Eastern Archdeaconry Synod

The Eastern Archdeaconry Synod in Vienna

Vienna 1 — Christ Church, Vienna © Ricky Yates

On Thursday 16^th September, only a week after our previous trip, we once more drove the length of the Prague – Brno motorway. This time we then headed further south over the border into Austria and travelled onwards to Vienna in order to attend the annual meeting of our Eastern Archdeaconry Synod.

As I’ve blogged previously, St. Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague is part of the Church of England’s forty fourth diocese, the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe. As with the other 43 dioceses that make up the Church of England, the Diocese in Europe is divided into Archdeaconries – in our case, into seven Archdeaconries. Even the smallest of these, the Archdeaconry of Switzerland, covers the whole of one country. And Prague belongs to the largest of the seven, the Eastern Archdeaconry, which consists of everything eastwards from Poland, Czech Republic and Austria, including all of the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey and all the former Soviet Union except for the Baltic States.

Once a year, each Archdeaconry has an Archdeaconry Synod where the clergy, together with elected lay representatives, meet to discuss and report on issues facing our scattered congregations, to pray and to study, as well as to make decisions regarding the common life of our chaplaincies. Because of the distances involved, the synod meetings have to be residentiary. However, unlike in 2009 when the synod meeting took place in Izmir, Turkey, this time it was hosted by Christ Church, Vienna, meaning the car journey to get there took half a day rather than three & a half days!

The synod meeting took place in Pallottihaus, a Roman Catholic retreat house situated in the Vienna suburbs. It was an ideal venue with its own Chapel for worship, an excellent meeting room for listening to speakers and the discussion of synod business, as well as comfortable double and single rooms for overnight accommodation.

The major item for discussion was a plan, approved in principle by the Diocesan Synod earlier in the year, for the creation of four so-called ‘freestanding Archdeacons’ to provide better pastoral care and support for the clergy and Chaplaincies of our far flung diocese. The seven current Archdeacons have the almost impossible task of both being Archdeacon and being the Chaplain of a large Chaplaincy. My Archdeacon Patrick Curran is both Chaplain of Christ Church, Vienna as well as Archdeacon of the East.

The major issue regarding the scheme is, not surprisingly, one of cost. There is hope of some central funding coming from England and also the possibility of a private donor helping with accommodation. But inevitably, part of the funding will have to come from increased contributions from individual Chaplaincies. The Archdeaconry Synod gave its backing to the plan recognising the need for it and accepting the inevitable additional costs that will ensue.

On the morning of Sunday 19^th September, the synod concluded with a Eucharist at Christ Church, in the centre of Vienna. The synod members joined the regular Vienna congregation and Archdeacon Patrick was the celebrant and preacher.

The Christ Church building itself is a typical product of nineteenth century British diplomacy and politics. It is situated directly opposite the British Embassy and even has a memorial on an inside wall commemorating the reign of Queen Victoria! However, like nearly all the Chaplaincies in our diocese, the Christ Church congregation has long since ceased to be solely ‘the Brits abroad’. As with St. Clement’s, Prague, there were a large variety of nationalities represented within the packed congregation including many black Africans.

After the service, refreshments and a sandwich lunch were served in the nearby parish centre, just around the corner from the Church. Unfortunately, I had to decline the alcoholic liquid refreshment on offer because of needing to drive back to Prague straightaway afterwards.

Next year, the Archdeaconry Synod will meet in Bucharest and as in 2009, Sybille and I will probably try and combine our attendance with two weeks of annual leave making the journey to Romania all the more worthwhile.

A visit from the Archdeacon

Petr Patrick Rick 2 — Left to right; Rev'd Petr Jan Vinš, Archdeacon Patrick Curran and me © Sybille Yates

One of the things anyone taking on being an Anglican Chaplain in the Diocese in Europe is warned about, is the fact that you will be working in relative isolation. In England, most Anglican clergy meet their nearby colleagues at regular meetings of the Deanery Clergy Chapter. These meetings provide an opportunity for mutual help and support as well as being a safe environment in which to sound off about difficult parishioners! Likewise, if you want to talk an issue over with your bishop or archdeacon, they are usually no more than a one hour journey away and a meeting can be easily organised.

Here in Prague, my nearest Anglican colleagues are in Warsaw to the north, Budapest to the east and Vienna to the south-east. As I have blogged previously, I only usually see my colleagues once a year at our Eastern Archdeaconry Synod. Actually, my nearest Anglican colleague is probably the Chaplain in Leipzig, but then he is in the Archdeaconry of Germany and Northern Europe!

