I must apologise once more that, despite returning safely to Prague last Friday evening, other than approving a couple of nice comments (and deleting a host of spammers!!), I’ve taken far longer than originally intended to write a new post about last week’s conference.
As I explained in my previous post, the theme of the conference was ‘Entertaining Angels – Hospitality as Mission’. The title is based on a verse from the New Testament where the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews tells his readers, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for so by doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it” Hebrews 13 v2. But who are the hosts who give the hospitality and who are the guests that receive it?
One speaker, Professor Musa Dube from Botswana, pointed out that we are all guests on this earth. Basing her Bible Study on the creation narrative in Genesis 1, she rightly pointed out that that it is God’s earth, for he created it, and we are his guests, invited to live in it and care for it. However, in the context of being clergy serving in the Church of England’s Diocese in Europe, we are nearly all guests, living and working within host countries. I say ‘nearly all’ because, as a result of the Porvoo Agreement between the Anglican Churches of Great Britain and Ireland and the Lutheran Churches of the Nordic and Baltic countries, a number of Lutheran priests from the Nordic and Baltic countries work in Anglican chaplaincies in their own native countries and were present at the conference.
Not only are we guests in our host countries, many Anglican Chaplaincies in Europe, including mine here in Prague, are guests of another Christian Church or denomination using buildings that do not belong to us. Only in some of the long established chaplaincies in major capital cities or in resort areas where ‘Brits’ first settled in the nineteenth century, do Anglicans worship in their own Church buildings. But whilst we are guests in host countries and of host Churches, we in turn seek to be hosts and provide hospitality to expat English-speakers who find themselves well away from their normal support mechanisms. How we do that – how we fulfil that important mission, was a constant theme of both our speakers and of our resulting discussions.
As is so often the case at conferences such as this one, some of the most valuable and profitable learning and discussion took place over meals or in convivial late night sessions in the bar. Not too late I might add as we all had to be washed, dressed and in the Chapel for worship at 07.30 each morning! It was a privilege to meet up with five other clergy who all trained with me at Wycliffe Hall Theological College. 1987/8 was clearly a very good year!
It was also good to get to know many people who, up until now, were purely names in a directory or on a prayer list. It was valuable to listen to their experiences, some in similar major city locations like mine, as well as to others who work in more rural or coastal areas of France and Spain where so many English-speakers have moved for a ‘better life’ or to retire.
The Suffragen Bishop in Europe, The Rt. Rev’d David Hamid is also a blogger and you can read his take on the conference in his post appropriately entitled, ‘Entertaining Angels – Hospitality as Mission’. It also includes a link to a number of photos of the conference though I don’t appear in any of them.
One thing about the conference for me was a certain case of déjà vu. Our flat in Prague was built as part of the first stage of a major development of flats on the site of a former brewery. Ever since we moved in just over a year ago, we have had to live with the builders working on the fourth and final stage of the development directly in front and to the side of our balconies. The noise and dust can at times be quite irritating. What do I find when I arrive at Kardinal Schulte Haus? The building is under repair and there are workmen repairing the roof, directly outside my third floor bedroom window! At least the noise ensured I wasn’t late for Morning Prayer!
On Tuesday 17th, I returned to the flat from our Breakfast Study Group & visiting a family who had enquired about the baptism of their child, to a request that I return a phone call from a retired Pastor of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren.
The Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren are a united Lutheran/Reformed Church and are by far the largest Protestant denomination in the Czech Republic. Once I got through, the retired Pastor asked me what I knew about the Anglican Church building in Mariánské lázne and about a person who claimed to be the Anglican Bishop of the Czech Republic and was conducting services there.
Mariánské lázne is a spa town in the far west of the Czech Republic, near to the German border. Better known in the past, by its German name of Marienbad, it was very popular with the upper classes of various European countries in the second half of the nineteenth and the first part of the twentieth centuries. King Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria, was one of many Britons who visited to ‘take the waters’. An Anglican Church was built there and opened in 1879. It remained in use for Anglican worship until sometime in the 1920/30s and following the communist takeover in 1948, was confiscated by the state. After the fall of communism in 1989, some limited financial compensation was agreed and paid into the accounts of the Prague Anglican Episcopal Congregation. These funds partly helped pay the deposit on the flat that Sybille & I live in. The Church building now belongs to the local council in Mariánské lázne who has restored it to good order and use it as a small concert venue & gallery.
All this I told the retired Pastor and he agreed that this was his understanding too. However, one of his colleagues in Mariánské lázne, had been in touch with him regarding someone calling himself the Anglican Bishop of the Czech Republic, who since the summer of 2008 had been holding services in Mariánské lázne, using the former Anglican Church building. What did I know about him?
