Intercontinental Church Society

Christmas 2025 in Zermatt

St Peter’s Church, Zermatt © Ricky Yates

As I explained in my previous post, this year I volunteered to go to Zermatt to be the Chaplain of St Peter’s Church over the Christmas period, covering the first two weeks of the Winter season. After my first few days of leisure, my period of duty began on Tuesday 16^th December.

My first duty each day was to open the Church by 09.30 each morning, turning on the lights in the sanctuary, and then locking it again in the evening, no earlier than 20.00. This allows people to visit and use the Church for private prayer. Judging by the number of entries and positive comments in the visitors book, this is very much appreciated.

My other initial task was to update noticeboards, removing the notices saying that the Church was currently closed, and instead, posting ones giving details of all my services, together with a mug shot of the current Chaplain.

I was unsure what to expect on the two Sundays either side of Christmas. At this time of year, it is very easy to lose track of what day of the week it actually is and therefore fail to realise that it is Sunday. So I was quite pleased to have a congregation of ten for Holy Communion on the morning of Sunday 21^st December – the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Among them was a Francophone Swiss couple celebrating their wedding anniversary, who were very appreciative of the service and were responsible for this photograph of me. I also believe they were responsible for a rather large contribution to the collection at the end of the service 😉

Standing by the altar of St Peter’s Church, Zermatt, Sunday 21st December 2025 © Ricky Yates

In the evening, there were just three of us gathered to say Evening Prayer together.

I knew from my experience in December 2024, that the 17.00 Service of Lessons & Carols on Christmas Eve would be popular. I wasn’t the only one. Several people arrived more than half an hour before the service was due to begin, just to be sure they had a seat 🙂 By just before 17.00, every pew was fully occupied, about twenty loose folding chairs were pressed into service, and at least twenty people were standing at the back. Finally, to get everyone in, at least a dozen others sat on the carpet in the central aisle.

In total, there must have been in excess of two hundred people present, wanting to sing Christmas carols and hear again Old Testament prophesies of the coming Messiah, the Annunciation, the birth of Jesus, the visits of the shepherds and wise men, and concluding with St John’s wonderful explanation of the Mystery of the Incarnation. I made that final reading the basis of my sermon and pointed out that they had just sung the truths of that passage in the previous carol.

‘Veiled in flesh the Godhead see: hail the incarnate Deity,

pleased as Man with man to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.’

At the end of the service, because of the number of people packed into Church, it took me quite some time to be able to reach the Church doors & shake hands with everyone as they left.

At 19.30 I had a repeat Service of Lessons & Carols, this time with a congregation of sixty-five. This was the only congregation that was smaller than those I experienced in 2024 – down by twenty. All the others were considerably greater with sixty attending the Midnight Eucharist and thirty-one at an informal act of Morning Worship on Christmas Day.

Several people who attended the various services, said that they remembered me from last year and were very pleased to see me once again in 2025. A few also expressed the hope that I would come again in 2026 😉 I did also have a number of enquiries as to whether there was a toilet in the Church or a reesst room 😉 Being a typical nineteenth century Church, there isn’t.

One thing that did surprise me was a couple of people arriving, thinking that services would be in German. This despite the Church being known locally as the ‘English Church’ and the noticeboard and website stating clearly that services are in English. As I had to explain, it will be ‘Anglikanischer Gottesdienst in englischer Sprache’ 🙂

I have several good memories of people that I met during my time as Chaplain. The first arrival for the Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve, was Caroline, the rep in Zermatt for the Ski Club of Great Britain. Whilst not a regular Church goer, she enjoyed the service and came up to the altar rail for a blessing, during the administration of Communion. She invited me to come to Ski Club’s social hour held each evening between 18.00-19.00, in the bar of the Pollock Hotel. So I went the following evening where Caroline and several others made me very welcome.

It was coming out of the lift in the apartment block where the Chaplain’s apartment is located, on my way to the Pollock Bar, that I met Victoria and her twelve-year old son Henry. They, together with Richard, Victoria’s husband/ Henry’s father, had attended both the 19.30 Service of Lessons & Carols and my Christmas Day morning service. Their rented apartment was literally a few steps from the Chaplain’s apartment. Victoria insisted that I should join them for a glass of bubbly, upon my return.

So I did! Not only was I given a glass of bubbly, I was treated to a Christmas Day evening dinner including this delightful dessert.

