Brno – Page 2

Holy Week and Easter Day 2014 in Prague and Brno

With Rev'd Dr Karen Moritz and Jack Noonan outside St. Clement's Church, Prague on Easter Day © Celieta Leifeste — With Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz and Jack Noonan outside St. Clement’s Church, Prague on Easter Day © Celieta Leifeste

I have to admit that I much prefer it when Easter Day falls well on into April, as it did this year, rather than being in late March as it was in 2013, when I experienced a ‘White Easter’ in Brno. The warm Spring weather we have enjoyed in Prague in recent weeks, has brought all nature alive in a whole variety of colours, which in its own way, does speak of the new risen life of Jesus that we celebrate at Easter.

After the most pleasurable surprise on Palm Sunday, of a congregation almost twice as large as on a normal Sunday, I was also pleased that the number attending on Maundy Thursday evening, was larger than it has been in previous years. Our Good Friday evening devotional service was notable for a couple of things – a reflection on the Cross of Christ by my Licensed Reader Jack Noonan, which you can listen to and read here; and my accidental omission of the final Bible Reading, John 19. 38-42, meaning that I failed to have Jesus laid to rest in the tomb!

With 2014 being my sixth Easter in the Czech Republic, I knew from past experience that our Easter Day congregation would be likely to be in the region of one hundred. The other fairly accurate indicator of attendance is always the number of hits that the Church website receives during Holy Week. This year, these ranged from between two and five times the average daily level, though admittedly, some would be the regular congregation wanting to listen to Jack’s Good Friday sermon, or even to mine from Palm Sunday 🙂

Upon arriving at Church with Sybille, at around 10.20, we almost immediately started the task of assuring arriving foreign visitors that, ‘Yes – you are at the right place for Easter Day worship in English. But no – you cannot go into Church yet. You must wait outside here with us, until the Czech service has ended’. This has then to be followed by explaining that the Church building does not belong to us but to the Kliment congregation of the Ceskobratrská církve evangelické, the main Czech Protestant Church, and that they worship at 9.30 each Sunday, in advance of our service at 11.00.

As in previous years, the clear indication that the Czech service was coming to an end, was hearing the organ strike up with the hymn tune Maccabaeus by Georg Friedrich Händel, with the congregation giving good voice to the Czech translation of ‘Thine be the glory’. Only when a reasonable proportion of the Czech congregation had come out of the Church, could I and those helping with welcoming, move in and start getting the Church set up for our Sung Eucharist. Altogether we got about twenty minutes which was better than in one or two past years!

This year, we started Easter Day worship in a different way, with Celieta Lefeste coming out of the vestry, dressed as Mary Magdelene, and singing ‘Where have they taken my Jesus?’, accompanied by her husband Larry on the organ. You can listen and see her solo in this video.

I then gave the Easter greeting which answered her question. ‘Alleluia. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

It was a great privilege to have both of my ministerial colleagues helping with our Easter Day worship. Licensed Reader Jack Noonan led our intercessions whilst American Presbyterian Minister Karen Moritz, read the first Bible Reading. Together, they then administered our two chalices at the distribution of the sacrament. The photograph at the beginning of this post was posed at the Church door, following the service. Karen has previously joked that when she & I are both robed, we look like the black sheep and the white sheep. With Jack in his black cassock, white surplice and light blue Reader scarf, he must be the the black, white and blue sheep 🙂

The official head count was that one hundred and thirteen people were present at worship. Around half were members of the regular congregation, including a few stray sheep that we hadn’t seen for sometime. The rest were visitors – mainly Americans, (there was a joke amongst them as to how many of the fifty states were represented), together with some Brits. Overall, at least fifteen nationalities were present in the congregation.

After refreshments and fellowship at Coffee Hour, I then jumped in the ‘Carly’ and headed off down the D1 – the Prague-Brno motorway, in order to celebrate Holy Communion for Easter with our Brno congregation. Our evening service there was the first to be held in the Brno congregation’s new home, after we were told with very little notice, that from the end of March, we could no longer use our previous venue belonging to the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, because of the change in time of the host congregation’s service.

The Brno Anglican congregation’s new home belongs to the Jesuits and is known as ‘The Upper Room’. As one of the congregation remarked in an email reply to me, it was most appropriate that our first service in ‘The Upper Room’ was on Easter Day! I promise a further post about Brno, including some photographs, after our next service there on Sunday 4th May. In the meantime, full details can be found here on the Brno page of our website.

