A Trip to Stuttgart

Rev'd Ken Dimmick, Chaplain of St. Catherine's Anglican Church, Stuttgart © Ricky Yates

When Bishop Geoffrey Rowell visited the Prague Chaplaincy at the beginning of May this year, he mentioned during a Church Council meeting, about how under the ministry of Rev’d Ken Dimmick, the Anglican Church in Stuttgart had grown both numerically and financially. At a more recent Church Council meeting, some members made reference back to Bishop Geoffrey’s remarks and suggested that it might be good for the Prague Chaplaincy to learn from his experience.

Taking note of what had been said by the Church Council, I wrote to Ken in July, asking if I could visit him in Stuttgart and as suggested, ‘learn from his experience’. His reply was both prompt and positive – he would welcome me to visit though in his very modest way he declared that, “I’m not . . . → Read More: A Trip to Stuttgart

A Scottish – Slovak Wedding

Matthew & Jana leaving Church at the end of their Marriage Service © Sybille Yates

On Saturday 14th August, I conducted my first wedding for nearly a year when Matthew, a Scotsman, married Jana, a Slovak. The wedding took place at St. Clement’s Church in the presence of about forty friends and family – a wonderful mix of nationalities including Scottish, English, American, Slovak, Czech, German and Japanese.

I first met Matthew in June 2009 when he began worshipping with us at St. Clement’s. He had been living in Prague for nearly a year before he found the Church, teaching English in a Czech school. He had previously spent several years in the British Army seeing service in the Gulf and in Northern Ireland. I was thrilled when he approached me at the beginning of this year saying he had met Jana and they wished me to . . . → Read More: A Scottish – Slovak Wedding

On holiday – but in Prague!

The yellow spire of St. Clement's Church seen from Letna Park © Ricky Yates

Once again, I have to start by apologising for not having posted anything here on my blog for over a month. The main reason for this has been a real sense of uncertainty about my situation because of the financial difficulties the Prague Anglican Chaplaincy has been facing. However, things are now looking a good deal more secure, not least due to some generous additional funding being immediately provided by the Intercontinental Church Society (ICS) and the likelihood of further help from one or two other sources.

However, as Sybille’s and my contribution towards keeping costs down, we chose not to attend the ICS Chaplains & families conference which took place in Sussex, UK last week, as the Chaplaincy would have had to meet both the cost of the conference and our . . . → Read More: On holiday – but in Prague!

Farewell to Karen (hopefully only temporarily)

Karen © Ricky Yates

A person who has featured in several of my previous blog posts is Karen, an American who came to Prague in November 2008 to train as a TEFL Teacher at the Caledonian Language School. A few weeks later, she found St. Clements and became a regular worshipping member of the congregation.

Unfortunately, along with another American young lady called Anna, Karen was forced to leave the Czech Republic at the end of April 2009 because of the total incompetence of the Caledonian School in helping both young ladies obtain work permits and residence visas. A second visa application, via the Czech consulate in Chicago, was also unsuccessful. Full details of what happened can be found in my earlier post entitled TEFL Teachers – Caledonian School and Broken Promises.

A few weeks after I started this blog, Karen became a regular visitor . . . → Read More: Farewell to Karen (hopefully only temporarily)

An Episcopal Visit

Bishop Geoffrey Rowell outside St. Clement's Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague © Sybille Yates

Sincere apologies to everyone who follows my blog that I haven’t posted anything for more than three weeks. It has been a very busy time with preparations for our Annual Church Meeting held on Sunday 25th April and the following weekend having an Episcopal visit from The Rt. Rev’d Dr. Geoffrey Rowell. Although his visit gave me an extremely busy two days, the timing of it allowed him to help the newly elected Church Council begin addressing issues arising out of the Annual Meeting and helping us plot a way forward through the financial problems we are currently facing.

Such is the size of the Anglican Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe that this was the first visit Bishop Geoffrey had made to the Prague Chaplaincy since March 2005. He was meant to stay on . . . → Read More: An Episcopal Visit