This information immediately rang bells. Back in October 2008, we had a similar report from a member of an Anglican congregation in Switzerland. Unfortunately at that time, we were given a partially incorrect name and could not discover anything more. But now I had his full name, The Rt. Rev’d Dr. Edwin Wagner. And aided by that helpful friend called Google, a clearer picture emerged, even allowing for the fact that quite a bit of the material was in Czech.
Edwin Wagner is Episcopi vagantes –this Wikipedia article will explain. He belongs to an exceedingly small group who style themselves ‘Traditional Church of England’. Typical of such groups, they have four ‘bishops’ and only five other ‘clergy’. The expression ‘too many Chiefs and not enough Indians’ comes to mind. According to their website, they seek to ‘continue the best Anglican traditions and values’. Yet a few lines later they state that this includes the use of the Roman Catholic English Missal!!!!
In Mariánské lázne, Edwin Wagner has taken full advantage of the fact that a historic restored building is still known as ‘The Anglican Church,’ even though it hasn’t been used for Anglican worship for over seventy years. It was only when his delusions of grandeur got the better of him and he claimed that, what is a publicly owned concert hall and gallery, had now been upgraded to the status of a Pro-Cathedral, that the local clergy began to smell a rat, eventually leading to the phone enquiry of ten days ago.
Last Saturday, we drove the 100 miles/160 km out to Mariánské lázne to investigate for ourselves. The small town is beautifully situated in a wooded valley and had recently experienced a quite heavy snowfall. And after the years of communist neglect, many of the wonderful late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings have been restored to their former glory. Walking the streets, we heard more German being spoken than Czech with many day or weekend visitors from across the nearby border.
We found the ‘Anglican Church’ but were disappointed to read a notice on the door stating ‘Im Winter geschlossen’ and similarly in Czech. Likewise, there were no notices about Church services conducted by Edwin Wagner. This rather confirmed the information we had been given that he had not been seen around the town by the other Christian ministers since just before Christmas.
A few days ago, I decided to bite the bullet and rang the mobile phone number given for Edwin Wagner on the ‘Traditional Church of England’ website. He answered in person and I asked whether he was still holding Church services in Mariánské lázne. He told me that they were to resume in a couple of weeks time in the same building. I challenged him about calling his services ‘Church of England’ or ‘Anglican’, and he claimed in reply that he makes it clear that he is “not in communion with the see of Canterbury”. But if you look at this website, the German description ‘Die Anglikanische Kirche’ is used. My wife, who is a native German speaker, says that any German speaker reading that would inevitably understand that as being the Church of England. Likewise, I have sufficient Czech to know that any Czech person reading ‘Anglikánská cirkev’ would also understand that as meaning the Church of England. All he has done is put the letters ‘TCE’ on his publicity, with no explanation whatsoever as to what they stand for.
Now the Christian ministers and the Town Council in Mariánské lázne know that Edwin Wagner isn’t an Anglican Bishop in the sense of being a bishop in the mainstream Church of England, I think he might find it more difficult to resume his activities. But the whole affair has left me feeling very sad that an individual has been practising what is effectively a form of deception in the name of the Christian Church. I also felt that the response I received from the retired Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren Pastor was very pertinent. He thanked me for my detective work for which he was most grateful. But he concluded, “This is one of the troublesome realities of our time, that in spite of large secularisation and the small number of Christians in contemporary Europe, they still split and form further and further denominations. This is a reality even in the Czech speaking community”.
Update – 18th October 2010
Early in 2010, I discovered that Edwin Wagner was no longer in Mariánské lázne but was now living in Desborough, Northamptonshire, England. I believe he moved there in August/September 2009. According to the ‘Traditional Church of England’ website, he is leading a TCE congregation there. I have found no way to verify whether this is the case or not.
Then in June 2010, I received an angry letter from Dr. Wagner, claiming that I had ‘written and posted a libellous article on the internet’ about him. He gave no indication as to where on the internet this article was to be found and the internet is rather a large place! The letter threatened me with legal action through the English courts if I didn’t ‘make a public retraction and publicly apologise’.
It seemed fairly clear to me that Dr. Wagner had not actually read my blog post, (which I presumed he was referring to), but had only heard about it second-hand. His letter accused me of saying a number of things which are not in the text above. On 23rd June 2010, I wrote him a long reply, addressing all the issues he raised. In the meantime, I temporarily took down the post with a view to making one or two minor amendments to it. When I then received a phone call from him saying he would be coming to Prague in August & would like to arrange to meet me, I decided to refrain from re-posting until we had finally met.
In August, I received an email from Dr. Wagner saying that, because of family circumstances, his Prague visit would now be in September. I replied saying I would still be very happy to meet him in September as long as he avoided the dates of the Eastern Archdeaconry Synod when I would be in Vienna. I have heard nothing further from him since.
Therefore, I am re-posting the original article in a slightly amended form, together with this update. The small number of changes I have incorporated are simply to give greater clarity to what I originally wrote.
