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That was the week that was

Last Sunday morning (2^nd August), I was getting dressed, ready to travel by tram into central Prague for our Sung Eucharist at St. Clement’s, when I became extremely breathless. Sybille describes me as ‘hyperventilating’ and I honestly thought I was about to faint. After sitting still for about five minutes, the breathlessness eased. However, by that time, I’d missed the tram I was going to catch, so we agreed instead, that I would drive us to Church as I seemed to be OK when sitting. Knowing what we know now, it was a daft decision!

I somehow managed to both celebrate the Eucharist and preach. But I had great difficulty singing the hymns and other sung parts of our liturgy. I have never missed a Sunday service through ill health in the nearly seven years I’ve been in Prague and I was determined that that record was not going to be broken. But it remains a miracle that I ever completed the service.

Following post-service refreshments, I managed to drive us both home and walk to a nearby bar-restaurant garden for lunch. But I spent most of the rest of the day resting, planning to visit my GP, first-thing on Monday morning.

My GP practice is based three tram stops away from the Chaplaincy flat at Vítezné námestí. It is called Young & Co, as the practice was founded and is headed by Dr. Adriana Youngová, a female Czech GP who is married to an Englishman, Timothy Young, hence her unusual surname. No Czech surname begins with the letter ‘Y’ which has caused me problems on numerous occasions. So I find it quite amusing that the head of my Czech GP practice, courtesy of her marriage, now has the same problem as I do 🙂 One bonus is that all the surgery staff, know how to pronounce my surname correctly, because of their boss!

On the morning of Monday 3^rd August, I was seen by another of the practice GPs, Dr. Hana Škodová. She asked me lots of questions and along with Sybille, seemed somewhat mystified that I had no other symptoms other than being breathless. The practice nurse took blood from me so that various tests could be made. This was the first of what seems like umpteen needles that have been stuck into me this past week, either to extract blood or inject me with various substances. ‘Pin cushion’ probably best describes how my body currently feels 🙁 I was also sent off to have my chest x-rayed and told that I would receive a phone call later in the day, once the first results of my blood tests were available.

Early on Monday afternoon, the phone rang. It was my GP surgery. One result from the first blood tests indicated that I almost certainly had a pulmonary embolism – a blood clot in my lung. I was to call an ambulance and get myself to the nearest hospital emergency department ASAP! The surgery kindly emailed me the test results, with the offending result highlighted in red, so I could print them off and have something to give to both the ambulance and hospital staff.

Sybille helped me pack a bag, presuming that I would be spending a few nights in hospital and also called the ambulance. Despite being able to walk into the ambulance, the driver decided I was an emergency case and proceeded to drive me to hospital at high speed with siren blaring and blue lights flashing! So I arrived in the Emergency Department of Vojenská Nemocnice, the Military Hospital.

Once again, needles were stuck into me and blood was taken for more tests. When the results of these tests came back, confirming everything the GP surgery had discovered, I was then sent for a CT scan. Iodine was injected into me 🙁 , to enable clearer scan definitions, and the machine itself, kindly spoke to me in English, telling me when to hold my breath and when to breathe out.

I was wheeled back to the Emergency Department where the Doctor told me, even though she had yet to look at the scan results, the technicians had confirmed that I had a huge pulmonary embolism. I was to be immediately admitted to a cardiology ward of the hospital.

Therefore I spent from late afternoon on Monday 3^rd, to just before lunchtime on Wednesday 5^th August, as a cardiac patient of Vojenská Nemocnice, the Military Hospital. During that time, I started receiving twice daily injections into my lower abdomen, as well as taking a once daily tablet of warfarin, both with the intention of thinning my blood and helping the embolism to break up and disperse.

On the morning of Tuesday 4^th August, I had an ultra sound scan of my heart which showed it to be in good order, other than a slightly enlarged right ventricle, caused by the embolism. One of the encouraging things that has come out of this whole experience is that nearly every test has shown that my body is in good order. My blood pressure is fine, my kidneys are working normally, and my heart has no problems.

