Churches hold open-door day to attract visitors
Churches, prayer halls and other places of worship will be open to the public until the late night hours on Monday for the Night of Open Churches. Regular church-goers as well as visitors will have a chance to see services, concerts and even film screenings. Although the number of places taking part in the event is relatively small, the organizers say the event is gaining popularity.
On Monday night, Catholics, Protestants and atheists alike will get the chance to visit some of the country’s churches and other places of worship which are taking part in this year’s Night of Open Churches. Organized by the country’s Ecumenical Council of Churches, the event starts in Prague’s St Thomas Church, with the head of the Czech Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, leading the service there. Aleš Čejka is one of the event’s organizers.
“Today, the Night of Open Churches will take place in Prague, Plzeň, Tábor, Votice and two other small villages. There will be concerts, exhibitions, ecumenical services and so on. It’s mainly for people without any religious background, but of course all church-goers are also very welcome.”
Besides Prague, services, exhibitions and film screenings are scheduled in churches in the west Bohemian city Plzeň and several other communities in western and southern Bohemia. Most of them are non-Catholic houses of prayer, as the Roman Catholic Church does not take part in the event as an organization. Instead, it’s up to individual parishes to open the doors of their church, if they feel like it. However, a similar event held by Catholics in the city of Brno last May attracted crowds of visitors. Jiří Gračka, spokesman for the Czech Bishop’s Conference, says winter is not the ideal time for events such as this.
“This may be one of the reasons. The event held in late May in Brno was very successful, and that’s one of the reasons we consider churches in mid-January too cold for people to stay there. So maybe another event like the one in Brno in late spring or in summer would be better.”
The organizers of the Night of Open Churches however believe the event is slowly gaining popularity, and perhaps next year, churches will open in more places.
“Of course I would like to see more churches involved but on the other hand, last year the event only took place in Prague while this year, there are five more places. So it’s slowly growing and we hope that more churches in the future will participate and offer something to their neighbours.”
The complete schedule of the Night of Open Churches can be found at www.ekumenickarada.cz/index.php?setlang=1&ID=1579.