Whilst Richard had been to Zermatt several years ago, with his elder daughter, he was unaware of St Peter’s Church existence. This Christmas, they all were delighted to have discovered it and to be able to attend worship. Richard also got me involved in an interesting conversation about evangelism and expressed his appreciation of my preaching.

On the evening of Sunday 28^th December there was a congregation of six for Evening Prayer. One of them was a lady called Edith who is a ‘Villager’, someone who lives permanently in Zermatt. She is one of only two ‘locals’ who attend services on a regular basis. She expressed her appreciation of the service and I was delighted to have made a connection to her.

For three of my four Christmas services in December 2024, I was blessed with the presence of Christine from North Yorkshire, who played the organ for me. So I never got to understand how to play hymn tunes through the Church speaker system, and led one Service of Lessons & Carols singing unaccompanied or a cappella.

This year I had no organist for any of my services. But having arrived early and now knowing how other things such as heating and lighting, work, I had time to get to understand the system. And whilst there was frequently, a pregnant pause, between announcing the hymn or carol and the music starting, it worked!

The one thing that was noticeably different to my experience at Christmas 2024, was the lack of snow! In December 2024, I arrived in a heavy snow storm that lasted for a couple of days with snow everywhere in the town. This year, whilst it had clearly snowed previously in Zermatt itself as there was still some snow on roofs and in gardens, no snow fell at all during my eighteen day sojourn. Quite a surprise!

Health update and heading again to Zermatt for Christmas

It is now four months since a little critter got me and over two months since I last wrote a blogpost. So I thought it was high time that I posted an update.

Firstly, I am very grateful to the many people who have been praying for me, sending me their best wishes for a full recovery and wanting to know my current state of health. This post is for all of you!

When I last saw my GP, on Friday 5^th December, and he saw my leg 😉 , he was pleased with what he saw. Whilst the upper part of my left calf is still a bit swollen, it is vastly improved from three & a half months previously. So I have finally stopped taking anti-inflammatory tablets. The other good news is that my INR has finally settled down after being badly disturbed by taking antibiotics. On 5^th December, it was 2.6 – almost perfect, as it is meant to be in the range 2.0-3.0.

As I said in reply to one of the welcome comments on my last post, my planned further hospitalisation on 7^th October, to investigate the scabby lump on the bottom of my left leg, didn’t happen, as there wasn’t a spare bed for me. I am now re-booked to see the dermatologist on Tuesday 6^th January 2026. In consultation with my GP, I will be slightly reducing my intake of Warfarin in the week before that appointment and then having my INR checked by my GP, the day before the appointment. Hopefully it will be around 2.00 and will allow an incision to be made, without the risk of me severely bleeding.

Last December, as I wrote in this post, I answered a cri de cœur and travelled to Zermatt, Switzerland, to provide Christmas services at St Peter’s Church, known locally as the ‘English Church’. Having enjoyed the uplifting but tiring experience, some months ago, I volunteered to return in December 2025, this time for a full two weeks including Sunday 21^st December- Advent 4, and Sunday 28^th December – Christmas 1.

Because my two weeks mark the beginning of the Winter Season, the Chaplaincy flat has been vacant since the end of the Summer Season in September. Therefore I have been able to arrive a few days early, acclimatize myself and enjoy the mountains, before my Chaplaincy duty commences.

Gornergratbahn at Riffelberg Bahnhof © Ricky Yates

Therefore, I’ve had a wonderful journey on the Gornergratbahn up to Gornergrat with amazing views of the Matterhorn.

And I’ve travelled the Matterhorn Alpine Crossing from Switzerland to Italy and back, with further amazing views and a delightful Italian lunch in Breuil-Cervinia.

Christmas services at St Peter’s Church, Zermatt © Ricky Yates

During my two week stint, I will be officiating and preaching at eight different services, as advertised now on the Church noticeboard and on the Church website. With my two earlier services at the Dresden Frauenkiche, that means ten services in December. So much for being retired!

Christmas in Zermatt

After conducting a wonderful service of Nine Lesson & Carols in the Frauen-kirche, Dresden on the evening of Sunday 8^th December, I was planning on spending a quiet Christmas at home in Stará Oleška. My Christmas worship was going to be attending a service on Christmas Eve, in German, at the Lutheran Church in Obercunnersdorf, led by my good friend and colleague, Andrew Allen. I’m not due to officiate again at the Frauenkirche, until Thursday 2^nd January 2025.

