Prague Expat Life

Ricky Yates – an Anglican no longer in Prague

Ever since I announced that I was going to retire as the Anglican Chaplain in Prague and move to live near the Czech-German border, I’ve been asked both, whether this blog would continue, and if so, would there be a new header and tag line. This post is a definitive answer to both questions.

Whilst we currently are still living in Prague – we don’t move to the new house in Stará Oleška until Monday 15^th May, I decided this evening, to ask Sybille to upload the new header that she had created at my request some days previously, in anticipation of the forthcoming change.

The new header is a combination of two photographs of mine. On the left is the gorge through which the Labe river flows north of Decín, on its way to cross the border with neighbouring Germany, where it becomes the Elbe river. On the right is the skyline of Dresden, featuring the prominent dome of the Frauenkirche.

The aim is to reflect my life over the next few years. I shall be living in Ústecký kraj, North Bohemia, but continuing in my role a coordinator of English-Language Anglican worship in Dresden, Saxony, or Freistaat Sachsen auf Deutsch.

Getting the new header uploaded and writing this new blog post, is a nice distraction to the current major task in hand. On Monday 1^st May, sixty cardboard boxes were delivered to the Chaplaincy Flat, along with a massive roll of bubble-wrap and several rolls of wide sticky tape. Yesterday & today have been two solid days of packing boxes, together with separating what belongs to the Chaplaincy from what belongs to us.

We’ve made good progress, but my sixty-five year old body is aching! This evening, I also discovered a rather large bruise on my right arm, presumably where I banged myself carrying a heavy box. This is an inevitable consequence of permanently taking Warfarin following my pulmonary embolism in August 2015.

I do hope that everyone who has enjoyed this blog for the past eight years, as I have reflected on my life in Prague and my travels further afield, will continue to visit and also hopefully comment, as I move into a new phase in life. No longer am I ‘An Anglican in Prague’ but instead, ‘An Anglican in Bohemia and Saxony’.

Bubble-wrap and sticky tape © Ricky Yates

Time to say Goodbye

Leading worship on Sunday 30th April 2017 © Sybille Yates

Today I conducted my final service at St Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague. After nearly twenty-eight years of full-time ordained ministry, I have retired.

I really didn’t quite know what to expect today. But during the week beforehand, I decided to prepare for worship just as I have done previously week by week, for over eight and a half years since arriving Prague in September 2008.

My sermon was therefore based on the Biblical readings set in the Revised Common Lectionary for the Third Sunday of Easter. – in particular the resurrection appearance of Jesus to the the two disciples on the road to Emmaus as recorded in Luke 24. 13-35, together with the end of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost – Acts 2. 36-41. As I always do, I tried to put the readings into context and explain the historical and cultural background. Having done that, I then asked what the passages have to say to us about our faith and how we might live out that faith in the coming week.

Administering Holy Communion © Sybille Yates

Whilst we had a small number of visitors, the rest of the congregation was made up of our regular worshippers, together with some of the less regular ones who had made a special effort to be present on my final Sunday. Yet as our Welcomer Sally, (who did the head count), said, the attendance was actually slightly higher than that on Easter Day.

Presentation of gifts by Churchwarden Stephen Weeks © Sybille Yates

At the end of the service, I was presented with a framed drawing of St Clement’s, along with a framed photograph of myself wearing cassock-alb and stole. But I also made my own presentation, much to the amusement of the congregation – that of the Chaplaincy mobile phone, to Rev’d Nathanial Bm who will be the interim Chaplain over the coming months.

Presenting the Chaplaincy Mobile Phone © Sybille Yates

Following worship, there was a very well-attended bring and share lunch, held in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18, across the road from the Church. Here there was a second presentation, this time of a dummy cheque for a very large sum of money, which I was promised would be paid to me by bank transfer, early next week. This was then followed by a champagne toast.

After a whole series of ‘goodbyes’, Sybille and I finally set off for the tram, waving a goodbye to the Church as we passed by. We made our way to one of our favourite bar-restaurants for a beer and a bite to eat as, because of everyone wanting to speak to us, we ate very little of the bring and share lunch 🙁

Whilst we were sitting enjoying our drinks, what song should come over the bar-restaurant’s sound system? ‘Time to say Goodbye’ 🙂 We both felt it was rather appropriate.

A Tale of Two Laptops

As Sybille declared this evening, I look like a geek! On the desk in my office is not one laptop computer, but two! So a blog post of explanation.

