Tag: St Clement’s Church

Vesele Velikonoce – Happy Easter!

Painted eggs hung on ribbons decorate a Czech garden © Ricky Yates

I’ve just re-read the blog post I wrote in April 2009 entitled ‘My first Holy Week & Easter in the Czech Republic’. Inevitably last year was a fairly steep learning curve both in understanding the way Easter is marked by the predominantly secular society here in the Czech Republic as well as finding out how best to celebrate the Christian festival with an English-speaking, predominantly ex-pat congregation. Overall, I think the experience gained and lessons learned from 2009, have helped me through this recent rather busy time from Palm Sunday through to Easter Day.

One of the really attractive Czech traditions at Easter is to use ribbons to tie decorated eggs to trees in gardens or attach them to sticks and place them in window boxes or pots containing spring flowers. I’ve chosen to illustrate this post with some examples photographed in the immediate surroundings of our Chaplaincy flat.

Czech Easter garden gate decoration © Ricky Yates

Many Czechs also attach Easter wreaths to their front doors in a similar manner to the more common practice in the UK and elsewhere, of attaching a wreath of greenery & red berries at Christmas. As you can see, the photograph I’ve included here is of a wreath attached, not to the front door, but to the front garden gate of a house on the Baba estate.

As I mentioned in last year’s blog post, unlike in the UK, Good Friday is not a public holiday in the Czech Republic. Instead, for most people is an ordinary working day. But Easter Monday very definitely is a public holiday. And it results in some interesting contrasts with what happens over the Easter weekend in England.

Since the law regarding Sunday trading in England and Wales was relaxed in 1994, large supermarkets and stores have been able open for up to six hours on any Sunday except Easter Day. However, here in the Czech Republic, both of our local supermarkets, (‘Billa’ and ‘Albert’), were open on Easter Sunday for the same number of hours as on any other Sunday in the year. But today, Easter Monday, both are completely shut as they were on Easter

Czech Easter decoration of a small tree © Ricky Yates

Monday last year. Contrast this with England where on Easter Monday, most large supermarkets will be open at least between 9am and 6pm if not for longer hours.

As a Church, we marked Holy Week and Easter with a similar pattern of services to last year. We held a Maundy Thursday evening Eucharist to commemorate our Lord’s Last Supper. On Good Friday evening, I led a devotional service which included reading the Passion narrative from the Gospel of John with times of silence for reflection and prayer. Whilst both services were appreciated by those who attended them, the overall numbers doing so were relatively small. And yet for me, the joy of Easter Day is always so much more meaningful if I have first sought to enter into and tried to understand the pain of betrayal and suffering that Jesus experienced that first Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

Our Easter Day Eucharist, though not quite as well attended as last year, still drew a large congregation. Whilst some of our regulars, particularly some who either teach in or have children in one of the International Schools here in Prague, were away in their home countries for the Easter break, we lose far fewer than we do at Christmas or during July and August.

In reverse, some of our regulars have family and friends who come to visit them for Easter. On Palm Sunday, the children of one of our newer worshipping families proudly told me that Grandma was flying in from England to stay with them at Easter. Yesterday morning, I was duly introduced to Grandma who joined the whole family for Easter Day worship.

Probably about half of the congregation were visitors, enjoying a long weekend visit to Prague and pleased to be able to worship in English on Easter Sunday. There were fewer Brits and more Americans than in 2009, together with a couple from Melbourne, Australia and a female lawyer from Canada amongst those who told me about themselves at the door after the service. Most interestingly, there was a Turkish family, the daughter now resident in London and who spoke fluent English, who wanted to experience being part of a Church service on Easter Day.

Czech flowerpot decorated for Easter © Ricky Yates

Afterwards, the young lady told me that her father in particular, had found the experience ‘quite moving’.

