St Clement’s Church

Christmas 2014

The altar at the end of our worship on the Fourth Sunday in Advent © Ricky Yates — The altar at St Clement’s at the end of our worship on the Fourth Sunday of Advent © Ricky Yates

This Christmas was our seventh in Prague. As I have explained in a previous post, each year a large number of our regular congregation head off to their home countries for the Christmas – New Year period, in order to celebrate with their wider family and friends. This is further exacerbated by the fact that many in the congregation either teach in one of the various international schools in Prague and/or have children who attend one of these schools. The three week Christmas school holidays, together with summer months of July and August, provide the only real opportunity for a trip back ‘home’.

However, although we held our Service of Lessons and Carols on the evening of Sunday 14^th December, in advance of the English-speaking exodus, otherwise services continue as normal. This is for those who do remain in Prague, as well as for visitors to the city over the holiday period. Additionally, as in previous years, we held a Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve, beginning at 23.30, as well as a more family-friendly Eucharist on Christmas Day at 11.00.

This year, as in all previous years, at sometime during November or early December, more than one member of the congregation asked the question of either Sybille or me, “Are you going anywhere for Christmas?” I now have a well-practiced askance look for such questioners, together with an appropriate silence, before asking my question, “Who do think is going to take the Christmas services in Prague?” 😉 There then always follows an embarrassed apology.

The Christmas service which it is always the most difficult to predict and therefore to prepare for, is the Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve. Other than a small core of our regular congregation, who between them take on all the tasks to ensure the service runs smoothly, the rest of those attending are visitors. We never know how many of them there will be! This year, numbers were up on last year, including several young people already in Prague, helping to prepare for the annual Taizé Young Adult European Meeting which started here today.

The Christmas Day morning Family Eucharist is always well supported by several Czech married to English-speaker couples and their children who are part of our regular congregation. However, many of these families alternate each year, between spending Christmas in Prague, and Christmas in the home country of the English-speaker. Once again, the congregation is then considerably augmented by visitors to Prague, as it was once more this year.

Just at the end of our Christmas Day service, we did have one unexpected event, when one of the two altar candles imploded without warning. I took this photograph in the vestry, after we had cleared and cleaned the altar. Nobody was hurt and no lasting damage was done – the tissues that we always place under the candle holders, helping enormously. But I was faced with the practical problem of not having a matching replacement candle, and the Roman Catholic shop from where we obtain our altar candles, not being open again until today. In between, there was yesterday, Sunday 28^th December – the first Sunday of Christmas 🙁

On Christmas Day morning, we sang that wonderful carol by Christina Rossetti, ‘In the bleak mid-winter’. But at that point, no snow ‘had fallen, snow on snow’. However, this morning, we did have our first serious snow fall of this winter with the possibility of more on the morning of 31^st December. Whilst we may not have had a ‘White Christmas’, it looks highly likely that we will have a ‘White New Year’.

A tale of two Advents

The Advent Ring hanging from the ceiling of St. Clement's Church © Ricky Yates — The Advent Ring hanging from the ceiling of St. Clement’s Church © Ricky Yates

Last Sunday, 30^th November, was Advent Sunday which marks both the beginning of the Church Liturgical Year and of the season of Advent. Contrary to what the manufacturers of Advent calendars all believe, Advent only occasionally begins on 1st December. Instead it begins four Sundays before Christmas Day.

The word ‘advent’ means ‘coming’, from the Latin ‘adventus‘. And particularly at the beginning of the Advent season, we are encouraged to think seriously about the promised second coming of Christ – his second Advent, as in turn we prepare ourselves to once more celebrate his first coming at Christmas.

The tradition of having an Advent ring/wreath/crown, with four candles, an additional one to be lit on successive Sundays during Advent, is very popular here in the Czech Republic. Whilst our host Ceskobratrská církve evangelické / Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren congregation, are not great keepers of the Liturgical Year – for example, they do not mark Ash Wednesday – they do mark and keep the Advent season. As part of doing so, each year they provide this amazing Advent ring which hangs from the Church ceiling, just behind the altar. I took this photograph at the end of our Advent Sunday worship last Sunday morning, just before snuffing out the first lit candle, as part of our duty of leaving the Church building safe and secure!

