Last Wednesday, 21st December, I took my ‘day off’ for the week and went for a 12km circular walk through another part of Ceský Ráj. You can see and read about my two previous visits here and here. The day was dry and cold, -3°C according to the ‘Carly’, but unfortunately the afternoon sunshine promised by the BBC online weather forecast, didn’t materialise 🙁
I started my walk at Hrad Kost / Kost Castle, built on one of the rocky outcrops which are such a feature of Ceský Ráj. The castle is open to the public between April – October, but not during the winter months. Therefore I was able to park the ‘Carly’ in the castle car park without paying a 50Kc fee 🙂
After walking for 3km along the red waymarked route, I arrived in Libošovice where, despite being a relatively small village, there is this sizeable statue of Jan Hus.
Then my walk took me across more open country along a snow-covered gravel track. Seeing this view did get me singing, ‘In the bleak mid-winter’ 🙂 Note the red waymark on the back of the road sign.
My return journey along the green waymarked route, took me through the small village of Rytírova Lhota where there was this delightful nativity display.
This year, the season of Advent has been as long as it possibly can be – a full four weeks. In 2017, quite the reverse happens with the Fourth and final Sunday of Advent, also being Christmas Eve!
I have very much appreciated the length of the Advent season this year, for a number of reasons. One slightly selfish reason is the cause of Advent lasting fully four weeks – the result of Christmas Day falling on a Sunday, which is every clergyperson’s delight! No need for services on three successive days, or on three out of four days. Instead, a full week beforehand, to prepare for services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and then an uninterrupted week afterwards, to take as a post-Christmas break 🙂
I also very much appreciated the way the Sundays fell in Advent this year, allowing me to hold a Service of Lessons and Carols in Dresden, Brno and Prague on separate Sundays. Last year, the Brno and Dresden services had to be held on the same Sunday evening.
As happens each year, I arrived at Church in Prague on Advent Sunday morning, to be greeted by a beautiful hanging Advent ring, with the first candle already lit. This is one of the joys of borrowing the Church building from our host Kliment congregation of the Ceskobratská Církev Evangelická / Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren – the main Czech Protestant Church. They provide the Advent ring at no cost to us! All we have to do is ensure we snuff out the candle(s) at the end of our service, as part of our duty of leaving the building safe and secure.
In previous years, the candles have always been red. This year, for no apparent reason of which I am aware, the candles are white. Certainly they seem to be of a better quality as, over the four Sundays of Advent, none of them has burnt down so much as to need being replaced, despite one of them being alight for nine services 🙂
The Order of Service for Sunday 4th December at 6pm
On the evening of Sunday 4th December, the second in Advent, I conducted the December English-language Anglican Service in the Frauenkirche, Dresden – A Service of Nine Lessons and Carols for Christmas. At the equivalent service last year, I was introduced as the new service coordinator and read one of the lessons. This year, I had to organise the complete service, including finding several different readers.
I fortunately inherited the tradition of a Berlin-based choir, the Embassy Singers, under their musical director Andrew Sims, singing at this service. They sang five choir items as well as supporting the congregational carols. A number of choir members volunteered to read and I took Lay Reader Jack Noonan along with me to also be one of the lesson readers.
On the evening of Sunday 11th December, I conducted a Service of Lessons and Carols in Brno, marking the fifth anniversary of our first ever Brno service held on 18th December 2011. Despite getting the service well publicised we were only a little congregation of sixteen people but we still made a joyful noise with our carol singing. Most importantly, all those who attended expressed their enjoyment of the service.
On Sunday 18th December, I didn’t travel anywhere further than within Prague itself. It was the one Sunday in the year when we hold two services, our regular 11.00 Sung Eucharist in the morning and a Service of Lessons and Carols in the evening. For both services we were blessed by having a visiting choir of Old Blundellians – former students of Blundells School, Tiverton, Devon UK, under their recently retired music master Andrew Barlow.
In the morning, they sang a setting of Kyrie, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei, written by Andrew Barlow, together with an Introit, and two anthems during the administration of Communion. In the evening, they sang five choir carols as well as supporting the congregational ones. I particularly enjoyed their final choir carol – ‘In the bleak mid-winter’, to a setting by Harold Darke.
Along with wonderful congregational singing and choral music, probably the most encouraging aspect of Advent 2016, has been the number of people attending worship in Prague on each Sunday morning. This has ranged from 73 to over 80 when our normal average Sunday attendance is around 50 – basically a 50% increase! Unfortunately, I’ve no photographs to illustrate our Advent worship at St Clement’s, Prague, so instead I finish with a photograph of one of several magnificent sunsets that we had during the early days of December.
Today is Armistice Day, marking the signing of the armistice, ninety-eight years ago, which brought an end to the First World War at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. In the USA, it is known as Veterans Day and is kept as a public holiday.