Then, early in the afternoon of Thursday 19^th December, an email dropped into my Inbox. It came from Jim Perryman, who oversees what is known as ‘Short Term Mission’ for the Intercontinental Church Society (ICS). ICS are the C of E mission society who supported me when in Prague and continue to prayerfully support my ministry in Dresden.

ICS owns a Church, dating from the late nineteenth century, in the Swiss ski resort of Zermatt, for which they recruit chaplains to serve, each for a period of two weeks, during the main summer and winter holiday seasons. The email explained that, due to ‘a sudden family tragedy’, the Chaplain who was meant to arrive in Zermatt on Tuesday 17^th December, open everything up for the winter season, and then serve through to New Year’s Eve, was no longer able to be there. The email was a cri de cœur, asking if anyone knew a priest who would be able to travel to Zermatt and at least cover the planned and advertised services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Jim Perryman acknowledged that with Christmas Church and family commitments, it was unlikely anyone would be available at such short notice – he entitled the email ‘LONG SHOT’ 😉 As well as being able and willing to travel, there was also the additional requirement that the priest needed to hold Bishop’s permission to officiate (PTO) in the Diocese in Europe.

I sat and read, and then re-read the email several times, over a period of thirty minutes. I realised that realistically, I could do it. I had no commitments during the time period. I hold PTO because of my ongoing ministry in Dresden. So an hour after I received the email, I wrote a reply to Jim saying, ‘I may be able to help you.’ Before I sent it, I realised it might be good to have a phone conversation, to answer the many questions that were coming into my mind. So I tried phoning the ICS office only to get the message that no one was available.

About thirty minutes after sending my email, back came a reply from Jim. He apologised for the phone silence – the ICS office staff were having their Christmas Lunch! But he said, ‘Your potential offer sounds wonderful and I will be delighted to chat with you later.’ Therefore, after a most helpful video conversation on WhatsApp, I agreed to spend Christmas in Zermatt, the first Christmas I’ve been working for eight years.

The only realistic way for me to get to Zermatt, at such short notice, was to drive there, or at least as far as Täsch, as cars and trucks are banned from entering Zermatt. It had to be a two-day drive, not helped by the short hours of daylight in mid-winter. So on the morning of Saturday 21^st December, I drove from my home in Stará Oleška, to Sankt Margrethen which is in Switzerland, just over the border from Germany and Austria, where the three countries meet. There I stayed in a very nice hotel, overnight.

I’m very glad I studied the traffic map on mapy.cz before setting out the next morning as I discovered that the route I was planning to take was impassable because of winter snow. So it was onto the Autobahn around St Gallen, Zürich, Bern, and down to Vevey and Montreux. Then, as I set out into the mountains on Autoroute 9, the rain which had been falling most of the day, turned to snow. Autoroute/Autobahn 9, as you cross the French/German language divide 😉 peters out. But after several more kilometres of ordinary road, I eventually reached the town of Visp.

From Visp, there followed a twenty-eight kilometre drive, up a twisty mountain road, with heavy snow falling, before I reached Täsch. The best description of that journey would be ‘interesting’. I heard later, that shortly after my journey, the authorities closed the road so snow ploughs could operate, without cars being in the way.

My car safely parked and a trolley loaded in Täsch © Ricky Yates

Once I had parked my car in an expensive, covered, car park in Täsch, I then had to load all my luggage onto a trolley. Photographic evidence herewith. Then, I wheeled it to the railway station platform for the shuttle service to Zermatt. The trains are designed so you can wheel your trolley on in Täsch and off again in Zermatt.

The shuttle train to Zermatt © Ricky Yates

My instructions, (thirty-seven pages of them 😉 ), said that it was possible to wheel the trolley out of the station and up the hill to the Chaplain’s Flat. But with the amount of snow that had fallen and with it still snowing, that wasn’t on. Instead, I set out carrying everything.

