Ricky – Page 25

My April 2016 visit to the UK – Brownsea Island & St Tecwyn’s Church, Llandecwyn

The castle on Brownsea Island, as seen from the ferry from Sandbanks © Ricky Yates

Following worship at St. Clement’s on the morning of Sunday 17^th April, when I and the congregation bid farewell to Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz, I was away from the Czech Republic for the rest of the month, only returning to Prague on the afternoon of Saturday 30^th April, ready to lead worship the following day. It was first a week of annual leave, which was then followed by attending my final ICS Chaplains Conference.

I drove from Prague to the UK over a period of two days, following the almost identical route I described two years ago, when I last made this journey. The only difference this time was that I spent the night of Sunday 17^th, staying with the York family in Luxembourg. Then when I drove off the ferry in Dover the following afternoon, rather than heading north to the East Midlands, I instead headed west to Bournemouth to spend two nights with my eldest sister June and brother-in-law Garry.

On Tuesday 19^th April, I had a delightful day out with June and Garry, visiting Brownsea Island, situated in the middle of Poole Harbour. We first drove to nearby Sandbanks, where Garry parked the car, and then took the small passenger ferry across to the island.

Lord Baden Powell memorial © Ricky Yates

Now in the care of the National Trust, Brownsea Island is famous as the site of the first-ever Scout Camp organised by Lord Baden Powell in 1907.

It is also one of the few places in southern England where indigenous red squirrels survive, largely because non-native grey squirrels have never been introduced to the island. The red squirrels are normally quite shy but this one came near enough for me to photograph.

Brownsea also has a small ornamental population of peacocks. This one even kindly posed for me.

View across Poole Harbour from Brownsea Island © Ricky Yates

The island is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long and 0.75 miles (1.2 km) wide and consists of 500 acres (202.34 ha) of woodland (pine and oak), heathland and salt-marsh. We walked right around the island, stopping for our picnic lunch en-route. The weather was kind to us and I was delighted to visit somewhere I had seen from a passing cross-channel ferry, but where I had never previously set foot.

On Wednesday 20^th April, I set off from Bournemouth on the south coast of England, heading for North Wales. I had arranged to stay that night at Bryn Derw, a small Bed and Breakfast establishment located just outside Talsarnau. This was to enable me to enjoy a scenic train journey the next day, about which more in my next post.

This was the view from in front of Bryn Derw, with blue skies, warm sunshine, and being able to see the tops of the mountains – a relatively rare event in Wales 🙂

After putting my belongings into my room for the night, I drove up a steep narrow lane into the hills behind, hoping to get a better view across to the mountains of Snowdonia and the nearby estuary of the Afon Dwyryd. On both counts, I was not disappointed as you can see.

The estuary of Afon Dwyryd © Ricky Yates

St Tecwyn's Church, Llandecwyn © Ricky Yates — St Tecwyn’s Church, Llandecwyn © Ricky Yates

But what was even more pleasing, was finding this beautifully located and very peaceful little Church. It is dedicated to St Tecwyn, an ancient Welsh saint. These days, it is only used for occasional services in summer – Evening Prayer in Welsh. But the Church is kept open for visitors and as a peaceful place for prayer. I only discovered it by pure chance but was thrilled to do so.

Farewell to Karen

From l to r: Yours Truly, Rev'd Dr Karen Moritz, Jack Noonan © Sybille Yates — From l to r: Yours Truly, Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz, Jack Noonan © Sybille Yates

On Sunday 17^th April, I, together with the St Clement’s congregation, bid a sad farewell to my friend and ministerial colleague, Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz.

As I explained in a post in May 2011, Karen is an ordained minister of word and sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She has been in the Czech Republic since September 2010 as a mission co-worker, working with the Ceskobratrská církev evangelická (CCE) / Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB), the main Czech Protestant Church, which is a united Lutheran/Presbyterian denomination. The Kliment congregation of the CCE/ECCB own Kostel sv Kliment, the Church building where we worship in Prague.

Since successfully getting Karen licensed under the Ecumenical Canons of the Church of England, she has contributed enormously to the life of St Clement’s during her time in Prague. She has regularly preached, led non-Eucharistic worship in my absence, helped with the administration of Holy Communion, and led intercessions.

Karen has also been a great supporter and contributor to our midweek activities. In 2014, she organised and led our Lent Study Course entitled ‘Discovering your spiritual gifts’ which was much appreciated by all those who attended. Then in 2015, she was the main organiser, as well as one of the speakers, at probably our best attended Lent Course during my time as Chaplain, looking at the Bohemian Reformation.

During her time with us, Karen has become a good friend of many in the congregation and on occasions, has given a listening ear, together with pastoral care and support, to a number of people. As I know from having, at various times in the past, three different ordained female colleagues working with me, sometimes an individual needs the insights that a female minister brings, rather than mine. None of us are gifted in all areas!

