A forthcoming Royal Visit

St. Clement's Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague © Ricky Yates

This is a blog post that I started formulating almost two months ago. But for reasons that will be obvious as you read on further, it was only 48 hours ago that I was allowed to speak or write publicly about most of what follows.

The story starts on the morning of Monday 11th January 2010 when I received an email from the British Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Sian MacLeod, alerting me to ‘a visit next weekend by an official group from the UK who would very much like to visit your church’. Her colleague, the Second Secretary Alex Pykett would be in touch with me shortly to make arrangements and she expressed the hope that I would be able to help. I duly replied that I would help in whatever way I could.

A couple of days later, I had a phone call from the Second Secretary. Please could he and the ‘official group from the UK’, meet me at the Church on Saturday 16th January at 2 pm. When I enquired whether this was security related he agreed that it was and that he would be able to tell me more when we met.

Putting two and two together, I realised that what was mind must be some form of Royal Visit. What I did not yet know was who the visitors were to be. Was it to be Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh or HRH Prince Charles and HRH Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall? To save the mouthfuls, over the next few days Sybille and I reduced this to either E & P or C & C!

On Saturday 16th January, I travelled into central Prague from the Chaplaincy flat, opened the Church and awaited the arrival of the official party. Just before 2 pm, a car drew up and parked nearby. The driver came across to me and introduced himself. He was an officer of the Czech Secret Service, sent by the Office of the Czech President to meet with the ‘official group from the UK’ to discuss the proposed visit of Prince Charles + Camilla. So it was to be C & C.

Soon afterwards, a minibus pulled up and out stepped the ‘official group from the UK’, led by Alex Pykett the Second Secretary. There were nine or ten people in total and I never got to know who all of them were. Those I did speak with were the Princes’ Private Secretary, his Personal Protection Officer and his Press Secretary, together with the Duchess’ Lady-in-Waiting. We discussed in detail what normally happens at our regular 11am service each Sunday and the special arrangements to be made to allow the Prince and the Duchess to attend and worship with us.

The real shock came when I asked about the date of the proposed visit. I had assumed such visits would be organised several months in advance and presumed we would be talking about September or October 2010. You can therefore imagine my surprise when the reply came that, whilst the exact date had not finally been agreed, it would either be Sunday 14th or Sunday 21st March.

The great emphasis throughout all of our discussions was that the proposed visit had to be kept very hush-hush. This was partly due to the exact dates and arrangements still being sorted out. But sadly, the overriding concern was that of security. By not announcing details of the proposed visit until a few weeks before it is planned to take place, any terrorist would have far less time to organise something. I therefore concluded that at least some of the members of the visiting group who I did not really speak with, were officers of MI5, sussing out all the security implications of such a Royal Visit.

Despite the need for secrecy, I did share the basic details with the Church Council when they met the following day. For depending which Sunday the visit was to take place, it could have had implications regarding other Church activities. But nothing could be made public to the wider congregation until I had the say-so from the British Embassy.

On Friday 5th February, I had a second meeting at Church with Alex Pykett and his diplomatic colleague John Davies. As well as clarifying various practical details regarding the Church service, it was confirmed to me that the date would be Sunday 21st March. I was also told that this was all part of a three country tour with the Prince and the Duchess visiting Poland and Hungary, before arriving in the Czech Republic. The royal couple would be arriving from Budapest the previous day.

I was also promised that towards the end of the following week, there would be an official announcement by the British Embassy about the visit. However, this would still be in very general terms and not including a detailed programme of events. In the meantime it was still very hush-hush – please don’t tell anyone.

It was therefore quite a surprise when the following morning, one of the Churchwardens phoned me saying, “I see the news of the visit is out”. He sent me a link to an article on the website of the Czech newspaper Dnes (Today) with news of the forthcoming royal visit. I soon found an English-language piece on the website of the Czech News Agency CTK. Both articles credited the source of their information as being ‘unnamed diplomatic sources’.  I was later informed that the source of the leak to was believed to have been in Hungary!

Finally, late on Thursday 11th February, the promised official announcement was posted on the British Embassy website and a similar press release was made by Clarence House in London. But again, mainly because of security concerns, there was still no detailed programme nor could I yet tell the regular members of the congregation that, as part of the impending royal visit, the Prince and the Duchess would be attending Sunday worship at St. Clements.

On Wednesday 3rd March at 8.30am, I had my third meeting at the Church, this time with the Director of Protocol of the Office of the Czech President, together with several senior officers of the Czech Police. Once more, Alex Pykett was there and helped finalise the necessary security arrangements.

However, the really good news last Wednesday was that later that day, there would be an announcement of the programme for the Royal Visit on the British Embassy website which would in turn give me the green light to tell all the members of the congregation and also be able to publish this blog post!

I have to say that I feel a certain sense of relief that I am finally free to talk openly about the forthcoming Royal Visit. It has occupied quite a bit of my time over these past two months. On quite a number of recent occasions I have had to bite my lip and refrain from saying something in order to maintain the requested secrecy. It hasn’t been easy.