Another contrast with England is that my Archdeacon Patrick Curran is not only Archdeacon of the Eastern Archdeaconry, but also Chaplain of Christ Church, Vienna. In England, most Archdeacons have no other responsibilities other than being Archdeacon. Some, including my previous Archdeacon Julian Hubbard, also have a role in the Diocesan Cathedral. But as Cathedrals have numerous ordained staff, duties are rarely very onerous.

Whilst Archdeacon Patrick does have a non-stipendiary colleague, Rev’d Aileen Hackl and more recently has been joined by a part-time curate, Rev’d Jady Koch, he still has an unenviable task of heading up a large chaplaincy in Vienna as well as trying to oversee our Archdeaconry which stretches from Poland, Czech Republic and Austria in the west, all the way to Vladivostok in the east and including all the former Yugoslavia together with Greece and Turkey.

Despite the distances and the workload, Archdeacon Patrick does try to visit each of the Chaplaincies within his Archdeaconry, once every three years. Although he was in Prague on 28^th October 2008 for my licensing service, he had not made a Sunday visit here since the time of my predecessor John Philpott, who retired in April 2008. Therefore, he kindly agreed to make a weekend visit this past weekend, travelling by train from Vienna on Saturday 30^th January and returning by train on the afternoon of Sunday 31^st January.

Patrick’s visit got off to a slightly inauspicious start. Prague has four different mainline railway stations and the through train from Vienna to Hamburg stops at two of them. Patrick got off at the first station – we were waiting to meet him at the second! But realising what he must have done when he did not appear where we were expecting him; we made the reverse journey and eventually found him.

Although Archdeacon Patrick was only with us for twenty four hours, he still managed to pack in a two hour meeting with my Church Council and a private meeting with the Churchwardens, before Sybille and I shared an evening meal with him in one of our favourite eating places, the Na staré fare Bar-Restaurant, up the hill behind where we live.

Patrick Pastor Eva — Archdeacon Patrick Curran with Pastor Eva Halamová outside St. Clement's Church, Prague © Sybille Yates

On Sunday morning, he was the guest preacher at our Sung Eucharist as we celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple or Candlemas as it is commonly known. This was followed a very enjoyable soup and sandwich shared lunch with a large number of our congregation, held in the meeting room on the third floor of Klimentská 18 which, like the Church itself, we borrow from our host congregation, the Ceskobratrské Cíckve Evangelické / the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren. After lunch, we successfully delivered him to the correct railway station for his return four hour journey back to Vienna.

As you will see from the photo above, we were also joined for our service by the recently ordained Old Catholic priest, Petr Jan Vinš who is a fluent English-speaker. It was an extremely rare event to have three ordained clergy present for a service at St. Clements! Archdeacon Patrick also enjoyed meeting Pastor Eva Halamová who leads our host congregation. She is pictured here in her Geneva gown, alongside Patrick who put his coat over his cassock because it was so cold! The snow that you can also see in both photographs, is part of what fell on Friday 8^th January and has yet to melt.

Farewell to Turkey

Galata Tower, Istanbul from the Bosphorus © Ricky Yates. Christ Church Anglican Church is located in a street leading off the square that surrounds the Galata Tower.

After our three nights in Cappadocia, we then began our return journey to Prague. On Saturday 17^th October, we drove around 750 km from Ürgüp to the outskirts of Ankara where we joined the motorway that then took us all the way to Istanbul. As we approached the edge of the Istanbul conurbation, the fine dry and very warm weather we had experienced throughout our time in Turkey, suddenly broke as we drove into an extremely heavy thunderstorm.

We stayed for two nights in Istanbul with a young Turkish couple who we had first met when they couchsurfed with us in Prague earlier in the year in June. In Istanbul, we had our first experience of being couchsurfing guests rather than as couchsurfing hosts. For those who don’t know what couchsurfing is, click on one of the links in this paragraph! Trying to drive to our hosts flat, located in the Asian suburbs of the city, in the midst of the horrors of the Saturday early evening traffic, is an experience I do not wish to repeat for a long, long time!

