With the so-called installation, he will be put into office as the new parish priest Czech Brethren Evangelical Church in Kyjov. “I am very happy that it will happen. I’ll admit that I’m not stressed or anything like that, but I see it as an opportunity and an honor that the choir chose me, chose me and our paths joined. So I can live, work, serve and get to know people who let me into their lives here for at least the next five and maybe even more years. This is a great honor and responsibility,” says the new parish priest and preacher from Kyiv, Emil Hankovský.
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Although he is only twenty-nine years old, before Kyjov he had already been an evangelical priest in Slovakia for four years. “From an early age I grew up in the church and in a religious family. Somehow naturally I was part of the life of the church community, where I found a sense of home. Then, even in high school, I actively helped the choir and served, one might say, my peers, for example at meetings or at summer camps,” recalled the new clergyman from Kyiv.
At the same time, he revealed that he was also interested in the profession of a journalist in high school. When deciding on his subsequent university education, he preferred theology. “It’s hard to describe, but when a person believes in the Lord God and perceives how to live and give faith…” Hankovský pointed out about the important decision. After his studies, his path led to an evangelical parish in Slovakia and this spring to a city in Slovakia with a population of almost 11,000.
A total of six pastors took turns
The Evangelical congregation in Kyjov, with its headquarters in Dobrovského Street, has existed since 1921. Seven years later, the current church was opened here for believers. Originally there was a preaching station in Kyjov and since 1943 there has been a separate choir here. “Since then, there have been a total of six parish priests, the last of whom was a woman, Erika Petříčková. She is with her family after seventeen years from Kyjov moved away and the congregation was without its own preacher for the next two years,” recalled Jitka Voglová, a pastoral worker of the Czech Brethren Evangelical Church in Uherské Hradiště. At the same time, two preaching stations also fall under the Kiosk congregation, namely in Bzenec and in Veselí nad Moravou.
At the same time, the empty parish apartment could offer asylum to several Ukrainians fleeing the war. However, roughly two hundred members of the church in Kyjov had to wait until this autumn for their own pastor. Before that, a parish priest from Wallachia used to come to services in Kyjov, and then the current one, who also likes the fact that Kyjov is a smaller town with a lower degree of anonymity.
Source: Diary/Petr Turek
Among his plans is the further opening of the local prayer house, which has recently begun to serve the local scouts as well. “The church should always be an open space and for everyone, no matter what it is, why it is there. This church, this prayer hall has been standing here for ninety-five years, it has its own tradition and people know it. I would like to open this space, perhaps even for art, if there is interest, for example for exhibitions of paintings, concerts and other cultural events,” says Hankovský.
That one in Kyjov dedications and baptisms are also waiting. “I’m really looking forward to these events, it’s nice when I can accompany the bride and groom to the wedding,” noted the priest, adding that he is not opposed to getting married outside the prayer hall either. “I have a colleague who married in the mountains on a hike, or a colleague who married in a hot air balloon. It is always about an agreement with the betrothed and from our side it is a blessing act. When the state prerequisites for marriage are met and the engaged couple want to conclude it with God’s blessing, it should only be in a dignified place,” adds the new parish priest from Kyiv.
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Source: Diary/Petr Turek
