Communism

Kostel sv Martina/St Martin’s Church, Markvartice

Today saw the reconsecration of Kostel sv Martina/St Martin’s Church in the nearby village of Markvartice. For the somewhat irreligious Czech Republic, renovating an abandoned Church building and bringing it back into liturgical use, is quite an event.

Whilst there has been a Church on the current site since the thirteenth century, the building in its present baroque appearance, dates from a rebuilding between 1701-04. It started falling into disrepair following the end of the Second World War, a result of the expulsion of the majority Sudetendeutsche population in 1945-6 and the communist takeover of power in Czechoslovakia, shortly afterwards.

The Church was last used for liturgical worship in 1966. By the late 1980s, all that was left standing were the perimeter walls – all of the roof had collapsed. Apparently, in 1989, the communist authorities issued an order for the demolition of the building, but fortunately, the Velvet Revolution took place before the order could be carried out.

Work to restore the Church began fifteen years ago, in 2002. Whilst funds to carry out the restoration have been raised locally, considerable finance has come from various German Roman Catholic dioceses. There has also been financial support from the regional government and from the Czech Ministry of Culture. This governmental support whilst welcome, is more about preserving what is seen as the country’s cultural and architectural heritage, rather than directly supporting the Roman Catholic Church.

Markvartice is about eight kilometres by road from Stará Oleška. Earlier this week, after I first read about today’s reconsecration, I drove across there to visit the Church. Last minute work to get everything ready for today’s celebrations, was taking place, but I was able to explore and take the photographs that follow.

Interior of Kostel sv Martina/St Martin’s Church © Ricky Yates

As you can see, the very baroque interior has been completely restored to a very high standard and a modern forward altar and lectern installed. One rather ‘interesting’ feature is the coloured light under the front of the new altar. It changes between the different liturgical colours, avoiding the need for different coloured altar frontals 🙂

Inscription over chancel arch © Ricky Yates

The inscription above the chancel arch clearly reflects the fact that German was the language of the majority population at the beginning of the eighteenth century until 1945.

A rather elaborate pulpit from which to preach 🙂

The churchyard on the north side of the Church, has been almost completely cleared with the damaged remains of memorials, moved and placed alongside the boundary wall.

John 14. 6 in German & Czech © Ricky Yates

However, this memorial, with its bilingual inscription underneath a large cross, has been renovated and preserved. It is also an example of how much longer it takes to say something in German than in most other languages 🙂

Statue of the Virgin Mary being carried in procession © Ricky Yates

Today’s celebrations began with this statue of the Virgin Mary being carried in procession through the village. The procession started at the railway station, located at the southern end of the village, and proceeded to the Church, located at the northern end.

At the head of the procession, along with a processional cross and four banners, was a small brass band who I’m almost certain had travelled from Germany. There was quite a German presence with many German registered cars parked in the various temporary car parks that had been set up.

Hence this bilingual sign! There were also coaches which had brought people from elsewhere in the Czech Republic, particularly from Moravia which is the more Roman Catholic end of the country. Therefore whilst the Church was packed for the 11.00 mass of reconsecration, I do wonder how well attended it will be by local people, Sunday by Sunday, once all the visitors have left.

Warsaw

Following lunch on Sunday 25^th September, which marked the official end of the 2016 Eastern Archdeaconry Synod, quite a number of the Synod members stayed on for an afternoon walking tour through the centre of Warsaw. It was good to have the opportunity to see something of the Polish capital before returning to Prague the following day.

The first building that caught my eye after the taxi dropped me off in the city centre, was the tower of the Palace of Culture and Science. This building is a classical example of Stalinist-Baroque architecture and bears a striking resemblance to Hotel International here in Prague, located just a few hundred metres from the Chaplaincy Flat. Both are based on the design of Moscow State University.

The Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, built between 1952-55, was a ‘gift to the citizens of the city from the nations of the USSR’ 😉 During the communist era, it was seen as a symbol of Soviet domination and, as my Polish guidebook says, ‘still provokes extreme reactions, from admiration to demands for its demolition’.

Ministry of Finance building, Warsaw © Ricky Yates

Other examples of post-WW2 architecture are not so ostentatious such as this building which houses the Polish Ministry of Finance.

Our walk took us the length of Nowy Swiat, one of the historic thoroughfares of Warsaw, which later becomes Krakowskie Przedmiescie. Both streets are lined by a series of attractive buildings, but knowing how much is original, as against that which has been rebuilt since the destruction of World War Two, is difficult to tell.

The Church of the Holy Cross, Warsaw © Ricky Yates

This is the baroque fronted Church of the Holy Cross whose main claim to fame is being the burial place of the heart of the composer Frederic Chopin.