On the Sunday morning, by taxi and then by ferry across the Bosphorus, we reached the centre of the city and attended the Sung Eucharist at Christ Church, Istanbul. Here we also met up with Anna, a former member of my Prague Chaplaincy congregation about whom I’ve blogged previously. She is now teaching in Istanbul and we were able to reunite her with a suitcase and another bag containing some of her belonging she had previously left behind in Prague. By carrying them in our boot (or trunk as Anna would call it!), all the way to Istanbul, we successfully saved her the fairly serious excess baggage charges she was going to incur had she taken them with her by air as she had originally planned.

The Istanbul Anglican Chaplain, the slightly eccentric but very warm and welcoming Canon Ian Sherwood, entertained Sybille, Anna and I to lunch, along with two Sri Lankan men, one a Tamil and the other, a Sinhalese. After lunch, Sybille and I went on to explore the famous sights of the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sophia. However, we both found the city quite overwhelming.

The population of the Istanbul is variously estimated as being somewhere between 15 and 18 million. It is a horribly crowded city with people everywhere. Added to this, there were three or four cruise liners moored on the Bosphorus and we constantly ran into guided tours from these ships. Therefore, having travelled back across the Bosphorus by ferry and then located a bus to return us to our hosts flat, we resolved to leave Istanbul the next morning and head for Montenegro.

I cannot help but reflect upon the great contrasts that I saw during our time in Turkey which in turn reflects the tensions that underlie present-day Turkish society. At one level, the country is very much looking west towards Europe. It wants the tourist Euro and has developed a series of resorts along its Aegean coast to cater for those who wish to come from Germany, Britain and elsewhere in Northern Europe, for a sun, sea and sand holiday. Likewise, it has recognised the wealth of historic and scenic attractions that lie within its borders and has begun both to preserve and promote such sites as Ephesus and the wonders of Cappadocia.

But European tourists coming for a relaxing summer holiday will inevitably wear relatively brief casual clothing. On the beach, women will wear bikinis with some even sunbathing topless as they have for many years on the Greek islands only a few kilometres off the Turkish coast. Visiting tourists also expect to be able to go to a bar for a cold beer and share a bottle of wine when having a meal in a restaurant.

At present, in the beach resorts and in the areas surrounding other major visitor attractions, the tourist Euro is triumphing over the pressure for the implementation of so-called ‘Islamic values’. The wearing of western casual clothing is accepted. There are bars serving Efes beer, (Efes being the Turkish name for Ephesus) which is itself brewed within Turkey. The country also produces its own wine which is served in restaurants and is available for purchase in some supermarkets and stores. In particular, the Cappadocia region produces some extremely quaffable white wines which we enjoyed on several occasions.

But you do not have to go far in Turkey to see a complete contrast. When travelling between Pamukkale and Cappadocia, we stayed overnight in Konya, a large city with a population of nearly 1 million people. Here we noticed that somewhere between 85-90% of women wore the hijab and Sybille felt rather stared at by some people for walking around the city in jeans and a short sleeved tee-shirt. And despite a fairly lengthy search, we could not find a bar or restaurant that served alcoholic drinks, nor was wine or beer for sale in any supermarket or shop. As far as we could ascertain, Konya was effectively ‘dry’ despite being no more than three hours drive from the wine producing area of Cappadocia.

This contrast, between those who want Turkey to be a European orientated country and those who want it to be a very conservative Islamic republic, is best illustrated by one sight I saw and by two contrasting reports given at the Eastern Archdeaconry Synod in Izmir. With these I will end my blogging about my recent time in Turkey.

When driving from Cappadocia to Istanbul, we stopped for lunch at a service area on the Ankara – Istanbul motorway. Sitting at an outdoor table waiting for our meal to be served, I watched people as they arrived, parked their vehicles and walked towards the restaurant, shops and toilet facilities. First came a Turkish couple, probably in their late twenties or early thirties. He was wearing a smart suit, open neck shirt and sunglasses; she was wearing a bright red woollen short minidress, teamed with black tights and long leather boots that came over her knees. Immediately behind them came a coach party, the majority of whom were women of whom all except one were wearing a hijab and body enveloping conservative clothing.

At the Eastern Archdeaconry Synod, Rev’d Ron Evans, the Anglican Chaplain in Izmir reported that his Chaplaincy had received financial help from the Izmir City authorities for repairs to the gutters and down pipes of St. John’s Church, because they wanted to help maintain and preserve historic buildings within the city. His namesake, Canon Geoffrey Evans, the Anglican Chaplain in Ankara, remarked that he feels it is only because his Church building lies within the grounds of the British Embassy that his Chaplaincy is still able to function, such are the Islamizing pressures within the Turkish capital.