Villa Tugendhat, Brno and the novel by Simon Mawer entitled ‘The Glass Room’

Villa Tugendhat in Brno, was designed by the German architect Ludwig Mies van de Rohe and constructed between 1928 -1930 on a hillside slope overlooking the city centre. It was commissioned by the wealthy Jewish industrialist Fritz Tugendhat and his wife Greta and was their home for eight years before the couple, along with their children, were forced to flee to Switzerland following the dismembering of Czechoslovakia brought about by the Munich agreement of September 1938.

An icon of modern architecture, today Villa Tugendhat is considered one of the finest examples of functionalist design anywhere in the world. A revolutionary iron framework allowed Mies to dispense with supporting walls and massive plate glass windows give the extensive living space a wonderful feeling of space and light. The minimalist interior is famous for featuring an onyx wall and for using rare tropical hardwood.

Interior of Villa Tugendhat with onyx wall on the left © Ricky Yates

Sadly, during the Second World War and the communist era that followed, Villa Tugendhat suffered from inappropriate alterations and with internal materials being removed and used elsewhere. Some of the original wood panelling was found at Masaryk University, in a building used by the Gestapo as their Brno headquarters. In the latter years of communism, efforts were made to restore the building and a few years after the Velvet Revolution, it was opened as a museum under the auspices of Brno City Council.

In February 2010, a second major and expensive renovation project began with the aim of restoring Villa Tugendhat completely to its former glory. This work has included the creation of exact copies of the original furniture which was also designed by the architect Ludwig Mies van de Rohe. The building reopened to the public in March 2012.

An amazing sunset seen from inside Villa Tugendhat © Ricky Yates — An amazing sunset as seen from inside Villa Tugendhat © Ricky Yates

Since reopening, the number of people able to visit each day has been strictly limited in order to preserve the fabric of the building. The advice on the official website is to book an entrance ticket, at least one month in advance! Therefore I was greatly privileged to be able to visit Villa Tugendhat late one afternoon in September 2012, as a guest at a reception organised by the British Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic, without needing to book in advance! The photographs illustrating this post were all taken by me on that occasion.

'The Glass Room' by Simon Mawer — ‘The Glass Room’ by Simon Mawer

At that reception, the British novelist Simon Mawer, read some extracts from his novel, first published in 2009, entitled ‘The Glass Room’. It is a fictional story inspired by Villa Tugendhat, and takes it title from the extensive living space, with its plate glass windows and onyx wall, that is the central feature of the villa. I had been given a copy of the novel a few months previously and my visit inspired me to set about reading it, something I’ve since done twice, always planning to eventually write a blog post. My apologies that this post has taken eighteen months to gestate 🙂

The novel is both excellently conceived and extremely well written. What I particularly like about it is the very accurate retelling of the history of Central Europe over a sixty year period, against which the life stories of the various characters are played out. I very much agree with one reviewer who wrote, ‘Mawer creates a passionately detailed portrait of individuals struggling to snatch order and happiness from frightening, irrational times….a truly enjoyable read’.

As well as reading extracts from his novel, Simon Mawer also happily held an author signing session and so I got my copy suitably inscribed. The book is available from Amazon and has also been translated into several other languages, including Czech.

The author Simon Mawer signing a copy of his novel 'The Glass Room © Ricky Yates — The author Simon Mawer signing a copy of his novel ‘The Glass Room’ © Ricky Yates

My copy of 'The Glass Room', suitably inscribed by the author — My copy of ‘The Glass Room’, suitably inscribed by the author

The Church of St. Kunhuta, Nové Mesto na Morave

Following worship in Brno last Sunday evening, I stayed overnight with a family who are members of the congregation, in order on the next day, to meet up and have lunch with a Czech-British couple living near Olomouc. After a most enjoyable lunch, I headed back across the Vysocina (Highlands), in order to meet up with a Czech teacher of English, living and working in Žd’ár nad Sázavou, who has been using part of the text of this blog, as teaching material with his students.

Being ahead of myself time-wise for my meeting with the Czech teacher on Monday evening, I stopped off about ten kilometres short of Žd’ár nad Sázavou, to explore the small town of Nové Mesto na Morave. The town’s name literally means ‘New Town in Moravia’. But like many places bearing the name ‘Newtown’, nowadays it is many centuries old, having been founded in 1250.

Vratislavovo námestí is the main square in the town centre. Overlooking the square is the Roman Catholic Church dedicated to St. Kunhuta. The outside walls feature some remarkable sgraffito decoration with pictures illustrating Biblical stories, together with lives of the saints. Since visiting on Monday, I have discovered that these are the work of a local artist Karel Nemec, and date from the late 1920s.

