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ICS Chaplains Conference in Switzerland

The Swiss Alps from my conference centre bedroom balcony © Ricky Yates

I spent the week, (Monday 29th April – Friday 3rd May), attending the annual Intercontinental Church Society (ICS) Chaplains and Families Conference held in Beatenberg, near Interlaken in Switzerland. ICS is an international Church of England mission agency seeking to make known the good news of the Christian Gospel to people who speak English, who find themselves living, studying, working or holidaying away from home in countries where English is not the main language. ICS mainly works in continental Europe and other countries that surround the Mediterranean, together with few far-flung outposts such as the Falkland Islands.

ICS has financially and prayerfully supported the Prague Anglican Chaplaincy since August 2000, their support allowing the appointment of the first full-time Chaplain in Prague, my predecessor Canon John Philpott. They have continued to be incredibly supportive during my time as Chaplain and it is fair to say that without their financial help, the Prague Anglican Chaplaincy might easily have ceased to exist.

SBT Conference Centre, Beatenberg © Ricky Yates

Every year, ICS organise a conference for all Chaplains and their families who work in Chaplaincies that they are involved with. The location of the conference alternates between continental Europe and the UK. I attended my first conference in April 2009, also held in Switzerland, but surprisingly did not write a blog post about it! I have missed the last three conferences, mainly to save the Prague Chaplaincy some expense with our financial position being so precarious. One of the nice things this year was that the governing ICS Council, agreed to subsidise the conference to a greater degree than in previous years, thus reducing the cost of my attendance.

Whilst the conference centre venue was excellent and its location absolutely spectacular, there was the practical problem of how to get there from Prague and get back home again afterwards. After considering the various possibilities, I opted to drive. I left the Chaplaincy flat in Prague just before 07.30 on Monday morning and finally reached the Beatenberg conference centre some ten hours later at 17.30.

The journey took me through four countries, (Czech Republic, Germany, Austria & Switzerland) and was almost exclusively on autobahn/motorway, with the exception of the crossing from Austria to Switzerland and a most ‘interesting’ crossing of a mountain pass between Luzern and Interlaken. Unfortunately, my journey took thirty minutes longer than it should have done when I struggled to find my way through and out of the western extremity of Interlaken, onto the twisty mountain road leading up to Beatenberg. It was very much a case of being so near yet so far 🙁

The conference itself had been well planned and struck a nice balance between prayer, worship and teaching, and the opportunity for some rest and recreation surrounded by spectacular scenery. The main Speaker was Canon Chris Neal who I had known and heard speak previously over ten years ago, when he was Rector of Thame and I was Rector of the Shelswell Group of Parishes, both of which are in Oxfordshire. His analysis of the world in which we are called to ‘bring the grace and truth of Christ to this generation’ was both incisive and challenging.

Another most helpful part of the conference was the opportunity to learn from each other. On two of the evenings, a series of workshops were on offer, led by various of my fellow ICS Chaplains. I had the privilege of helping to jointly lead one of them with my colleague Paul Vrolijk, the Chaplain of Aquitaine, France, entitled ‘Starting new congregations’. I shared my experience of starting the Brno congregation as Paul in turn, explained how he has started new congregations across the the three French départements that make up the area of his Chaplaincy. There then followed a series of questions and answers regarding the various issues involved. For me, it was an opportunity to both give, but also to receive.

If I have any little gripes, it would be that many of the ‘worship songs’ that we sang, were totally unknown to me. We also sang them with the words projected onto a screen, rather than having the printed words in our hands. I have no problem in doing this and can see the value of people not needing to hold books or leaflets in their hands. But the screen onto which the words were projected, almost totally obliterated the congregational view of the cross on the wall at the front of the chapel, which I found disorientating to say the least. And I do wish that several of my ministerial colleagues would be able to offer extemporary prayer, without needing to constantly use the word ‘Lord’, as a comma 🙂

From l to r, Rev'd Richard Bromley, Rev'd Clive Atkinson, Ven Julian Henderson © Ricky Yates — From l to r, Rev’d Richard Bromley, Rev’d Clive Atkinson, Ven Julian Henderson © Ricky Yates

The conference was also the first opportunity to meet the newly appointed Mission Director of ICS, Rev’d Richard Bromley. It was also his first real opportunity to meet most of us as he only took up his post at the beginning of this year. Also present, was the Chairman of the ICS Council, Ven Julian Henderson, along with several other Council members. Between them, they are now providing firm leadership for ICS after a somewhat rocky last couple of years.

I hope both Richard and Julian will forgive me posting this photograph of them both, which was taken during a fun ‘awards ceremony’, held during the Thursday evening celebratory dinner. They were two of the three nominees for the award for having the least hair on the top of their heads. I was actually surprised that I wasn’t nominated in this category as well 🙂 . However, by the almost unanimous vote of the audience, the award went to Clive Atkinson, the Chaplain of Vevey and Château d’Oex in Switzerland.