Ephesus

Although the Eastern Archdeaconry Synod meeting officially ended with the Eucharist and Ordination Service on the morning of Sunday 11th October, most synod members stayed on for a Sunday afternoon outing and guided tour to the Greco-Roman remains of the city of Ephesus some 50 miles/80 km south of Izmir. Although we had originally booked to go on the coach with everyone else, as we didn’t wish to return to Izmir late on Sunday evening, we instead followed the coach in our car.

Pillars in front of Municipal House, Ephesus © Ricky Yates

I had previously visited Ephesus nearly 35 years ago in April 1975 and wondered how different it would be from how I remembered it. The most obvious contrast was the weather. My first visit took place on a cool day, under dark cloudy skies and with a light drizzle falling. As a result, the only photographic record I have is a series of bought slides. On the afternoon of Sunday 11^th October 2009, we had clear blue skies, very bright sunshine and temperatures hovering around 30 degrees Celsius.

The other contrast was the number of visitors. Back in 1975, the party I travelled with were virtually the only people visiting the site. As I mentioned in an earlier post, tourism in Turkey was then in its infancy. This time, our coach party was one of many, with a variety of groups being taken around the site, thus making it difficult to take pictures that didn’t contain images of hoards of other tourists!

Rather than trying to describe all that is contained within this amazing site, I hope these accompanying photographs will do the talking for me.

Temple of Hadrian, Ephesus © Ricky Yates

Internal view of terraced house, Ephesus © Ricky Yates

One part of the site that was completely new to me was a series of six terraced houses, built into the hillside on one side of the main street. Apparently, their existence was known in 1975 but no archaeological digging had yet commenced. Having since been unearthed, they have now been covered with protective roofing to preserve the frescos and mosaics contained within them. I hope this picture gives some indication of how the wealthy of Ephesus lived in the last century BC and the first few centuries AD.

The Great Amphitheatre, Ephesus © Ricky Yates

Ephesus has many New Testament associations. Acts 19 describes how St. Paul preached, taught and discussed with the people of the city during a period of over two years, bringing many to Christian faith. His time in the city came to an end following a riot initiated by the city’s silversmiths and other skilled workers. This took place in the city’s amphitheatre which is one of many outstanding structures that still remain. Our synod party sat on the terraced seats of the amphitheatre whilst Rev’d Jady Koch, the curate of Christ Church, Vienna, read the biblical passage describing those self-same events.

At the height of its importance as a city, the population of Ephesus may well have exceeded 200,000 people. Its size and economic success was very much based on it being a major port. However, slowly over the early centuries AD, the port silted up. The road on this picture used to lead to the port itself. Now the sea lies 4-5 km away! The city also suffered from a major earthquake in 262 AD and was further damaged by a series of lesser earthquakes during the following years. Therefore, although Ephesus hosted the Fourth Ecumenical Council in 431, its importance declined so that, over the next few centuries, it was slowly abandoned. Fortunately, despite the ravages of time, much of its former glory can still be seen today.

The Eastern Archdeaconry Synod in Izmir

The seafront Izmir, Turkey © Ricky Yates

The 2009 meeting of the Eastern Archdeaconry Synod of the Diocese in Europe took place in the Kaya Prestige Hotel, Izmir, between 17.00 on Thursday 8^th October until mid-afternoon on Saturday 10^th October. We met in a large conference room on the second floor of the hotel and were able to set up the furniture so that one part was suitable for worship whilst the other could be used for listening to our speakers and for round-table discussion. However, like so many hotel conference rooms, there were no windows through which daylight might appear so it was good to be able to get out and walk around the city on the Friday afternoon during a two-hour break in proceedings.

In our Eucharist on Friday morning, we remembered Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna who was martyred for his faith c155 AD, not so far from where we were meeting – Smyrna being the ancient name for what is now known as Izmir. We were reminded that Polycarp, when asked to forswear his faith and curse Christ famously declared, “I have served him for eighty-six years and he has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour.” He was burned alive!

Our main speaker was Dr Colin Podmore, a Church Historian who has worked for the General Synod of the Church of England in various capacities since 1998. He gave three talks entitled ‘Aspects of Anglican Identity’. Not surprisingly, he has also written a book of the same title! Whilst one might not agree with everything he had to say on the topic, he certainly was a lucid a thought provoking speaker to listen to.