During the First World War, what is now the Czech Republic was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which, together with Germany and the Ottoman Empire, formed the eventually defeated Central Powers. The Czechs were a subjugated people, increasingly seeking much greater autonomy or self-rule. As I explained in my previous post, two weeks before the official end of WW1, the independent new nation state of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed.
Yet despite the rise of Czech nationalism, many Czech people fought and died for an Empire that they didn’t really believe in. In many towns and cities across the country, there are memorials such as this one in Zbraslav, to those who gave their lives in the First World War.
Today is also St Martin’s Day, the Feast Day of St. Martin of Tours. As a fourth century Roman soldier, Martin is said to have cut his military cloak in two and given one half to a scantily clad beggar outside the city of Amiens, to protect him from the freezing weather. Later, after leaving the army, Martin became a monk and hermit, before being made Bishop of Tours in 371.
Here in the Czech Republic, there are numerous traditions associated with St Martin’s Day. There is a Czech saying, ‘Martin prijíždí na bílém koni‘ – ‘Martin is coming on a white horse’, indicating that today is when the first snowfall can be expected. This year in the Czech Republic, Martin came quite early with the first snowfall on the higher mountains some two weeks ago. Even here in Prague, we had our first dusting of snow, twenty-four hours before St. Martin’s Eve.
Many restaurants offer a St Martin’s special menu which always features roast goose. According to tradition, the association of a goose with St Martin is because he was so reluctant to be ordained a bishop, that he hid in a goose pen, only for his hiding place to be given away, by the cackling of the geese.
The appropriate accompaniment to St Martin’s goose is Svatomartinské vino, a young wine from the recent harvest. This is produced in the vineyards of South Moravia and always becomes available for the first time on 11th November each year. In more recent times it has been marketed in a big way in a similar manner to Beaujolais nouveau.
All that I describe here are examples of the keeping of traditions which are Christian in origin by a now rather irreligious Czech population. The Epiphany door-marking illustrated at the end of this post and referred to in following comments falls into the same category.
Friday 28th October 2016 – was a public holiday here in the Czech Republic, celebrating the ninety-eighth anniversary of the declaration of independence of a country that no longer exists 🙂 In the dying days of World War One, the new nation of Czechoslovakia was declared independent of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on 28th October 1918, by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who then served as President of the ‘First Republic’, until 1935.
Although the state of Czechoslovakia ceased to exist on 1st January 1993, following the ‘Velvet Divorce’, the public holiday remains! Interestingly, it is no longer kept as a public holiday in Slovakia. Instead, they have double celebrations on 1st January each year, both to mark the New Year and to celebrate the establishment of the separate Slovak state, on 1st January 1993.
Inevitably, with the public holiday this year falling on a Friday, it made the perfect excuse for many Czechs, to leave the city and spend a long weekend at the chata or chalupa, out in ‘the nature’. But it was also marked by two other significant things.
As well as the official celebration of Czechoslovak Independence Day at Prague Castle, overseen by President Miloš Zeman, which was boycotted by quite a number of the ‘great and the good’ because of the recent behaviour of the President, there was a very well-attended rival unofficial celebration in Staromestské námestí/Old Town Square. And following recent new legislation, shops with a floor area in excess of 200 sq. metres, were required to be closed for the day, much to the annoyance of many retailers, who are threatening to challenge the law in the courts.
Today, Monday 31st October – is Reformation Day / Reformationstag, marking the occasion on 31st October 1517, when Martin Luther sent a letter to the Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeberg, protesting about the sale of indulgences and enclosing a document setting out his disputation with Roman Catholic teaching and practice of that time, which has become known as ‘The 95 Theses’. According to tradition – though now disputed by some scholars, he also pinned these ’95 Theses’ to the door of the Schlosskirche /Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
As I explained in a blog post written four years ago, in several more Protestant German Bundesländer, each year, 31st October is kept as a public holiday. The Church of England also remembers today, ‘Martin Luther – Church Reformer’, as part of its calendar.
This year, many more people have become aware of the significance of Reformation Day, because of Pope Francis visiting Sweden, to share in two ecumenical services with members of the Lutheran World Federation, seeking to bring about reconciliation between two major strands of Christianity, after four hundred and ninety-nine years of division.
Certainly, as far as I am concerned, I am much happier celebrating the life and teaching of Martin Luther today, rather than participating in any of the stupidities that both children and adults involve themselves with marking Halloween in the USA and the UK. I am pleased to say that, despite the efforts of commercial interests and some American and British expats, Halloween is not really seen by most Czech people as part of their culture. Long my this continue!