I had not gone far when I stopped for a breather, outside a hotel. Two workmen from the hotel who were busy shovelling snow, suggested I go into the hotel lobby and take a rest. I misunderstood what they also said, thinking they would come and shortly help me. When they didn’t reappear, the hotel manageress came to my aid. Saying that I was the new English Church Chaplain helped and she summoned one of the guys I’d spoken to earlier, and told him to take me up the hill in one of hotel’s electric taxis. That manageress and her employee, were two of my Christmas angels 🙂

At least when I got into the Chaplain’s flat, everything was fine. The heating was on, the last occupants had left it in good order and there were a few non-perishable goodies in the kitchen cupboards. After unloading my bags, I set off through the snow, to see St Peter’s Church from the outside.

St Peter’s Church, Zermatt, in the snow © Ricky Yates

Taken in the dark, this photo will give you some idea of what it was like. I had visions of having to dig my way into Church the next morning.

The way to the Church is clear and the front door is open © Ricky Yates

However, when I got to the Church next day, to open it for 09.30, as required, some local authority workers had already cleared the path to the Church door and one of the set of steps leading down to the main street. All I had to do was brush the snow off the two front steps.

All of Monday 23^rd and the daylight hours of Christmas Eve, were spent reading the instructions and trying to find and make work, everything relating to the Church – lights, heating, sound system, access to, and what was in the vestry. I had to also make a couple of strategic visits – to the Tourist Office to pick up some posters and make myself known, and to the supermarket to get some supplies.

It was during all of this that I received a phone call on the Chaplain’s mobile, which fortunately I had recharged overnight, as the battery was completely flat. It came from a lovely lady called Christine from North Yorkshire, who became my third Christmas Angel. ‘Do you have anyone to play the organ for your services’, she said. ‘I’ve been here before and have played the organ previously.’ I met her at the Church on Monday afternoon, and as a result, she played for three of my four services.

The first of these was a service of Lessons and Carols, starting at 17.00 on Christmas Eve. In 2023, that same service had been packed out with all pews occupied and with people standing at the back. Therefore this year, the plan was to have a second service of Lesson and Carols, starting later at 19.30, to try and spread out the numbers. However, by the time my 17.00 service was to start, all pews were occupied with an additional twenty or so, standing at the back.

I had no designated readers for either of these services. I was told just to try and nab people from the congregation to see if they were willing to read. During the daytime on Christmas Eve, I met a couple of men who came by the Church to check up on the times of services, both of whom volunteered for the 17.00 service. And as the people arrived, I recruited three more, all men.

But I had one lesson without a reader. So before commencing the service, I asked the congregation if I could have one more volunteer reader, preferably female. A hand shot up from the second row from the front. It was a young lady who was quite short and who I guessed was probably no more than twelve or thirteen years old. I accepted her offer, delighted that it was a quite short and appropriate reading, Luke 2. v1 & 3-7 describing the birth of Jesus.

The lectern, from where all the other readers read, is quite high so, when it came the time for the young lady to read, I took the other microphone from in front of my stall and held it in my hand whilst she stood up at the front and read. She read well and clearly. Shaking hands with the congregation at the door as they were leaving, this young lady, from New York City as she told me in answer to my question, personally thanked me for allowing her to read. I have to say that was for me, the most memorable part of the service which ran smoothly and was very well appreciated. I got many expressions of thanks at the door.

The one service that Christine couldn’t play for was the 19.30 Lessons & Carols. Within my thirty-seven pages of instructions was an explanation of how to play recorded organ tunes of hymns and carols through the Church sound system, using the laptop in the Chaplain’s Flat. This was one item of technology that I decided not to even start to understand, once I’d met Christine and her willingness to play for me. The problem she had with the 19.30 service was that it clashed with the time of a special Christmas Eve dinner, being provided by the hotel where she and her husband Chris and several other family members, were staying. As Christine said to me, ‘I do need to be fed’ 🙂

So, having a strong singing voice, though it did start to crack up, I told the congregation numbering eight-five, that it was going to be a DIY Carol Service. We would sing unaccompanied or a cappella. And so we did, singing eight Christmas carols interspersed by seven Bible lessons and a short sermon.

On Christmas Day morning, I received an email from someone called Dominic. He had found this blog and gained my email address from it. Dominic wrote,

‘What a lovely service last night in Zermatt! I thought the unaccompanied singing worked especially well, albeit in large part thanks to your tuneful leadership. It was much better than singing along to a recording, as I recall having done one previous Christmas Eve in that chapel.’

As well as taking the compliment, receiving Dominic’s email was very reassuring to me of the decision I’d taken.

