Day 8, July 16th - Conversation with the pastor of the Bohemian Brethren in Kolin

After my morning routine, I continued cycling along the Elbe Cycle Path until Kolin. But the road was so bad that I could only make slow progress on the bumpy track and the saddle made my butt sore again. In a cafe in Kolin, I needed four sockets to charge my phone, laptop, camera, and translator device, but the staff kindly provided me with the necessary power. In the meantime, I worked on my travel blog and researched the Evangelical community in Kolin. At noon, I reached the pastor of Kolin by phone. But she could only come at 6 p.m. because she was still on the way. Therefore, I visited the former synagogue of Kolin (photo), which used to have a very lively community. The cashier said that there are no Jews living in the city today. For the former Jewish residents of the city, so-called stumbling blocks (photo) were installed in front of their houses on the sidewalk. After that, I planned the rough direction of the second week in Czech Republic, took a nap by the Elbe river, and returned in time.

The pastor, her husband, and son arrived at the Protestant Church of the Bohemian Brethren a little earlier. Like before, she was surprised by my interest in the church life of the Protestant Christians in Kolin. "Her" church is a modern building from the 19th century (photo). The interior was recently redesigned and is pleasantly simple and bright (photo). On the spire roof, instead of a cross, a communion chalice is depicted (photo). In the entrance of the church, there were various roll-ups about the history, community activities, and concerts in the church. She reported that her congregation has around 300 members and in normal times - when it is not vacation time - around 40 visitors come to the worship service and showed me a photo of the blackboard (photo). Fortunately, several young families with children also attend the worship service. In her congregation, there are also 3.4 volunteer organists who play other instruments for the worship service. Like the other Protestant pastors I visited, she also has a second preaching location nearby, but only 6-7 members of the congregation come there. In the nearby rectory during the school year, there is a children's hour and offers for seniors. When the topic of 'current challenge' came up, she also mentioned the mission into the city community. Maintaining contacts with the municipality, being inviting for faith. We could not go deeper into the depth of community life because she has only been in this pastoral position since 2021 and, like us, Corona prevented many things. Her husband works intensively as a volunteer in the community and takes care of media and public relations.

We said goodbye after about an hour. The next day, I wanted to attend the 9 a.m. worship service in Pardubice, about 55 km away, and had only two hours of daylight left to cycle. After 38 km, I was able to set up my tent by a small lake during twilight and crawled in with anticipation of what Sunday would bring in Pardubice.