Tomorrow, Tuesday 1st November – is All Saints’ Day, the designation now most commonly used for what was once known as All Hallows’ Day, from which the word ‘Halloween’ is derived – the eve of All Hallows’ Day. I suspect the vast majority of people dressing up in stupid costumes and encouraging children to go around frightening people, haven’t a clue as to where the name ‘Halloween’ actually comes from 🙁
In many countries, tomorrow is a public holiday, including Austria, Slovakia, Poland, and the Bundesländ of Freistaat Bayern/Bavaria, which together surround the irreligious Czech Republic, where it in NOT a public holiday. But the day is a wonderful opportunity to both remember and give thanks, for all the saints who have gone before us, and to seek to learn from and follow their examples.
In between these significant days came yesterday, Sunday 30th October. What were we to mark and celebrate at St Clement’s? Well, as St Paul bids us to do, we prayed for ‘those in authority’, in our situation, particularly for those in authority in the Czech Republic. The children and young people, in their time together, learned about Martin Luther and Reformation Day. And we gave great voice to the hymn ‘For all the saints’, to the wonderful tune, Sine nomine, by Ralph Vaughan-Williams.
But in all of this, I was also very aware of another significant date. With it being Sunday 30th October 2016, it was exactly six months until the end of my time as Chaplain of St. Clement’s, Prague, as I’ve now written to bishops and various others, stating that I will retire on Sunday 30th April 2017.
‘How did you end up in Prague?’, is a question I have quite frequently been asked over the past eight years. My simple answer is always, ‘Because I applied for the job’. I chose to come here – I wasn’t sent.
For the past twenty years or more, nearly every vacant position in the Church of England has been advertised in the Church press. If you wish to apply, you complete a now fairly standard application form and submit it by the closing date. In due course, a short list of candidates is drawn up and those selected are invited for interview. An appointment is then made.
Putting it in simple terms, the Church of England has adopted the normal secular method of filling a vacancy. A change of position or advancement within the Church is now by competitive interview, rather than based on who you know. One can always cite instances where this still isn’t quite the case, but normally it is.
As part of this process, the vacant parish/benefice/chaplaincy has to draw up a profile, describing what they are like – the situation in which the new appointee will have to minister. They also have to write a person specification, saying what kind of individual they would like as their next Rector/Vicar/Priest/Chaplain. I must say that the expectations expressed in some person specifications that I have read, have left me feeling that only the Archangel Gabriel need apply, and even if he did, there would be no guarantee that he would be appointed 🙂
Whilst overall, the process does seem fair and right, I do have one major problem with it in relation to those of us called to ordained ministry within the Church. One question on the application form asks, ‘Please specify how you meet each of the selection criteria?’ In other words, how do you fulfil all the expectations contained in the person specification?
Answering this question in the manner expected, requires you to say what a wonderful, gifted Christian minister you are – basically that you are the best thing since sliced bread! You have to sell yourself and I find that being at complete odds with my calling.
I have expressed this view verbally, many times in the past, particularly quoting the words of St Paul; ‘For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.’ Romans 12. 3. Yet to be appointed to a new position, you are required to do the exact opposite – to think very highly of yourself.
As a result, there are inevitably some people who have gained new positions and advancement within the Church, in part because of being very good at selling themselves. And others who should have gained preferment, but haven’t, because of having the sober judgement that St. Paul recommends.
One person I knew, who was junior to me in the sales and marketing department of the publishing company I worked for before ordination, trained for ministry shortly after me and is now the Dean of a Cathedral. He was very good at self-promotion when in secular employment and I’m sure that has contributed to him being where he is now. Interestingly, in the process, he has gone from being a Charismatic Evangelical to being a Liberal Catholic 🙂
I am not saying that one shouldn’t be self-aware. As an ordained priest, I should know what are my strengths and what are my weaknesses. But when people ask me how a service has gone, especially a wedding or a funeral, I usually say in response, ‘Ask those who were there; those who were on the receiving end of my ministry’.
I have been promising to write a blog post on this very matter for a few years. But I have finally been prompted into doing so by a series of verses from the Gospel of Luke which have occurred within the Gospel readings set for recent Sundays by the Revised Common Lectionary that we, and so many other Churches, follow.
In Luke 14. 10-11, Jesus says that, ‘when you are invited (to a wedding banquet), go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’ That last sentence recurs again at the end of the Gospel passage I shall be preaching about tomorrow – the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, as recorded in Luke 18. 9-14.
Jesus is also recorded, speaking to his disciples, saying, ‘So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!” ’ Luke 17. 10. In other words, don’t go around saying how wonderful we are in all that we do.
Basically, my premise is that the Church should be encouraging and admiring humility amongst its ordained clergy. Self-awareness, yes – but not self-aggrandisement. Having this week, written and sent my formal letter of resignation as Chaplain of St Clement’s, Prague from 30th April 2017 when I will retire from full-time ministry, all I can say is that I’m very pleased that I will not once again have to sell myself, in order to gain a new post.