The view from Vorass after our climb up the mountainside © Ricky Yates

The views all around the conference centre were absolutely stunning as I hope the accompanying photographs show. On the Wednesday afternoon, Mark Collinson, Senior Chaplain in Amsterdam, acted as Sherpa and guide to a group of us as we climbed up the mountain behind Beatenberg, to Vorsass where we enjoyed some well-earned refreshments. However, I could not help contrasting the price I paid for my 0.5l of beer on a Swiss mountainside, with what I would normally pay in a bar-restaurant in the suburbs of Prague – four times the price 🙁

The intrepid walk group of walkers, awaiting our well-earned liquid refreshments © Ricky Yates

The return journey back to Prague went smoothly and took nine and a half hours including stops. I made a slight detour from the route I had taken to get to the conference, and successfully added Lichtenstein to the the list of countries I’ve now visited. Whilst there, I filled up my car with petrol as it is reasonably priced because of relatively low taxation. So my car, which was originally British (it is right-hand drive), but constructed in France (it is a Renault), which is now registered in the Czech Republic, was filled with petrol in Lichtenstein, which I paid for in Swiss Francs 🙂

The Swiss Alps at 06.00 on Friday 3rd May. What a view to wake up to! © Ricky Yates

Getting over the ‘ová’

Advert for the new book by that drunk British author called J. K. Rowlingová – 'J. K. Rolling over' :-) © Ricky Yates — Advert for the new book by that drunk British author called J. K. Rowlingová – ‘J. K. Rolling over’ 🙂 © Ricky Yates

One of the complications of the Czech language, is that nouns have different endings according to their gender and the case being used. As consequence, nearly all Czech females, have a surname that is slightly different from, and longer than, the surname of their father or husband, from which it is derived. In most cases, this occurs by the addition of ‘ová’ onto the end of the male surname.

The obvious example to illustrate this point, is the now-retired, famous Czech tennis player Martina Navrátilová. Martina’s step-father, who married her mother when she was six, is Miroslav Navrátil. She took his name and thus is Martina Navrátilová. There are some exceptions to this rule, which arise when the male surname ends in a vowel. Sticking with Czech tennis players, the country’s current best female player is Petra Kvitová. Her father is Jirí Kvita. The ‘a’ on the end of his surname is dropped and the ‘ová’ is added.

The grammatical reason for this change is it being in the genitive case. And what does the genitive case indicate? Possession! Effectively it is saying that the Czech woman is the possession of the man, either her father or husband. It is an interesting concept for any Czech woman who thinks of herself as being a feminist 🙂

Whilst it is not my place to question the grammatical rules of the Czech language, what I do find absurd and inappropriate, is applying these same rules to the surnames of women who are not Czech. What really brought this to my attention was in November 2010, when the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton was announced. As far as the Czech media were concerned, both television and newspapers, Prince William was now engaged to a lady called Kate Middletonová. I am sorry folks, but a lady with the name Kate Middletonová, does not exist.

A more recent example I came across, was when watching a live broadcast of the London Olympics on my computer last summer. CT4, Czech TV’s sports channel, was broadcasting the games, using the coverage provided by the BBC. It was the final of a sprint race for women. Almost exclusively, the competitors were black Africans or ladies from the Caribbean. As these competitors got down on their blocks, the BBC pictures showed captions with their wonderfully different names and the countries they were representing. But the Czech commentator still told his audience what the name was of each competitor, adding ‘ová’ to each and every one of them. It was utterly absurd.

My photograph illustrates very clearly, the point I am making. It shows an advertising poster for the Czech translation of the recently published adult novel, entitled in English as, ‘The Casual Vacancy’, by the author of the Harry Potter stories, J. K. Rowling. But as you can see, the Czech publisher feels obliged to tell you that it is actually written by a British author who appears to be drunk as she is J. K. Rowlingová – ‘J. K. Rolling over’ 🙂 .

But change is slowly coming – both at an official and unofficial level. A change in the law some years ago, does now mean that a non-Czech woman, who marries a Czech man, is no longer required to put ‘ová’ onto the end of her new surname. Thus there are two American ladies in the St. Clement’s congregation who are married to Czech men, who have the surnames, ‘Novak’ and ‘Vacik’, rather than ‘Novaková’ and ‘Vaciková’. Unlike in the UK or the USA, as part of the legal preliminaries to a Czech wedding, the couple have to declare what surnames they will use following their marriage, and must sign their Marriage Protokol during the marriage ceremony, using those agreed names.

