Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,
A big ‘Thank you’, to everyone who came to our service on Ash Wednesday evening, to mark the beginning of Lent. Whilst I didn’t check back in the Register of Services, from personal memory we were the biggest Ash Wednesday congregation that I can remember during my time in Prague. In my sermon, I did commend Lent as a time to deepen our prayer life, both individual and corporate; and to adopt a greater consistency in attending worship. So I look forward to seeing a great number of you this coming Sunday morning :-)
Sunday 14th February at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the First Sunday of Lent
As is always the case each year, the Gospel reading for the First Sunday in Lent, tells the story of the time Jesus spent being tempted or tested, in the wilderness. Being Year C of the 3-year Lectionary Cycle of readings, we have the account found in Luke’s Gospel, Luke 4. 1-13. Our Old Testament reading will be Deuteronomy 26. 1-11, which records instructions to the people of Israel about worship and being thankful for all that God has given. We will also hear a short passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Church in Rome – Romans 10. 8b-13. There will be parallel Children’s Ministry, and following worship, Coffee Hour in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18.
I’m fairly sure that some of you on Sunday, will also want to remember a Bishop of the Church, who was martyred in Rome cAD269. I wonder how many of you will know to whom I am referring, without the need to use Google or Wikipedia? :-)
Tuesday 16th February – 18.30-20.00 in the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18 – Lent Course
As I explained in last week’s ‘Weekly Message’, this year, I’ve chosen to use a Church of England course which I’ve used once previously in my former Oxfordshire parishes, called ‘Life Attitudes’ – a 5-session course on the Beattitudes, the well-known opening thirteen verses of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. As the authors of the course say, “if we take the Beatitudes seriously, their effects will be costly and life-changing. Jesus’ ‘beautiful attitudes’ in many ways cut across the values of our times. To live ‘Beatitudinally’ is to live ‘counterculturally’ in ways which will often set us at odds with the world around us”.
Whilst each of the five sessions, Tuesday evenings, 16th & 23rd February, 1st, 8th & 15th March, will be complete in themselves, I do hope many of you will commit to attending all five, as part of your Lenten discipline. Each session will end in a short time of worship & prayer. If the outside door of Klimentská 18 is locked, please press the bell marked Kancelář & you’ll be buzzed in!
Sundays during Lent
I pleased to be able say that during Lent, you won’t just be listening to me preaching at our Sunday Eucharists. On Sunday 21st February, the preacher will be Jack Noonan. On Sunday 13th March, the preacher will be Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz. I always value both of them preaching, as it gives me some spiritual input, rather than me being always giving something out.
One final reminder for this week……
……..is that our Annual Church Meeting will take place, following worship, on Sunday 10th April. Please keep that date clear & plan to be there!
Best wishes
Ricky
