There is so much lousy news these days on just about every front, but a story about Roman Catholic nuns serving up beer made me chuckle. A congregation of sisters took over a bar formerly run by Benedictine monks in an 11th century location in the town of Vitoria, Spain.
According to the Reuters article:
"I think plenty of people would think it's unusual, because they've never seen it. But you know, it's not a sin to drink a beer," said Miami-born Sister Guadalupe, adding that the bar constituted an "open door for us to evangelise"....Last year, 18 nuns - most of them Colombian - moved in to look after the sanctuary and its pilgrims. Formerly known as the "Pater" bar, the nuns have renamed it Amaren Etxea, or House of the Mother in Basque, one of the oldest European languages.
I wonder if the pilgrims mentioned are following the Camino pilgrimage route? I love that the sisters belong to the Pilgrims of the Eucharist order. The nun pictured below does look as though she's engaged in a sacramental act.
In one of my congregations a fun-loving guy began attending with his family. He was a sales manager for a well-known craft brewery in Ontario. He didn't have a church background but he soon figured out that sufficient revenue is a perpetual issue for congregations. He joked that some of the world's best beers have been made by monks so we could follow their example and start our own brewery. When he said that I could hear our Methodist forebears spinning in their graves. I have no doubt he would have been enthusiastic about the Spanish nuns and their House of the Mother bar. I would drink to that!
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