As we plan out where we are going to travel, one of the factors that we consider is whether there will be a Christian, preferably Lutheran, church nearby. We plan our travels six to twelve months in advance. At the time that we planned our time in Spain, there was a Lutheran missionary family living in Seville, so it seemed like it would be an easy place to take part in Lutheran worship services in Spain. However, between then and now, the family moved back to the U.S. There are still Lutherans in Seville, and a pastor to serve them, but he lives in Madrid and comes by train only once a month — the other weeks he travels to other congregations throughout Spain, a responsibility he shares with one other pastor. He said that they hope to have some more pastors arriving soon to help share the load. This seems to be a fairly common situation outside the U.S. and makes me think of stories of the days when the United States was first beginning to be settled.
I contacted the church via email to ask about service times here in Seville and was given the contact info for the pastor, who I reached out to via WhatsApp. He let me know when and where they would meet and even offered to meet us at the bus station, though we ended up deciding to use Uber.
Church didn’t take place in a traditional church building, or even a storefront type space, but in the suburban home of one of the members, an older lady with a cute little puppy that liked to snuffle around everyone’s feet. She’s a long time expat who has lived in Spain for more than 40 years. Another member is a 25 year expat, then there was a young Spanish couple, the two of us, and the pastor, who is a missionary from Brazil. Our host had set up her dining room table as an altar and arranged some chairs in a semicircle facing it. The pastor handed out hymnals and worship folders and played recorded accompaniment for the hymns on his phone. Aside from the location and language, it was very much like any Lutheran worship service in the U.S., more similar even than what we experienced in Mexico.
After the service and some announcements there was some time spent chatting, and one of the members offered to take all of us back into the city in her minivan, which we were all grateful to accept.
I had been apprehensive about going to church here because I didn’t know what it would be like in someone’s home. I worried that such an intimate setting would require too much for my conversation skills, which aren’t strong in English, let alone in Spanish. Everyone was really welcoming, though, and did their best to make us feel comfortable. While the internet and streaming worship services make travel easier, it’s not the same as meeting together in person and I really commend the regular members of this small, isolated congregation for the lengths they go to remain faithful in their Lutheran worship.