I thoroughly enjoyed our Advent Sunday worship with the regular congregation being joined by numerous visitors from around the world. Our service began with the singing of, ‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’, and ended with a rousing rendition of Charles Wesley’s ‘Lo, he comes with clouds descending’. But as well as celebrating Christ’s promised ‘second Advent’, I was very conscious that just a couple of days later, I would experience a personal ‘second advent’ – that of my wife, Sybille, returning to Prague from her nearly six-month walking pilgrimage, from Prague to Santiago de Compostela.

Having left from the front door of the Chaplaincy Flat on Monday 9^th June, Sybille successfully walked into Santiago on the morning of Sunday 23^rd November. After her arrival, she spent a few days enjoying the city and also visited a friend in Lugo. With no direct flights available to Prague, she instead flew to Barcelona and spent the Advent Sunday weekend staying with another friend there, before being booked to fly to Prague on Tuesday 2^nd December.

Over the few days before Sybille was due to return to Prague, it was cold but dry. However, soon after dark on the evening of Monday 1^st December, it started to rain. But because the air and the ground were so cold, the rain almost immediately froze, forming ice everywhere. Prague, together with much of the rest of the Czech Republic, experienced what has been described as an ‘ice storm’. Ice forming in large amounts on the overhead wires, caused the whole of the Prague tram network to close down along with much of the Czech railway system.

The 'Carly' on Tuesday 2nd December © Ricky Yates — The ‘Carly’ on Tuesday 2nd December © Ricky Yates

Eventually, the rain did turn to snow and this was how my car looked the following morning, in advance of driving out to the airport to meet Sybille. But underneath what appears to be just a light dusting of snow, was a thick layer of ice covering the windscreen and all the other car windows. It took a major scraping exercise to get the car into a condition to be driven safely with good visibility all round!

Therefore, having been sitting alongside the sea, sipping a glass of wine the previous afternoon, it came as quite a shock for Sybille as she flew from a temperature of +16C in Barcelona, to one of -2C in Prague. She did humorously request that I put her straight on a plane back to Spain, when she saw the snow and felt the icy cold.

Fortunately, the weather and temperature has improved from the atrocious conditions of Monday night and Tuesday. I’ve taken the inside of this week as annual leave and we’ve begun to adjust to once more being together in the same flat, for the first time in nearly six months.

A little change for the better

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 🙂

The 2014 Eastern Archdeaconry Synod in Prague

St. Clement's Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague © Ricky Yates — St. Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague © Ricky Yates

As I explained at the end of my post about the 2013 Eastern Archdeaconry Synod, the Prague Anglican Chaplaincy volunteered to host the 2014 Synod meeting. It was held last week between Thursday 25^th – Sunday 28^th September and I have to say that I’m still recovering from the experience!

In agreeing to host the Synod meeting in Prague, I wanted to overcome two issues. Firstly, long-standing Synod members had told me that when the Synod had last met in Prague, during the time of my predecessor, it had been held in a suburban hotel and attendees had felt rather isolated from the heart of the city. Secondly, when being solely based in a hotel, for example as we were in Izmir in 2009 and Athens in 2012, worship has to take place in part of a conference room which always lacks the atmosphere of a church or chapel.

So with the support of my Church Council, I decided that we would host the Synod meeting using the facilities of our host Kliment congregation of the Ceskobratrská církve evangelické, that we use week by week. All worship could therefore take place in Church with our various sessions for Bible Study, talks, reports and business meetings being held in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18 that we use for post-Eucharistic Coffee Hour during the colder months of the year. Then, with several nearby hotels, I was sure we could negotiate suitable accommodation for everyone attending the Synod.