At a personal level, what I have very much valued and what I will miss the most, is having someone with whom I have been able to share issues or particular situations that I’ve faced in my ministry. Being able to talk with Karen, have the insights and understanding that she has gained from her many years of ministry in a variety of situations, knowing that anything said will be kept with complete confidentiality, has been invaluable to me.

The reason Karen has now returned to the USA is tied up with decision making, or lack of willingness to make a decision, within the Synodal Council and HQ of the CCE/ECCB. It is my personal view that they have basically shot themselves in the foot! They will only fully realise all that Karen has contributed, most notably getting a whole variety of things into English rather than Czenglish, and organising various events and visits for members of partner Churches, when she is no longer there to do these things.

As I write this, Karen still does not have a definite new position to go to. She will continue to be employed by Presbyterian World Mission until the end of June and over this month and next, will be carrying out deputation work as well as hopefully attending interviews for a possible future post. I am very much hoping for positive news very soon.

On Sunday 17^th April, when the photograph at the beginning of this post was taken, Karen was the preacher at our 11.00 Sung Eucharist. You can listen to her sermon here, though the sound quality is not as good as I would like it to be. My Licensed Reader Jack Noonan, led our intercessions and Karen and Jack administered the two chalices.

Because Karen had already packed and dispatched most of her belongings back to the USA, including her black preaching gown and stoles, Jack and I dressed her up as an Anglican 🙂 , wearing my black cassock and surplice, together with a white stole that lives in our wardrobe in the Church vestry.

Thank you, Karen, for everything you have given in the five and half years you have been such an intrinsic part of St. Clement’s. We will miss you enormously!

Electing a new Old Catholic Bishop for the Czech Republic

As I have explained previously in this blog, the Prague Anglican congregation legally functions as the English-speaking parish of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic or Farní obec Starokatolické církve pro vericí anglického jazyka v Praze. This came about as the result of a covenant signed in September 2000 by Bishop John Hind, the then Anglican Bishop of the Diocese in Europe, and Bishop Dušan Hejbal of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic.

Under the covenant, we are treated both as a Chaplaincy in the Anglican Diocese in Europe, and as a constituent parish of the Czech Old Catholic Church. One consequence of this is that I am expected, along with one lay person from my congregation, to attend any meeting of the Synod of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic when they take place. Fortunately, this is normally only once every three years as the meetings, which usually take place over a couple of days, are conducted entirely in Czech 🙁

Back in October 2010, Sybille I broke into our holiday to attend a Synod meeting held in Moravia, as mentioned in this post, whilst three years later in 2013, I attended the next Synod meeting, along with a lay representative, which was conveniently held in Prague. But last year, Bishop Dušan called an extra Synod meeting, in order to gain approval for his proposal to stay on as Bishop for a further three years beyond his sixty-fifth birthday in July 2016, exercising a provision within the Church’s constitution. Unfortunately, the date of that Synod meeting fell in the middle of our previously booked holiday in Poland, so I was unable to attend, nor could we find a lay representative to go either.

At that meeting in October 2015, the Synod decided not to accept Bishop Dušan’s proposal. Thus was set in motion, a procedure that had not happened for over twenty years – a further Synod meeting was called to take place in April 2016, to elect a new Old Catholic Bishop. As I have said numerous times, I do realise that ‘a new Old Catholic Bishop’, does sound like a contradiction in terms 🙂

This Synod meeting took place between the evening of Thursday 7^th and the morning of Saturday 9^th April at Želiv Monastery, located in the Vysocina/Highlands, about 100km south-east of Prague. I was accompanied by one of my Churchwardens, Stephen Weeks, who the Church Council had previously elected to be their lay representative. After an opening Eucharist, followed by our evening meal, the Synod meeting began.

Fortunately, whilst having supper, Stephen and I were overheard speaking to each other in English, by a lay member of the Synod called Vlad’ka. Like many of the Old Catholic laity, she had no idea of our existence as an English-speaking parish in the Czech Old Catholic Church and asked us in English, who we were and what we were doing there. Once we had explained, she kindly offered to interpret for us as she is a teacher of English to vocational students in Brno. She sat between us, interpreting all that was being said, enabling Stephen and I to follow the proceedings.

The evening session began with the two candidates to be the new Bishop, each making a presentation as to their understanding of the role and what they hoped to achieve if elected. There was then a short break, during which time written questions could be submitted to the moderator for the candidates to answer in the following session. Stephen and I compiled a couple of questions which we wanted to ask, which Vlad’ka kindly translated into Czech for us to submit.

