On Wednesday 18th January, I spent a very long day, travelling to Brussels and back. It involved getting up at 04.00 in the morning and eventually getting back to the Chaplaincy Flat at midnight.
I did so, in order to attend a meeting to ‘discuss concerns and priorities in relation to the Brexit process’, with Lord George Bridges of Headley, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union – in other words, the Junior Minister at the Brexit Department. The meeting had been set up by my Diocesan Bishop Robert, ably assisted by his sidekick David Fieldsend, and it is to their joint credit that the minister agreed to it in the first place. I was one of seventeen British people, both clergy and laity, drawn from our chaplaincies in EU countries within the Diocese in Europe, who were invited to Brussels for the meeting.
Unfortunately, on Monday 16th January came the news that, because Prime Minister Theresa May was making a major speech about Brexit the next day, all ministers had to remain in London on Wednesday 18th January, in order to be available to answer parliamentary questions. Therefore, instead of meeting with the minister in person for a two hour discussion, he joined us by video link. This also meant the meeting being moved from the Chapter Room of our Pro-Cathedral, to the British Embassy.
Then, soon after the video discussion got going on our first issue of pensions and finance, the minister had to leave us and go to answer questions in the House of Lords. He promised to return for the latter part of our two-hour time slot, but never did. Apparently their Lordships had lots of questions for him and whilst he was on his feet, it was announced that on the following Tuesday, the Supreme Court would give its judgement on the activating Article 50 case, prompting yet more questions.
Whilst I do appreciate that government ministers need to answer parliamentary questions, I did think it was pretty poor that when seventeen of us had travelled from far-flung parts of the EU, most of us like me, at our own expense, we only got about twenty minutes of the minister’s time. I fear that it does reflect the fact that the fate of the 1.2 million British nationals living in the other twenty-seven EU member states, are not so high up the priority list of issues of the current British government.
In the absence of Lord Bridges, the British Ambassador to Belgium, Alison Rose, along with Emma Gibbons, Deputy Head of Mission at the UK Permanent Representation to the EU, fielded our questions. Various embassy staff sat in the background taking notes and civil servants were also listening in from London and assured us that the concerns we were expressing, would be fed back to Lord Bridges.
The issues we raised with the UK government come under four main headings – Pensions & Finance, Healthcare & Social Security Cover, Recruitment & Retention of UK Clergy in the Diocese in Europe, Citizenship/Identity/Voting Rights. I have to say that we didn’t get any actual answers to any of our questions. It was always, ‘this will be a subject for negotiation’ with the additional, ‘the negotiations will be highly complex’. Several times I wanted to point out that there is a simple answer for the UK government to all of them – don’t try and leave the EU!
My ordained colleagues working in France and Spain, where many elderly UK citizens have settled in retirement, spoke of mental health problems amongst these members of their congregations, unsure whether they will lose their access to free healthcare once the UK leaves the EU. They are already suffering from the drop in value of their pensions as a result of the serious fall in the value of Sterling, following the June referendum. Many cannot afford to return to the UK and, even if they have to, would they still be eligible to receive NHS care?
The impact on people with EU spouses/partners and their children was highlighted. Will they be able to return and settle in the UK with their British husband/wife/father/mother, or will families be split? The current UK government’s obsession is with immigration, rather the than the well-being of individuals and families.
I particularly raised the issue of the language used by two government ministers who have described EU nationals living and working in the UK as ‘cards’ and as ‘bargaining chips’. By inference, that is what we UK nationals living in the other twenty-seven EU member states are too. No! we are all individuals, made in the image of God and to be valued as such – not to be regarded as mere ‘cards’ or as ‘bargaining chips’ in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations.
Bishop Robert’s wife Helen, took comprehensive notes of our discussions which were immediately circulated to all participants the following day. The fact that Ambassador Rose has since asked for the slight re-wording and expansion of a few points to fully clarify what was said, does seem to me that we are being taken seriously, for which I am thankful. However, I still fear that our concerns may well be sacrificed on the altar of Brexit, as the UK chooses to become a lonely island, floating in the North Atlantic Ocean 🙁
PS There is now a report about the meeting on the Diocese in Europe website here. In the second photograph, you can see the back of my balding head on the right-hand side of the table 🙂 A further report can be found on the Anglican Communion News website.
The New Year of 2017 has arrived and for me, all the forthcoming changes that go with it.