I am also quite encouraged that attending Christian worship is seen as an important ingredient of the visit by the royal couple to the Czech Republic. This is in notable contrast to the visit of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama to Prague in 2009. Instead of attending a Church service, President Obama made his major European speech about promoting a nuclear-free world, standing alongside Prague Castle, but on the morning of Palm Sunday!

St. Clement's Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague © Ricky Yates

Finally, the snow has melted

My Renault Scenic on Saturday 9th January 2010 after snow had fallen for 24 hours © Ricky Yates

I previously blogged about the heavy snowfall that started in Prague on Friday 8th January 2010 and continued right through the weekend. The photo on the left shows my car on the Saturday morning after snow had fallen continuously for 24 hours. As I remarked in my more recent post about the visit of the Archdeacon to Prague on the weekend of 30th-31st January, most of the snow that fell then was still lying on the ground during his visit. However, after more than six weeks of temperatures almost permanently being below freezing, finally during the past week, a thaw has set in and the snow has gradually melted.

I was warned before moving to the Czech Republic, that I would have to get used to colder continental winters. But nothing could really prepare me for the weather Prague has experienced these last nearly seven weeks. Apparently, this has been the worst winter weather that the Czech Republic has had in 17 years. Towards the end of this long cold spell, even native Czechs were beginning to express their frustration with the extreme nature of the weather.

Despite the lying snow and freezing temperatures, Prague has continued to function. The city authorities have made major efforts to clear roads and pavements and public transport has kept operating with the minimal of delays. Particularly in popular pedestrianized areas in the city centre, snow has been cleared away by loading it into trucks and dumping it out of the way elsewhere. There are still massive heaps of snow along the banks of the River Vltava which are the result of this exercise.

Heap of dirty snow © Ricky Yates

Even in suburban streets, snow has been pushed into piles in order to leave a clear path along the pavement or road. It is mainly these heaps of snow that still have not melted, together with snow lying on north facing slopes which get very little sun.

When snow falls, everything looks beautiful and white. However, as it melts, dirt, litter and scattered street debris is revealed which look highly unattractive. In particular, many dog owners have got out of the habit of cleaning up after their dogs have obliged in the street believing that the snow will cover it up. Now the snow has melted, one has to walk quite carefully in places to avoid stepping in dog s–t. It will be interesting to observe how quickly all of this mess is cleared up.

As well as the marked improvement in the weather, last week was also notable for a number of other things. Both of us had our birthdays which has resulted in our joint ages now totalling one hundred! On the intervening day between our respective birthdays, I paid the last of several visits to the dentist for the fitting of a crown to replace one of my front teeth which I broke at the beginning of February.

Looking ahead, I have an early morning meeting on Wednesday 3rd March, following which I may be able to write a very interesting blog post. Watch this space!

Ash Wednesday – the beginning of Lent

Hand sewn cross on my Lenten stole © Ricky Yates

Yesterday, 17th February was Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent.

Originally, Lent was a period in which new Christian believers underwent a period of teaching and preparation ready to be baptised on Easter Eve/Holy Saturday, before being admitted to receive Communion for the first time on Easter Day. Fasting and prayer were regarded as being important elements of that time of preparation.

Lent was also the time when those who had been excommunicated from Christian fellowship because of apostasy or serious faults, could undergo a time of prayer, fasting and penitential acts showing that they had truly repented of their past failures, so that they might be readmitted to Eucharistic fellowship on Easter Day.

In time, it was seen that all Christian believers might benefit from a period of self-examination, fasting study and prayer, before celebrating the joy of Easter Day. This is how the keeping of the season of Lent as we now know it, came into being.

As most people know, Lent lasts for forty days, commemorating the forty days and nights that Jesus spent being tempted and tested in the wilderness, in advance of beginning his public ministry. However, if you add up the number of days between 17th February, Ash Wednesday 2010 and 4th April, Easter Day 2010, you will discover that there are forty seven days in total. The reason for this apparent anomaly is simple – you do not count the Sundays as these are deemed to be feast days and not fasting days.

Yesterday evening, I held a Eucharist for Ash Wednesday with the imposition of ashes for those who wanted to receive it. We suffered additional penance with the Church itself being particularly cold. Heating within the St. Clement’s Church building is not that good at the best of times. However, on Sundays, we at least benefit from our host congregation, the Ceskobratrské Cíckve Evangelické /the Evangelical Church of  Czech Brethren, having had the heating on for their service starting at 09.30 am before ours which begins at 11.00am. But the CCE are not great followers of the Liturgical Year other than celebrating Christmas and Easter and therefore do not have their own Ash Wednesday service.