The question and answer session went on until it was 22.00 which had previously been agreed as the finishing time for that evening. But it resumed again after breakfast, the following morning. Issues raised included the candidates attitude to same-sex blessings, what was the first things they would do upon becoming bishop and the question of the ordination of women as priests. Currently, the Czech Old Catholic Church only ordain women deacon, unlike their fellow Old Catholics in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Switzerland who do ordain women as priest.

We raised the specific question of their attitude to us being able to advertise for a successor to me, being open to ordained Anglican priests of either gender. My Church Council are unanimous that this should be the case, and fortunately we now have an Archdeacon and Bishop who are committed to supporting us in this. We did not get as clear an answer as we would like from the candidates, but we certainly did not get an outright rejection on the issue.

By the middle of Friday morning, there were no further questions. So we moved to a coffee break, to be followed by the election of the new Bishop. However, before the election could take place, a technical issue was raised. There were meant to be fifty-six Synod delegates but only fifty-five were present. The constitution provides that to be elected, a candidate needs a three fifths majority. Was it to be three fifths of fifty-five or fifty-six? After some debate, we voted that it should be three fifths of fifty-six 🙂

It took three rounds of voting before a conclusive result was achieved. The Synod elected Pavel Stránský, currently the Old Catholic priest in Zlín, to be their new Bishop. He was given a standing ovation and presented with a chain and crucifix, showing him to be the Bishop-elect. He then made a formal declaration, signed various papers and both he and Bishop Dušan were presented with flowers.

After lunch, the Synod meeting elected a new Synodal Council, who with the new bishop, will run the Church for the next three years. Various other committees were also elected and then, with no further business to conduct, the meeting ended with the singing of the Te Deum.

Exactly when Bishop-elect Pavel will be consecrated has yet to be decided but I’ve been told informally that it will probably be sometime in September or October.

Yours Truly with the Bishop-elect, Pavel Stránský © Ricky Yates

Walking Der Ökumenische Pilgerweg – Gröditz to Kamenz

On the morning of Friday 21^st August 2015, Sybille and I set out from the Pilgerherberge at Gröditz, to walk 20km to the large town of Bautzen. As you can see from the photographs, we were blessed with fine sunny weather.

Our route took us along a series of tracks and minor roads across undulating countryside.

The Pilgerweg approaching Drehsa © Ricky Yates

Here is the way approaching the village of Drehsa.

Within Drehsa, there was this fun mural of a flying pig and piglet 🙂

In view of the sunny weather, we both appreciated the shade provided by trees along parts of the route.

As on many pilgrim routes that I’ve walked, the approach to larger towns and cities is often not that pleasant for walkers. The last few kilometres into Bautzen involved walking uphill, alongside a busy main road. But we eventually made it, obtained the key to the pilgrim accommodation provided by the Lutheran Church, where we were able to shower, change and leave most of our belongings securely.

In the early evening, we enjoyed a drink, sitting outside in the main square, opposite the Rathaus.

St Peter's Cathedral, Bautzen © Ricky Yates — St Peter’s Cathedral, Bautzen © Ricky Yates

Nearby is St. Peter’s Cathedral, an example of a simultaneum or Simultankirche. Here Lutherans and Roman Catholics have shared the same Church building since 1530! After exploring more of the historic town centre, Sybille took me a very nice Sorbian restaurant which she had discovered during her pilgrimage earlier in April.

The Milleniumsdenkmal featuring St Cyril and St Methodius, Apostles to the Slavs © Ricky Yates

Fortunately, the route out of Bautzen the following morning, was along a series of quite quiet roads, though we did have to pass under the busy Autobahn 4. After 8.5km of walking, we reached the top of Roter Berg, a low hill on which has been erected the Milleniumsdenkmal featuring St Cyril and St Methodius, Apostles to the Slavs. Methodius was made a bishop therefore he is the one wearing a mitre 🙂

That afternoon, we walked on a further 8.5km, to the town of Crostwitz. Just outside the town, the correct way was indicated by a yellow arrow, painted on the road!

Roman Catholic Church in Crostwitz © Ricky Yates

In Crostwitz, we stayed overnight in this Pilgerherberge owned and run by a lady called Monika. She is a native speaker of Sorbian, the West Slavic language I mentioned in my previous post. In Crostwitz, the secondary/high school, teaches through the medium of Sorbian, with German only being taught as a second language.

Monika explained that when this area was part of the Soviet satellite state of East Germany, the communist authorities actively encouraged the use and preservation of the Sorbian language. This was because of it being a Slavic language and so much of what happened was orchestrated by the Russians in Moscow, their ‘fellow Slavs’ 😉 It is ironic that now, one place where the language continues in active use, is within the Church. On the evening of Saturday 22^nd August 2015, Sybille and I went to a very well-attended mass in the Roman Catholic Parish Church, conducted only in Sorbian.