Nearly five years ago, I started to use my first ever laptop computer. As I explained back then, it was purchased as a result of a generous donation by a member of the St Clement’s congregation, supplemented by a contribution from Sybille and myself. It has served me well since May 2012, both for running the Prague Anglican Chaplaincy, and for reasonably regularly updating this blog. But right from the day of purchase, we agreed that it belonged to the Chaplaincy, not to me.

Therefore with my forthcoming retirement now less than three weeks away, I have started the difficult task of separating my personal and Church life. So last Wednesday, I bought myself my own personal laptop computer, the one on the left in the photo above.

Earlier on Monday this week, we left both computers in the care of Hardware & Software Services, for them to transfer everything from the Chaplaincy computer, onto my new laptop. Also at our request, they kindly removed unnecessary and unusable software and services of both Microsoft & Hewlett Packard, from my new laptop. It cost CZK 1000, just under £32.00 – money well spent I believe.

Today, aided by Sybille, my two email accounts were separated. After Sunday 30^th April, I will no longer be chaplain(at)anglican(dot)cz. Therefore, whilst all my past email correspondence to this address has been downloaded onto my new laptop, no new emails can be. They can only be accessed by using the Chaplaincy computer.

Likewise, my new private email address, ry(at)rickyyates(dot)com, set up four years ago but hardly ever used until now, can only be accessed from my new personal laptop. The small amount of past correspondence on the Chaplaincy computer has been transferred to my new laptop, and then deleted from the Chaplaincy computer.

Over the next few days, I have the task of carefully deleting from the Chaplaincy computer, all my personal material, letters and files, leaving only material which will be useful to a locum Chaplain and my eventual successor.

Also, from now on, each time I arrive at my desk, I will first of all have to decide on which computer I should be working, depending on what I’m doing 🙂 The next few weeks should be fun!

Helpful instructions in Czech & Slovak 🙂 © Ricky Yates

A Purple Weekend

Yours Truly processing at the beginning of the Consecration Service between Archdeacon Walter Baer and Rev’d Nathanial Bm © Sybille Yates

My last month as the Anglican Chaplain of St Clement’s, Prague, started with what can be best described as a ‘purple weekend’. It featured bishops – lots of them!

As I have explained many times previously on this blog, for legal and ecumenical reasons, St Clement’s is officially the English-speaking parish of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic. Back in April 2016, at a synod meeting held at Želiv Monastery, Pavel Benedikt Stránský was elected to succeed the retiring Bishop Dušan Hejbal, as head of the Czech Old Catholics. Therefore on Saturday 1^st April 2017, I attended what in English sounds like a contradiction in terms – the consecration of Pavel Benedikt Stránský as the new Old Catholic Bishop of the Czech Republic 🙂

Archbishop Joris Vercammen © Sybille Yates

The Consecration Service took place in the Basilica sv Markéty, located within the Brevnov Monastery complex in Prague. The service was presided over by the Archbishop of Utrecht, Joris Vercammen, whose role within the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht is very similar to that of the Archbishop of Canterbury within the Anglican Communion. Also participating were Old Catholic bishops from the Netherlands, Germany Switzerland and Austria.

Bishop-elect Pavel between two supporting OC priests with contrasting hairstyles 🙂 © Sybille Yates

However, because of the Bonn agreement of 1931, by which Old Catholics and Anglicans, mutually recognise each others orders, Anglican bishops from the Episcopal Church of the USA, the Church of Ireland, the Lusitanian Church – Portuguese Episcopal Church, together with my Church of England Diocesan bishop, Rt Rev’d Dr Robert Innes, also participated in the Consecration Service.

The service lasted for nearly three hours and was conducted mainly in Czech and German, with a little English. It was, as Bishop Robert has himself written, a test in humility for us English-speakers! But it was good to be there, and see Bishop Pavel take up his role as head of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, before my own retirement, as he and Bishop Robert will have joint responsibility, for appointing my successor.

On the morning of Sunday 2^nd April, Bishop Robert was the Celebrant and Preacher at our Sung Eucharist for the Fifth Sunday of Lent – Passion Sunday. Wanting to engage the St Clement’s congregation with the very long Gospel reading – the story of the raising of Lazarus as recorded in John 11. 1-45, he got me to read it in five separate sections with his sermon interspersed between each section. You can listen to the reading and sermon here. Within the service, he also confirmed three members of the congregation, Sebastian, Radka and John.