However, on Tuesday afternoon, I had a further ultra sound scan of the lower part of both of my legs. Whilst my right leg is completely OK, unfortunately the scan found several thrombosis in the calf of my left leg. It was one of these that decided to leave the lower part of my left leg, and become an embolism in my lung 🙁

Ten years ago, in 2005, I had a thrombosis behind my left knee. But after treatment with warfarin, it completely dispersed and a year later, I was once more allowed to be a blood donor. Therefore the medics are still unclear as to why this problem should have reoccurred, when my left leg has been perfectly fine for the past ten years.

Late on the morning of Wednesday 5^th August, I was discharged from hospital. I was given:

A prescription for further twice daily injections into my lower abdomen, the last of which is due to be administered tomorrow morning. I’m grateful to be married to a former nurse who has been administering these, rather than having to do so myself.

A prescription for warfarin tablets, currently to be taken once daily, first thing in the morning.

A prescription for full length compression stockings for both of my legs.

A three page report, outlining what had been discovered about me during my hospitalisation, and outlining various courses of action for my GP.

On Thursday 6^th August, I once more met with Dr. Hana Škodová. She explained the contents of the report and the whole variety of further tests that I need to have in the coming weeks. Once more I had blood taken, to check my INR level – to decide the exact amount of warfarin I need to take to thin my blood sufficiently, without becoming so thin that I bleed too easily. I’m due back to see her tomorrow morning.

So after a very eventful week, I am grateful:

Just to be alive! Untreated, what happened could easily have killed me.
For wonderful, high quality medical care, totally free of charge, because I and the Church as my employer, pay into a compulsory health care scheme.
For the prayers and best wishes of so many people.

What does in mean for my future?:

That I will have to take warfarin, ‘rat poison’ as Sybille calls it, for the rest of my life.
That I will now have to be very careful not to cut or injure myself as it will be far more difficult to get any wound to heal.
The end of my cricket playing career as I cannot put myself at risk of being hit by a cricket ball. Therefore keeping wicket for Prague Barbarians CC on Saturday 18^th July will go down as my last appearance as a player on the cricket field. Whilst we lost that match against Vinohrady CC, I didn’t let a single bye, so it is an appropriate note on which to end my career.

One final note:

Last Friday, if my arithmetic is correct, I passed the age my mother was when she died in April 1980. But my experience this past week, has been an important reminder of my own mortality. I, and every other human being on this planet, will not live forever. All of us need to live our lives in recognition of that important fact.

Lea Williams – an Anglican ordinand in Prague

Lea with me in the chancel of St Clement's Church © Sybille Yates — Lea with me in the chancel of St Clement’s Church © Sybille Yates

From the morning of Sunday 5^th July, through to the morning of Monday 13^th July, Sybille and I had the pleasure of having Lea Williams staying with us at the Chaplaincy Flat, as part of his ‘Long Summer Placement’. Lea is training for ordained ministry in the Church of England at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, just outside Oxford. As part of his training, he is required to spend at least four weeks, gaining experience in a parish setting, in advance of his final year of theological study.

Because prior to commencing studying at Cuddesdon, Lea had worked for three years in a parish setting as a full-time Children’s Worker, it was thought that he ought to experience a contrasting setting for his ‘Long Summer Placement’. Therefore, the recently appointed new principal of Cuddesdon, Bishop Humphrey Southern, suggested Lea should go and spend his time with my colleague Rev’d Clive Fairclough, the Anglican Chaplain in Moscow. Clive had been Bishop Humphrey’s curate when Humphrey was an Incumbent in the Diocese of Salisbury. But because Clive and his wife Joanna, could only host Lea for three weeks, it was agreed that he should spend the balance of his placement time with me.

