25th January is the birthday of the famous Scottish poet Robbie Burns (1759-1796). There is a long-standing tradition of holding a ‘Burn’s Night Supper on or around 25th January each year at which the life and poetry of Robbie Burns is celebrated. Brilliantly organised by my Church Treasurer, Gordon MacDonald Truefitt, St. Clement’s Church held a Burn’s Night Supper on the evening of Friday 25th January 2013 and combined it with a Ceilidh, at which various Scottish and Irish dances were taught and danced.
The evening was designed with two purposes in mind, both of which are somewhat inter-related. One was to try and put on a social event which would enable the disparate members of the congregation to spend time together and therefore get to know each other better. The second, was to provide an event to which members of the congregation could invite their non-worshipping friends, to experience and realise that Christians can have fun together and hopefully draw them into our worshipping community.
Through Gordon’s good offices we had both a most suitable venue – Michelský Dvur, belonging to the Sue Ryder Foundation. And we had an excellent Czech Celtic band ‘Mestská’, who entertained us whilst we ate and then provided the music for the Ceilidh that followed. Over fifty people attended of whom just over half were members of the congregation with the rest being invited friends and guests. As on any Sunday morning at St. Clement’s, the number of nationalities present ran into double figures.
I trust that the photographs below help to give a flavour to what was a wonderful evening.
Ever since coming to live and work in the Czech Republic, I have been driving my car here on the basis of holding a valid UK Driving Licence. I had been told previously that, if I was here for longer than six months, I should really exchange it for a Czech Driving Licence. I have had the completed form & new photograph to do so for some time, but have never got around to doing anything further about it. After all, my UK Driving Licence declares that I live at The Rectory in my former group of parishes in North Oxfordshire, which is the address the Czech Foreign Police firmly believe to be my permanent address because they insist that every foreigner living here, must have a permanent address outside of the Czech Republic. So, for better or worse, that was the one both Sybille and I put down when we registered with them in 2009.
However, whilst my UK Driving Licence is valid until 25th February 2022, the day before my seventieth birthday, the photocard part needs to be renewed every ten years, to include a more up-to-date photograph. My current photocard is due to expire in early March 2013, which has therefore prompted me to act and seek to exchange it for a Czech Driving Licence.
So this morning, I went to the Magistrát hl.m. Praha / the HQ of Prague City Council, together with a fluent Czech-speaking member of the St. Clement’s congregation, to apply for the exchange of my UK Driving Licence for a Czech one. Along with my completed form & photo, & both the photocard and counterpart of my current UK licence, I took my passport. This contains my Povolení k prechodnému pobytu v CR, my certificate of temporary residence in the Czech Republic which is neomezený / unlimited. And I took my Potvrzení o prechodném pobytu na území / Proof of temporary residence, which confirms that my address is Pat’anka 2614/11A, Praha 6-Dejvice
The lady who we saw, kindly informed me that the law changed in March 2012. Despite my passport with my Povolení k prechodnému pobytu v CR, valid ‘neomezený‘, in it, and my Potvrzení o prechodném pobytu na území, being perfectly acceptable documents to enable me to register my car and for Bishop Dušan to get me recorded by the Ministry of Culture as the person who can sign on behalf of Farní obec Starokatolické církve pro verící anglického jazyka v Praze, the legal entity of the Prague Anglican congregation, they are not now sufficient to prove that the Chaplaincy Flat at Pat’anka 2614/11A, is my ‘family home’.
To prove that the Chaplaincy Flat at Pat’anka 2614/11A is my ‘family home’ where I live, I must also produce Sybille’s passport with her Povolení k prechodnému pobytu v CR, valid ‘neomezený‘, in it, and her Potvrzení o prechodném pobytu na území. That is not a problem as I can easily do that. But I also have to produce a document in Czech, by the owners of the flat, that declares Sybille & I live in the flat and have the permission of the owners to do so.
The flat is being purchased in the name of Farní obec Starokatolické církve pro verící anglického jazyka v Praze and the Church are just over seven years through paying off a twenty year mortgage. I am the person who can sign on behalf of Farní obec Starokatolické církve pro verící anglického jazyka v Praze and I have a notarised copy of our registration with the Ministry of Culture which says that I am.
Therefore it appears that if I produce a statement in Czech, on a letterhead with our correct Czech congregational name and registered number and registered address, saying that Sybille and I have permission to live in the flat, and sign the statement myself – and most importantly stamp it – that will be sufficient proof. In other words, beyond the necessity of getting a statement written in grammatically and legally acceptable Czech, I will be writing and signing a statement which gives myself permission to live in the flat that my wife and I have lived in for nearly four and a half years. I wonder if Franz Kafka is listening or reading this?????
