Prague Expat Life

Celebrating Bible Sunday

One Church of England adaptation of the Revised Common Lectionary, the three-year cycle of Bible readings that we and many Churches follow, provides an additional set of readings so that the Last Sunday after Trinity can be celebrated as Bible Sunday. This is to coincide with the Collect now set in Common Worship for the Last Sunday after Trinity.

Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

This Collect, with a slight modernisation of wording, is originally the work of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and is the Collect set for the Second Sunday in Advent in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. In times past, that Sunday was often celebrated as Bible Sunday.

The Last Sunday after Trinity is the Sunday immediately preceding the Feast of All Saints, celebrated on 1st November, after which we countdown through four Sundays before the beginning of Advent. Therefore in 2013, Sunday 27th October was the Last Sunday after Trinity – Bible Sunday.

Supported by the Chaplaincy Council, I decided this year, to mark and celebrate Bible Sunday and invited a Czech Guest Preacher, Alexander Flek. Like most Czech people, Alexander much prefers to be known by the diminutive version of his name – Saša.

Saša Flek has masterminded, overseen and helped translate, the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible, into modern Czech. The project has taken seventeen years, being completed in 2008. Entitled ‘Bible 21’, it has been a major publishing success in this otherwise agnostic/atheistic country. Work is currently under-way to translate the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books and thus totally complete the project.

Some eighteen months ago, Saša came and spoke to our Tuesday evening Study and Fellowship Group, basically giving his testimony of how he first came to Christian faith, and how he felt called by God to undertake this major Bible translation project. I thought it important that the wider congregation should have the opportunity to hear him speak and enthuse them about the importance of reading and understanding the Word of God.

You can now listen to Saša’s sermon by visiting this page of our Church website and then clicking in the appropriate place. Two things from what he had to say, still remain vividly in my mind. The first was right at the beginning of his sermon where he expressed his thanks for being invited to preach on Bible Sunday, but that he thought every Sunday ought to be ‘Bible Sunday’ 🙂 The second, was his likening of our attitude to the Bible, as being like our response when loading a new computer programme. We click the box, agreeing to the terms and conditions, without ever reading the small print.

Courtesy of Saša, together with the help of the Czech Bible Society, we had a display and sales table at the back of the Church, featuring Czech and English Bibles, including a couple of editions of bilingual Czech-English New Testaments. One of the benefits of this exercise was my discovery of the wide variety of English translations of the Bible available through the shop located at the Czech Bible Society headquarters.

Pelhrimov

As I mentioned in my previous post about the Church of St Bartholomew, here is the promised further illustrated post about the town of Pelhrimov itself, which we visited earlier this week on Tuesday 22nd October 2013.

Pelhrimov lies a short distance off the D1, the Prague-Brno motorway, just over one hundred kilometres south east of Prague. It should only take about an hour and a quarter to drive there but took us nearer one hour and forty minutes, because of traffic delays getting across and out of Prague. Like many Czech towns, there is industry and Communist era paneláks around the outskirts, but there is also a historic, well-preserved and restored centre, with many attractive buildings. Having found a suitable parking place for the car, we set out for the main square, Masarykovo námestí.

It being lunchtime, we first looked to find a place to eat. We opted for a pizzeria on the first floor of Hotel Slávie, overlooking the square from where this photograph was taken. Both the food and the view were excellent!

Hotel Slávie with its cubist facade and the buildings on the other side of the square, reflected in the ground floor windows © Ricky Yates

Hotel Slávie has a wonderful cubist façade as you can see in the photograph above. After lunch here, we set out to explore a variety of architectural gems around the square. Most have their current form after rebuilding following a serious fire in 1736.

Building with sgraffiti decoration © Ricky Yates

Like the Church of St. Bartholomew, this building also features sgraffiti decoration.

On the opposite side of the square from Hotel Slávie are these Italianate style buildings, very similar to those in Telc which we visited previously, three years ago.

Just off the square and adjacent to the Church is this Zámek/Château, completed in 1554. At one end is one of three town gatehouses that still exist, giving access to the historic centre of the town. The Zámek itself now serves as part of the Pelhrimov Museum.

Here on the left, is a close-up view of the clock on top of the Zámek. The two characters either side of the clock-face, swing their implements, striking the little bell at the top, in time with clock striking the hour. The clock-face itself illustrates past history as it features a double-headed eagle, the symbol of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the photograph on the right is another of the town gatehouses.

Arcaded building with sgaffiti illustrations © Ricky Yates

Here are two examples of beautifully restored arcaded buildings. The one on the right features sgrafitti illustrations including, between the two windows on the left of the photograph, the Virgin and Child. But it is also an example of ‘only in the Czech Republic’, as the building is now used as a Herna (gambling) Bar 🙁 The ground floor windows are totally obscured to prevent anyone looking in.

