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 1st 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 🙂
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.
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 2nd 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.
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.
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 🙂
As I’ve explained in my two previous blog posts, here and here, and in responding to comments on them, I’ve been looking to buy a house into which to retire, in the vicinity of the north Bohemian town of Decín. This is the promised update.
On Thursday 9th March, I went to view this house, along with Martin Tonder of Vesta Realitní. Having overnight pondered on what I saw, the next day, I sent off an email with an offer to buy. By the morning of Tuesday 14th March, my offer had been accepted 🙂
After a few days delay, I’ve now received translations into English of two documents for me and the current owners to sign and also pay a modest deposit. Once this is done, the purchase will be set in motion. As Martin Tonder said on the phone to me this afternoon, the ball is now in my court!
The house lies in the village of Stará Oleška, Alt Ohlisch (German), eleven kilometres east of Decín. It has a population of just over 200. Like many places in this part of the Czech Republic, it gets much busier in summer as there are three camp sites, a pension and apartments to rent.
All these facilities are located in the vicinity of a lake at the eastern end of the village. Part of the lake is a nature reserve, home to around 130 different species of birds. But the rest is available to the public and there is a grassy ‘beach’ from which it is possible to swim.
The house is at the western end of the village. It is quite small but solidly built. It currently belongs to an elderly couple who have slowly improved it over the years.
On the first floor are two small bedrooms. One is currently completely full of junk! This is the other, which judging by the décor, is where the granddaughters sleep when they come to visit.
The one main drawback is this rather ‘interesting’ access to the first floor bedrooms. I was going to write ‘upstairs bedrooms’, but in reality, they are ‘up-ladder bedrooms’ 🙁 However, there is a distinct possibility of installing a staircase at the rear of the building with a door into the bedrooms where there is currently a window.
Everybody, including us, have been asking about the timetable for the move. Fortunately, the elderly owners are now, aided by Martin Tonder, talking about moving initially to rented premises which should be more quickly arranged rather than another house purchase. The main problem I foresee is getting them to sort out and remove their assorted belongings collected over many years, so that there is vacant possession.
Decín is a town that lies either side of the Labe (Czech), Elbe (German), river. It is situated at the beginning of a deep gorge where the Labe cuts through the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, Labské pískovce (Czech), Elbsandsteingebirge (German), on its way to Dresden in Germany and eventually flowing into the North Sea beyond Hamburg. The area to the east of the Labe is known as Bohemian Switzerland, CeskéŠvýcarsko (Czech), BöhmischeSchweiz (German), about which I’ve written previously here on my blog.
Decín is 130km north-west of Prague and takes around one-and-a-half hours to reach by either road or rail. But its closeness to the German border means that it only takes forty-five minutes by train to get to Dresden. Therefore it is in the vicinity of Decín that I am hoping to buy my retirement home and continue with my English-language ministry at the Frauenkirche in Dresden.
A major feature of the town is a splendid Zámek or Château, overlooking the river. During the Communist era, it was occupied by military forces of the Soviet Union. Since their departure in 1991, it has been restored to its former glory and in 2005, it was opened as a museum and venue for private gatherings and public events.
The historic centre of Decín, Tetschen (German), is on the east bank of the Labe, with a separate newer settlement on the west bank called Podmokly. But the two were amalgamated by the Nazi regime in 1942 and are now linked by two road and two railway bridges. Today, the population of the town is about 50,000 and it has all the facilities I might need, including major supermarkets and a hospital. I shall certainly use the former – hopefully not the latter!
The Labe is navigable all the way to Hamburg as well as in the other direction, as far as Pardubice in the Czech Republic. This photograph shows one of the wharfs where freight can be unloaded from barges and transferred directly to trucks on the neighbouring railway.
The gorge north of Decín is spectacular. The Prague-Decín-Dresden railway line runs along the west (left) bank of the Labe lying within the line of trees above the minor track visible in this photograph. The main road is on the east (right) bank of the river, immediately below the cliffs.
The closeness of Decín to the German border is well illustrated by this sign on Decín hl.n./ Decín main railway station, which informs passengers that they are on platform one, in both Czech and German 🙂
My apologies that once again I’ve had problems with Czech diacritics. There should be a hácek (little hook) above both the ‘e’ and ‘c’ in ‘Decín as there should be above the ‘c’ in ‘hácek‘. But unfortunately, if I insert them in my text, the town becomesD??ín 🙁
After a very cold and snowy winter, as I explained in my eighth blog anniversary post, in the last couple of weeks, Winter has slowly begun to recede and Spring is arriving. Therefore, it is certainly time to get my blog out of hibernation, being very aware that I haven’t posted anything here for a month.
There are numerous events that I could write about but here are just three highlights from the last couple of weeks.