Church of the Visitation, Warsaw © Ricky Yates

Two other Churches along this ‘Royal Route’ as it is known, are the Church of the Visitation……

Carmelite Church of the Assumption of the BVM, Warsaw © Ricky Yates

……and the Carmelite Church, dedicated to the Assumption of the BVM.

Presidential Palace, Warsaw © Ricky Yates

In between is this grand palace which, since 1994, has been the official residence of the President of Poland.

Here, a balcony is being supported by four male figures, an architectural feature which can also be regularly observed in Prague, except that in Prague, the figures are more commonly female 🙂

The Royal Route ends in plac Zamkowy/Castle Square, which is actually more triangular than square 🙂 The original castle was built between 1598 – 1619. Sadly, this was utterly destroyed by the Nazis during World War Two and the current impressive building is a complete reconstruction undertaken between 1971 – 1988.

From the square, there is the view below, across the Vistula River, to a very recent addition to the Warsaw skyline – the National Football Stadium, completed in early 2012 in advance of Poland and Ukraine, hosting the European Football Championship.

National Football Stadium, Warsaw © Ricky Yates

Are Czech Churches welcoming?

Back on the last Sunday of January 2016, we were joined at St. Clement’s for worship by Alex and Kathleen, a Czech-British couple, together with about fifteen of their family and friends. Alex and Kathleen live in the UK and are regular worshippers at their local parish church. But they also maintain a flat in Prague and, whenever they spend time here, they always join us for worship at St. Clements.

Alex was celebrating his ninetieth birthday, hence his family and friends had travelled from various parts of the world, to be in Prague to mark this special occasion. And attending our Church service that morning, was seen as an integral part of the weekend of celebrations.

A few months previously, Kathleen had asked me if they could invite a young Czech soloist called Jan, to sing during the service that morning. Jan is a personal friend of Alex’s and had studied music under our regular organist, Professor Michal Novenko. I assured her that this would be a wonderful addition to our worship and Michal was very pleased to cooperate and accompany Jan from the organ.

Therefore on that Sunday morning, Jan sang three different arias from Handel’s ‘Messiah’ – one after the sermon, before we said the Nicene Creed, and two during the administration of communion. He did so, standing on the balcony at the west end of the Church, where the organ is also located. From that vantage point, he watched and followed all of the service.

During the colder months of the year, following worship, we have Coffee Hour in the hall across the road from the Church in Klimentská 18. It is an opportunity both to share fellowship and to warm up after spending around eighty minutes in a Church with limited heating 😉 That morning, we also all got to share in a special birthday cake that Kathleen had provided.

At Coffee Hour, Jan sought me out in order to speak with me. He firstly thanked me for giving him the opportunity to sing during the service. But he then said to me, ‘ I want to bring a whole series of Roman Catholic priests to your services, to show them how to be warm and welcoming to everyone who comes to worship’. He then went on to say how he appreciated that everyone had a complete Order of Service containing all of our liturgy. How I explained when to stand, when to sit, when to join in, etc. For me, this is what I normally do. To him, it was a revelation!

As always, it is nice to be complimented and appreciated for what I do. But I was also deeply saddened to once more hear of the lack of warmth and welcome experienced by those who have attended Czech Churches, in Jan’s case, Czech Roman Catholic Churches.

Four and a half years ago, I wrote here on this blog, about the conversations I had with Czechs in their twenties, thirties and forties, at the reception following the wedding of Petr and Kristin. That they found the way I led that wedding service both warm and welcoming and in total contrast to their past experience of attending occasional Czech Church services. As I wrote then:

‘It is not the primary purpose of my being here in the Czech Republic, to minister to the spiritual needs of Czech people, but rather to the spiritual needs of native English-speakers. But I increasingly feel that the main reason that the Czech Republic is as atheistic or agnostic as it appears to be, is not because of a deliberate rejection of Christian faith by its population, but rather as a result of the failure of the Czech Christian Churches to be an attractive advert for the Christian faith.’

In recent months, I’ve tried to understand the reasons for this lack of welcome to newcomers or occasional worshippers in Czech Churches. So far, I’ve come up with two possibilities which I will now outline. I would welcome feedback, especially from native Czechs, as to whether I’m correct.

One reason is that it is a hangover from Communism. During the nearly forty-two years of communist rule in Czechoslovakia, those who attended Church worship; those who were Church members, all suffered. They were restricted in the area of employment, often being forced to only do menial tasks. Their children were limited regarding educational opportunities. Therefore Church congregations turned inward, seeking to mutually support each other. They didn’t welcome any outsider who wanted to join them, suspecting such individuals to be informers.

The second reason is not unique to the Czech Republic – I’ve come across it many times in England. It is the attitude that those who decide to come to Church, should already ‘know what to do’. They shouldn’t need any explanation – they should know!