As I increasingly like us to do, we sang hymns which were a mixture of traditional and modern. For me, you cannot really have Easter Sunday without singing ‘Jesus Christ is risen today, alleluia’, which we did as our opening hymn. We also sang the traditional hymn ‘The strife is o’er, the battle done’ to the Palestrina tune ‘Victory’. But, as far as I am aware, we also sang for the first time at St. Clements, the Graham Kendrick song ‘Led like a lamb to the slaughter’. I was pleased that there were sufficient members of the congregation who already knew it and, even those who didn’t, soon caught on to the rousing chorus declaring ‘You’re alive, you’re alive, you have risen! Alleluia!

We ended the service with the twentieth century hymn, ‘Thine be the glory’, to the tune ‘Maccabaeus’ by Handel. The English words of the hymn are a translation from the French by Richard Hoyle. The original is ’À toi la glorie’, written by the French-speaking Swiss, Edmond Budry. But as I told the congregation before we sang it, it was not the first time that Easter Day that the Church walls had re-echoed to the hymn. For whilst standing outside the Church in advance of our service, waiting for our host congregation, the Evangelical Church of  Czech Brethren to finish theirs, what did I hear but the joyful singing of the self-same hymn – in Czech!

Alleluia. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

The Royal Visit – as it happened – part two

The Order of Service for Passion Sunday

When the ‘Official group from the UK’ visited St. Clement’s Church on Saturday 16th January 2010 in order to begin planning the details of this Royal Visit, I was asked  what form our normal 11am Sunday service took. I replied that, as it was the only service we had on a Sunday, it was a service of Holy Communion or ‘Sung Eucharist’ as we normally call it. I was then asked how long the service lasted and I replied that it was normally around an hour and a quarter.

The emphasis of all our discussions was the desire that the Royal Couple should be able to join with the regular congregation for their normal Sunday service. However, I was asked whether, because of certain timetabling constraints, I could keep the service to about an hour and I gave the assurance that, with a little bit of judicious trimming it would be perfectly possible. It was on this basis that I planned the liturgy for the day together with an appropriate emphasis on it being Passion Sunday.

Therefore, it came as a considerable disappointment when in the late afternoon of Thursday 11th March, I received a phone call asking that, because of time constraints, the Church service should be non-eucharistic. It was further suggested that in order for me to fulfil the requirements of Canon Law, the ‘Ministry of the Sacrament’ could then follow shortly afterwards as a separate service for all who wanted to stay on and receive Communion.

Therefore the service attended by our Royal Visitors was a Service of the Word but it included all the elements that would have been in our normal Sung Eucharist from the beginning of the service stopping short of the Peace. We had the set Bible Readings, four hymns, Gerry led our Intercessions and I preached. And as it was,  we completed all of this in just over forty-five minutes,

In the end, everybody seemed to enjoy both services. Prince Charles in particular obviously enjoyed the hymns. And the vast majority of people stayed after the Royal Party departed, for the celebration of the Eucharist. Many of them also came on to Coffee Hour in Klimentská 18 including all of the Dutch young people.

I complained in a previous post about the lack of coverage of the Royal Visit to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic by the BBC in particular, as well as by much of the British media. However, with great delight Gerry Turner phoned me this morning alert me to this article and photograph that has appeared in this morning’s ‘Daily Telegraph’. I have to say that it is a ‘first’ for me to have my photo appear in a British national newspaper.

As always, one can pick holes in what the journalist has reported. To say in the sub-title, that we were joined by two ‘unexpected worshippers’, is somewhat exaggerated. I’ve known for two months and the whole congregation has known for over two weeks that our Royal Visitors were coming. The congregation is far from being just ‘British and American ex-pats’. Each Sunday, the number of nationalities in the congregation always runs into double figures. The Czech Republic always likes to be described as being part of ‘Central Europe’ rather than ‘Eastern Europe’. And our Sunday School is for children who are 4+ and upwards in age not ‘three and four-year-olds’.

As for the closing quote, Gerry agrees he used the word ‘chuffed’ though not exactly in the manner that it is reported. However, it certainly true, that the Americans who rebelled against and kicked out Prince Charles’ forbears, were some of people most thrilled by the presence of our Royal Visitors at St. Clements last Sunday!

