Bishops – Page 2

Electing a new Old Catholic Bishop for the Czech Republic

As I have explained previously in this blog, the Prague Anglican congregation legally functions as the English-speaking parish of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic or Farní obec Starokatolické církve pro vericí anglického jazyka v Praze. This came about as the result of a covenant signed in September 2000 by Bishop John Hind, the then Anglican Bishop of the Diocese in Europe, and Bishop Dušan Hejbal of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic.

Under the covenant, we are treated both as a Chaplaincy in the Anglican Diocese in Europe, and as a constituent parish of the Czech Old Catholic Church. One consequence of this is that I am expected, along with one lay person from my congregation, to attend any meeting of the Synod of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic when they take place. Fortunately, this is normally only once every three years as the meetings, which usually take place over a couple of days, are conducted entirely in Czech 🙁

Back in October 2010, Sybille I broke into our holiday to attend a Synod meeting held in Moravia, as mentioned in this post, whilst three years later in 2013, I attended the next Synod meeting, along with a lay representative, which was conveniently held in Prague. But last year, Bishop Dušan called an extra Synod meeting, in order to gain approval for his proposal to stay on as Bishop for a further three years beyond his sixty-fifth birthday in July 2016, exercising a provision within the Church’s constitution. Unfortunately, the date of that Synod meeting fell in the middle of our previously booked holiday in Poland, so I was unable to attend, nor could we find a lay representative to go either.

At that meeting in October 2015, the Synod decided not to accept Bishop Dušan’s proposal. Thus was set in motion, a procedure that had not happened for over twenty years – a further Synod meeting was called to take place in April 2016, to elect a new Old Catholic Bishop. As I have said numerous times, I do realise that ‘a new Old Catholic Bishop’, does sound like a contradiction in terms 🙂

This Synod meeting took place between the evening of Thursday 7^th and the morning of Saturday 9^th April at Želiv Monastery, located in the Vysocina/Highlands, about 100km south-east of Prague. I was accompanied by one of my Churchwardens, Stephen Weeks, who the Church Council had previously elected to be their lay representative. After an opening Eucharist, followed by our evening meal, the Synod meeting began.

Fortunately, whilst having supper, Stephen and I were overheard speaking to each other in English, by a lay member of the Synod called Vlad’ka. Like many of the Old Catholic laity, she had no idea of our existence as an English-speaking parish in the Czech Old Catholic Church and asked us in English, who we were and what we were doing there. Once we had explained, she kindly offered to interpret for us as she is a teacher of English to vocational students in Brno. She sat between us, interpreting all that was being said, enabling Stephen and I to follow the proceedings.

The evening session began with the two candidates to be the new Bishop, each making a presentation as to their understanding of the role and what they hoped to achieve if elected. There was then a short break, during which time written questions could be submitted to the moderator for the candidates to answer in the following session. Stephen and I compiled a couple of questions which we wanted to ask, which Vlad’ka kindly translated into Czech for us to submit.

The question and answer session went on until it was 22.00 which had previously been agreed as the finishing time for that evening. But it resumed again after breakfast, the following morning. Issues raised included the candidates attitude to same-sex blessings, what was the first things they would do upon becoming bishop and the question of the ordination of women as priests. Currently, the Czech Old Catholic Church only ordain women deacon, unlike their fellow Old Catholics in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Switzerland who do ordain women as priest.

We raised the specific question of their attitude to us being able to advertise for a successor to me, being open to ordained Anglican priests of either gender. My Church Council are unanimous that this should be the case, and fortunately we now have an Archdeacon and Bishop who are committed to supporting us in this. We did not get as clear an answer as we would like from the candidates, but we certainly did not get an outright rejection on the issue.

By the middle of Friday morning, there were no further questions. So we moved to a coffee break, to be followed by the election of the new Bishop. However, before the election could take place, a technical issue was raised. There were meant to be fifty-six Synod delegates but only fifty-five were present. The constitution provides that to be elected, a candidate needs a three fifths majority. Was it to be three fifths of fifty-five or fifty-six? After some debate, we voted that it should be three fifths of fifty-six 🙂

It took three rounds of voting before a conclusive result was achieved. The Synod elected Pavel Stránský, currently the Old Catholic priest in Zlín, to be their new Bishop. He was given a standing ovation and presented with a chain and crucifix, showing him to be the Bishop-elect. He then made a formal declaration, signed various papers and both he and Bishop Dušan were presented with flowers.

After lunch, the Synod meeting elected a new Synodal Council, who with the new bishop, will run the Church for the next three years. Various other committees were also elected and then, with no further business to conduct, the meeting ended with the singing of the Te Deum.