The three confirmees, together with Bishop Robert, Rev’d Nathanial & Yours Truly © Sybille Yates

At an extended Coffee Hour with copious amounts of food, Bishop Robert met with members of the congregation, displaying his language skills by speaking in both French and Flemish/Dutch as well as English. Then, whilst I headed off to Brno for our regular monthly service in the second city of the Czech Republic, the Church Council met with Bishop Robert to discuss the future of the Chaplaincy and the strategy and timetable for appointing my successor.

From l to r: Licensed Reader Jack Noonan, Rev’d Nathanial Bm, Bishop Robert, Yours Truly © Stephen Weeks

Preparing for the Bishop’s visit, Holy Week and Easter

Candles, wafers, wine, palm crosses, (note ‘Ricky’ on the side of the box 🙂 ), & altar linen © Ricky Yates

There is a month with five Sundays to go, before I retire. But within that short period, I have a visit from my Anglican Diocesan Bishop, Rt Rev’d Dr Robert Innes, followed by Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter, then two weeks later, my farewell service.

Following worship last Sunday, I realised that there were several things that needed attention. The first was, that unless we were to expect Bishop Robert to perform the miracle of Cana 🙂 , we needed more wine for communion. Whilst not quite as desperate, we were also running quite low on communion wafers.

Secondly, both altar candles had burnt quite low and one had sprayed wax onto the main altar cloth. There were also spots of wine on both the corporal and the credence cloth so, along with the two purificators that had been used that morning, I took all the altar linen home with me for washing, to make sure everything is pristine for the Bishop’s visit this coming Sunday.

I solved the lack of wine problem in the normal manner by picking up a screw top bottle of Italian red from our local Kaufland supermarket, when shopping there earlier this week. But this morning, I realised that I’d better get started addressing the other issues, to ensure my last month as Anglican Chaplain in the Czech Republic, does proceed smoothly.

First thing this morning, I set up the iron and ironing board. Then, aided by a supply of kitchen roll, I proceeded to melt and remove candle wax from the altar cloth. Wine stains on the other linen were sprayed with ‘Vanish spray’ before everything was put in the washing machine for a 95° hot cottons wash, along with a sachet of ‘Intensive white & stain remover’, just for good measure.

Once everything was washed and hung out on the balcony to dry, taking full advantage of our current warm, Spring, sunny weather, I then headed into town by tram. First, I went to the Church vestry, to pick up the two bases for our altar candles, the Confirmation register, together with a sample priest’s and people wafers. Then it was three stops on the Metro to Karlovo námestí, to visit the Roman Catholic supplies shop, Pro Ecclesia.

Aided by a very friendly and helpful member of their staff, I came away with a rather heavily laden rucksack containing:

two new altar candles.
three candles for our Confirmation candidates to carry down the aisle with the Bishop at the end of the service this coming Sunday.
two baptism candles for the twins I’m due to baptise on Palm Sunday.
A packet of a thousand peoples wafers.
A packet of fifty priests wafers.
Two new purificators to replace two that went AWOL when I was on holiday 😉

The total bill was CZK 1400, about £44.00. I suspect it would have been far greater at a Church suppliers in the UK. I was amused to note from my receipt, that Communion wafers, Hostie in Czech 🙂 attract a lower rate of VAT, presumably because they are deemed to be food! To be fair, once consecrated, they are the ‘Bread of life’.

On the way home, I also stopped by at our nearest post office, in order to collect a packet our post lady chose not to try and deliver to us a few days ago. It was our supply of Palm Crosses, ordered from the UK, as distributing Palm Crosses on Palm Sunday is very much an Anglican tradition, unknown in the Czech Republic. There was the usual problem of trying to find it as no Czech surname begins with the letter ‘Y’, therefore there isn’t a slot to store it. Instead, it had been filed under ‘Ricky’ 🙂

Once home, Sybille kindly washed and cleaned the altar candle bases. Armed with a sharp knife, I then carved out a bit more wax to make the candles sit firmly upright. Then I ironed all the altar linen. The result of all my labours can be seen in the photograph at the beginning of this post, except for the yet to be completed Confirmation register, everything sitting ready to be taken to Church.

When on a pastoral visit to a family on Wednesday, I was kindly given a bottle of Prosecco as a present. After getting all that lot sorted today, I decided this evening that I needed a reward and cracked it open. I’ve been drinking the contents whilst writing this blog post 🙂