The photograph on the left, shows the top of the organ in Kostel sv Kliment/St. Clement’s Church, as it was until August 2014, and as it had been for all of the previously nearly six years I’ve been Chaplain to the English-speaking Anglican congregation in Prague. At the centre of the picture is a mirror on a stand, to enable the organist to see beyond the front wall of the balcony, and know what is going on at the front of the Church – in particular, to know when to stop playing once the administration of Communion is complete.
But because the mirror stand is not sufficiently high, it has been propped up on three music and four words editions of our hymn book. Over that time, I have often observed this set up and thought how wasteful it was. We didn’t buy these hymn books to prop up a mirror – we bought them so people could sing from them to the praise and glory of God! And as in early 2012, I transferred three music and fifteen words editions of our hymn book permanently to Brno, for our congregation who worship there, the misuse of these books has become an ever more acute issue.
The problem has always been knowing what would be a suitable replacement for the mirror to sit on. In particular, knowing the correct dimensions – the required height, together with the length and breath of the base of the mirror stand. I always observed the problem just before, or following, Sunday worship. Therefore, my mind was inevitably on other things and I never have a measuring tape with me.
However, just over two months ago, I finally got around to measuring what was required. Then, when on a visit to IKEA, I spotted a little box storage unit, costing CZK 300, (less than £10.00 at current exchange rates), with the correct dimensions. The current value of the hymn books propping up the mirror, is £111.00. I bought the box!
Just as it took me nearly six years to solve this problem, so it has taken me over two months to finally complete this blog post and publish it. But in both cases, I did eventually get there 🙂