Catch the Vision workshop took place in a small village called Herlikovice, in Krkonose mountains in the northern part of Czech Republic 02. – 06. June 1999. Here a reflection from one of the participants:
“I returned from “Catch the Vision” in Czech Republic Monday night. I have experienced things that I never would have anticipated in a YMCA setting. Estonia, England, Poland, Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, USA, Czech and Slovak Republics, Northern Ireland and Norway; app. 40 people went up in the mountains somewhere outside Prague, to look at the mission, vision and identity of the YMCA as a Christian movement. Through plenaries, Bible studies, workshops on Devotion and Liturgies, Creative Bible Study and Discussion groups, through Singspiration and Late Night Worship in the countryside concrete church, we went through a very special process. Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Reformed, secular and atheistic backgrounds were represented. What a rainbow…
In a hurry we planned the Late Night Service on Friday. We had chosen the theme “Light in the darkness”. A theme which easily can be sung about, visualized, read about from the Bible, prayed about and talked about. Our intention was of course to make a complete worship, with a pedagogical approach, to encourage the participants to do similar things. You can never decide how such a thing should impact on people. Everything was very busy before it started. But when the Light on the Altar was lit, peace filled the church.
At 11pm it is dark in the Czech mountains, so most of the worship the church was in the dark, except from some small candles on the Altar. Towards the end each participant lit his/her candle from The Candle, and placed it on the map of Europe on the Altar. I cannot describe it, except
from, as an understatement, to say that it was touching. We prayed “Lord, Your Kingdom come”, for the Balkans, the YMCAs, the marginalized, the broken-hearted, for ourselves, and through ourselves… Little by little the people left the church, after an impulsive gathering around the Altar, some crying, some just silent and contemplative.
The evening after we were in a hurry. We should celebrate the Millennium. First we should do an evening prayer. The concrete church was very simple in its interior, almost empty. There were no candles that evening, only the low sun sending soft light through the colored windows. We started playing a CD with the introduction to an Orthodox Service, and the “Lord, have mercy upon us”. After that Lora read a passage from the Bible, read a prayer, and then another passage. I sang the “Servant” song, and that was it, 15 minutes. At least that was what we thought and had planned….
Nobody wanted to leave the church. It was as an occupation of the building. Very silent and very loaded. I sang one song, and another one. Suddenly Kristina from Armenia stood up, did the Cross sign, and in Armenian prayed “Our Father”. As simple as that. We sang another song, ending with “What if God was one of us”. I have never experienced something like that. It was all so silent, with so few and simple elements, and yet so moving.
I know we all were touched by it. One of the people who were there made a choice, or the choice was somehow made for her, she said. It was as if she had fallen in love with somebody. Her approach to life changed suddenly and totally. In a training by the EAY, in an ecumenical setting, a grown up person becomes a Christian believer. Have you heard that kind of news before? What was it that touched her heart so much? She said it was the singing, the songs and I guess, The Song…
Larry Norman says in the song about The Tune that was lost, forgotten, distorted and changed until a little boy suddenly remembers it again; you have to listen carefully, and you have to listen everyday…
We will never be the same…”