Observant readers of my blog may have noticed that I mentioned enjoying lunch and having meetings at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, during my recent visit to the UK at the beginning of June. This was in order to meet with the Placements Tutor, Rev’d Dr Jane Baum, as well as to discuss practicalities and expectations with Lea. But at this point, I should say that I already knew Lea and his Czech wife Petra, because I conducted their wedding at Bouzov Castle near Olomouc, in July 2009. It was, as the blogpost is entitled, ‘My first Czech Wedding‘ 🙂

As explained in a most helpful booklet produced by Ripon College, Cuddesdon, the placement is, ‘a significant milestone in the transition from lay to ordained ministry. It is a chance for the student to observe and experience for themselves the role of an ordained minister, and to reflect on what it will be like for them to exercise this role.’ Whilst the eight days Lea was with me were far from being typical, there were fortunately, plenty of interesting things going on. And I hope that he gained some insight into what is like being an ordained priest in charge of a continental European Chaplaincy.

Whilst Lea is on placement, (I use the present tense because he is currently in Moscow until early August), Petra, together with their two children, is staying with her father and other family members in Olomouc. On the morning of Sunday 5^th July, Lea travelled by train from Olomouc to Prague, to be at our 11.00 Sung Eucharist. He then travelled with me all the way to Brno, for the regular monthly evening service there, at which he led intercessions, before we made the return journey together back to Prague. As a result, Lea did see rather a lot of the Czech Republic in one day!

On Monday 6^th July, we attended a whole series of events marking the sixth hundredth anniversary of the martyrdom of Jan Hus about which there will be a separate blog post shortly. Tuesday 7^th was mainly taken up with admin, whilst we took Wednesday 8^th as our ‘day off’.

We spent Thursday 9^th in Dresden, visiting the Frauenkirche and meeting the two Protestant Ministers who work there. This was the first step in preparation for me taking responsibility, from January 2016, for the monthly English Anglican service that is held there on the third Sunday evening of each month. This is also to be the subject of another blog post 🙂

Then we spent Friday morning, attending the last part of the Fifth Conference of representatives of the Cross of Nails Community in Central and Eastern Europe which was being held in Prague that week. The conference ended with a Festive Service at which the Dean of Coventry Cathedral, Very Rev’d John Witcombe, gave a address on the theme, ’75 Years of Peace Efforts by Coventry Cathedral – Turning enemies into friends’. This in turn, will be the subject of a third forthcoming blog post!

Lea’s Prague placement culminated with him being the preacher at our 11.00 Sung Eucharist on Sunday 12^th July. He experienced what I often call the ‘Discipline of the Lectionary’ in that the Gospel reading set was Mark 6. 14-29, which tells the rather unedifying story of the beheading of John the Baptist. But he bravely tackled the story head-on and received much positive feedback from several members of the congregation who I asked to complete ‘Sermon Evaluation Sheets’ for him. We posed for the photograph at the beginning of this post, in the chancel of St Clement’s Church, following the service.

However, it wasn’t all work. Being married to a Czech lady, Lea was already aware of the delights of Czech beer. Here he is, enjoying another 0.5l of his favourite Cerný Kozel.

Lea enjoying his dark beer © Ricky Yates

It’s too darn hot!

The temperature in Prague today © Ricky Yates

My sincere apologies for the absence of a fresh blog post for over three weeks. It isn’t as though there is a lack of things to write about – quite the reverse. July 2015 has been far busier than than my previous Julys in Prague and I’ve got at least four prospective posts to compile. But the real problem has been the weather. In the words of Cole Porter and best known for being sung by Ella Fitzgerald, ‘It’s too darn hot!’

Sybille frequently describes the summer weather pattern in Prague as being pleasantly warm, followed by getting hotter, then much hotter, before there is a major heavy thundery downpour and the temperature returns to being pleasantly warm. After that, the same cycle resumes. But this year, especially since the beginning of July, the weather has been very hot and sticky with little or no relief and hardly any rainfall. According to news reports I read today, river levels and ground water levels in the Czech Republic are very low and the prevailing conditions are being described as a drought – the worst the country has experienced since 2003.

The weather has made even fulfilling my regular duties, a tiring exercise. As a result, rather than sitting down and compiling a coherent blogpost, all I’ve wanted to do each evening is either sit on the balcony and try to recover with a cool glass of wine, or head to the bedroom and lie down, with a total absence of the need of our duvet!