As I wrote here back in October 2016, at the end of this post and this post, I have formally written to both Rt Rev’d Dr Robert Innes, Anglican Diocesan Bishop in Europe, and to PhDr Pavel Stránský, Bishop-elect of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, resigning as Priest-in-Charge/Chaplain of St Clement’s, Prague and retiring from full-time ministry, with effect from Sunday 30th April 2017. Both have since responded, acknowledging my letter and expressing appreciation for my ministry.
My decision came completely into the public domain when in the ‘Church Times’, on Friday 2nd December 2016, the following announcement appeared.
Resignations and retirements
Posted: 02 Dec 2016 @ 00:01
YATES. The Revd Warwick Yates, Priest-in-Charge of St Clement’s, Prague (Europe): 30 April 2017.
I have now received a letter from the Church of England Pension Board setting out the details of my pension entitlements and how to go about claiming them. Likewise, the UK Department of Work and Pensions have written to me in a similar vein. But their letter clearly states that if I intend to continue living within the European Union(EU) or European Economic Area(EEA), then I have to make my claim via the authorities of the country in which I will be residing. This means making my initial claim via the Czech authorities, not least because I and the Church, have been paying into Czech Social Security for over eight years which should provide me with an additional state pension.
But whilst this may be the current situation, what will it be in two or three years time, after Dictator May and her cohorts, have taken the UK over the cliff edge into the oblivion of Brexit? As I wrote six months ago, I’m currently left Living in Limbo-land and still without any clarity as to what my future financial or right of residence situation might be. Fortunately, in two weeks time I will be part of a small group having a meeting with Lord George Bridges of Headley, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union, and you can guarantee that he will be getting an earful from me!
But I have to plan ahead, even if the current UK government doesn’t have any plan beyond the inane ‘Brexit means Brexit’ 🙁 So to answer those who have asked the question as to where I intend to retire to and what I plan to do in retirement, this is what I envisage.
I plan to invest the lump sum from my Church pension scheme, in buying a small house in the north-west of the Czech Republic, where I shall live. It will be well away from Prague, so I will not be seen in any way as interfering with my successor as Anglican Chaplain. But instead, I intend the location to be within easy travelling distance of Dresden.
The reason for this is that, whilst I shall be relinquishing my responsibilities for the Prague and Brno congregations and drawing my pension, I will be applying to Bishop Robert for permission to officiate(PTO) in the Diocese in Europe and continue with my responsibility for the monthly English-language Anglican service of Evening Prayer at the Frauenkirche and exploring the possibility of establishing a second service there that is Eucharistic. I have held off saying anything publicly about this until now, because I only received episcopal agreement to this arrangement, just before Christmas.
Whilst this is the plan, I still live in dread as to what will happen to the value of the pound Sterling and therefore the value of my lump sum and future pension, once the UK government signs its own suicide note, also known as Article fifty of the Lisbon treaty. All I can do is watch and pray.
Between Thursday 22nd – Monday 26th September, I attended my ninth and final meeting of the Eastern Archdeaconry Synod which this year, was hosted by the Warsaw Chaplaincy. My first Eastern Archdeaconry Synod was in mid September 2008, held in Corfu, in the week before Sybille and I moved to Prague and before I commenced writing this blog. Subsequent Synod meetings were in Izmir in 2009, Vienna in 2010, Bucharest in 2011, Attica, Athens in 2012, Woking 🙂 in 2013, Prague in 2014 and Zagreb in 2015.
Our Synod meeting took place in Dobre Miejsce, a Roman Catholic Conference Centre located in delightful woodland on the north-western outskirts of Warsaw. It proved to be an excellent venue with comfortable single rooms, a well equipped conference meeting room and a large chapel for worship. The only downsides were the food, which was quite repetitive and very traditionally Polish, and a wifi network which frequently disconnected 🙁
In order to get to Warsaw, I chose to drive, accompanied by Churchwarden Gordon Truefitt, one of our two lay delegates to the Synod. Jack Noonan, the other lay delegate, was also going to travel with us but eventually chose to fly, (at his own expense), as he needed to leave Prague later on Thursday 22nd and return on Sunday evening, rather than on Monday 26th. It is an indication of the vast size of our Eastern Archdeaconry in that the Prague Anglican Chaplaincy is the nearest one to Warsaw, yet my journey was one of almost 700 kilometres.