The other problem the lady raised was the question of having ‘Rev’ or ‘Rev’d’ as the title in front of my name. This despite my UK Driving Licence declaring me to be ‘Rev Warwick John Yates’, (‘Ricky’ comes from the diminutive of ‘Warwick’ for those who don’t know), and my UK passport stating on the page reserved for official observations, that ‘The holder is the Reverend Warwick John Yates’. She claimed that the only way my title could be included on a Czech Driving Licence is if I had a document, translated into Czech, explaining that the title had been awarded to me!
As I’m sure most of my blog readers are aware, ‘Reverend’, usually abbreviated to ‘Rev’ or ‘Rev’d’, is the normal title given to an ordained priest/minister throughout the English-speaking world. I do have two documents, both signed and sealed by the Rt. Rev’d John Taylor, Bishop of St. Albans, one confirming my admission and ordination to the Holy Order of Deacons on 2nd July 1989, and a second, confirming my admission and ordination to the Holy Order of Priests on 1st July 1990. What I do like about both of these documents is that they say about me ‘of whom sufficient learning and godly conversation We were assured’ 🙂 🙂 🙂 But neither document states that my title now is ‘Reverend’.
I do find it ironic that here in the Czech Republic, where titles are deemed to be so important, a topic that I shall be referring to very shortly in a planned future blog post, Czech bureaucracy is doing its utmost to deprive me of mine. However, rest assured that I will somehow find my way through this latest example of Kafkaesque Czech bureaucracy. But there just might be a few strangled Czech bureaucrats en-route 😉
On Friday and Saturday of this coming week, the Czech electorate will vote in the second and final round of voting to choose their new President. The first round, in which there were nine candidates, took place on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th January. Because no candidate got over 50% of the vote in that first round, the top two candidates are involved in a run-off in the second round.
The winner will replace the current President Václav Klaus, whose second five-year term of office expires in March. This is the first time that the Czech President has been directly elected by the people. Previously, the appointment was made by a joint vote of the two houses of the Czech parliament – the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
Whilst the President wields very little political power, he is meant to represent the Czech state. President Klaus has become increasingly unpopular in recent times, both for expressing very Euro-sceptic views – this despite the considerable benefits the Czech Republic has received since becoming part of the European Union in 2004. He has also attracted great notoriety ever since the famous pen-stealing event in Chile, went viral across the internet.
The two candidates in the second round of voting are Miloš Zeman, who got 24.21% of the vote in the first round, and Karel Schwarzenberg, who got 23.40%. Whilst Zeman was expected to top the poll in the first round, Schwarzenberg’s performance well exceeded expectations and the predictions of opinion polls.
There is a real contrast between Zeman and Schwarzenberg. At a simplistic level, it is a contrast and contest between the political left and political right. Zeman is a former leader of the Social Democratic party(CSSD) and was Prime Minister from 1998-2002. In 2007, he left the CSSD and has been in the political wilderness for some years. Schwarzenberg is leader of the centrist pro-European TOP 09 party and currently Foreign Minister in the centre-right coalition government.
However, the greater contrast lies in their respective life histories and background. Zeman was born in Kolín, an industrial town east of Prague, in 1944. He has lived the whole of his life in the protectorate of Bohemia & Moravia/Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic. He was briefly a member of the Communist party between 1968-1970, but thrown out for opposing Soviet ‘normalisation’ policies imposed after the crushing of the Prague Spring.
Schwarzenberg was born in Prague in 1937. He and his family left Czechoslovakia in 1948, when the Communists came to power and moved to Austria, only returning to Prague in 1990, following the Velvet Revolution. He is a titled prince, officially Karel, Prince of Schwarzenberg. Or if you really want his full title in German, it is Karl Johannes Nepomuk Joseph Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Menas Fürst zu Schwarzenberg 🙂 Like many educated older Czech people, and because of his time living in Austria, he speaks fluent German with his Czech being described as ‘slightly archaic and often earthy’.
Schwarzenberg is particularly popular in Prague, which is why this post only has pictures of his posters. I have seen Zeman posters when driving to and from Brno, but didn’t get the opportunity to photograph them. Schwarzenberg is also very popular amongst young people, helped I’m sure, by some clever graphic design work, portraying him as a punk 🙂 But all Schwarzenberg’s publicity features him wearing his most recognisable trademark – a bow tie!