Eventually, this is what I was able to organise, though not without a few pitfalls along the way. One problem I encountered was that the hall in Klimentská 18, was already booked by another organisation for part of Friday 26^th September which meant we had instead to use the Church for three of our sessions. Far greater problems were caused by people sending in bookings long after the specified date for doing so, or wanting to make last minute changes to bookings. As I said on numerous occasions, organising a meeting of the Eastern Archdeaconry Synod, ought to come with a serious health warning!

It was pleasing to have many positive responses to both the location and the way the Synod meeting was organised. MOODs Hotel, Klimentská 28, provided comfortable, high quality accommodation and the friendly staff and wonderful food received many appreciative comments. My thanks to Lenka, the reservations manager, and Mojmír, who masterminded the various meals.

Equally appreciated was being able to use the Church for all our acts of worship. And with the Diocesan Secretary, who is an excellent organist, being present for part of the Synod meeting, we were able to sing hymns as part of our Friday lunchtime Communion service and at Evening Prayer on both Friday and Saturday.

We enjoyed three challenging and extremely well prepared Bible Studies, led by Canon Leonard Doolan, Vicar of Cirencester. He came on the recommendation of Canon Malcolm Bradshaw, Senior Chaplain in Athens, a recommendation that was fully vindicated by the quality and method of presentation used by Leonard. As one who is constantly giving out week by week, it is always good to receive fresh spiritual input.

Our new Diocesan Bishop, Rt Rev’d Dr Robert Innes, joined us late on Friday afternoon, flying in, along with his Chaplain Canon Meurig Williams, from Palermo where they had been attending the Italy and Malta Archdeaconry Synod. A bit of poor planning meant that the two meetings slightly overlapped. He acknowledged that our Archdeaconry that covers Central and Eastern Europe, together with Turkey, was part of his diocese about which he knew little and was very keen to learn more.

Bishop Robert addressed the Synod meeting on Saturday morning, explaining a little about his background, what he had been doing since being consecrated as a bishop in Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday 20^th July, and how he envisages his episcopate. But as well as answering questions, he was keen to hear from the Synod members about what issues they would like to see addressed as he begins to formulate strategic priorities for our far-flung Diocese in Europe.

As is always the case, some of the most valuable time at our residential Synod meetings is that spent over meals or late night drinks, enjoying social interaction with colleagues and leading lay people who often only see each other this one time a year. The Saturday evening was deliberately left free so people could do this and get out and enjoy Prague at the same time.

Synod members at Bar-Restaurace Pod Juliskou © Ricky Yates

I gave an invitation to any who would like to join me in having a meal at one of my favourite bar-restaurants near to where I live, Restaurace Pod Juliskou, and ended up being accompanied by one third of the Synod attendees, including Bishop, Bishop’s Chaplain and Archdeacon. It did give the bar-restaurant staff who know me well, a bit of a shock when I brought in thirteen guests!

The Synod meeting ended with all the attendees joining the regular St. Clement’s congregation for our Sunday Sung Eucharist at which Bishop Robert was the celebrant and preacher. It was a wonderfully joyful service with good music and great congregational singing. Bishop Robert preached a challenging sermon, interspersed with some humour, which you can listen to here on our Church website. Then, masterminded by Ata, the Synod members were provided with a splendid lunch with some Iranian flavours.

Standing between my new Bishop Robert Innes & my long-standing Archdeacon Patrick Curran, along with from l to r, Bishop's Chaplain Meurig Williams, Area Dean & Chaplain of Greater Athens Malcolm Bradshaw, and my Reader Jack Noonan © Ricky Yates — Standing between my new Bishop Robert Innes & my long-standing Archdeacon Patrick Curran, along with from l to r, Bishop’s Chaplain Meurig Williams, Area Dean & Chaplain of Greater Athens Malcolm Bradshaw, and my Reader Jack Noonan © Ricky Yates

Computers are wonderful – until they stop working

On the evening of Friday 20^th June, after a very interesting but busy week about which I hope to write more here in due course, I returned home just after 10 pm and turned on my laptop computer. I wanted to pick up any new email, deal with new comments on this blog, look at the BBC News website to catch up on the day’s news, and visit Facebook.