Exactly when Bishop-elect Pavel will be consecrated has yet to be decided but I’ve been told informally that it will probably be sometime in September or October.

Yours Truly with the Bishop-elect, Pavel Stránský © Ricky Yates

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.

On the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

St. Clement's Church, Prague on a winter's evening © Ricky Yates — St. Clement’s Church, Prague on a winter’s evening © Ricky Yates

Today, 25^th January, is kept in the Christian calendar as the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. This year, 25^th January is a Sunday, and Church practice is that the readings set for a Feast Day, normally take precedence over those set for the Sunday – in this case, those set for the Third Sunday of Epiphany. So it was that this morning, we celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, with the account of his conversion recorded in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 9, being our first reading. And if you want to listen to my sermon from today, you can do here.

This is the second time during my time in Prague, that the the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul has fallen on a Sunday. The previous occasion was six years ago on 25^th January 2009, a few months after my arrival here in late September 2008. That service six years ago, has remained long in my memory for reasons I will explain.

Being an English-speaking congregation based at a central location in a popular tourist destination, nearly every Sunday we have visitors from across the world, joining us for worship. Frequently among the visitors, are fellow ordained priests and ministers. But because they are nearly always in mufti, unsurprisingly since they are on holiday, I only get to know of their presence when speaking to them at the Church door after the service when they usually reveal themselves 🙂

Almost without exception, they express great appreciation for the service and the pleasure for once of being able to be part of the congregation, rather than being up-front. If married, the pleasure of being able to worship sitting alongside their spouse. The latter sentiment is one Sybille and I fully concur with as it is something we both enjoy on the rare occasions we are able to do so.

However, Sunday 25^th January 2009, when the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul previously fell on a Sunday, was the occasion when I had to preach with two bishops in the congregation – Bishop Mike Klusmeyer of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, and Bishop Jonathan Gledhill, the Church of England Bishop of Lichfield. The only consolation was that I did know of their presence in advance of the service, though in the case of Bishop Jonathan, only ten minutes beforehand.

But as well as being episcopally listened to and observed, the events of that day and the week that followed, were the catalyst for the beginning of this blog. The first post describing what happened, wasn’t finally published until ten days after that Sunday. But in many respects, rather than ten days hence on 4^th February 2015, today is the sixth birthday of ‘Ricky Yates – An Anglican in Prague’.

Little did I know what I was starting and I now look back in staggered amazement at what has happened here, over the past six years. This is post number 304. The blog now attracts between 70 – 90 visitors a day. When there is a new post, visitor numbers promptly rise – for example on 19^th January when I last published a new post here, there were 140 visitors.

I’ve met people at the Church door who have told me that they came to Church because they’ve read my blog. I’ve met a couple of people in one of our local bar-restaurants, who on discovering my name, immediately told me that they read my blog. Six years ago, not in my wildest dreams did I ever expect any of this to happen.

So on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul 2015, I thank God for his life, teaching and example. I also thank God for Ananias, for his faithfulness and obedience, without which, Paul’s conversion would not have happened. And I thank God for the way this blog has both become such an important component of my life and how it is appreciated and enjoyed by so many people.

Bringing the Church of England into the 21st century

The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Wilby © Ricky Yates

Yesterday, I realised that the next post that I would write on this blog would be post number three hundred! I went to bed last night, trying to decide what on earth would be the most appropriate topic to tackle for such significant landmark in the life of ‘Ricky Yates – an Anglican in Prague’.

Then this morning came the announcement of the appointment of the first ever female bishop in the Church of England – the Rev’d Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Lane, to be the next Suffragan Bishop of Stockport in the Diocese of Chester. Rather than write about ‘Ricky Yates’ or ‘Prague’, why not write about the other noun in my blog title – ‘Anglican’?

I, along with the vast majority of the clergy and people of the Church of England, are rejoicing that with this appointment, we finally have the reality of gender equality in the Church. It has been a very long time in coming! I’m also extremely pleased that this appointment totally confounded the secular media and the bookies!

The secular media has recently been declaring, with its usual self-belief, that the first female bishop would be appointed to one of the four currently vacant Diocesan sees – Southwell & Nottingham, Gloucester, Newcastle or Oxford. But the reality is that most Diocesan Bishop appointments are made from those who are already Suffragan Bishops in another diocese. Therefore it was always almost certain that the first female episcopal appointment would be to a Suffragan, rather than a Diocesan see. Which is exactly what has happened.