Both of these attitudes have got to change! It is nearly twenty-seven years since the fall of Communism. The outsider is to be welcomed and not feared. And there is now an almost completely un-churched generation who cannot be expected to know what ‘we do in Church’.

Sadly, the answer to my question in the title of this post is that many Czech Churches are not welcoming. If they do want to grow and not die, habits need to change – rapidly!

Contrasts between the Czech Republic and Poland

You would think that with Poland and the Czech Republic being next-door to each other, and with Polish and Czech both belonging to the West Slavic group of languages, the two countries and their respective populations, would have much in common. Surprisingly, they don’t! Whilst what follows is based on seven years of living in the Czech Republic, and only the past five days travelling through Poland, I hope it still has some validity 🙂

Some contrasts are indisputable. The area of Poland is four times greater than that of the Czech Republic. Driving across Poland these last few days has forcibly brought this home to me. It is a big country! Likewise, the population of Poland is nearly four times greater than that of the Czech Republic – 38.5 million against 10.5 million.

But even with the languages of two countries both being West Slavic, this does not bring about much commonality. Whilst an adult Czech can fairly easily understand an adult Slovak and vice versa, when both speak in their respective languages, the same does not apply to Czechs and Poles. I’ve been told this several times, by citizens of both countries. Interestingly, a Polish hotel receptionist told me a couple of days ago, that she and many other Poles, find it easier to understand a Slovak, rather than a Czech.

There are similarities between Czech and Polish – both have seven cases 🙁 , and some vocabulary is also identical, or only slightly different. For example ‘beer’, which in Czech is ‘pivo‘, in Polish it is ‘piwo‘. But there are also many significant differences and various false friends. Quite commonly, when a Czech and a Pole want to speak to each other, they will resort to using second language English!

One major area of contrast is with regard to the Christian faith. Whilst Roman Catholics are the majority Church in both countries, the level of adherence and practice is vastly higher in Poland than it is in the Czech Republic. In both countries under communism, the Christian Church suffered – Protestant and Roman Catholic alike. But whilst in Poland, it was the Roman Catholic Church that was at the forefront of opposition to totalitarianism, in the Czech Republic it was predominantly artists and writers.

Over the past twenty-five years, since the collapse of the communist regimes in both countries, considerable sums of money have been spent on restoring historic Churches. However, in the Czech Republic, this has mainly been done to preserve what is seen as the country’s cultural heritage, as well as to attract tourists. In Poland, whilst both these motives also apply, the main reason is to provide and enhance, well-used places of worship.

As we have driven through Poland these last few days, one thing that has frequently struck us, are the considerable number of large new Roman Catholic Churches we have seen. These clearly have all been built since 1989. You do not see this in the Czech Republic.

Post 1989, both countries rapidly embraced capitalism with state owned industries being privatised and Western European investment being actively encouraged. This has resulted in many Czech and Polish businesses coming under foreign ownership. In the Czech Republic, these are often German – Škoda is now owned by Volkswagen, and two major supermarket chains, Kaufland and Billa, are also German.

However in Poland, the French are the major player. We’ve seen large hypermarkets belonging to Auchan and Carrefour. And in the banking arena, Credit Agricole and BNP Parisbas appear to have a considerable market share, judging by the number of branches both have in Polish towns and cities.

One observation Sybille has made since we’ve been in Poland, is that there are far fewer dogs to be seen. In the Czech Republic, the commonly quoted statistic is that 40% of households have at least one dog. Judging by the number of dogs we meet when walking in Prague, each one of which Sybille likes to say ‘Hello’ to 🙂 , that could be an under estimate. We have seen, and Sybille has said ‘Hello’ to, several Polish dogs. But to many fewer than would be the case in the Czech Republic.

The only area where I have observed any similarities between Poles and Czechs, is in their fashion sense. As I wrote under point three of my most famous post, ‘How to be Czech in ten easy steps‘, one popular male look is having long hair and tying it back in a pony tail. Since writing this, I’ve been told that this was a way, post 1968, of showing your opposition to the communist regime. This may well explain why you can often see men in their fifties and sixties, sporting this look. The look is is also alive and well in Poland, presumably with similar origins.

Likewise, the habit of Czech ladies wearing either very short skirts or spray-on jeans, can also be frequently observed in Poland. But even here, there is a difference between the two countries. In the Czech Republic, many new grandmothers, dress little differently from their daughters, often competing with them as to who has the shorter hemline! Here in Poland, the difference between the generations is rarely blurred.

Quite honestly, there is very little love lost between Czechs and Poles. Sybille and I have chosen to take advantage of living in Central Europe, by currently spending a two week holiday, exploring Poland. But several Czechs have expressed considerable surprise that we should want to do so! Most Czechs do not visit Poland. Since passing through the border area just north of Ostrava, we haven’t seen a single Czech registered car!

