The altar at St Clement’s at the end of our worship on the Fourth Sunday of Advent © Ricky Yates
This Christmas was our seventh in Prague. As I have explained in a previous post, each year a large number of our regular congregation head off to their home countries for the Christmas – New Year period, in order to celebrate with their wider family and friends. This is further exacerbated by the fact that many in the congregation either teach in one of the various international schools in Prague and/or have children who attend one of these schools. The three week Christmas school holidays, together with summer months of July and August, provide the only real opportunity for a trip back ‘home’.
However, although we held our Service of Lessons and Carols on the evening of Sunday 14th December, in advance of the English-speaking exodus, otherwise services continue as normal. This is for those who do remain in Prague, as well as for visitors to the city over the holiday period. Additionally, as in previous years, we held a Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve, beginning at 23.30, as well as a more family-friendly Eucharist on Christmas Day at 11.00.
This year, as in all previous years, at sometime during November or early December, more than one member of the congregation asked the question of either Sybille or me, “Are you going anywhere for Christmas?” I now have a well-practiced askance look for such questioners, together with an appropriate silence, before asking my question, “Who do think is going to take the Christmas services in Prague?” 😉 There then always follows an embarrassed apology.
The Christmas service which it is always the most difficult to predict and therefore to prepare for, is the Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve. Other than a small core of our regular congregation, who between them take on all the tasks to ensure the service runs smoothly, the rest of those attending are visitors. We never know how many of them there will be! This year, numbers were up on last year, including several young people already in Prague, helping to prepare for the annual Taizé Young Adult European Meeting which started here today.
Imploded altar candle © Ricky Yates
The Christmas Day morning Family Eucharist is always well supported by several Czech married to English-speaker couples and their children who are part of our regular congregation. However, many of these families alternate each year, between spending Christmas in Prague, and Christmas in the home country of the English-speaker. Once again, the congregation is then considerably augmented by visitors to Prague, as it was once more this year.
Just at the end of our Christmas Day service, we did have one unexpected event, when one of the two altar candles imploded without warning. I took this photograph in the vestry, after we had cleared and cleaned the altar. Nobody was hurt and no lasting damage was done – the tissues that we always place under the candle holders, helping enormously. But I was faced with the practical problem of not having a matching replacement candle, and the Roman Catholic shop from where we obtain our altar candles, not being open again until today. In between, there was yesterday, Sunday 28th December – the first Sunday of Christmas 🙁
On Christmas Day morning, we sang that wonderful carol by Christina Rossetti, ‘In the bleak mid-winter’. But at that point, no snow ‘had fallen, snow on snow’. However, this morning, we did have our first serious snow fall of this winter with the possibility of more on the morning of 31st December. Whilst we may not have had a ‘White Christmas’, it looks highly likely that we will have a ‘White New Year’.
Hi Ricky,
I’m glad to hear your Christmas went well despite your ‘Roman’ candle escapade. The snowfall should give everything a ‘seasonal’ touch providing of course it doesn’t come in vast amounts. As for those who query your plans for Christmas – perhaps they think the Church has gone down the ‘outsourcing’ route? Wishing Sybille and you a healthy, happy and peaceful year in 2015.
Hi Sean – Yes, it was a good Christmas, even allowing for the fun with the altar candle. I liked your ‘outsourcing’ suggestion, but it isn’t what people are thinking when they ask the question. Rather it is asking the question without thinking! Best wishes to you for the new year.
Yes indeed Ricky, you are right about the ‘non-thinking’. I was convinced it was a young people problem – they are so ‘electronically connected’ all the time they’ve never had to learn to think or remember for themselves; everything they need to know can be instantly retrieved from the internet, its accuracy or otherwise doesn’t seem to matter! But now it seems to affect all ages in society, I’m unsure if it is down to attention span or just we are all much more separated from each other in our own little cocoons. Mind you, I think forgetting that their own clergyman might be needed in his church at Christmas really ‘takes the biscuit’ as we Irish say.
You must remember Sean, that most of my congregation are relatively young. Only 10% of our Church Electoral Roll (membership) is over 60 – very different to most UK & Ireland congregations. I think it is what you describe as people being ‘in our own little cocoons’. To be fair, every person who does ask the question is always rather embarrassed & apologetic once they realise what they’ve said.
Hi Ricky,
I wasn’t aware of the youth of such a majority of your congregation, as you said it’s exactly the opposite here in Ireland. I hope they are active members at St. Clements for many, many more years.
Hi Sean – the relative youthfulness of the congregation is because very few English-speakers have chosen to retire here. In the past eighteen months, two of our small number of over 60s, have both retired back to their home countries.
As I am a die-hard “church candle-phile,” I have seen similar candle escapades in the past but one learns to ALWAYS have a spare candle or three in the vestry closet, right?
😉
I’ve had problems with Church candles before now Stephen, but never one quite as dramatic as this! I did find another candle in the vestry cupboard with a damaged base which I was able to repair sufficiently to last through last Sunday morning. I now have a brand new pair for the first Sunday of the new year. Unfortunately, they were last ones in that size that the RC shop had, but I do now have the non-imploding candle from the previous pair as a spare, taking heed of your advice 🙂
Merry Christmas, Ricky! Heaps of thanks to you and all of the other professionals who work on the holidays, thus forgoing a chance to go “home”. A colleague of mine is heavily involved with the Taize conference; how neat that they attended your church, imploding candle and all 😉 Enjoy the new year!
Merry Christmas to you, Em – as we are still in the twelve days of the Christmas season 🙂
Having to work at Christmas just seems a normal part of life, something I’ve had to accept since ordination. Not having to do so, will seem very strange when I come to retire! Happy New Year to you & BW!
Sorry to be so late coming to this, Ricky. I’m glad attendance over Christmas was good and hope that no-one will be frightened off from attending again by your mysterious imploding candle. 😉 As for the unthinking question, you’re not alone. Occasionally I’ve had similar queries about the major festivals and even about going away for the weekend! 🙂
Not to worry about coming late to this, Perpetua. Comments are left open for three months from when I publish a new post 🙂
Fortunately, no one was frightened by the imploding candle – most people, especially those in the back pews, were totally unaware of it.
As for the unthinking question, I have to say that it is only here in Prague that I have experienced it. Back in Oxfordshire, parishioners would sometimes ask whether I was going to have a post-Christmas few days off, or during the summer, enquire when I was going to have some holiday. Here, because going to home country for Christmas is so much part of the expat culture, there is the belief that everybody does it!