Likewise today, the BBC News website is once more revealing the religious ignorance of those who work for it. The news article announcing the appointment of Rev’d Libby Lane as Suffragan Bishop of Stockport, ends by stating, ‘Churches in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already allow women as bishops, but haven’t appointed one yet’. Firstly, it should be Anglican Churches – the Episcopal Church of Scotland, Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru/ the Church in Wales and the Church of Ireland. But the Church of Ireland, which serves the whole of the island of Ireland, does have a female bishop who was appointed and consecrated in 2013. There is actually a link to another BBC news item about her appointment posted below the article!

I fear that in further reporting of today’s historic appointment, journalists will inevitably find an Anglican priest who wants to be more Roman than the Pope, together with a well below the floorboards Evangelical, each of whom will be saying what a dreadful day this is for the Church. As always, disagreement is deemed to be newsworthy, whilst ignoring the fact that 95% of clergy and laity welcome the Church of England finally arriving in the 21^st century. At least so far, I haven’t seen the BBC reporting a sound-bite either from the British Humanist Association or the National Secular Society 🙂

But whilst welcoming and rejoicing that appointment to the Episcopate in the Church of England is now possible for any ordained priest, regardless of gender, thus removing a major obstacle to the mission of the Church, there are two other changes which I would also like to see. One relates to my own diocese, the other to the Church of England as a whole. Unchanged, both currently have negative connotations and hinder mission.

I frequently have to explain to people that the Prague and Brno Anglican congregations that I serve, are actually part of the Church of England. They are two of just over three hundred congregations, scattered across continental Europe, Turkey, Morocco and the parts of the former Soviet Union in Asia. Together they form the Diocese in Europe, or to give the diocese its correct full name, ‘the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe’. And it is that correct full name that is the problem – having ‘Gibraltar’ in the title.

We have numerous growing congregations serving English-speaking residents living in, and visitors to, the Spanish ‘Costas’, as well as in Madrid and Barcelona. You can imagine the difficulties for them with having ‘Gibraltar’ in our diocesan name. Elsewhere in continental Europe, it just appears as laughable – a relic of British imperialism.

I would strongly defend the right of the citizens of Gibraltar to remain British and self-governing, as is clearly their declared wish. I would also quietly remind the Spanish government whenever they complain, as they do at regular intervals, about the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa 😉 But just because historically, there has been a Cathedral in Gibraltar, it doesn’t always have to be so. As we have rightly decided that both men and women can be ordained, not just men, surely we can change the location of our Diocesan Cathedral and the name of our Diocese.

Today’s announcement of the appointment of the Church of England’s first female bishop, officially came from Downing Street – the Prime Minister making it on behalf of the Queen. This is because of the Church of England still being the official ‘Established Church’ in England, though not in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Whilst there is now no political involvement in Church of England appointments, this is an anachronism which we do not need.

Being the ‘Established Church’, makes many people believe that we are an instrument of government. Certainly as a result, large sections of the population still believe that the Church of England is funded by the state as the spiritual arm of the Department of Social Security! Being the ‘Established Church’ brings little or no benefit but instead makes our task of mission and of raising the necessary funds to carry out that mission, all the more difficult.

Just because this has been the case, ever since the English Reformation under King Henry VIII, doesn’t mean that it has to remain that way. I respect Queen Elizabeth II for her own strong personal Christian faith and for not being afraid on occasions, to speak about it, as she has in several of her Christmas broadcasts. But if the Church in Wales can be disestablished, as it was in 1920, why not the Church of England in 2015?

The Church of England has properly arrived in the 21^st century by today appointing its first female bishop. But it would further help the work of my diocese if we could quietly lose the colonial anachronism of ‘Gibraltar’ from our name and the wider work of the whole Church of England, if it were no longer ‘established’. I even believe that the British Humanist Association and the National Secular Society might approve of my last suggestion 😀

2014 – The year ahead

Prague Castle from Charles Bridge © Ricky Yates

On the first day of 2014, it seems good to think and write about the year ahead and what it might have in store for Sybille and I, for the Anglican congregations in Prague and Brno that I lead, and for the wider Czech Republic. What follows is what I’m currently contemplating, but as always, God might have other ideas 🙂

New leadership of State and Church

It does appear that, more than two months after elections at the end of October, the Czech Republic will once again, shortly have a properly functioning government which is able to command a majority in the lower house of parliament. It will be a three-party coalition, with Bohuslav Sobotka, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (CSSD), as Prime Minister.

However, one can never be sure, especially as all ministerial appointments have to be approved by President Miloš Zeman. Whilst the three political parties who will form the coalition have agreed on the number of ministries they will each control, the names of those proposed as ministers have yet to be made public. Several likely ministerial candidates from the CSSD are people Zeman fell out with before leaving the CSSD some ten years ago. Apparently, according to press reports, the President has indicated that he might refuse to formally appoint some of these individuals, should they be nominated.