Also unofficially, a number of Czech publishers are now publishing books by non-Czech female authors, translated from English and other non-Slavic languages, into Czech, without altering the author’s surname. Likewise, posters for Hollywood films being shown here, either with subtitles, or more commonly dubbed, are increasingly not featuring those unknown actresses, Jennifer Anistonová and Cameron Diazová, but featuring Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz.

I am sure this change will not please some Czech language purists but in my opinion, it makes perfect sense. After all, when writing in English about the latest tennis match played by Petra Kvitová, no one would dream of calling her Petra Kvita.

When Ricky went to Rícky

Ricky at the entrance to Rícky. Sorry about closing my eyes! © Ricky Yates

In January 2012, I wrote a post entitled ‘Exploring the Czech Republic‘, in which I told of my discovery of a place in the Czech Republic which bears my name – Ricky. As I explained in that post, the village is actually called Rícky v Orlických horách, and there should be a hacek, a little hook, above both the ‘R’ and the ‘c’ in ‘Rícky, as there should be above the ‘c’ in ‘hácek’. But as I know from past experience, for technical reasons that are beyond my comprehension, if I put one in, the letter will appear as ‘?’ in the text of this blog.

‘Rícka’ means ‘stream’ and so with the ‘a’ replaced with a ‘y’, the word is made plural meaning ‘streams’. ‘v Orlických horách’ simply means ‘in the Eagle Mountains’. Therefore, part of the reason for our trip to the Orlické hory, was so that Ricky could finally fulfil his longstanding ambition of visiting Rícky 🙂

Rícky v Orlických horách lies about seven kilometres north of Rokytnice v Orlických horách. After a peaceful night’s sleep in Pension Rampušák in Rokytnice, our plan was to walk to Rícky the next day. However, rather than the sunshine and blue skies that had greeted us upon our arrival in Rokytnice, we awoke to a howling wind blowing existing lying snow into greater drifts, and fresh snowflakes falling from the sky. We spent the morning in the warmth of our room, debating what we should do.

Following lunch in the restaurant of Pension Rampušák, we decided to brave the weather and go. So we set off and walked three kilometres out of Rokytnice up to Horní (Upper) Rokytnice where the road to Rícky branches off to the left. Just as we arrived at the road junction, along came the local bus service from Rokytnice to Rícky. We paid our fare of CZK 17 (£0.54) each, and hopped on. Four kilometres later, after a journey over a twisty snow-covered road, we arrived in the centre of Rícky.

Ricky at the centre of Rícky 673m/2200ft above sea level © Ricky Yates

Rícky v Orlických horách is a ski centre in winter and a base for walking holidays in summer. Covered in unusual late season snow, it was caught between its two identities. Other than a couple of mothers meeting their children coming home from school on the bus, the place was dead!

On our seven kilometre walk back to Rokytnice, Sybille took the picture at the beginning of this post and I took the one below, both of which I trust, illustrate how much lying snow there was, despite it being early April when Spring flowers should be appearing.

Bus stop shelter with snowdrift © Ricky Yates

And below is a photo of the most exposed part of our return walk, with Sybille walking past piles of snow that are nearly as high as she is! So much for a pleasant Spring walk – but at least now, Ricky has finally visited Rícky 🙂

Sybille walking between Rícky and Rokytnice © Ricky Yates

Orlické hory

Rokytnice v Orlických horách - 'Gateway to the Eagle Mountains' © Ricky Yates — Rokytnice v Orlických horách – ‘Gateway to the Eagle Mountains’ © Ricky Yates

After spending Easter Monday exploring Boskovice, the following morning we drove further north for about three hours, (including a mid-morning coffee break), from South Moravia, into the extreme north-eastern corner of Bohemia. This was in order to visit the Orlické hory (Czech) or Adlergebirge (German), both names which translate literally into English as ‘Eagle Mountains’.

The Orlické hory lie close to the border with Poland in the former Sudetenland, from which the Sudetendeutsche population were expelled at the end of the Second World War. They are not as high as the Krkonoše Mountains where we spent a walking holiday for a week in July 2011. Therefore, when planning some weeks earlier, how to spend my post-Easter break, we thought they would be an ideal location for a couple of days of walking enjoying some pleasant Spring weather 😉

The clear unwillingness of winter to relax its grip, did make us wonder whether this was still a good idea. But as Tuesday 2nd April dawned fine and sunny and the main roads were dry and clear of snow, we decided to stick to our original plan. So we arrived at Rokytnice v Orlických horách which, as the sign declares, is the brána Orlických hor, ‘Gateway to the Eagle Mountains’.

Rokytnice, (Rokitnitz in German), is a small town with a population of around 2500 and is around 580 metres (1,900 feet) above sea level. As with many Czech towns, at the centre is a pleasant main square, overlooked by a Church.