On Sunday 26th February, I celebrated my sixty-fifth birthday. This is the second time since moving to Prague, that my birthday has fallen on a Sunday. The last time was on the occasion of my sixtieth birthday in 2012 which was also a leap year. There has since been a further leap year in 2016 meaning that my birthday in 2017 was once more on a Sunday.
Whilst I was aware that certain members of the congregation knew it was my birthday, I made no mention of it during our 11.00 Sung Eucharist that morning, hoping that after post-Eucharistic coffee and refreshments, I could just go on to a quiet birthday lunch with Sybille, who had celebrated her forty-ninth birthday on Friday 24th February.
At the end of the service, having instructed the congregation to, ‘Go in peace to love and serve the Lord’ and they had responded, ‘In the name of Christ. Amen’, I acknowledged the altar and then set off to walk down the aisle to the Church door. But what did Professor Michal Novenko strike up with as his organ postlude? ‘Happy Birthday to you!’ I was therefore duly serenaded by the whole congregation as I made my exit 🙂 I discovered afterwards that Churchwarden Gordon Truefitt, once having received communion, had nipped up to the balcony and worded up Michal 😉
I did eventually have my quiet birthday lunch with Sybille in one of our favourite restaurants, Fraktal. It is known as serving the best burgers in Prague, and on their Víkendové menu, is my favourite Fredov snídanový burger. I did manage to take a photograph of mine before consuming it!
Council of Anglican and Episcopal Churches in Germany (CAECG)
Having officiated at my final Ash Wednesday Eucharist in Prague on the evening of Wednesday 1st March, the following morning, I set out at 07.00, to drive to Freiburg im Breisgau. This was to attend my first meeting of CAECG, in my capacity of being the coordinator for English-language Anglican worship in Dresden. My journey took six & three-quarter hours including two brief breaks, but was made at least twenty minutes longer than it should have been, by a Stau on the Autobahn near Heilbronn.
Germany is part of continental Europe where there is what is proverbially known as ‘overlapping ecclesiastical jurisdiction’. There are a number of Anglican congregations which are part of the Church of England’s Diocese in Europe. But there are also several congregations that are part of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe. Most but not all of these Episcopal congregations, came about as a result of the American zone of occupation, following the end of World War Two.
CAECG was established about twenty years ago, to coordinate and support the work of both ‘Anglican Churches’, within Germany. From 15.00 on the afternoon of Thursday 2nd to lunchtime on Friday 3rd, we met as a clergy chapter, sharing experiences of ministry and discussing pertinent issues. Following a two hour afternoon break, during which I was able to enjoy a brief walking exploration of the Altstadt of Freiburg, we were joined by elected lay delegates for the following twenty-four hours.
First we dealt with various business matters, but then we enjoyed three talks with impromptu questions and discussion, given by Rev’d Dr Charlotte Methuen. In the year that marks the five-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther and his ninety-five theses, Charlotte spoke about Luther, the issues facing the German Church at that time, and then how his teaching and theology impacted on Church of England liturgy and Church practice. Wonderfully stimulating and most enjoyable.
On Saturday 4th March following lunch, I drove back to Prague, giving a lift to Archdeacon Colin Williams. Colin is both Archdeacon of Germany and Northern Europe, as well as being Archdeacon for the Eastern Archdeaconry. Therefore when we crossed from north Bavaria into the Czech Republic, we crossed his Archidiaconal boundary 🙂 On Sunday 5th March, Archdeacon Colin was the preacher at our 11.00 Sung Eucharist. Then following post-Eucharistic coffee and refreshments, he held a further ‘Vacancy Meeting’ with the Prague Church Council, helping them plan for the future ‘post Rixit’, as my retirement has become known 🙂 , including compiling a Chaplaincy profile and person specification as part of the recruitment process for finding my successor.
House hunting
Ever since the beginning of the year, I have become very aware that I need to find somewhere to live, once I retire on the Sunday 30th April 2017. I previously wrote about my plans in my first blog post of 2017. However, in recent weeks, I have become increasingly frustrated with Czech Real Estate Agents, who seem to lack desire to sell any property in their portfolio.
Numerous Estate Agents have websites that are in both Czech and English. The reasonable assumption is that they recognise that some potential buyers will not be fluent in Czech. Yet when I have sent off enquiries in English about certain properties, silence has ensued.
However, in the past couple of days, I have found two properties that look suitable, located in my area of search. Even better, I’ve had prompt responses in English from the respective agents. In particular, Martin Tonder of Vesta Realitní, phoned me within half an hour of receiving my email. When I missed his call, he immediately followed it up with a text message, offering me the opportunity to view the property the next day which was today.
When I met Martin today, as well as speaking to me in English, aided by having lived and worked in the USA and being married to an American, he was most helpful in addressing and answering my queries. He even gave me the ultimate compliment, saying he had been reading this blog 😀 No property will fulfil every requirement of mine, but the one he showed me today looks very promising. Watch this space!
