By Ricky, on October 9th, 2013
Russell, in the garden of Bar-Restaurace Na Staré Fare © Ricky Yates
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 . . . → Read More: Russell
By Ricky, on September 29th, 2013
St. Columba’s House, Woking © Ricky Yates
As I wrote in my previous post, rather than being hosted by one of the Chaplaincies within the Eastern Archdeaconry, our 2013 Synod meeting, took place at St. Columba’s House, a Conference and Retreat Centre in Woking, Surrey, England, between Thursday 19th – Sunday 22nd September. Here is the post about the Synod meeting itself, as promised at the end of my previous rant about the profusion of unnecessary notices.
From my point of view, having the Synod meeting at Woking did mean it was relatively easy to travel to. I flew Prague – London Gatwick and return, using that well-known low cost airline one of my Church Council members has christened ‘SqueezyJet’, leaving Prague at lunchtime on Thursday and arriving back home in the middle of Sunday evening. The flights both ways, departed . . . → Read More: The 2013 Eastern Archdeaconry Synod
By Ricky, on September 24th, 2013
What a surprise – the kettle might be hot! © Ricky Yates
I am just back from attending our annual Eastern Archdeaconry Synod meeting. Unusually this year, instead of being hosted by one of the Chaplaincies in our Archdeaconry, it was held in St. Columba’s Retreat and Conference Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. And whilst the Conference Centre was an excellent venue, it did feature one aspect of British life that I find irritating and absurd – an increasing profusion of unnecessary notices.
This first photograph illustrates what is probably the best, or worst 🙁 , example of what I am talking about. Yes – there is a kettle or electric jug for boiling water, to allow guests to make themselves a hot drink, either first thing in the morning or late in the evening. As it is there to provide hot water, do we . . . → Read More: A profusion of unnecessary notices
By Ricky, on September 13th, 2013
The interior of St. Clement’s Church, set up for the wedding © Ricky Yates
Last weekend, I had the privilege of officiating at two ‘occasional offices’, to use the term by which baptisms, weddings and funerals, are collectively known within the Anglican Church. On the afternoon of Saturday 7th September in Prague, I conducted my second wedding of 2013, whilst on the evening of Sunday 8th September, I conducted my first-ever baptism in Brno.
Unlike my earlier wedding this year, this second wedding took place in our worshipping home in Prague – Kostel sv Kliment/St. Clement’s Church. This has several major advantages from my point of view, not the least being that getting there was far less problematic than travelling to Bouzov Castle 🙂
As I have frequently written and said previously, the geography of a building, does impact on the way a . . . → Read More: A Wedding and a Baptism
By Ricky, on August 24th, 2013
Memorial to the victims of the Soviet invasion of August 1968 © Ricky Yates
This past week saw the forty-fifth anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Red Army, which brought to an abrupt end, the short period of liberalisation known as the ‘Prague Spring’. On the night of 20th – 21st August 1968, around 200,000 Soviet troops poured over the borders from surrounding Warsaw Pact countries, supported by airborne troops, equipped with artillery and light tanks, who were flown in via Prague Airport. Along with the Soviet forces, there were also contingents of troops from Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and East Germany.
Whilst Alexander Dubcek, the Czechoslovak leader who had sought to introduce, ‘socialism with a human face’, called on his people not to resist, many ignored his advice and over one hundred citizens were killed and many more injured. This memorial . . . → Read More: The Soviet invasion of 1968 and its aftermath
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