormous -- not so much long as thick, and with a wick that looked like a hunk of rope hanging out of the top.  We actually got it lit once, and then it went out. 

Other than that the service went quite well.  Again it was a bi-lingual service, with part in English and part in Spanish.  Up until the last moment, I did not know if we were going to do the renewal of baptismal vows in English or Spanish.  I said to one of the priests there -- let me know whether there are more Spanish or English speakers present, and that's the language we'll use.  It was English. 

For Easter Sunday morning I thought the ushers were being overly optimistic when they set up folding chairs in the back and in the aisles.  They were not optimistic.  The church was packed, and nearly every seat was taken.  The choir was swelled by the ranks of many of the choir director's past and present students, and they sang selections from Vivaldi's Gloria.  The guest organist was the (I think retired) organist from the cathedral in Speyer in Germany, who had come down to do a masterclass in choral conducting and was roped in at the last minute.  He had a very florid style -- lots of improvisations and extra cadenzas and fancy businesss with each hymn.  The organ is a twenty-something year old Allen electronic, and it's in pretty bad shape.  It seems to have only two possibilities for volume -- loud and very loud.  Not great for those contemplative and serene moments during the distribution of communion. 

The congregation responded well to the sermon I preached, and several folks said they would be back.  (Which is the point, right?)