Today has almost certainly been the hottest day of the year so far. I took the photograph at the beginning of this post, of the clock and thermometer in my car, when I returned this afternoon, from conducting a wedding at Château Mcely, about seventy kilometres outside Prague. The thermometer actually reached thirty-eight degrees at one point but I was driving at the time and was therefore unable to photograph it. Currently my black clerical shirt is being washed in our washing machine, to remove a whole series of white sweat stains with which it had become decorated whilst I was officiating today.

According to the BBC weather forecast, we are promised some rain and reduction in temperature this coming weekend. But previous promises of rain and reduced temperatures have failed to materialise. As my wife often ironically comments, she doubts whether the Prague weather actually reads the BBC forecast 🙂

I do promise to start blogging properly once again, very soon, providing the Prague weather finally manages to return to something nearer to normality for July.

On the Twenty-fifth anniversary of my Ordination as Priest

Renewing my ordination vows © Sybille Yates — Renewing my ordination vows with Jack Noonan & Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz © Sybille Yates

On Sunday 1^st July 1990, in the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St. Alban, (to give what is commonly known as ‘St. Alban’s Cathedral’ its correct, full name), I was ordained priest by the then Bishop of St. Albans, Rt Rev’d John B. Taylor. Therefore this coming Wednesday will be the twenty-fifth anniversary of that significant day. So with today being the nearest Sunday to the anniversary, within our Eucharist at St. Clement’s this morning, I renewed my ordination promises or vows.

In the absence of a bishop, I arranged for Licensed Reader Jack Noonan & American Presbyterian Minister Karen Moritz, to once more ask the questions that were put to me within that Ordination Service twenty-five years ago. I found it both moving and challenging even when putting together the printed text for today’s service. All the more so, as I responded to each question in front of the St. Clement’s congregation this morning. If you want to know what exactly is asked at an ordination service, go here and scroll down to ‘The Liturgy of Ordination’.

After I had responded to the questions and had also received the loud support of the congregation, promising to both pray for me and to continue to uphold and encourage me in my ministry, I knelt and we sang the ancient hymn Veni Creator Spiritus – ‘Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire’, which is when the photograph at the beginning of this post was taken. Karen then led us in intercession, using the form of intercession from the ordination service.

Whilst I was warmly greeted when sharing the Peace, what I wasn’t expecting was what occurred just before the end of the service. In advance of the final hymn, I was giving the notices when both of the Churchwardens got up, wishing to also make an announcement. There followed an effusive eulogy written and spoken by Churchwarden Stephen Weeks, the text of which I was later told, had been approved by fellow Churchwarden Gordon Truefitt and gained the blessing of Jack Noonan. I was then given a most humbling long standing ovation by the congregation.

This afternoon, I have been searching through two boxes that sit in my office, famously ‘waiting to be sorted’, trying to find a photograph of me standing before St. Alban’s Cathedral in cassock, surplice and stole on that special day. Unfortunately, I’ve drawn a blank. But below is a scan of the legal document confirming my ordination, signed and sealed by Bishop John. I do love the line, ‘Of whose sufficient learning and godly conversation We were assured’ 🙂

The legal document confirming my ordination

A somewhat purple week!

In a 'purple sandwich' between my Czech Old Catholic Bishop Dušan Hejbal and my Anglican Diocesan Bishop Robert Innes © Ricky Yates — In a ‘purple sandwich’ between my Czech Old Catholic Bishop Dušan Hejbal and my Anglican Diocesan Bishop Robert Innes © Sybille Yates

The Prague and Brno Anglican congregations of which I am Chaplain or Priest-in-Charge, are two of just over three hundred congregations that together form the Church of England’s Diocese in Europe. However for both legal and ecumenical reasons, my two congregations also function as as the English-speaking parish of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, or Farní obec Starokatolické církve pro verící anglického jazyka v Praze.

The Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht were formed in the late 19th century by Roman Catholics who could not accept the doctrine of papal infallibility and other teachings that came out of the First Vatican Council of 1870. The Church in the Netherlands has a slightly earlier history. As well as the Netherlands, there are Old Catholic Churches in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and the Czech Republic, together with a scattering of outposts elsewhere. More information can be found in this Wikipedia article and their own website . The Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion, have been in full communion with the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht since the Bonn Agreement of 1931.

Once a year, the Bishops of the various Old Catholic Churches get together for a few days for their International Bishops Conference (IBK). The IBK is held in each different country by rotation. This year, it was once more the turn of the Czech Old Catholic Church to host the IBK. They previously did so in January 2009, the event being the subject of my first ever blog post nearly six and a half years ago.

As in 2009, following directly on after the IBK, there was a twenty-four hour meeting between the Old Catholic Bishops and those Anglican Bishops working in continental Europe. This took place between 14.00 on Friday 19^th June until lunchtime on Saturday 20^th. Back in February, I received a request from my Anglican Diocesan Bishop, Rt Rev’d Dr Robert Innes, for me to be the minute taker for this meeting. Apparently at some point since the January 2009 meeting, it was agreed that the Old Catholics would provide the interpreter whilst the Anglicans would provide the minute taker. Thus the lot fell on me 🙂

On the morning of Friday 19^th June, I once more provided Episcopal Taxi Service, first of all picking up Bishop Robert from Prague Airport having flown in from Brussels, and delivering him to Hotel Kampa in Mala Strana, where the meeting was to take place. Then I returned to the airport to pick up Bishop David Hamid, Suffragan Bishop in Europe, flying in from London Heathrow. A combination of Bishop David’s flight arriving late and then me getting slightly confused in a maze of one-way streets, meant that we both arrived about fifteen minutes after the meeting was meant to begin. The whole experience was a good reminder as to why I don’t normally drive my car in the centre of Prague!

It being a private meeting, it is not my place to reveal here, the various matters that were discussed by the bishops other than the perennial issue of continental Europe being famously an area of ‘overlapping ecclesiastical jurisdiction’ 😉 I only really had two problems with minuting the meeting. One was on Saturday morning when both the German and the Swiss Old Catholic Bishops spoke in German rather than English. Trying to listen in one ear to the English translation of what was being said whilst also hearing the German, which I partly understood, made my task almost impossible. The other was frequently having to stop myself from joining in the discussion 🙂

Late on Friday afternoon, we all left the hotel and took the funicular railway to the top of Petrín Hill, in order to reach the Old Catholic Cathedral of Sv Vavrince. There Archbishop Joris Vercammen of Utrecht, celebrated the Eucharist with Bishop Robert as the preacher. Afterwards, we all duly posed for photographs.

Bishops © Sybille Yates — Bishops, (plus a few hangers-on 🙂 ) © Sybille Yates

An explanation as to who is who. From left to right: Petr Jan Vinš, Czech Old Catholic priest who interpreted from German and English into Czech. Bishop David Hamid, Anglican Suffragan Bishop in Europe. Bishop Matthias Ring, Bishop of the German Old Catholic Church. Bishop Dušan Hejbal, Bishop of the Czech Old Catholic Church. Bishop Pierre Whalon, Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of American Episcopal Churches in Europe. Archbishop Joris Vercammen of Utrecht, Dutch Old Catholic Church. Bishop Harald Rein, Bishop of the Swiss Old Catholic Church. Bishop Mike Klusmeyer, Bishop of West Virginia and the delegate of the Episcopal Church of the USA to the IBK. Andrzej Gontarek, representative of the Bishop of the Old Catholic Church in Poland who was too ill to attend. Bishop Carlos López-Lozano of the Spanish Episcopal Reformed Church. Bishop Dirk Schoon, Bishop of Haarlem, Dutch Old Catholic Church. Bishop John Okoro, Bishop of the Austrian Old Catholic Church. Bishop Robert Innes, Anglican Diocesan Bishop in Europe. Bishop Jorge Cabral of the Lusitanian Church – Portuguese Episcopal Church. Yours Truly. Petr Brzobohaty, Czech Old Catholic Deacon and Secretary to Bishop Dušan.