The Royal Visit – as it happened – part one

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall arrive at St. Clement's Church accompanied by the British Ambassador Sian MacLeod (far left) © Sybille Yates

Further to my previous posts entitled ‘A forthcoming Royal visit’, ‘Three days to go…….’ and ‘Only 12 hours to go…..’, today was the big day when, as part of their official visit to the Czech Republic, Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, joined the regular St. Clement’s Church congregation for our Sunday morning worship.

I set the alarm for 6am, just to be sure I had plenty of time to have a shower, eat breakfast and collect everything together, ready to travel into the city centre. In fact, the four-legged alarm clock called Oscar, landed on my bed before 6 am. I think he knew I had to get up early!

The 9.34am Number 8 tram duly carried Sybille and I from Podbaba to Dlouhá Trída in the 18 minutes it was scheduled to do, meaning that we arrived outside of the Church at about 9.55am, more than an hour before the Royal Party was due to arrive. However, the streets around the Church were completely clear of cars and numerous policemen were already patrolling. Only when I pointed to my clerical collar was I allowed to walk across the road and stand nearer to the Church. This rather confirmed my worst fears that the security concerns of the Czech police might prevent some regular members of the congregation actually getting to Church.

Our host congregation, the Ceskobratrské Cíckve Evangelické /the Evangelical Church of  Czech Brethren, were having their normal 9.30am service. As I stood near the door I could hear their hymn singing and the voice of Pastor Eva Halamová. However, Pastor Eva had previously promised that she would try and shorten their service a little and, true to her word, they finished at 10.15am, a full 10-15 minutes earlier than normal. As I entered the Church, Pastor Eva and I exchanged a hug as I thanked her for her cooperation and she wished me well for our service.

I was followed into Church by several Czech security personnel and a couple of sniffer dogs as the whole premises were carefully searched to see anything untoward could be found. Only  Churchwarden Gerry Turner, Sacristan Marshall Johnson and Welcomers Peter Morpuss and Amanda Neill, were allowed in until the search was completed.

Once the congregation were allowed in, the Church began to fill rapidly. It was good to see that many of the regular congregation had heeded my instructions and had come to Church in good time rather than dashing in at the last minute. And there were quite a number of somewhat unfamiliar faces who had obviously mainly come to see our Royal Visitors though many were friends and family of regular members of the congregation.

I was fortunately in the vestry when my mobile phone rang at 10.35am. It was Sher, an American member of the congregation saying that she and several other people were across the street from the Church but were being prevented from getting to Church by the police. I charged down the aisle still talking on my phone and was very helpfully followed by Gerry Turner and a couple of British diplomats from the Embassy. Between us we sorted things out and hopefully nobody who wanted to come to Church in the normal way was prevented from doing so.

However, one of my most abiding memories of today will be of an angry Gerry Turner telling a Czech policeman in no uncertain terms in Czech, that he was behaving like the police used to during the latter years of the Communist regime! Gerry can speak from experience having lived in Prague for ten years during the Communist era. I don’t think the policeman concerned was quite expecting that!

Gerry Turner and me waiting for the arrival of the Royal Party © Sybille Yates

By 10.50am, the Church was virtually full with only the reserved pews empty and the rarely used seats along the side walls also occupied. Sitting in many of these were a group of over twenty young people who I assumed had just come to see our Royal Visitors. My assumption proved to be completely wrong. They were a group of young Dutch Christians who had taken part in a competition which involved travelling in pairs and hitchhiking from Utrecht to Prague. They came to Church to worship totally unaware that we were expecting special guests!

Soon after 10.50am, I spoke to the congregation reminding them of the note in the front of the Order of Service about turning off mobile phones and that no photography or videoing of any of the service was allowed. I then went to the main door to wait with Gerry Turner, for the arrival of the Royal Party.

