A Wedding and a Baptism

The interior of St. Clement’s Church, set up for the wedding © Ricky Yates

Last weekend, I had the privilege of officiating at two ‘occasional offices’, to use the term by which baptisms, weddings and funerals, are collectively known within the Anglican Church. On the afternoon of Saturday 7th September in Prague, I conducted my second wedding of 2013, whilst on the evening of Sunday 8th September, I conducted my first-ever baptism in Brno.

Unlike my earlier wedding this year, this second wedding took place in our worshipping home in Prague – Kostel sv Kliment/St. Clement’s Church. This has several major advantages from my point of view, not the least being that getting there was far less problematic than travelling to Bouzov Castle 🙂

As I have frequently written and said previously, the geography of a building, does impact on the way a . . . → Read More: A Wedding and a Baptism

Wedding at Bouzov Castle

Bouzov Castle © Ricky Yates

On Monday 29th July, I conducted my first wedding of 2013, when Daniel, the British bridegroom, married Iva, his Czech bride, at Bouzov Castle. The castle lies in the rolling wooded hills of Moravia, about thirty minutes drive north-west of Olomouc.

As long-standing readers of my blog may know, this was not the first time I have conducted a wedding at Bouzov Castle. For I conducted my first-ever wedding in the Czech Republic at this same venue just over four years ago, also between a British bridegroom, Lea, and his Czech bride, Petra. You can read all about it and see the photos, here.

It was finding this post about Lea and Petra’s wedding on my blog, that prompted Daniel to contact me earlier this year, asking if I would be willing and available to conduct their wedding. As with . . . → Read More: Wedding at Bouzov Castle

Getting over the ‘ová’

Advert for the new book by that drunk British author called J. K. Rowlingová – ‘J. K. Rolling over’ 🙂 © Ricky Yates

One of the complications of the Czech language, is that nouns have different endings according to their gender and the case being used. As consequence, nearly all Czech females, have a surname that is slightly different from, and longer than, the surname of their father or husband, from which it is derived. In most cases, this occurs by the addition of ‘ová’ onto the end of the male surname.

The obvious example to illustrate this point, is the now-retired, famous Czech tennis player Martina Navrátilová. Martina’s step-father, who married her mother when she was six, is Miroslav Navrátil. She took his name and thus is Martina Navrátilová. There are some exceptions to this rule, which arise when the male surname ends in . . . → Read More: Getting over the ‘ová’

A Baptism

Allison, Jan & Martin with me outside St. Clement’s Church, following the baptism © Ricky Yates

One of the privileges of being a Christian Minister is being part of what sociologists call people’s ‘major life events’ when I conduct baptisms, weddings or funerals. And because of the somewhat unusual nature of the Prague Anglican congregation, I have conducted relatively few of each of these over the past almost four years I have been here. This in turn has meant that I have been able to give each of these ‘occasional offices’, (as they are collectively known), more attention to detail than might normally otherwise be possible.

All but two of the weddings that I have conducted since arriving in Prague have been cross-cultural – between an English-speaker and a Czech/Slovak/Belarusian. These have inevitably raised cultural and linguistic issues about which I have written previously . . . → Read More: A Baptism

A busy July weekend

Prague from Petrín Hill © Ricky Yates

Last weekend – 14th-15th July, was both busy, but also most enjoyable. For as well as Sunday worship, I also conducted my third wedding of this year between Leigh, a Welshman and Klára, his Czech bride. The marriage took place in the Old Catholic Cathedral Church of St Lawrence on Petrín Hill from which there is this wonderful view across the centre of Prague.

This wedding presented very similar issues to those I outlined in my earlier post about my first wedding of 2012. Klára’s parents and older relatives have no English whilst none of Leigh’s family speak Czech. So I adopted the same solution, by getting the couple to produce a completely bilingual order of service to allow everyone present to follow the liturgy and Bible Readings, even when they were not being spoken in . . . → Read More: A busy July weekend