Despite over forty years of Communist rule, all this wonderful artwork has survived and seems to have been renovated and restored fairly recently. I trust that the photographs that follow, illustrate what I mean, far better than my words.

Peter being rescued by Jesus when walking on the water © Ricky Yates

St. Francis preaching to the animals © Ricky Yates

Through Advent to Christmas

Interior view of St. Clement's Church, Prague on the Fourth Sunday of Advent © Ricky Yates — Interior view of St. Clement’s Church, Prague on the Fourth Sunday of Advent © Ricky Yates

As I start compiling this post, so it has just gone dark outside, therefore meaning that Advent has ended and the Christmas season has begun. I’m very aware that I’ve only written and posted one blogpost during Advent this year and that was in no way related to this important liturgical season. So this my small attempt to make amends by reflecting on the past twenty-four days of Advent 2013.

For once, this year Advent started on the day all manufacturers of Advent calenders think it always does – 1st December. For those who don’t know, Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas Day, thus meaning it can begin as early as 27th November or as late as 3rd December. Whilst we should use the season to help prepare ourselves to be ready to celebrate the Incarnation at Christmas, it is inevitable, especially with mainly expatriate congregations like mine, that earlier celebrations of Christmas intrude into the Advent season in the form of Services of Lessons and Carols.

Therefore, maintaining the established pattern of having worship on the second Sunday of the month in Brno, we held a Service of Lessons and Carols there on the evening of Sunday 8th December. This effectively marked the second anniversary of the establishment of the Brno Anglican congregation, as we held our first ever service in Brno; also one of Lessons and Carols, in December 2011.

This year’s Brno Carol Service was a real encouragement as several of the existing small congregation, invited other friends who came along and attended for the first time. We also were joined by a British/Romanian couple who had just discovered us via our Church website. Together, we made a very joyful noise with our singing of familiar Christmas Carols, interspersed by readings from scripture. It is a shame that it will be a full five weeks before our next Brno service on Sunday 12th January 2014. But all of the new worshippers gave me their contact details and were keen to join us again in the new year.

The following Sunday evening, 15th December, we held the Prague Service of Lessons and Carols. There was a similar programme to the Brno service but with the addition of three delightful solos. The congregation itself was a mixture of regulars, some infrequent Church attendees, together with a number of visitors. Seasonal refreshments in the warmth of the Church Hall in Klimentská 18 following the service, gave me a chance to talk with at least some of the new faces.

The Carly under light snow © Ricky Yates

We have yet to have any really severe winter weather in Prague though we did get a dusting of snow on the day before the Brno Carol Service.

Sunset on the evening of Sunday 15th December © Ricky Yates

And we have also been treated to several delightful sunsets. This one is from the evening of Sunday 15th December just before leaving the Chaplaincy Flat for the Prague Carol Service

Sunset on the evening of Saturday 21st December - the winter solstice © Ricky Yates — Sunset on the evening of Saturday 21st December – the winter solstice © Ricky Yates

Whilst this one is from the evening of Saturday 21st December – the winter solstice.

The following day was the Fourth Sunday of Advent. As can be seen in the slightly fuzzy photograph at the beginning of this post, not only did we have the wonderful hanging Advent Ring with all four candles lit, our host Czech congregation had also erected their Christmas Tree, ready for the forthcoming days of the Christmas season.

Our Gospel reading last Sunday, told of the annunciation of the birth of Jesus to Joseph as recorded in Matthew 1. 18-25. Together with the Old Testament reading, Isaiah 7. 10-16, they are the only two places in scripture where the name ‘Emmanuel – God is with us’, appears. We therefore had to sing that great mediaeval Advent hymn, translated from the original Latin, ‘O come, O come Emmanuel’, that expresses our longing for the coming of Christ – for God to come down and dwell with us.

But we ended our worship by singing a twentieth century hymn by the Methodist hymn-writer Fred Pratt Green, ‘Long ago, prophets knew’. At the end of the first three verses, the question is asked, ‘When he comes, when he comes, who will make him welcome?’ But in the chorus that follows the fourth and final verse, a positive affirmation is made; ‘Jesus comes! Jesus comes! We will make him welcome!’

If you are unfamiliar with this modern Advent hymn, I found this version on You Tube. Don’t be confused by the opening with a couple of lines of ‘This is the truth sent from above’, sung by a soloist – the correct hymn then follows! May we all be ready this Christmas, to make welcome, God with us – Emmanuel.