Above is one of my favourite examples of sgraffiti decoration in Pelhrimov – a big smiling sun!

Another beautifully decorated building © Ricky Yates

Whilst I also love the style and artwork decorating this building which I presume dates from the time of the First Republic 1918-1938.

Fountain with statue of St. James © Ricky Yates

Modern metal sculpture of St. James © Ricky Yates

As Sybille and I, at different times, have both made a walking pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, we were surprised but also delighted to discover a statue of St. James. He stands on a pillar, in the middle of a fountain, at the centre of Masarykovo námestí. He is dressed in pilgrim’s vesture decorated with scallop shells, carries a water gourd, and holds a pilgrim staff with a cross at the top. We also found this more modern metal sculpture in the covered passageway leading to the tourist information centre.

The town takes its name from the Latin word for pilgrim – peregrinus. As can be seen here, the town coat-of-arms features a pilgrim, walking through one of the town gates. There are various related explanations, both to the origin of the town and its name, but all revolve around the Bishop of Prague between 1224-1225 who was Peregrinus of Wartenberg. He apparently passed through what is now Pelhrimov whilst on a pilgrimage, but his destination was Rome rather than Santiago!

The town council tourist information website explains this discrepancy by saying that St. James is the patron saint of pilgrims. Therefore, as the town derives its name from the word ‘pilgrim’, St. James can be deemed to be the patron saint of Pelhrimov 🙂

Masarykovo námeští, Pelhrimov © Ricky Yates — Masarykovo námestí, Pelhrimov © Ricky Yates

The Church of St Bartholomew, Pelhrimov

For a number of reasons, I took my day-off this week today, rather than yesterday. Taking advantage of some wonderful Indian summer weather, Sybille and I drove just over one hundred kilometres south-east of Prague and explored the interesting historic town of Pelhrimov. A much longer and more detailed post about the town will follow shortly. But tonight, I just wanted to post about one fascinating discovery that we made today, whilst exploring this delightful town.

At one corner of Masarykovo námestí, the main square in the centre of Pelhrimov, is the Church of St Bartholomew – kostel sv Bartolomej. The Church dates from the late thirteenth/early fourteenth century and much of its exterior walls are decorated with sgraffiti as can be seen in this photograph. But in the small curved alcoves on the outside of the chancel walls, we found the remains of several frescos. I have no idea either as to their origin or of their age, but my educated guess is that they are probably several centuries old.

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple © Ricky Yates

This first one is a depiction of the presentation of Christ in the Temple, as described in Luke 2. 22-40. At the top of the fresco is Simeon, holding the infant Jesus. Next to Jesus is his mother Mary, in blue. Next to her, is the prophetess Anna, whilst at the bottom left is Joseph.

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane © Ricky Yates

This second fresco is of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his crucifixion. Jesus is shown praying to his Father saying, ‘Yet not what I will, but what you will.’ Mark 14. 36. The artist portrays Jesus receiving angelic support from above.

This third fresco shows a scourged Jesus being presented to the people. The scene is often called Ecce homo, the Latin words for ‘Behold the man’, found in John 19. 5.

I am quite amazed as how this wonderful artwork has actually survived all these years, despite the physical elements of rain and snow, and nearly forty-two years of Communist rule.

Autumn colours in Pruhonice Park

Autumnal reflections in Pruhonice Park © Ricky Yates

I have twice previously written and posted about Pruhonice Park, a magnificent landscaped park that lies just south-east of the city of Prague. Sybille and I first visited Pruhonice Park in the summer of 2012 about which you can read and see numerous photographs here. Then in May this year, we re-visited in order to see the amazing display of flowering rhododendrons for which the park is particularly famous.

Pruhonice Zamek reflected in the adjoining lake © Ricky Yates

Last Monday, on my regular day-off, we made our third visit in order to see Pruhonice Park in Autumn and were not disappointed. Once more, there were remarkably few visitors and we were able to thoroughly enjoy the wonderful Autumn colours on display. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so this post will be more pictures than words.

During our visit, I took about seventy photographs and I’ve had great difficulty choosing a small number of them, with which to illustrate this post. But I hope those that follow, will give some impression of the beauty of Pruhonice Park in the Autumn.

More Autumnal reflections at Pruhonice Park © Ricky Yates

Uprooted tree in Pruhonice Park © Ricky Yates

I had not realised until I checked the park website, that it too, had suffered from the floods of early June 2013. However, as we explored the park last Monday, we saw several examples such as the one in this photograph, of trees which had been completely uprooted and fallen sideways, presumably because of floodwaters washing away the soil around their roots.

Idyllic Autumnal view in Pruhonice Park © Ricky Yates

Pathway with Autumnal colours © Ricky Yates

Additional colour was also provided by this display of Michaelmas daisies.

