Costa del Sol church marks 50 years of service

The Anglican Church of San Pedro Alcántara and Sotogrande celebrated five decades of serving the English-speaking Christian community of the western Costa del Sol with a special party at the International Club of Estepona last weekend.

The chaplaincy, which serves an area from Marbella to Algeciras and includes the towns of Estepona, Sabinillas, Manilva, Duquesa and Sotogrande, has marked the golden jubilee year with a series of spiritual and cultural activities, under the guidance of Reverend Tony Carroll, who took over as chaplain in May 2023.

The party was attended by around 50 people, who were welcomed with an opening prayer, followed by the lighting of the 50th anniversary candle presented to the chaplaincy by the area dean, Father Louis Darrant, the priest of St George's in Malaga.

Among the guests were the coordinators of the event, Rosemary Dale, Ros Burns and Liz Vila, who the reverend described as "generous helpers"; also present was Reverend Adrian Low, the previous vicar of the chaplaincy, and Reverend Conrad Hicks, who oversees various churches, including Malta and Gibraltar.

The event included a meal and live entertainment supplied by Savannah and Anna from Sotogrande International School.

There was a raffle with donations from many local businesses and also a special celebration cake made by Margarita Wrann Hartman Wilkendorf, a member of the church's healing ministry.

"The day was a beautiful celebration of fifty years of Anglican life and worship on the Costa del Sol West. The day meant the world to us," Reverend Carroll told SUR in English.

The church was founded by a group of people who met in their houses to pray and study the bible together. The congregation soon began to expand and so the setting up of the chaplaincy was soon proposed, which, at that time, was not an easy task.

The narrow-mindedness of Franco's Catholic Spain refused to accept any religion other than Catholicism: people could not even meet in groups throughout the dictatorship years. This all changed towards the end of Franco's rule and his death in 1975.

While there were informal prayer groups before 1975, Spain did not introduce laws that respected religious tolerance until the transition to democracy. With these new laws, the Anglican church was given full recognition as part of the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe, for which one chaplain was appointed for the whole Costa del Sol.

As the foreign community grew in Marbella, a separate congregation developed and a new congregation grew out of this in Sotogrande: the two churches united under the name of Anglican Church Costa del Sol West. As part of the 50th anniversary, the chaplaincy has rebranded itself the Anglican Church of San Pedro and Sotogrande.

"For those living in the area, the Anglican Church of San Pedro and Sotogrande is still a place of love, joy, peace, welcome and worship," Father Carroll said.