By Ricky, on May 11th, 2015 Mennorode Conference Centre © Ricky Yates
I spent Monday 27th April-Friday 1st May, attending the annual Intercontinental Church Society (ICS) Chaplains Conference, which this year took place at the Mennorode Conference Centre, Elspeet, in the Netherlands. As I mentioned in my first post of 2015, this has resulted in an addition to the number of countries I have visited, having never previously set foot in the Netherlands until two weeks ago today.
To get to the Conference Centre involved a drive from the Czech Republic, right across Germany, which eventually took ten hours – from 07.00 when I left Prague, until 17.00 when I finally got to Elspeet. This was somewhat longer than I had anticipated, almost entirely due to Baustellen/road works on the German Autobahn and associated Stau . . . → Read More: ICS Chaplains Conference 2015
By Ricky, on May 8th, 2015 Marshall Ivan Konev, surrounded by floral tributes © Ricky Yates
Today, I have been struck by the irony of David Cameron and his Conservative Party, ‘winning’ the UK General Election by over 63% of the electorate NOT voting Conservative, coinciding with the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War – VE Day. The reason for the Conservatives ‘winning’ the election by gaining less than 37% of the vote, is because of the antiquated, absurd and completely undemocratic ‘first-past-the-post’ (FPTP) electoral system under which the election was conducted. The irony of this I’ll explain shortly.
Although I live in the Czech Republic, as a British citizen, I had the right to register to vote in this election but I chose not to do so. My reason for not participating was purely the FPTP electoral system. If I had chosen to register . . . → Read More: The British General Election – a view from the Czech Republic
By Ricky, on May 6th, 2015 Cross © Ricky Yates
Oh dear! April is gone and I haven’t written or posted anything here for nearly a month. So finally, an update, explaining what I’ve been up to.
Worship
The first few days of April were the latter days of Holy Week, leading to Easter Sunday. As I’ve previously written, Easter Day is the Sunday when we normally have the biggest congregation of the year. However, 2015 proved exceptional with a total attendance of 136, (121 adults and 15 children), the largest ever during my seven Easters in Prague.
The additional encouraging thing is that a higher level of numbers attending worship has been maintained post-Easter. Low Sunday, (the Sunday after Easter Day), was far from being ‘low’ and on the following Sunday 19th April, the congregation numbered 74, nearly . . . → Read More: All in the month of April
By Ricky, on April 12th, 2015 Hlavatice rock tower © Ricky Yates
Last Friday, during my post-Easter break, I explored the Hruboskalsko, another part of Ceský Ráj, a beautiful area of sandstone rocks and forests lying between 70-100 kilometres north east of Prague. Having parked my car in a designated parking area near the village of Pelešany, I made my way to join the red waymarked trail. This trail is designated the Zlatá Stezka or ‘Golden Trail’, so called because if you were to walk the whole of it, you would see all the best sights within Ceský Ráj.
After an initial climb, the trail brought me to this rock tower at Hlavatice. In the early years of the twentieth century, the local walking club erected a spiral . . . → Read More: Ceský Ráj revisted
By Ricky, on April 6th, 2015 Cross on Dáblický háj © Ricky Yates
On the afternoon of Holy Saturday, I was one of five members of the St. Clement’s congregation, who went on a mini pilgrimage. We met at Ládví metro station in the north-eastern Prague suburbs, and from there took the bus further out to Dáblice from where we began our pilgrimage walk.
Dáblice is a village which now adjoins the Prague conurbation. We climbed from the village centre, up onto Dáblický háj, a beautiful area of heathland and woods. At the top of the hill is an observatory and adjacent to it on a rocky outcrop, a cross.
From this point, there are wonderful views out across the northern Bohemian countryside.
The view from Dáblický háj © Ricky Yates
There followed a . . . → Read More: A mini pilgrimage on Holy Saturday
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