My third service on Christmas Eve, was a Midnight Eucharist starting at 23.30. I had a very appreciative and responsive congregation numbering forty. At this service, as I’d also had at the two previous services, I received many expressions of appreciation and thanks for being so willing to travel all the way to Zermatt meaning that the services could take place. Several people had seen the earlier notification on the ICS website, that Christmas services would probably not now take place because of the absence of a Chaplain. But it was updated, immediately after I agreed to travel and be there.

Standing in front of the Chancel apse of St Peter’s Church, Zermatt © Ricky Yates

After relatively few hours of sleep, my final service was on Christmas Day morning – an informal short Service of the Word, including singing four more Christmas carols. The smallest of my congregations with twenty adults and a couple of children. After this service was over, my wonderful organist Christine, took this photo of me in front of the chancel apse of the Church.

Afterwards, I then went back to the flat to cook my own Christmas Dinner. During the afternoon, I had difficulty not falling asleep as I was so worn out and tired. But I managed to stay awake until 20.00, the time in the evening when I was expected to lock the Church. I then went to bed at 20.30 and slept soundly for ten hours.

Tomorrow morning, I have to go down to the Post Office and bank the proceeds of the collections taken at the four services. I’ve already counted it all and filled in an online financial report. There are five different currencies, Swiss francs, Euros, Sterling, US dollars and Hong Kong dollars 😉 That is what you get with international congregations 🙂 After that, I hope to go up into the mountains and enjoy the view. One bonus of being a Chaplain in Zermatt is the provision of a free ski pass for all the ski lifts and gondolas. There will be more photos.

Some of the mountains surrounding Zermatt © Ricky Yates

My April 2016 visit to the UK – ICS Chaplains Conference

Alyson Lamb and Paul Vrolijk being interviewed by Richard Bromley, ICS Mission Director © Ricky Yates

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’ 🙂

Chalices and paten with Mac © Ricky Yates

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? 🙂

Happy seventh birthday to my blog

Sgraffito decoration in Prague © Ricky Yates

During the coming week, on Thursday 4^th February, this blog celebrates its seventh birthday. I published my first ever blog post here, on 4^th February 2009, four-and-a-half months after we arrived in Prague on 19^th September 2008.

With this one, there are now 342 posts on the blog. But I do have to confess that the past twelve months have been the least productive year of the blog’s existence, with only 37 new posts being added. The previous lowest total was 41 in 2011-12. However, if you go down the right-hand sidebar to ‘Archives’, and then click on ‘Select Month’, you will discover that I have published at least one blog post in every one of the eighty four months since February 2009 – no mean achievement!

I don’t normally go around blowing my own trumpet, but I do have to say that I am quite proud of the blog and having kept it going for seven years. In my time of blogging, I’ve seen several other blogs started, which have then died after two or three posts. Others, that have gone for a while longer, and then ground to a halt. I am determined that this isn’t going to happen to me, though I acknowledge that it nearly did in 2015, when I only managed to publish four posts in the three months of July, August and September.

Much as I enjoy writing the blog, I do find it quite time-consuming at times. I try to write in interesting but coherent English, with correct spelling and punctuation, and doing so takes time. And when I am stating facts or re-telling history, I also want to be sure that what I write is accurate and true, which means regular visits to my bookshelves & Wikipedia 🙂

Looking ahead, as my blog enters its eighth year, I am sure I will have plenty of things to continue blogging about. After Lent and Easter, I shall be in the UK for nearly two weeks, visiting family and friends and then attending this year’s ICS Chaplains Conference. I have three English-speaker – Czech weddings at which to officiate in 2016, which are always enjoyable as well as fascinating occasions. At the end of September, I will be in Warsaw for the 2016 Eastern Archdeaconry Synod. And at the end of July, there is another very important wedding too….

Likewise, I have not forgotten the promised post(s) about walking with Sybille, from Görlitz to Kamenz, along the first part of Der Ökumenische Pilgerweg in Germany, last August. This remains uppermost in my mind because I hope we will walk the next section, some time later this year. And I do have brewing, a post on the proposed ‘In/out referendum’ that the UK has been promised by David Cameron.

My thanks to all those of you who regularly visit and read my blog, especially the small number of faithful ones who also take the trouble to leave comments, rather than just clicking ‘like’ on the link posted on Facebook. Do join me in raising a glass to wish ‘Ricky Yates – an Anglican in Prague’, a happy seventh birthday!