We stood and waited opposite a large group of accredited press photographers which included Sybille. There were quite a large number of people gathered to watch on the far side of the street and many locals looking out on proceedings from the windows of the surrounding apartment buildings.

Right on time at 11am, preceded by numerous police cars all with blue lights flashing, the Royal Party arrived. The accompanying photographs taken by Sybille, illustrate the event far better than my written words.

Elise, better known as 'Pixel' with her posy of daffodils for the Duchess, together with Mom Susanne, Dad Mark and Gerry Turner © Sybille Yates

Me greeting Prince Charles whilst the Duchess and Gerry Turner look on © Sybille Yates

The Duchess of Cornwall with her flower posy, together with the Prince of Wales, walk towards the Church entrance watched by Peter Morpuss, Church Council member and welcomer for the special occasion, together Pixel's parents and Gerry Turner © Sybille Yates

Amanda Neill, the second welcomer on this special day, looks on as the Prince, the Duchess and the British Ambassador approach the Church door © Sybille Yates

Once I had escorted the Royal Party to their pew, the service started and, I am very pleased to say, ran remarkably smoothly. But more of that in my next blog post…….

Only 12 hours to go…..

Brass Plaque on Church Door © Ricky Yates

By the time I publish this blog post, there will be little more than 12 hours to go before their Royal Highnesses, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, arrive outside St. Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church, to be greeted by me and the Churchwardens and then join us for worship. Judging by the comments I’ve received on my previous posts, there seems to be many readers enjoying my regular updates. So here is one final update in advance of the big day.

As I mentioned previously, I had yet another meeting in the late afternoon of Thursday 18th March with various security personnel, both British and Czech, seeking to ascertain what would happen when the official party arrives, who would sit where and how the service would proceed. Hopefully, we’ve now got everything sorted.

Yesterday afternoon, I finally completed printing, folding and stapling 100 copies of a special Order of Service for the day.  I’ve been through it several times with my proofreader’s eye, which I still have from previous career in publishing, so hopefully it contains no glaring errors or omissions.

This morning, I completed compiling my sermon, trying to give an exposition of the Biblical Readings in a similar manner that I would without British royalty being present. Yet as I wrote, I always seemed to have in the back of my mind the thought, ‘…what would the Prince and the Duchess think if I said that?’ Of course, what I should have been thinking was not that the future King of the United Kingdom would be present, but rather that the King of Kings will be present!

This afternoon, I took the tram in the centre of Prague in order to take a variety of things, including the Orders of Service, to the Church so I have far fewer things to worry about tomorrow morning. It was very clear that the Prague city authorities had been busy. All around the Church the pavements had been swept. Likewise, the gutters and road surface had also been cleaned and the recycling bins completely removed.

No Parking on Sunday 21st March 2010 © Ricky Yates

As I mentioned in the previous post, even last Sunday there were already signs erected forbidding anyone to leave a parked car in the vicinity of the Church between 08.00 – 13.00 tomorrow. This afternoon I noticed that many local residents had already heeded the warning and removed their vehicles to a safer place. Those that fail to do so will discover that their cars have been physically lifted onto the back of a truck and removed to a secure compound and their owners will be considerably lighter in pocket after reclaiming them!

So hopefully, all is now ready – or at least as ready as it is ever going to be! And after all the cold and snow, even the weather has improved with temperatures in the mid-teens Celsius. However, the forecast is that we might have a few light rain showers tomorrow. I just hope and pray that they hold off until after the service is over and the Royal couple are on their way to their next engagement.

Three days to go……..

St. Vitus Cathedral & Prague Castle © Ricky Yates

Yes – it is only three days to go before Their Royal Highnesses, The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, arrive outside St. Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church, ready to join the regular congregation for Sunday Morning worship. So I thought my blog readers might appreciate an update as to how preparations for the big day are going.