The Anglican Episcopal Congregation who meet in St. Clement’s Church in the centre of Prague, is part of the rather unusual 44th Diocese of the Church of England with the unwieldy title of ‘The Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe’. Fortunately, it is usually shortened to ‘Diocese in Europe’. It covers the whole of the European continent, together with Turkey, Morocco, Mongolia and all of the former Soviet Union in Asia. Within that area, (which is roughly one sixth of the world’s landmass), there are over 300 congregations. You can find out more about it at Diocese in Europe website.
As well as being part of the Anglican Diocese in Europe, we also function as the English-speaking parish of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic or Starokatolická církev v Ceské republice if you would like it in Czech. 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. For both ecumenical and practical reasons, a Covenant was signed in September 2000 between the Czech Old Catholics and the Diocese in Europe, whereby the Anglican Episcopal Congregation is deemed to be part of both Churches. Amongst other things, it gives the Congregation the right to have a legal bank account and allows me to conduct a wedding without the couple needing a civil ceremony as well. But it also means that I am responsible not to one Bishop but to two; Bishop Dušan Hejbal of the Old Catholic Church and Bishop Geoffrey Rowell, the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese in Europe, together with his sidekick, Bishop David Hamid, the Suffragan Bishop in Europe.
Once a year, the Old Catholic Bishops get together for a few days for their International Bishops Conference (IBK). The IBK is held in each different country by rotation. Therefore in 2009, it was the responsibility of the Czech Old Catholic Church to organise it. So, from the afternoon of Sunday 25th to the afternoon of Thursday 29th January, the 2009 IBK took place in a small hotel at Karlick, a little village about 25km south-west of Prague.
As well as the IBK, there has also been an annual meeting between the Old Catholic Bishops and those Anglican Bishops working in Europe. This not only means Bishops Geoffrey & David, but also the American Bishop based in Paris who looks after a scattering of Episcopalian congregations in Europe, many but not all, associated with US military establishments. Then there are two small Anglican Churches in the Iberian peninsular, the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church & the Lusitanian Church in Portugal. Each has their own Bishop. Sensibly, it was agreed last year to have the meeting between Old Catholic & Anglican Bishops in Europe, tacked on to the end of the IBK in the same location. Thus it took place from the evening of Thursday 29th – the morning of Saturday 31st January.
One of the joys of living in Prague is the city’s wonderful integrated public transport system. Although I brought my British right-hand drive car to Prague and am nearly through all the hoops of getting it registered here, (another story in itself), I now only use it to get bulk supplies from the supermarket and for the occasional trip out into the countryside. But as part of our (my wife Sybille & me) efforts to strengthen the Anglican-Old Catholic Church relationship, we volunteered to help with meeting some of the Bishops flying in to attend the two conferences, and transporting them onto Karlik.
Our first customer was Bishop Mike Klusmeyer from West Virginia who is the Episcopal Church in the USA liaison Bishop to the IBK. He flew in on Saturday afternoon in order to have 24 hours to get over jetlag. We delivered him to his Prague hotel and agreed to pick him up on Sunday morning so he could worship with us at St. Clement’s. This we duly did, and thus, for only the second time since we’ve been in Prague, we went to Church by car. Soon after we got to Church with Bishop Mike, a second Bishop appeared, Bishop Jonathan Gledhill, the Anglican Bishop of Lichfield. He is the Church of England’s liaison Bishop to the IBK but, according to my instructions, wasn’t arriving until a couple of days later. But, he and his wife Jane, wanted to have a few days leave together in Prague before the conference so they came earlier.
I was prepared to have one Bishop in the congregation on Sunday 25th January but now I had to preach to two! Certainly this was something I had not been trained for at Theological College 20 years before. However, both Bishop Mike and Bishop Jonathan were very kind and spent a lot of time talking with various members of the congregation at Coffee Hour following the service. After lunch with Bishop Mike, we delivered him safely on to Karlik.
During the week we collected the Spanish Bishop who arrived three days earlier than he should have done; delivered Bishop Jonathan from Prague city centre to Karlik: and on Thursday afternoon, picked up Bishop Geoffrey & Bishop David, who helpfully arrived on the same flight, and took them to Karlik too. Then it was a mad dash back to the airport for the Portuguese Bishop arriving an hour later. But he didn’t arrive! After Sybille had held a piece of paper with ‘+Fernando’ on it for more than half an hour, a phone call came through to say he wasn’t coming after all. We’d had an email earlier in the week entitled ‘bisschen chaotiosch’. It certainly was!
In the end I drove nearly 300 miles/480 km, more than I’d done in the two previous months put together, and thought seriously about re-spraying my car purple! But all our Episcopal passengers expressed their appreciation for our taxi service & the general view seems to be that both meetings had been very worthwhile.