During the Synod, we enjoyed three Bible studies led by Rev’d Neil Richardson, a Methodist theologian and Biblical scholar. He explored the ministry and writings of St. Paul and how they can be applied in the life of our Chaplaincies.
A good part of our time on Friday, was taken up addressing the issue of ‘Safeguarding’ and how we are to implement the instructions with regard to this subject, coming down to us from the Church of England centrally and the House of Bishops. We had two long sessions, led by the Diocesan Safeguarding Manager, Ian Carter, a former police officer. The training clergy and volunteer leaders are going to have to undertake, seems incredibly onerous. It is the quickest way to put off people volunteering to help in our Chaplaincies!
However, the need to do this was brought home to me in part of the address to Synod the following day, by our Diocesan Bishop, Rt Rev’d Dr Robert Innes. Here are two paragraphs from that address, which clearly highlight the problem.
‘In recent decades it has become apparent that the Church in Europe has not cared as it should have done for children and vulnerable people. As a direct result, in some countries, trust in the church has plummeted. In Belgium, (where Bishop Robert is based), a recent survey by our leading consumer magazine, showed that the RC church is one of the least trusted institutions in our country – trusted far less than the army, the social services, even politicians. I found that deeply shocking.
So our emphasis on safeguarding is about building a high trust culture. It means establishing systems and procedures that, as far as we can, give people confidence that those of our people who are in positions of trust are genuinely trustworthy.’
Late on Saturday afternoon, we had a session on growing new congregations. We heard about some exciting developments in Poland with new Polish-speaking and English-speaking congregations being established in Kraków and with plans for a new congregation in Gdansk. I was asked to speak about how the Brno congregation came into being, here in the Czech Republic.
As always, the time spent informally with colleagues over meals and evening drinks at the bar, were some of the most valuable parts of our Synod in Warsaw. Working as we all do in isolated situations, it is difficult to put into words the importance of this time spent together, once a year.
The Synod ended with a Sunday Eucharist at which Bishop Robert was the celebrant and preacher. For this service, we were joined by the Warsaw Chaplaincy congregation. Immediately afterwards, the Synod members posed for the photograph at the beginning of this post, though a couple of Chaplains are missing from the picture.
I should end this post by expressing my thanks to Rev’d David Brown, the Chaplain in Warsaw, and to his Churchwarden Patrick Acheson, who together did a marvellous job, organising the Synod. Having hosted the Synod in Prague in 2014, I know the amount of work and stress that is involved! Thanks are also due to Archdeacon Colin Williams, for whom it was his first experience of being in overall charge of the Eastern Archdeaconry Synod, having officially come into post at last year’s Synod meeting in Zagreb.
As I explained in my earlier post, I spent the second half of my time in the UK, attending the annual ICS Chaplains Conference which this year took place at Ashburnham Place Conference Centre, near Battle in East Sussex. Whilst being conveniently located for reaching Dover and my return journey to Prague, I wasn’t otherwise very enamoured with the venue.
However, as always, I enjoyed meeting and hearing from my fellow Chaplains ministering in a variety of situations across Europe, and a couple from farther afield. And for the first time, I was invited to speak myself, giving what was billed as a ‘TED talk’, about my ministry in Prague, Brno and Dresden. It was very nice to have positive feedback from several of my colleagues following my talk, as well as an appreciative email from the ICS Mission Director when I returned to Prague.
In particular, it was both a privilege and a challenge to listen to my colleagues Alyson Lamb, Chaplain of St. Michael’s, Paris and Paul Vrolijk, Senior Chaplain of Holy Trinity, Brussels, speaking about their recent experience of terror attacks. Both had direct pastoral involvement with a member of Alyson’s congregation having a relative killed, and a member of Paul’s congregation being injured. Both also spoke the possibility of further attacks and of their respective Churches being possible targets.
Working myself in a European capital city, the possibility of similar events happening here, has often been in the back of my own mind. Likewise, being seen as a Western Christian Church, might even make us a target. Yet as both Alyson and Paul explained, you cannot put security measures in place without discouraging people from coming to worship.