Schwarzenberg also seems to have the support of most of the Christian community in the Czech Republic, and from right across the spectrum. He is an active and practising Roman Catholic, but without advocating the very conservative views of the current Pope. He has also strongly endorsed the modern Czech translation of the Bible published in 2009 as ‘Bible 21’, and encouraged people to read it, thus making himself equally popular with the Protestant community.
If the election was taking place in ‘Fraktal‘, the bar-restaurant where I took this picture, Karel Schwarzenberg would be the very clear winner! The result this coming weekend, is likely to be far closer.
Yesterday – 6th January, was the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrating the visit of the wise men to the infant Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2, verses 1-12. The word ‘epiphany’ means ‘manifestation’ or ‘showing forth’ and is used because Jesus is ‘made manifest’ to the wise men, representing the gentiles. Whilst the Church of England allows for Epiphany to be celebrated on the nearest Sunday to 6th January, it was good yesterday, to able to celebrate the festival on the correct day because in 2013, the first Sunday of the new year was Sunday 6th January.
I note with interest, that celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany on the correct date each year, is not a problem in any neighbouring country to the Czech Republic, as in Poland, Slovakia, Austria and Freistaat Bayern / the Free State of Bavaria, 6th January is always kept as a public holiday. But not in the irreligious Czech Republic!
It is important to be aware of what Matthew 2. 1-12 does and does not tell us about these visitors who came ‘from the East’. Matthew calls them ‘Magi’ who were an ancient priestly caste in Persia. The word has traditionally been translated into English as ‘wise men’. We are not told that there were three wise men – that is an assumption drawn from them offering three different gifts. All we do know is that there was more than one of them as the word ‘Magi’ is plural.
These wise men are never described as being ‘kings’ – apparently the early Church Father Tertullian was responsible for first doing so, no doubt based on a literal understanding of Isaiah 60. 3, ‘Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn’. And the names Casper/Kasper, Melchior and Balthazar only came to be given to them some time in the eighth century.
Whilst I think it is important to separate what is actually recorded in scripture from the additional myth and legend that have grown up since, I do like to ponder the hypothetical question, ‘What if it had been wise women, instead of wise men, who came to visit the infant Jesus?’ The answer is that they would have asked for directions and therefore arrived on time and, as a result, would have helped deliver the baby. They would then have cleaned the stable, made a casserole and given Mary and Joseph practical gifts!
More seriously, I am always struck as I read this familiar story each year, by two related things. One is the distance those wise men must have travelled without ever giving up, even after they arrived at Herod’s palace in Jerusalem, only to find they were in the wrong place. The other is that the first thing they did upon finally finding the infant Jesus, was to bow down and worship him.
Whilst St. Clement’s Church is very well located in the centre of Prague, I am still amazed and encouraged by the distance some of the congregation travel in order to get to worship on Sunday, from all parts of the city and in some cases, from further afield. I often contrast this with the unwillingness of some Church members in my former group of parishes in North Oxfordshire, to travel just a few miles to the next village to worship when there wasn’t a service in their village Church on that particular Sunday. This despite the fact that they regularly drove far further during the week, in order to visit their nearest Tesco supermarket!
Last Sunday when preaching, I commended to the St. Clement’s congregation, the example of the wise men as one to follow in this new year. To put attending worship each Sunday at the centre of their plans for every weekend and fitting other activities around it, instead of planning everything else first, and then seeing as an afterthought, whether worship would still fit in. I commend this also to all the readers of my blog!
I will finish this blog post, in the same way I finished yesterday’s sermon – with the words of a bumper sticker I saw many years ago. It said, ‘Wise men sought Jesus – wise men and women still do!’
Much as I dislike Christmas being brought forward into the Advent season, working with two expatriate congregations here in the Czech Republic means this inevitably has to happen. So many of our regular worshippers are absent at Christmas because they travel back to their respective home countries in order to spend the holiday season with their family and friends. But before setting off on their travels, many want to be able to participate in the Anglican tradition of a ‘Service of Lessons & Carols’, either in Prague or Brno.
Since commencing regular monthly services in Brno at the beginning of 2012, we have consistently held them on the second Sunday evening of each month. So it seemed right to make the service due on Sunday 9th December, a ‘Service of Lessons & Carols’, a year on from our first ever Brno service in December 2011. And to be further consistent, we held the service in the little Czechoslovak Hussite Church Betanie / Bethany we have been using throughout 2012, rather than returning to the Betlémský Kostel / Bethlehem Chapel where we held the first ever Brno service.