English-language Anglican worship in the Frauenkirche, Dresden

The Frauenkirche in Dresden is an 18^th century Protestant Church featuring a 96m high dome resting on eight slender pillars. It was severely damaged during allied bombing raids on the city on 13^th February 1945 and collapsed two days later. Because, following the end of World War Two, Dresden was situated in the Soviet zone of occupation which became the satellite communist state of East Germany, no efforts were made by the authorities to rebuild the Church. Instead, in 1966, the ruins were declared a ‘memorial against war’.

Following the collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany, quite appropriately 25 years ago today 🙂 , a society was formed to promote the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche and to raise funds to finance the project. Reconstruction commenced at the beginning of 1993 and was completed in 2005. The tenth anniversary of the consecration of the rebuilt Church will be celebrated at the end of this month on 30^th October.

From the outset of the rebuilding project, very strong links have been established between the Frauenkirche and Coventry Cathedral, through the Community of the Cross of Nails. Their shared experience of the devastation caused by bombing during the Second World War, means that they both are involved in the work of reconciliation and the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation is used regularly at the Frauenkirche.

Since soon after the consecration of the rebuilt Frauenkirche, once a month, on a Sunday evening, an English-language Anglican service of Evening Prayer has been held. This has been under the auspices of the Berlin Anglican Chaplaincy, in particular the Assistant Chaplain, Rev’d Dr Irene Ahrens. She doesn’t always officiate as sometimes there are guest Anglican clergy from England, invited to take the service and preach. But she has overall responsibility to ensure things run smoothly!

Interior of the Frauenkirche © Ricky Yates

Earlier this year, Irene contacted me, asking if I would be willing to take on her role from the beginning of 2016. She only works in a voluntary capacity; she is now 75 years old and her husband has had serious health issues in recent months. So during the week that Lea Williams was with me on placement back in early July, we spent the day in Dresden, meeting both Protestant Pastors, Holger Treutmann and Sebastian Feydt, together with their administrator Monika Schneider.

During our visit, we were given our own private tour of the amazing Church building, including parts that the average tourist or worshipper, never gets to see. We also spent time in their administrative offices just round the corner from the Church, discussing what normally happens each month at the Anglican service and enabling me to ask certain pertinent questions as to what to expect. All three were most pleased to discover my Coventry connections, being born and educated in the city.

Following further email exchanges and phone conversations, including one phone call when I was sitting in my hospital bed, it was agreed I would officiate at the service on the evening of Sunday 20^th September. The original plan was for Irene to be there with me, to guide me as what to expect and show how things are normally done. Unfortunately, her husband’s continued ill health meant she was unable to attend.

Decorated ceiling of the dome of the Frauenkirche © Ricky Yates

On Sunday 20^th, after both attending the Czech Protestant service, (to make a presentation to Pastor Eva who was retiring), and celebrating the Eucharist with the Prague Anglican congregation, I set out for Dresden by train, as my car was out of action having a new clutch installed & two new sections of exhaust fitted. Unfortunately, the train arrived late from Budapest and left Prague fifteen minutes later than it was meant to do so. It was then held up for a further twenty minutes just over the German border, by a broken-down train ahead of us. Thus I had a bit of a rush to get from Dresden Hauptbahnhof to the Frauenkirche.

Yours truly in the Frauenkirche following the service © Ricky Yates

Upon arrival at 17.30, feeling somewhat flustered by my delayed train journey, I was made welcome by a verger, who took me to the vestry where Pfarrer Sebastian Feydt and Monika Schneider were waiting for me, together with the organist, Daniel Clark. Having talked me through what was expected, they all went off to sit in the congregation, except for the organist who disappeared to the organ loft.

There was a congregation of around one hundred. As I discovered as I shook hands with people at the door following the service, they were a mixture of regular attending English-speakers, Germans with varying amounts of English – several wished me ‘Schönes abend’ as they left, together with English-speaking tourists from around the world. With Pfarrer Sebastian Feydt in the congregation, I did feel a little as though I was ‘preaching with a view’, as happens in some Protestant denominations. But he was very positive following the service and seems very pleased about me taking on the role of overseeing the English-language Anglican service.

Having successfully officiated in September, I’m next due in Dresden in December when the service will be one of Lessons and Carols. It will be Irene’s farewell service and our Diocesan Bishop Rt Rev’d Dr Robert Innes will also be present. Then from January, it will be over to me!

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would get to lead worship and preach in the Dresden Frauenkirche, yet alone on a regular basis. Maybe I need to change the title of this blog to ‘Ricky Yates – an Anglican in Prague and Dresden 🙂

The Frauenkirche looking across the River Elbe © Ricky Yates