What's Tony Thinking

Off to Mexico

Linda and I head to San Miguel De Allende in Mexico on November 1. For the months of November and December I will be the “Minister in Residence” at the Community Church there.

San Miguel is said to be a very beautiful small city. It is about 90 minutes north of Mexico City in the Sierra Madre at about 6,200′ elevation. It is a UNESCO World Heritage City.

There’s a large ex-pat community in San Miguel, which is what makes my position possible. The Community Church is an English-speaking, non-denominational congregation. This is how it does staffing, by having clergy come for two month terms at a time. Pretty ingenious, I’d say. And maybe something other congregations that are having trouble recruiting clergy might want to consider. Especially if their location has some particular attractiveness to it.

Back when we were a young couple we thought that going some place and living there was to be preferred to visiting as short-term tourists. So this is right up our alley. We’ve had similar opportunities for short term residence, related to my work, in Vancouver, Toronto and Austin, all of which were great fun.

Throughout the pandemic Linda has been studying Spanish on-line and via Zoom. Being in San Miguel will give her a chance to take the next step by attending a language school there.

Sounds like there’s lots of arts, culture, music and great food. So we feel quite fortunate. A friend of mine who has served this congregation a couple of times suggested it to me.

During our sojourn I will continue to write blogs (sorry, I can’t help myself!) I’ll probably also post my sermons here. The Community Church asks preachers to work from the texts of the Common Ecumenical Lectionary, which works for me as that has pretty much been my m.o. In addition, the congregation celebrates the sacrament of communion each Sunday. I’ll be interested to see how I respond to that. I’ve always thought it a good idea, but never served a congregation where that was the practice.

Reinhold Niebuhr once argued for communion each Sunday saying, “If the sermon is lousy, at least you have the sacrament.” Hopefully, the people at the Community Church won’t be saying that! But you never know.

Vaya Con Dios amigos!