For the final thirty-six hours of the conference, we were joined by my Diocesan Bishop Robert Innes. With Augustine Nwaekwe, a Nigerian priest who is Chaplain of Ostend and Bruges, they spoke about ministering to sub-Saharan Africans who are increasingly part of many of our congregations, including my own. What they both had to say was quite enlightening. Most memorable was learning an African expression addressed to Europeans. ‘You have watches – we have time’ 🙂
Bishop Robert was the Celebrant and Preacher at our Eucharist on the final evening of the conference. Whilst I do appreciate the value of modern technology, I was left to reflect whether we were to give thanks for the Holy Sacrament or for Steve Jobs? 🙂
Before 2015 comes to an end, I want to try and write, at least briefly, about all those things that happened in the second half of this year, but which never got the blog post they deserved – a combination of my own ill health and the excessive heat we experienced during the summer months. It will take two posts, so here is the first. And the second has now been written and published.
Monday 6th July marked the 600th anniversary of Jan Hus, the early Czech Church reformer, being burnt at the stake in Konstanz on 6th July 1415. As I have previously explained, during the past two hundred years, Czech people have tended to celebrate Hus as a political and cultural hero. His opposition to church control by the Vatican gave strength to those who opposed control of Czech lands by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He preached and wrote in the Czech – language is the main factor in Czech national identity. Even the Communist regime tried to claim Hus as a proto-communist!
Therefore it was pleasing to see the main non-Roman Catholic Churches take the lead in organising events in Prague over a long weekend 4th – 6th July, to mark the 600th anniversary of Hus’s martyrdom. They took place on two stages erected either side of the newly renovated statue of Hus in Old Town Square, culminating in an open air Ecumenical service celebrating the life and teaching of Hus and broadcast live on Czech radio. It was good to see and hear Hus being commemorated for who he really was, with his spiritual legacy being reclaimed and proclaimed.
The other pleasing aspect were the efforts made by the Roman Catholic Church, to finally acknowledge their own history and responsibility for the death of Hus. Cardinal Vlk, the now retired, but still active, former RC Archbishop of Prague, spoke at the service, bringing a personal message from Papa František/ Pope Francis. At the end of his address there was applause, showing appreciation for the conciliatory nature of the message.
On the morning of Friday 10th July, I attended, along with Lea Williams, the last part of the Fifth Conference of representatives of the Cross of Nails Community in Central and Eastern Europe which was being held in Prague that week. The conference ended with a Festive Service at which the Dean of Coventry Cathedral, Very Rev’d John Witcombe, gave a address on the theme, ’75 Years of Peace Efforts by Coventry Cathedral – Turning enemies into friends’. Following the service, we were all invited to lunch at the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Prague’s dining hall where this photograph was taken.
On the morning of Sunday 26th July, we had the pleasure of the Choir of Little St. Mary’s, Cambridge, UK, enhancing our worship at our Sung Eucharist. Like previous visiting choirs, they very much enjoyed the excellent acoustics of the Church building, as well as the splendid organ. During their visit to Prague, they had a group photograph taken in each of the places where they sang. Therefore following worship, the choir posed on the chancel step, along with their travelling supporters, and insisted that I be in the middle of the photograph 🙂
August
The first half of August was dominated by my hospitalisation with a pulmonary embolism, about which I did manage a blog post of explanation. However, I was very pleased to eventually be given clearance by my GP, to spend Tuesday 18th – Monday 24th August, walking with Sybille in Germany, from Görlitz to Kamenz, along the first part of Der Ökumenische Pilgerweg. That week has to have its own blog post or posts, even if it isn’t written and published until early 2016.
As I explained in the post about my hospitalisation, one consequence is that I have had to retire from playing cricket. I have therefore donated all of my cricket kit – batting pads and gloves, wicket-keeping pads, gloves & inners, along with my box 🙂 , to the Prague Barbarians Cricket Club, for whom it has been my privilege to play for the past six summers. In turn, Terry the club captain, kindly organised a dinner in my honour to mark my retirement, attended by a number of my playing colleagues.
September
On each of the first two Saturdays of September, I conducted a wedding. In both cases it was British male marrying Czech female.
On Saturday 5th September, I conducted the wedding of Paul and Michaela, the couple who own and run Sansho, the dégustation restaurant where Sybille and I celebrated our joint birthdays earlier this year. Their wedding took place in the grounds of Trojanuv mlyn, Tiche udoli, a peaceful rural location just within the Prague city boundary. Unlike in England and Wales, outdoor weddings are permissible under Czech marriage law.
