As I explained in my previous post, on Wednesday 18th January, I had a very long day-trip to Brussels. Whilst the round table discussion with Lord George Bridges that I was to attend, was not scheduled to begin until 14.00, the only way I could be sure of being there on time, was to take a flight leaving Prague Airport at 06.45, which landed at Brussels Airport at 08.15.
Whilst I have driven around Brussels on the city’s ring road, many times, I have never previously visited the city itself. So I decided to take advantage of a frosty but clear morning, to explore a little on foot.
First I found the correct machine in the airport arrivals area where I could purchase my €4.50 ticket for Bus 12. The bus took me into the centre of Brussels, passing amongst other places, the headquarters of NATO. My bus journey terminated at Place de Luxembourg, the site of the European Parliament building.
After enjoying coffee and croissants at Café Tout Bon, I walked the length of Rue du Luxembourg, then around the grounds of the Palais de Bruxelles, before arriving in Place Royale, overlooked by Eglise Saint-Jacques-sur-Coudenberg.
Just to the right of this view point are two other interesting buildings. Why the one on the left is called ‘Old England’ I have no idea! Whilst the one on the right strikes me as a classical example of Flemish architecture.
My eventual goal was our Holy Trinity Pro-Cathedral and the close-by office of Bishop Robert, my Diocesan Bishop. Fortunately, there is a midweek Holy Communion service each Wednesday at the Pro-Cathedral starting at 12.30, which I was able to attend. Above is a view of the interior.
Whilst this is the beautiful, recently installed, new west window.
At the back of the Pro-Cathedral is this simple plaque, commemorating Nurse Edith Cavell, She is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from both sides in the First World War, without discrimination and with helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium, for which she was arrested. She was accused of treason, found guilty by a court-martial, sentenced to death and shot by a German firing squad.
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? 🙂