Liturgy – Earlier yesterday, I finally finished drafting and typing the Order of Service that we will use on Sunday. Normally at St. Clements, everybody gets an Order of Service containing the liturgy, a hymn book, together with a copy of our Weekly Bulletin which contains the text of the Collect and Bible Readings, the notices for the coming week and contact details for me and members of the Church Council.

For this special service, I always planned that we would produce a single booklet containing not only the liturgy, but also the words of the hymns and Bible Readings, together with the weekly notices. The idea was that this would be something people could take away with them as a memento of this special occasion.

Putting something like this all together, always takes far longer than you originally think it will.  And having to make considerable changes late last Thursday hasn’t helped the cause. But hopefully now, the master copy currently sitting on my desk, will be passing through my little photocopier in the next couple of days, producing for each booklet, five A4 pieces of paper printed on both sides, which when folded and stapled, will create a 20 page A5 booklet.

Security – This seems to be becoming the ever increasing nightmare with regard to the Prince and the Duchess attending Sunday worship at St. Clements. Later today, I have yet another meeting at the Church with both Czech & British security personnel.  Last Sunday, there were already signs erected all around the Church, saying parking would be prohibited between 8am and 1pm on Sunday 21st March. I gather that even the very convenient recycling bins that are on the street alongside the Church, are to be removed.

All I do hope is that over zealous Czech police do not prevent members of the regular congregation gaining access to the Church on Sunday. The Church service was always envisaged as a semi-private event as far as the British Embassy was concerned. However, the protocol office of the Czech President and the Czech police seem to think differently!

Visitors – One of the most amazing things about this Royal Visit is the number of friends and relatives of regular members of the congregation, who suddenly want to come to Church! Yes – please forgive my little dose of cynicism, but it is a case of ‘to see and be seen’. Of course they are welcome to come though, for security reasons, I’ve said that they do need to come with a regular member who can vouch for who they are. But I do hope that this visit will raise the profile of the Church and bring us into far better contact with the wider English-speaking expat community here in Prague.

The Press – Today I was interviewed by Tomáš Kutil, a journalist from Katolický týdeník, (Catholic Weekly), the foremost Roman Catholic newspaper in the Czech Republic. He wanted to know my thoughts about this forthcoming Royal Visit as well as to know more about the Anglican Church. It will be interesting to see what appears in next week’s edition when it is published on Tuesday 23rd March.

But whilst there is considerable press interest about the Royal Visit to the Czech Republic, I am very disappointed with the attitude of the BBC. I do not have a television so I keep up-to-date with what is going on in the world by regularly visiting the BBC News website. So far, there has been absolutely no coverage whatsoever of the Royal Visit to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic on the BBC News website. The Royal Couple are now in Hungary having spent the past three days in Poland.

The British media who are covering the trip in detail, are ‘The Daily Telegraph’, frequently known as ‘The Torygraph’, and the ’Daily Mail’, the newspaper produced for all those unable to think for themselves! The BBC is often accused by Conservative Party politicians, of being left-wing rather than unbiased as it is meant to be. By ignoring this three country official visit by Their Royal Highnesses, and leaving coverage to the right-wing press, the BBC are giving further ammunition to all those who would want to damage and dismantle it.

My Accredited Photographer wife – Talking about press coverage reminds me to say that, for the first time ever, Sybille has become an accredited Press Photographer. She has been granted accreditation to cover the arrival of the Prince and Duchess outside St Clement’s Church. We are off to the British Embassy today to pick up the official documentation.

The idea is that the photos she takes can be reproduced in our Diocesan Magazine, ‘The European Anglican’ and also appear on the Diocesan website, as well as on www.anglican.cz . I may even be allowed to post one or two on this blog!

Sermon – What are you going to preach about? This is a question that has been asked of me several times in recent days. Looking at the Biblical readings set by the lectionary for this Sunday, one verse continues to resonate with me. It is the words of St. Paul when he says, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings” – Philippians 3 v10. The joy of resurrection but, before that, suffering. Very significant words to ponder as we enter Passiontide, Holy Week and Easter.