Using the liturgical texts that I gave her, Michaela had an attractive Order of Service produced, the cover matching their wedding invitations. Michaela’s brother Aleš, kindly helped me with the liturgy, enabling Michaela to make her vows in Czech whilst I helped Paul make his in English. Meanwhile, the very supportive congregation, sat on straw bales, surrounded by trees to witness the ceremony. It does have be said that I heard numerous, ‘It’s about time too’ comments, from friends and family, very pleased that Paul and Michaela had finally tied the knot 🙂
On Saturday 12th September, I conducted the wedding of Charles and Radka, a couple who I first met at the beginning of 2015, when they started worshipping at St. Clements, having just got engaged. Whilst Charles is a baptised and confirmed Anglican, it was a wonderful to hear Radka profess Christian faith and to baptise her as an adult, during our Easter Day Eucharist earlier this year.
Their wedding took place in Kaple Nalezeni sv Križe, Malé Cicovice, adjacent to the Penzion where they held the reception following their marriage service. Malé Cicovice lies north-west of Prague, not far from Kladno. On this occasion, Renata and Eva, two friends of Radka, helped her make her vows in Czech, whilst I did likewise for Charles in English.
Whilst we didn’t sing any hymns, I drove Larry Leifeste and his wife Celieta, from Prague to the wedding venue, so Larry could play the ancient chapel organ to provide music before the service, for the entrance of the bride, and for the happy couple leaving at the end of the service. It did make for a most enjoyable occasion, helped by some warm and sunny weather.
Between Thursday 24th – Sunday 27th September, I attended the 2015 meeting of the Eastern Archdeaconry Synod, which this year took place in a Roman Catholic conference centre, just outside Zagreb in Croatia. In past years, each Archdeaconry Synod meeting has had its own blog post, but in 2015……
Three highlights from this year’s meeting were:
1) Our long-standing and long-suffering Archdeacon Patrick Curran, formally stepped down as Archdeacon of the East and thus ceased to be ‘venerable’ 🙂 I’ve never seen Patrick so relaxed – he was very much demob happy 🙂 Patrick was presented with an icon of St Cyril & St Methodius by the Chaplaincies of the Archdeaconry, and with a framed map of Europe, together with an ‘interesting’ bottle, by Bishop Robert.
In his place, we formally welcomed our new ‘free-standing’ Archdeacon, Colin Williams. Colin is now half time Archdeacon of the East, and half time Archdeacon of Germany and Northern Europe. But unlike Patrick, who remains Chaplain of Christ Church, Vienna and oversees the daughter congregations in Klagenfurt, Ljubljana, Zagreb and Yerevan, Colin has no responsibility for a particular chaplaincy, hence he is deemed ‘free-standing’.
2) During our Sunday morning Eucharist, Janet Berkovic, who brilliantly organised the Zagreb Synod meeting, was licensed as a Reader by Bishop Robert. Janet has led the small Zagreb Anglican congregation for many years, under the long distance guidance of Patrick from Vienna.
Three years ago at our Synod meeting in Athens, Jack Noonan was licensed as a Reader to serve the Prague Chaplaincy. It was during that licensing service that the Holy Spirit spoke to Janet saying she should also offer herself to train as a Reader, something Patrick had been suggesting to her for several years. So she is now licensed as ‘Reader-in-charge of Zagreb’, but still under Patrick’s jurisdiction. An additional highlight under the Berkovic heading, is that Janet’s Croatian husband Danijel, a Hebrew scholar, gave us three brilliant expositions of the Psalms, particularly bringing out things that are so easily ‘lost in translation’.
3) On the afternoon of Sunday 27th September, after a tour of central Zagreb, we were invited to coffee and refreshments at the new headquarters building of the Croatian Roman Catholic Bishops Conference. Here we met the chairman of their ‘Ecumenical Committee’, together with one of their bishops. Whilst our Zagreb Anglican congregation use Roman Catholic premises for their services, the Anglican congregation is not recognised as a ‘Church’ in Croatia – they function as a ‘voluntary organisation’.
Therefore having Bishop Robert with us made quite an impact, most notably when he spoke, with Danijel Berkovic translating. I still remember the look of total surprise on the face of the RC bishop, when Bishop Robert said he was responsible for just over three hundred Anglican congregations scattered across Europe. With only seeing one little congregation of English-speaking Anglicans in Zagreb, they had no idea of the size of the Church of England in continental Europe, let alone the wider Anglican Communion.
