Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,

I want to start this ‘Weekly Message’ with a very big ‘Thank you!‘ Yesterday afternoon, I met with František Pekárek of the Salvation Army at the Church, and he took away all the tinned food & clothing that has been collected in the wheelie bins at the back of Church over the past several weeks. And there was a lot of both! František specifically asked me to pass on his thanks & that of his colleagues, for all your generous donations that help support their work with the homeless in Prague.

František assured me that they need tinned food all year round so please continue to bring your donations and start refilling the currently empty wheelie bin. And whilst with the arrival of Spring weather, there is no need for warm winter clothing over the next few months, they do still need year round clothing items such as underwear & socks, for men & women. So please continue to bring donations of that nature for the clothing wheelie bin too.

Sunday 13th April 2014 at 11.00 – Family Eucharist for Palm Sunday

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, marking the beginning of Holy Week. The service will slightly shorter than normal and there will be no separate Children’s Ministry. But I would like the children to join in a Palm Sunday procession around the Church & if children & adults can bring some pussy willow branches to wave, they will make an excellent Central European substitute for palm branches. As well as the Gospel account of the first Palm Sunday from Matthew 21. 1-11, the other two supporting Bible readings are Isaiah 50. 4-9a and Philippians 2. 5-11.

Annual Church Meeting

Directly following our worship on Sunday, our Annual Church Meeting (ACM) takes place. I very strongly encourage all members of the Church Electoral Roll to make every effort be present at the ACM. As many of you will already be aware, the finances of the Chaplaincy are in a fairly critical state and we need the input of as many Church members as possible as we seek a positive way forward.

At the ACM, two Churchwardens, two Archdeaconry Synod reps, together with up to nine ordinary Church Council members, will be elected. In order to vote or to stand for election, your need to be a member of our Church Electoral Roll (CER). The current CER is displayed on the noticeboard at the back of the Church.

A form for nominations is also on the noticeboard at the back of Church. Nominations need a proposer, seconder & the consent of the nominee and all three need to be members of the CER. Whilst I am aware of two or three further people who are going to be nominated in advance of worship on Sunday morning, the present paucity of nominations is discouraging to say the least. Lots of you want St. Clement’s to exist but how sad that so very few people seem willing to ensure that it does! Please think seriously, NOT what your Church can do for you, but what you can do for your Church!

Services for Holy Week & Easter

Following on from Palm Sunday is Holy Week. Our services will be:

Maundy Thursday 17th April at 19.00 – Sung Eucharist commemorating the Last Supper.

Good Friday 18th April at 19.30 – Devotional Service with a reflection on the cross of Christ by Jack Noonan.

Easter Day 20th April at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist to celebrate the resurrection of Christ with Coffee Hour following worship.

Easter Day 20th April at 17.00 in Brno – Holy Communion to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

Finally for this week………

Congratulations to Peter Morpuss who successfully completed the Prague Half-Marathon last Saturday in just a few seconds over two hours. If you kindly sponsored him, please give your sponsorship money to my wife Sybille who has the collecting envelope & will check you off the list. Thank you to a number of you who have already paid up!

Until Sunday

Best wishes

Ricky