Street name in German & Upper Sorbian with waymark for the Pilgerweg © Ricky Yates

Believe it or not, despite only being spoken by about 50,000 people, there are two different versions of Sorbian! About 40,000 people speak Upper Sorbian and live in the Bundesland of Freistaat Sachsen, the area we were walking through. Immediately north, in the Bundesland of Brandenburg, there are a further 10,000 speakers of Lower Sorbian. Upper Sorbian relates more to Czech; Lower Sorbian to Polish.

Our final day on this first part of the Ökumenische Pilgerweg was Sunday 23^rd August 2015, when we walked 16.5km from Crostwitz to Kamenz. Once more it was fine and sunny and my main recollection of that day, was finding nowhere that was open to serve us a cool drink! Fortunately, when we reached the eastern outskirts of Kamenz, we had to walk right through where a travelling fair was set up for a week and we finally were able to purchase a couple of beers.

We then walked on to the town centre to the tourist information centre, where we collected the key to the Pilgerherberge. Following that, we treated ourselves to a further beer, sitting outside a hotel on the town square, opposite the Rathaus. One problem we encountered throughout our week on the Ökumenische Pilgerweg, were an abundance of wasps, who tended to take a great interest in any beer we were drinking. This was a novel way of preventing them doing so 🙂

My other recollection of the whole week was the almost total absence of anyone who spoke English. My normal experience of trying to use my limited German when in Germany, is being spoken back to in word-perfect English! But the first time this happened to me during our five days on the Ökumenische Pilgerweg, was in Kamenz, ordering this beer and a different one for Sybille, who had gone off to use the toilet facilities in the hotel. I presume the reason for the lack of English was being in the former East Germany and being places not normally frequented that much by non-German tourists.

Brass plaque outside the Kamenz Pilgerherberge © Ricky Yates

Suitably refreshed, we then walked on a further kilometre uphill 🙁 , to the Kamenz Pilgerherberge.

Rucksacks, walking poles & hats © Ricky Yates

Walking Der Ökumenische Pilgerweg – Görlitz to Gröditz

Peregrinus Herberge, Görlitz © Ricky Yates

As explained in the opening two paragraphs of my previous post, back on Tuesday 18th August 2015, Sybille and I drove from Prague to Görlitz, in order to spend the following week walking the first part of Der Ökumenische Pilgerweg. We stayed overnight in the Peregrinus Herberge, where we were also able to leave the ‘Carly’ securely parked, before setting out along the Pilgerweg the next morning.

With Görlitz being located in the valley of the Neiße river, it was inevitable that initially walking westwards to leave the town, involved walking uphill! However, we were soon out into open countryside and having covered 5km……

……reached the attractive village of Ebersbach.

Path through the forests near Hochstein © Ricky Yates

From Ebersbach, there was then a gentle further climb along a minor road to the small village of Liebstein. The way then heads into a large and hilly forested area, following a series of gravelled tracks. 15km after leaving Görlitz, we finally arrived at Hochstein, at 406m above sea level, the highest point on the Pilgerweg east of Leipzig. Fortunately, it is also the location of the Hochsteinbaude where we were able to enjoy a drink and a late lunch. We were glad that we hadn’t arrived the previous day as Dienstag ist Ruhetag!

Sybille walking towards Arnsdorf © Ricky Yates

Suitably refreshed, we then continued to walk a further 5.5km, eventually leaving the forest and gently descending to the village of Arnsdorf.

Pilgerherberge at Arnsdorf © Ricky Yates

In Arnsdorf, we stayed in this delightful Pilgerherberge which has been created in the outbuildings of the Protestant Pastor’s home.

Protestant Pastor's home in Arnsdorf © Ricky Yates — Protestant Pastor’s home in Arnsdorf © Ricky Yates

The next day, our route took us along paths like this…..

…and this,

Weissenberg or Wóspork © Ricky Yates — Weissenberg or Wóspork. Also note the waymark on the pole © Ricky Yates

sometimes following minor roads, until we reached the small town of Weissenberg. Weissenberg marks the beginning of this part of south-eastern Germany where Sorbian is spoken, which is a legally recognised minority language, hence the town’s alternative name Wóspork. Sorbian is a West Slavic language, closely related to Czech and Polish – more in my next blog post.

After lunch at an outdoor table of a restaurant situated on the main square, opposite the Weissenberg Rathaus, we walked on, heading for the village of Gröditz.

Sybille nervously crossing the rickety bridge © Ricky Yates

Our route took us along the Gröditzer Skala, an attractive deep valley. But it also involved crossing a river on this somewhat rickety footbridge!

A weary pilgrim resting outside the Gröditz Pilgerherberge © Ricky Yates

We eventually climbed out of the valley to arrive directly before the door of the Gröditz Pilgerherberge. For those interested in distances, Arnsdorf – Gröditz is about 15.5km.