My other act of penance in advance of Wednesday evening was having to produce copies of a completely new service booklet containing the liturgy. Having been in Prague since September 2008, this was my second Ash Wednesday in the Czech Republic. Before moving here, I bought an external hard-drive and copied a whole load of material off the Shelswell Benefice computer belonging to my former North Oxfordshire parishes. This material included various service booklets for special days in the Christian Year including Ash Wednesday, all of which had been put together by my former part-time Benefice Administrator, the wonderful Becky Adams.

Last year, I printed off copies of the Ash Wednesday service booklet that we had used for a number of years in my previous parishes. All I did was alter the cover so that it said ‘St. Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague’ instead of ‘Shelswell Group of Parishes’. But when I came to use it I discovered to my horror as I led the intercessions, that the text required me to pray for ‘Her Majesty the Queen and the High Court of Parliament’! Such a wording is somewhat out of place in the capital of a European republic with a congregation that only has a minority of Brits within it.

We should all learn from our mistakes and I certainly did from that embarrassing one. Whilst the St. Clement’s congregation is part of the forty-fourth diocese of the Church of England, not quite the entire liturgy of the Church of England is suitable for using in a continental European Chaplaincy.

The third member of our family

Oscar striking an interesting pose whilst asleep © Ricky Yates

As I have written previously on this blog, not only did Sybille and I move to Prague in September 2008, so did our adopted cat Oscar. From time to time we get enquiries as to how Oscar is adapting to his new life in Prague. So I decided it was time to devote a blog post specifically to Oscar.

Like most cats, Oscar spends the vast majority of his time either sleeping or eating. I took the photo on the left this morning, when he adopted a rather interesting pose whilst sleeping on the double bed in our guest bedroom. Of course, as far as Oscar is concerned, it isn’t the guest bedroom, it is Oscar’s bedroom! Whenever we have visitors to stay overnight, we have a major exercise in advance of their arrival, removing cat hair from both beds in the guest bedroom.

The big difference for Oscar between living in a detached Rectory in North Oxfordshire and living in a second floor flat in the suburbs of Prague, is that he can no longer go outside and explore and supplement his diet with field mice and baby rabbits. Instead, he has become a ‘flat cat’. Overall he has adapted fairly well to this change, helped by the fact that in cat terms, he is now quite old. He will celebrate his thirteenth birthday next month. However, it must be said that quite frequently, his behaviour is what you might expect from a far younger cat. For example, he still quite regularly chases his own tail!

If you want to know more about Oscar and his life history, then I am instructed to provide a back link to Oscar’s own blog. It does need some updating but then, like everything else in Oscar’s life, he relies on his human slaves, (aka Sybille and me), to do it for him.

One of Oscar’s most recent habits has been, not just to sleep on top of the duvet on one of the beds in the guest bedroom, but under the duvet. Sometimes there is little more than a large bump in the duvet with a small amount of black and white fur protruding. The two photos below are good examples of this latest trend. You have to admit that he does look remarkably cute!

Oscar under the duvet © Ricky Yates

Oscar under the duvet © Ricky Yates

Flooding in Prague

The height of flooding in Prague over the last 300 years © Sybille Yates

Prague is a beautiful city. One of the reasons it is so beautiful is being situated either side of the River Vltava. However, with the beauty of the riverside location comes the inherent danger of flooding. Unfortunately, over the centuries, this is something to which Prague has not been immune.

The picture on the left is of the wall of a building in Mala Strana, just south of Charles Bridge, and shows the height reached by floodwaters on several occasions during the last 300 years. Bearing in mind that I am quite tall, (1.87m or 6’ 1½”), and that where I am standing is well above the normal river level, it does illustrate the immensity and devastating nature of the flooding that engulfed Prague as recently as August 2002.

Apparently, there is an historic Prague expression, “The 100 Year Water”. As you can see, if you do a simple mathematical calculation, there actually was a 112 year gap between the last major flooding of 1890 before the flooding of 2002. And whilst the expression has no scientific evidence to support it, going further back, there were 106 years between the floods of 1784 and those of 1890.

Flood level marker 1890 © Ricky Yates

Flood level marker for 1890 with normal river level in the background © Ricky Yates

The two photographs above show the location elsewhere in Mala Strana, of another marker of the height of the serious flooding in 1890. Here I was able to get a backwater/mill stream of the River Vltava into my picture which I hope will indicate the difference between the normal river height and where the floodwaters rose to 120 years ago.

In the floods of 1890, three arches of Charles Bridge were destroyed as shown in the historic photograph below. Fortunately, the floods of 2002 did not destroy any part of the historic bridge though they did leave it seriously weakened. Over the last two years, major renovation work has been undertaken to it, both above and below the waters of the Vltava, to strengthen it and restore it to its former glory. Hopefully, this work will be completed in the next few months, thus allowing locals and visitors to walk freely across it without having to negotiate their way around scaffolding and fenced off sections.

As for “The Hundred Year Water”, I don’t think I will be around to witness it in the early years of the 22nd century!

The damage caused to Charles Bridge by the floods of 1890. Image source; in public domain therefore assuming fair use.