I duly typed in my password but, instead of my desktop with icons appearing, I was greeted with the message, ‘The user profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded’. Several further attempts to logon just resulted in the same message appearing. I was completely locked out of my laptop and feeling totally helpless.

I had this same problem a year ago. On that occasion, it happened on a weekday and a nearby computer business called ‘Hardware Software Services’ (despite being a Czech company 🙂 ), kindly resolved the issue that same day. But they are only open for business 10.00 – 18.00 Monday to Friday, so I immediately realised that this time, I was going to be without access to email, the internet or any of the material stored on the laptop, for at least three full days.

I did console myself that it could have been worse. The next morning, Saturday 21^st June, I had to officiate at a difficult funeral – only the fourth funeral I’ve conducted since moving to Prague nearly six years ago – a reflection of the relatively young age of most of the English-speaking expat community here. I was grateful that I had already prepared and printed everything I needed for that service.

Whilst I didn’t need to write a sermon as we had a guest preacher on Sunday morning, I had set Saturday afternoon aside to do all my other preparatory work ready for worship on Sunday. Most notably, this meant drafting the ‘Weekly Bulletin’ containing the text of the Biblical readings, hymn numbers, titles and tunes, together with notices of forthcoming activities & the contact details for me and the members of the Church Council. Not only did I not have a functioning computer on which to do this, all the relevant information I needed was also completely inaccessible.

I am quite proud of myself that, despite these difficulties, I did eventually manage to produce a ‘Weekly Bulletin’. I did so by using someone else’s computer, creating a new template, before copying and pasting the Biblical readings from a CD. I then printed off one master copy, leaving the back page of a folded A4 sheet, blank. Before photocopying copies from the master copy, I place a copy of the back of the previous week’s edition over the blank page, as the information contained was virtually unchanged.

My greatest problem was bringing to mind the four hymns I’d chosen a few days earlier. I’d sent the details by email, to the musical director of the choir of St. Chad’s College, Durham, who were singing at our service, as their choir organist was going to play for the whole of our worship. But the only record of my chosen hymns was in that email, which was sitting in a file called ‘Sent items’, on an inaccessible laptop computer. Fortunately, by re-reading the Biblical readings, all four eventually came back to my mind.

On the morning of Monday 23^rd June, I arrived with laptop in hand, at the premises of Hardware Software Services, within a few minutes of them being open for business. By late afternoon, I once more had a working laptop computer with no loss of any data. I was kindly informed that what had happened was ‘a known Windows 7 problem’ and that mine wasn’t the first one that they had fixed. At the very reasonable cost of CZK 600 (just under £20.00), I was reconnected to ‘my world’ 🙂 Arriving home and connected once again to the internet, I downloaded fifty-eight emails and nineteen comments on this blog. Sadly, all the comments were spam 🙁

This whole experience last weekend, brought home to me once again how dependant I am upon one laptop computer, together with instant access to the internet. Suddenly, I could not carry out many everyday aspects of my job. My laptop computer is such a wonderful tool, storing an amazing variety of information and giving me almost instant communication with others – that is, so long as it works! And it isn’t just my expectations – last Sunday morning I had to apologise to the congregation, that if any of them had written me an email during the previous two days, I hadn’t seen it, yet alone been able to reply to it. Even emails that were slightly older which I had seen, I was presently unable to write a reply to any of them.

There is an interesting postscript to this whole business. The computer engineer at Hardware Software Services explained that, as part of resolving my computer access problem, they had de-installed and then reinstalled my anti virus protection but that everything else was in order. However, a couple of days later, I was unable to carry out an internet banking transaction with a message saying that this was because my internet browser was not ‘Javascript enabled’.

I returned to Hardware Software Services where the computer engineer agreed to look at the problem. He discovered that for some reason, I now had an older version of Mozilla Firefox and he went online to download the newest version. Being Czech, though fluent English-speaking, he promptly downloaded the Czech version of Firefox, something I only discovered when I got home. The simple solution is for me to download the English version of Firefox myself. But to do so, I have to follow instructions in Czech, because of currently having the Czech version of Firefox 🙁