November – a time of change

Prague Castle & the Vltava River © Ricky Yates

As October has become November, so many aspects of my life and the situations around me with which I interact, have changed. I’ve therefore decided that this provides an overarching theme for a new blog post 🙂

As all across Europe, overnight between Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th October, our clocks changed, going back one hour. I write this, partly for the benefit of my British son-in-law who some months ago, famously remarked, ‘I don’t suppose the clocks change where you are?’ Well yes – they do! At the same time as the United Kingdom was moving from British Summer Time (BST), back to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), here in the Czech Republic, we changed from Central European Summer Time (CEST), back to Central European Time (CET). This means that we remain one hour ahead of the UK, and also the Republic of Ireland and Portugal. Whilst the clocks always change on a fixed date – the early hours of the morning of the last Sunday in October – there is never any guarantee that the seasons and the weather will change in a synchronised manner. However, last week we had our first overnight frost and most of the leaves have now fallen from the trees. Autumn is rapidly changing to winter.

When Sybille and I moved to Prague more than five years ago, in September 2008, the third bedroom of the Chaplaincy Flat, was already furnished as an office, with a desk, bookshelves and a rather simple trolley on which was situated a printer/scanner/photocopier. Some time ago, the bottom shelf of the trolley collapsed when I put too much weight on it. More recently, the only reason it has remained reasonably upright, is because part of the metal trolley frame, was leaning against the wall! Before the printer/scanner/photocopier ended up in a heap on the floor, we decided that a change was required.

Late last week, we visited the IKEA store at Zlicín on the outskirts of Prague, in search of a replacement for the collapsing trolley. A three drawer chest that had the correct dimensions to fit into the corner where the trolley was located, seemed the best purchase. Thus I successfully put together a piece of flat-pack furniture for the first time in several years. The end result is very much a change for the better, as all the things that were on the trolley shelves, are now stored in the drawers of the new chest, where they cannot fall down or gather dust.

Last Tuesday, I met Her Excellency Jan Thompson, the new British Ambassador to the Czech Republic, for the first time. Jan arrived here in August and presented her credentials to President Zeman, at the beginning of September. She replaces H. E. Sian MacLeod with whom I had a very good working relationship, not least through hosting the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, during their visit to the Czech Republic in March 2010.

As part of a commendable and very understandable exercise of beginning to learn about and comprehend, the British expatriate community living here in the Czech Republic, Jan had invited Christian ministers working with British citizens, to afternoon tea at the British Embassy. Amongst those present were Rev’d Gareth Morris who is pastor to the International Baptist Church, together with his wife Elizabeth, and Major Mike and Major Ruth Stannett, who head up the the work of the Salvation Army throughout the Czech Republic.

The Ambassador was keen to both learn about our work, and to have our insights on life in the Czech Republic. Just like her predecessor, she has had over six months of individual language training and was able to present her credentials to the President, speaking in Czech, much to his surprise! After all that hard work, it does seem a shame that she is likely only to be here for four years before there is another Ambassador change.

There is another change that I have noticed at the British Embassy, over the time that I have lived here. With the exception of a relatively small number of senior positions that are held by British nationals, all the other staff are now Czech or Slovak. When I met my first British Ambassador, (I’m now on my third 🙂 ), the PA who set up my meeting, was a British young lady, who was on secondment for a few years from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

Now the Ambassador’s PA is a delightful Czech young lady, who first sought my help for names and contact details of those she ought to invite to afternoon tea with the Ambassador. Likewise, all the staff of the consular section, dealing with lost passports, Brits who run foul of the Czech police etc, are also Czech or Slovak. The reasoning behind this change is almost certainly one of cost. Czech staff are cheaper to employ and have no additional expense of being moved from, and eventually back to, the United Kingdom. But it does seem slightly strange as a British Citizen, to be mainly dealing with non-Brits at my own Embassy 🙂

My car parked in the snow last winter © Ricky Yates

Last Wednesday, I paid a visit to my good friend Adrian Blank in Nepomuk, so that my car could experience an important change – from summer to winter tyres. This is the first winter that I’ve done this, as previously the car has been little used during the winter months. But after a couple of somewhat hairy return trips from Brno in falling snow last winter, this year I’ve purchased and had fitted, a completely new set of winter tyres. They certainly gave a very smooth return journey last Wednesday. And I shall be most interested to experience the promised improvement in grip and control they are meant to provide, once the snow and frost do arrive.

Finally for this post, there is one change that the Czech nation is still waiting for – a change of government. On the last weekend in October, the Czechs went to the polls to elect a new lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies. The background to the election and its eventual outcome, would require a further post in its own right. But if a stable government is to be formed, it will need a three/four party coalition. Talks between the parties are under way, but lurking in the background is a President who has his own ideas of what should happen. Watch this space!

The Green Party campaigning in Pelhrimov © Ricky Yates