We also heard from David Healey, Communications Manager and General Manager of the Intercontinental Church Society (ICS), an Anglican mission society who support Christian work among English-speakers in countries where English is not the first language. ICS financially enabled the appointment in 2000, of John Philpott my predecessor as Prague Chaplain, and currently continue to meet about 10% of the Chaplaincy’s running costs as well of supporting us 100% prayerfully. Within the Eastern Archdeaconry, they also support the work of the Chaplaincies in Corfu and Kiev.

As well as speaking about the work of ICS, David also gave an illustrated talk about the impact of consumer culture upon belief and unbelief from a mission perspective. This was a revised version of a talk I’d heard him give last April at the ICS Chaplains and Families Conference. Part of his theme is one I have referred to more than once in this blog – that as Jesus said, “Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” Luke 12 v15b.

A very important part of synod proceedings are the reports from each of the Chaplaincies. Many have financial struggles; those in St. Petersburg and Moscow have ever increasing difficulties regarding visas for chaplains and congregational members alike. Others have problems regarding their legal and tax status.

But there were also many positive things in several reports, particularly in the area of ecumenical cooperation. There are also possibilities of new Chaplaincies being established, notably in areas where increasing numbers of English-speakers are settling. One of these is on the west coast of Turkey. Members an expat group of Christians based at Didim attended the synod in an observer capacity and there is another similar group based around Bodrum. I understand that both these groups would like come under the ‘Anglican umbrella’. Our Archdeacon Patrick Curran, together with our Suffragan Bishop David Hamid, were staying on in Turkey after the synod, for a meeting with these groups to explore possibilities.

Although the synod had its serious moments, it was also a time for fellowship and fun. For the clergy, who in England would normally meet up with their near neighbours about once a month for a chapter meeting, it is rare opportunity to get together and mutually support one another. All of us in the Eastern Archdeaconry work in quite isolated situations. Geographically, my nearest colleague is my Archdeacon Patrick Curran who as well as being Archdeacon, is also Chaplain in Vienna. Vienna is about four hours from Prague either by car or train!

One of the slightly unnerving aspects of our meeting was security presence that surrounded us most of the time. There were always police in and around the hotel and often a private security man was hovering outside our meeting room. When on Saturday afternoon at the end of synod business, we set off to walk as a group to St. John’s Church, led by the Izmir Chaplain, Rev’d Ron Evans, we were followed by several police officers.

So far as one could ascertain, all this was organised by the hotel. There have in recent years been terrorist attacks in a number of tourist areas in Turkey which have usually been attributed to either the Kurdish PKK or Islamic extremists. The Turkish government is very keen to maintain and increase the number of tourists visiting the country as tourism makes a major contribution to the economy. Therefore they clearly want to deter and prevent anything that might damage the image of the country abroad. Later in our Turkish travels, we visited various tourist sites and an armed police presence was always very visible.

Ordination at Izmir © Ricky Yates; From left to right, Canon Malcolm Bradshaw, Bishop David Hamid, Rev'd Tony Lane, Mrs Suzanne Lane, Christine Saccali. — Ordination at Izmir © Ricky Yates; From left to right, Canon Malcolm Bradshaw, Bishop David Hamid, Rev’d Tony Lane, Mrs Suzanne Lane, Christine Saccali. Reader in the Greater Athens Chaplaincy.

The final part of the synod meeting was our Sunday morning Eucharist, held in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, at which Bishop David presided. During the service, he ordained Tony Lane deacon, to serve the congregation of the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, Kefalas, Crete. This congregation, which is now about 50 strong, was started by Tony a few years ago as half a dozen people meeting around his kitchen table. Since then he has personally built the chapel where the congregation now meet which was dedicated by Bishop Geoffrey in 2008.

Due to previous theological study, Tony was already a licensed Reader and this past year, he has undergone further training and been mentored by Canon Mike Peters, a recently retired priest from Somerset, who has spent the last six months in Crete, leading the congregation. Canon Mike was the preacher at the ordination service. The Crete congregation come under the umbrella of the Greater Athens Chaplaincy led by Canon Malcolm Bradshaw.

The Eucharist and Ordination Service were a wonderful way to conclude our synod meeting. It was followed by refreshments laid on by the Izmir congregation which we were able to enjoy in warm sunshine in the grounds of St. John’s Church.