Dear People of St. Clement’s,
As I have a number of forthcoming services and events to highlight this week, I will write about them in chronological order so as to avoid any confusion. Please take this opportunity to make a note of each of them in your diaries, filofaxes, or the various electronic devices that people now use to record appointments or forthcoming events they plan to attend. In this respect, despite using email, having a blog, being on Facebook etc, I’m still someone who uses a traditional diary. My new Church Book & Desk Diary for 2011 arrived in the post from the UK a couple of weeks ago.
This Sunday 14th November 2010 at 11am – Sung Eucharist for the Second Sunday before Advent.
Neither the Epistle reading, 2 Thessalonians 3. 6-13, or Gospel, Luke 21. 5-19, set for this Sunday are particularly easy to get a grip of or to fully understand. But in many ways that is one of the good things about the three-year cycle of Lectionary Readings that we follow. It makes me face up to and tackle some of the more difficult parts of the Bible rather than concentrating solely on those parts all of us like and find relatively easy. This is what I often call the ‘discipline of the Lectionary’. There will be Sunday School and Coffee Hour will follow the service on the third floor of Klimentská 18.
Wednesday 17th November – Meet the Chaplain in Prague City Centre
I will, as usual, be available for a chat + coffee or tea & biscuits, between 4pm and 6pm at
Communio Centre Karolíny Svĕtlé 21 (nearly opposite the Rotunda of the Holy Cross) Prague 1
Karolíny Svĕtlé itself lies between Charles Bridge and Národní třída. A reminder that this regular weekly event has now moved from Tuesday to Wednesday each week.
At 6pm, I will say Evening Prayer at the same venue and would welcome others to join me. There is an easy booklet to follow, just as we have on Sunday, and within the service there will be the opportunity for extemporary or silent prayer. The service itself will last no more than thirty minutes.
Then from 6.30pm until 7.30pm, there will be an Informal Bible Study, again at the same venue.
Thursday 18th November at 12 midday – Ethics at Lunchtime
Together with the British Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic, we are starting a first of our “Ethics at Lunchtime“ at the Zinc Restaurant, Hilton Prague Old Town, V Celnici 7, 111 21 Prague. Ethics at lunchtime is intended to become a regular event for people who wish to discuss ethical issues in business and life in the Czech Republic over a pleasant and informal lunch with a specific topic on each occasion. The first topic will be Corruption and Transparency in the Czech Republic.
Everyone is welcome but each person will be responsible for paying the Zinc Restaurant for their own lunch (390CZK per person for a two course set menu including tea/coffee and petit fours). Because we need to give the restaurant advance details of the number of people attending, you do need to register to attend no later than 9am on Tuesday 16th November. Please register at http://www.britishchamber.cz/event-detail/polozka:100/ . If anyone has any problems doing this, please get in touch directly with me.
If you work in the centre of Prague, this is a wonderful opportunity to invite friends and business colleagues to what I hope will be an enjoyable, lively and stimulating occasion. The second “Ethics at Lunchtime“ is already scheduled for Thursday 16th December and will focus on issues surrounding commercialism and Christmas.
Wednesday 24th November from 6pm – Recording a service for BBC Radio 4 celebrating Good King Wenceslas/Sv. Václav
As I mentioned at the end of last week’s Midweek Message and spoke about at greater length at the end our Eucharist last Sunday, I been asked by The Rev’d Canon Stephen Shipley, Senior Producer for BBC Religion & Ethics, to help with the recording of a 40 minute act of worship which is to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the morning of Sunday 26th December – the Feast of St. Stephen the Martyr. This regular broadcast on Sunday morning each week on BBC Radio 4, attracts an audience of around 1.7 million listeners.
The idea is to base the service around the carol ‘Good King Wenceslas’ who as we all know, ‘looked out, on the Feast of Stephen’. Whilst we will have the musical support of the Czech choir Naši pěvci, we do still need a congregation to help sing two other carols in English, together with the Czech carol ‘Narodil se Kristus Pán’. I also need two or three volunteers from among our regular readers, to read the scriptures & one of our regular intercessors to lead prayers. Please get in touch with me rapidly if you would be interested in doing this.
You will see from the heading of this piece that the recording date is now set for just under two weeks time – much earlier than was originally intended. For the past week I’ve been involved in a hectic round of emails & phone calls, trying to nail down a suitable date that all parties could make. The major problem has been the availability, (or lack of it!), of recording staff from Czech Radio with whom the BBC have a reciprocal agreement. Unfortunately, they were already booked for dates we had in mind in early December and taking it any nearer to Christmas clashed with engagements the choir already had booked.
I do hope that many of you will be able to come on Wednesday 24th November & support this recording. As well as providing an act of worship for a large radio audience, it is a wonderful opportunity to make the existence of St. Clement’s known to English-speaking people across the world, as I understand that many people do listen to BBC Radio 4 via the internet.
Two other requests for this week…..
First request
Jeremy & Helen Ford are a British couple who have very recently moved to Prague & joined the St. Clement’s congregation. As I mentioned on Sunday morning, they left for Cambodia today to take part in a fundraising cycle ride for an extremely worthwhile cause. Here is a message from Jeremy which I promised him I would send out with this week’s Midweek Message.
Jeremy and Helen Ford are heading to Cambodia on 11th November to take part in the 2010 Cycle Cambodia challenge, a fundraising event on behalf of International Childcare Trust (www.ict-org.uk). They, along with over 40 other participants, will be riding 500kms in just 5 days in the heat and humidity of central Cambodia which should be a real challenge! Day 6 is then spent at the M’Lop Tapang children’s project with the children for whom they have been fundraising. This is a truly humbling experience. Between them, Helen and Jeremy have currently raised over 8,000 Euros but would appreciate any further help you can give them! As Jeremy has currently raised more, I thought we would support Helen and her secure justgiving page can be found at http://www.justgiving.com/helens-first-bike-ride
Second request
Aided by Ryan Brown, we are planning to have produced for sale in the near future, polo shirts/rugby shirts and similar items, branded with ‘St. Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague’, the sale proceeds of which will raise much needed further funds for our Church. Like all such things, there needs to be some sort of logo on each of the products. But we have a problem – we don’t have an attractive current logo! Is there a creative person out there who would be willing to produce a possible idea or ideas for a suitable logo? Interested? Then please either get in touch or send me a draft outline of your idea.
That’s enough for this week. Please join me for worship this coming Sunday if you possibly can.
Best wishes
Ricky