If this happens, the matter will probably end up with a complaint to the Constitutional Court, seeking a ruling as to the extent of presidential powers. I do hope that all sides will see common sense and put the well-being of the country ahead of settling old personal and political scores.

It also does appear, that sometime in the coming Spring, the name of the next Anglican Bishop of the Diocese in Europe, will be announced. He, (sadly no chance of ‘she’ just yet), will succeed Rt Rev’d Dr Geoffrey Rowell, who retired in early November 2013. If you want to know more about what lies ahead for my next Bishop, see this link to the ‘Description of the Diocese and Statement of Needs‘.

I do find it absurd that, having known since early 2013, the date of Bishop Geoffrey’s retirement, it is only now that the process of appointing his successor is underway. What other major organisation, knowing the date of the forthcoming retirement of its CEO, would not have appointed their successor and had them ready to take over straight-away, thus ensuring a smooth transition? I do think that this is where the Church of England does need a complete rethink. I experienced a very similar situation previously in the Diocese of Oxford where we were without a Diocesan Bishop for around eighteen months.

The Liturgical Year ahead

This year, Easter Day is quite late, falling on Sunday 20th April. This is vastly preferable as far as I’m concerned, in comparison to 2013 when Easter Day was 31st March, the clocks went forward one hour overnight the night before, and there was snow on the ground in Brno.

What it also means is that there is a far longer period of ‘Ordinary Time’, between the end of the Epiphany season on 2nd February, the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, which with Easter Day being late, in 2014 falls on Wednesday 5th March.

Therefore, with now being in Year A of the three-year cycle of readings from the Revised Common Lectionary when the Gospel of Matthew predominates, throughout February, the Sunday readings focus on sections of the Sermon on the Mount. This should certainly make for interesting preaching material!

However, I note that during Lent, we also get several large chunks of the Gospel of John each Sunday. Appropriate Lenten penance, both in the time it takes to read the passages as well as then trying to expound them 🙂

Family, holidays and travel

I am looking forward to my son Phillip and his girlfriend Lisa, coming to Prague for a long weekend visit at the end of February. The dates of their visit were partly governed by when jet2.com are scheduled to resume their East Midlands Airport – Prague flights after a post-Christmas/New Year hiatus of seven weeks.

Phillip & Lisa during their previous visit in January 2013 © Ricky Yates

But I’ve since discovered that the weekend they are here, is when the Czech Gambrinus Football League resumes matches following their current mid-winter break. It means that Phillip and I can go and see Dukla Praha play in their stadium which lies directly behind where the Chaplaincy Flat is located, something we’ve talked about doing for the past four years. Dukla will be home to FK Teplice – a fourth versus third-in-the-table clash, which should be most enjoyable. Sybille has promised to take Lisa for a ‘Girls night out’ 🙂

After last year’s Intercontinental Church Society (ICS) Chaplains and Families Conference being held in Switzerland, this year the ICS conference will be in the UK, between Monday 12th – Friday 16th May, in a Conference Centre on the Leicestershire-Northamptonshire border, near Market Harborough. As this location lies almost equidistant between my daughter and son-in-law’s home in Daventry, and Phillip’s home in Nottingham, my plan is to take a week of annual leave following the conference, and spend time with both of them.

I have also been doing some price comparisons and have decided that probably the cheapest, and certainly the most convenient way to travel, will be to drive back to the UK, meaning the first time my right-hand-drive car, will have been driven on the left side of the road, for nearly six years. This will allow me easy movement around the UK which will hopefully also include a trip to the south coast to see one or both of my sisters.

The other big family news I hinted at, in reply to a comment on an earlier post about ‘Discovering the Way of St. James in the Czech Republic‘. Probably starting in late May/early June, Sybille is planning to make a long distance pilgrimage and walk from Prague, all the way to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. We reckon that she will need somewhere in the region of four months to complete the journey, meaning that she will not be back in Prague until probably early October.

Provisionally, I am planning to take a couple of weeks of annual leave in July-August, and walk with her through part of France. I may well be able to bring back some things she will not require in Spain, thus lightening her load.

Eastern Archdeaconry Synod

Further ahead, at the end of September, there will be the annual meeting of the Eastern Archdeaconry Synod which in 2014, as I previously indicated, is being hosted by the Prague Anglican congregation. I’m very much looking forward to it, especially if we by then, finally have a Diocesan Bishop who is able to join us. But there is a lot of planning and organisational work to undertake in the meantime.