The main square in Rokytnice © Ricky Yates

A short distance from the Church, on one side of the square, we spotted Pension Rampušák which offered both meals and accommodation. We adopted our regular pattern of saying, “Mluvíme trochu cesky” – “We speak little Czech”, followed by, “Do you speak English? – Sprechen Sie Deutsch?”, and found that the lady proprietor spoke fluent German.

Pension Rampušák proved to be a wonderful find. We were offered a spacious double-bedded room with an equally spacious on-suite bathroom, for CZK 700 (just over £23.00) per night, including breakfast! We promptly booked in for two nights. We then discovered as we sat down and had lunch in the pension restaurant, that our German-speaking hostess also employed an excellent chef 🙂

That afternoon, we set out on a post-lunch digestive walk, first exploring the town and then following a waymarked footpath along the river valley, south of the town. Although the path was snow-covered, it was never too deep for walking and we enjoyed bright sunshine throughout the afternoon.

Boskovice

On the morning of Easter Monday, Sybille and I set off from Brno, to spend the first few days of my post-Easter break, exploring some more parts of the Czech Republic we have not previously visited. We drove about 40 km north from Brno, to the town of Boskovice. Despite seeing ever-increasing amounts of snow lying on the surrounding countryside as we drove into the hills of the Moravský kras, the main roads were fortunately perfectly clear.

We parked the ‘Carly’ in the somewhat snow-covered Masarykovo námestí, the main square in the town centre, which is dominated at the west end, by the impressive Kostel Sv. Jakuba Staršího/Church of St. James the Great. From there, we set out to discover two of Boskovice’s main landmarks. A large Zámek/Chateau, which dates from the early nineteenth century and is built on the site of a former Dominican monastery.

Zámek/Chateau at Boskovice © Ricky Yates

The ruins of Boskovice Castle © Ricky Yates

And the quite substantial ruined remains of a 13th century castle. Unfortunately, despite a sign indicating that the castle would be open because it was Easter Monday – a public holiday, we discovered at the end of our walk up a snow-covered hill, that it was closed. We suspect that this was due to the adverse weather conditions. This was a shame as I understand that there are excellent views from the castle, across the surrounding countryside.

For several centuries, there was a large Jewish population living in Boskovice. The Jewish quarter of the town, is among the best preserved monuments of Jewish culture in the whole of the Czech Republic. In 1942, during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, 458 Jewish men, women and children, were deported from Boskovice, initially to Terezín, and then on to concentration camps such as Auschwitz. Of those deported, only fourteen survived.

The interior of the restored former synagogue in Boskovice © Ricky Yates

The main synagogue was built in 1639 and was altered and extended over the following centuries. During the eighteenth century, the interior walls were decorated with frescos, the work of Polish Jewish artists. Having been neglected and used as a warehouse during the Communist era, following the Velvet Revolution, restoration work began with the synagogue being reopened to the public in 2002. Whilst many of the frescos at lower levels have been lost, no doubt due to rising damp, those at higher levels around the ladies gallery, are remarkably intact.

Having seen a note on the door of the synagogue during the morning of Easter Monday, that it would be open from 13.00 that afternoon, we returned there after a late lunch at 14.50. We were greeted by the lady in charge who fortunately spoke fluent German. She explained that the synagogue had again been closed for several months over the past winter in order for further restoration work to be undertaken. Monday 1st April was reopening day and we were the first visitors of 2013. I duly christened the 2013 page of the visitors book!

Interior of the restored synagogue in Boskovice © Ricky Yates

Interior detail of the restored synagogue in Boskovice © Ricky Yates

Fresco artwork on the interior walls of the restored synagogue in Boskovice © Ricky Yates

Frescos on the ceiling of the restored synagogue in Boskovice © Ricky Yates

As well as the synagogue, the lady in charge also took us across the road to the basement of a house, where there is a restored private mikve for Jewish ritual washing. This mikve is a relatively recent find, following the ownership of the house changing hands. The new owner decided to clear out the rubbish & rubble from the basement of his house, and made this remarkable discovery!

Headstone with text in Hebrew and German in the Jewish cemetery in Boskovice © Ricky Yates

At the south-western end of Boskovice, there is the third largest Jewish cemetery in the whole of the Czech Republic, containing around 2500 headstones. As in this example, inscriptions are usually in both Hebrew and German.

Boskovice does not even rate a mention in our ‘Lonely Planet Guide to the the Czech Republic and Slovakia’. Fortunately, I had come across a couple of snippets of information about the town elsewhere, which is what prompted our visit. Seeing the amazing artwork in the restored synagogue and private mikve, were the highlights of an informative and fascinating day.

Jewish cemetery in Boskovice © Ricky Yates