The Czechoslovak Hussite Church served a mass at Saint Nicholas Church at Prague's Old Town Square to celebrate the 90th anniversary of its foundation. The mass was served by Patriarch Tomas Butta and attended by dignitaries of other churches.
The church-goers were also greeted by Catholic Bishop Frantisek Radkovsky from Plzen, west Bohemia, and Joel Ruml, chairman of the Ecumenical Council of Churches.
The Czechoslovak Hussite Church was established exactly 90 years ago and it was officially proclaimed three days later in Saint Nicholas Church.
In 1920, the Czechoslovak Hussite Church broke away from the Catholic church. At first, it was headed by a group of reform-minded Catholic clerics who demanded the renewal of the church. They wanted the mass to be served in the national language, and sought greater involvement of laymen in the church administration and voluntary celibacy of priests.
"The reforms demanded by the clerics in 1920 at the Vatican were basically fulfilled at a Vatican council some 50 years later," female Bishop Jana Silerova told CTK.
"We can say with some pride that we were ahead of our time as an avant-garde," Silerova said.
The Catholic church is still facing another two big challenges, voluntary celibacy and female ordination, she added.
"Perhaps this will not take another 50 years," Silerova said.
The Czechoslovak Hussite Church claims the heritage of Czech reformation, launched by Jan Hus (John Huss), a cleric burnt at the stake in 1415 for his views with which he challenged the Catholic hierarchy.
The church has cross and chalice as its symbols.
According to the 2001 census, almost 100,000 adherents make it the third most populous church in the Czech Republic after the Catholic and Evangelical churches.
It is a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Ecumenical Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches.
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