Russell

One of the things I really enjoy about this blog is when people respond to what I’ve written and leave a genuine comment. I say ‘genuine comment’ for, despite using a CAPTCHA Code, I still have to delete between twenty and fifty ‘spam comments’ each day, whilst approving and replying to the small number of genuine ones. I am also well aware that having to decipher and then enter the CAPTCHA Code, is what puts off many genuine people from ever leaving a comment in the first place.

Most of the small number of people who comment here regularly, are friends who are already known to me. But there are several others who I only know online. These are people who, in a variety of ways, have found my blog and are interested in some of the things I write about and have kindly taken the trouble to say so. They sometimes throw greater light on a particular issue or, occasionally choose to disagree with me 🙂 A big ‘Thank you’, to all of you.

Recently, it was a great pleasure to finally get to meet one of them in person – Russell. He is one of those people who has until now, only been an occasional but very articulate commenter here, someone with whom I’ve exchanged a few emails, and more recently has interacted with me on Facebook. With his permission, this is the story of how, more than two and a half years after Russell first left a comment here, we finally met together in Prague.

Russell first left a comment on this post in January 2011. In his comment he explained that whilst he lives in England, his mother is Czech and his maternal grandmother still lives in Prague. As his comment was most observant and thoughtful, with an excellent use of vocabulary – for example, ‘paradoxically’, I assumed this had been written by someone in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties. I was therefore absolutely amazed to discover soon afterwards, that when he posted that first comment, Russell was just a few days short of his sixteenth birthday!

In July 2011 when he was on his annual visit to Prague and staying with his grandmother, Russell tried to meet up with me by coming to St. Clement’s Church one Sunday morning. Unfortunately, he had not checked our Church website, to discover it was a Sunday when I was on annual leave!

In the past twelve months, Russell has posted several more comments here, particularly when I’ve written about political issues such as the Presidential elections in both the USA and the Czech Republic. I very much admire him for not being afraid to respond and challenge the comments of several right-wing Republicans on my post about the re-election of President Obama. More recently, he also contributed to the considerable debate engendered by my post about ‘Getting over the ová‘, as well as like me, expressing his appreciation of the Czech rail network.

Knowing that this year, Russell would be eighteen, I got in contact with him by email, to ascertain when he would be visiting Prague, so we could finally meet up and talk, whilst enjoying one or two glasses of Czech beer together. In reply, Russell suggested that, not only should we meet, but also that we should walk part of the Šárka Valley together, something he knew I enjoyed doing, from reading my blog. So it was that on Monday 26th August, we finally met.

Martina, Russell's mother, with me at Bar-Restaurace Na Staré Fare © Russell Roe — Martina, Russell’s mother, with me at Bar-Restaurace Na Staré Fare © Russell Roe

Not only did I meet Russell, I also got to meet his mother Martina, and his younger brother Martin. Together, we walked part of the red route from the Divorka Šárka bus and tram stop, to the top of the Baba ridge, above where the Chaplaincy Flat is situated. Before descending down to the Podbaba bus and tram stop so Russell and his family could return to the home of Russell’s grandmother, we all enjoyed a drink together at Bar Restaurace na Staré Fare, where both of the photographs on this post were taken. I was surprised but pleased to discover that the first part of the route that we walked, was totally new to all three of them!

A week later, after Martina and Martin had returned to the UK, Russell and I met up a again, and this time we walked the longer part of the red route, around the other side of the Šárka Valley. We then descended to another of my favourite Bar-Restaurants – U topolu, where we enjoyed a meal and a beer together. For some unknown reason, I didn’t take any photographs on our second walk.

I discovered from my conversations with Russell, how proud he is of his Czech heritage, despite having lived all his life in the UK, with only regular visits to the Czech Republic for a few weeks each year. He is now the proud owner of a Czech ID card, having successfully overcome the intricacies of Czech bureaucracy in order to obtain one. He enjoys that it declares him to have been born in Brno, Czech Republic, when he was actually born in Brighton, England 😉 Part of his reasoning for obtaining a Czech ID card, is that it allows him to travel anywhere in Europe and is vastly cheaper to obtain than a British passport. Czechs are noted for being thrifty, a characteristic that Russell has clearly inherited from his mother 🙂

On our walks, Russell and I had some interesting theological conversations. He describes himself as an agnostic, another very Czech characteristic 🙂 But he is very open to listen to the opinion of others, even if he in the end, disagrees with them. As with his comments on my blog, he is highly articulate in expressing his opinions.

Having done very well in obtaining his International Baccalaureate, Russell has just started undergraduate studies at Exeter University, in politics and philosophy. I look forward to hearing of his progress, and to meeting him again when he is next in Prague. In the meantime Russell – please continue to visit my blog and leave your comments. They are and will be, highly appreciated by me.