Brno Carol Service invitation
This year’s service was very much a home-grown one, rather than being laid on by members of the Prague congregation. But I was most grateful to my Church Treasurer Gordon Truefitt, who kindly volunteered to travel down with me to Brno following our 11.00 Eucharist in Prague, to give me both company and support. Gordon read a couple of the lessons, sang ‘gold’ in our rendition of ‘We three kings of Orient are’, and as a good treasurer, also took up the collection!
Gordon and I drove down to Brno in my car as I’ve been doing each month since July. Outside of Prague, there was snow on the fields which looked particularly beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine. However, the Prague- Brno motorway itself was completely clear of snow and we reached Brno in very good time. Following the service and some excellent post-service seasonal refreshments kindly laid on by Katka Bánová, Gordon and I returned to the car with light snow falling. But as we left Brno and headed back towards Prague, so the snow got heavier.
Both Prague and Brno lie in river valleys – Prague is on the Vltava River whilst Brno is situated at the confluence of the Svratka and Svitava rivers. But whilst the Vltava flows into the Labe which becomes the Elbe once over the German border, and eventually enters the North Sea, the waters of the Svratka and Svitava head in the opposite direction, eventually entering the Danube which flows out into the Black Sea. Dividing these two major drainage basins are the Vysocina range of hills.
Crossing these hills, the outside temperature dropped from -2° to -6° and the snow got thicker and heavier. Despite the presence of several snow ploughs, one of which nearly tried to clear me from the motorway 🙁 , driving became extremely difficult. Numerous trucks had ground to a halt, unable to cope with climbing up the steeper parts of the motorway. I cannot recall driving in such severe weather conditions for more than thirty years. We did eventually make it back to Prague still in one piece. But a journey that normally takes just over two hours, instead took three and a half hours.
The following weekend, we held our Prague ‘Service of Lessons & Carols’ on the evening of Sunday 16th December. This is the only occasion each year when we hold two services on a Sunday in Prague. Inevitably, some people therefore opt out of the morning Eucharist in order to attend Lessons & Carols in the evening. However, both services were still well supported.
In the evening, we were joined by a small choir from the International Women’s Association of Prague (IWAP). Two of the choir members, Caroline and Celieta, are also regular members of our congregation. But the IWAP choir did give a wonderful lead to our congregational carols as well as contributing two individual choir items. Afterwards, we all enjoyed mulled wine, mince pies and other seasonal refreshments in the Church Hall across the road from the Church in Klimentská 18.
I remarked last year, that Christmas Day falling on a Sunday, as it did in 2011, was ‘Every clergyperson’s delight’. But because of this year being a leap year, Christmas Day in 2012 fell on a Tuesday. This is probably best described as ‘Every clergyperson’s nightmare’ as it meant Church services on three successive days. However, this is where I really benefited from the help and support of others.
On Sunday 23rd December, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, my recently licensed Reader Jack Noonan was the preacher at our 11.00am Eucharist, reflecting on the example and role of Mary, the mother of Jesus. And at our Midnight Eucharist the following day – Christmas Eve, my Presbyterian ministerial colleague Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz was the preacher, giving an exposition of the mystery of the Incarnation as described in John 1. 1-14. So I only had to preach one sermon, on Christmas Day morning, speaking about the message of the angel to the shepherds – ‘to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord’.
Whilst having two supportive preachers made my role easier, I did still experience one of those moments for which no training at theological college can ever properly prepare you. At our Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve, a British lady, visiting her son who has been living and working in Prague for the past five years, tripped over the chancel step on her way up to receive Communion and fell, seriously banging her head on the stone slabs of the chancel floor.
Fortunately, Sybille as a trained nurse was on hand to help and Honza, Czech husband of American Church Council Secretary Tasci, got on his mobile phone and was promptly able in Czech, to summon an ambulance. But I decided it was best to end the service without singing the final carol, (much to the confusion of the organist who was unaware of what had happened), and within a few minutes, blue lights were flashing outside the Church and two paramedics were striding in.
The good news is that, following a medical examination and an x ray, the lady was given the all clear by a Doctor at a nearby hospital. But she did take home an unusual souvenir from Prague in the form of a large bruise on her forehead 🙁
Our worship on the morning of Christmas Day was thankfully, slightly less eventful. The congregation was a mixture of visitors, long-standing Church members, and several Czech married to English-speaker families with their bilingual children. Therefore, although we are an English-speaking congregation, we did end our worship by singing a carol in Czech, ‘Narodil se Kristus Pán‘ – ‘Christ the Lord is born, let us rejoice’.
