Dear People & Friends of St. Clements,

What a wonderful Easter Day celebration we had last Sunday morning! A congregation of 112 made it larger than any in 2011 & our biggest Easter Day congregation since 2009. Especial thanks to everyone who helped set up the Church ready for worship in the brief fifteen minutes we had as our Czech hosts finished much later than usual because of it being their Easter Day Communion Service – Tasci, Honza & Sybille on welcoming duty & Marshall preparing the altar.

After Coffee Hour, with thanks as always to Caroline, & to Maddie who assisted her, I set off for Praha hl.n and the 14.42 train to Brno. There was a congregation of twelve who gathered in the little Czechoslovak Hussite Church we are using for worship in Brno and whilst it was a contrast to Prague in the morning, the worship was just as meaningful.

Several people have said that would like to come with me when I take the monthly service in Brno. Since the beginning of 2012, only Jack Noonan has ever done so! The services are on the second Sunday evening of each month meaning the next ones will be on 13th May, 10th June and 8th July. I would love to see that promised support materialise as well as to build links between the two congregations. Let me know if you would like to join me on one or more of these forthcoming dates.

Sunday 15th April at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the Second Sunday of Easter

The Gospel Reading is the second half of John 20 – verses 19-31 which follows on directly from our Gospel Reading on Easter Day. It is the well-known story of ‘Doubting Thomas’ and includes those words of reassurance that ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’. There will be parallel Children’s Ministry and hopefully Coffee Hour following the service. I say ‘hopefully’ because I am still looking for a volunteer(s) to organise it! Caroline is away in the UK & so far, despite several requests, I still haven’t found a willing volunteer. If you would be willing – please get in touch with me ASAP.

Tuesday Evenings – 18.30-20.00 in the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18

Our regular meetings for study, discussion and fellowship resume next Tuesday evening. At the suggestion of Gordon Truefit, we are going to look at the person of Jesus from different perspectives, in order to understand better, the person who is at the very centre of our faith. The five Tuesday evenings will be interrupted by two Thursday evenings as set out below.

Tuesday 17th April – Jesus according to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark & Luke)

Tuesday 24th April – Jesus according to John’s Gospel

Thursday 3rd May – The Challenges & opportunities in the Anglican Church of Australia with Bishop Glenn Davies of North Sydney

Tuesday 8th May – Jesus according to the preaching of the first Apostles as recorded in the Book of Acts

Thursday 17th May – Ascension Day Eucharist in Church

Tuesday 22nd May – Jesus according to Paul in his Epistles

Tuesday 29th May – Jesus – trying to complete the picture

Each Tuesday evening will be complete in itself though obviously, the last session on 29th May will endeavour to pull all the strings together from our exploration of the four previous Tuesdays. The move to Thursday on two occasions is because Bishop Glenn only arrives in Prague on Wednesday 2nd May & departs at the weekend and Ascension Day is fifty days after Easter Day, so it has to be on a Thursday!

Finally for this week…..

Our Church Treasure Gordon Truefit has asked me to……

……… put a vicious plea in this week`s weekly; for those who sponsored, or wish to support, MORPUSS` MAGNIFICENT HALF-MARATHON; to bring their money to Church this coming Sunday.

There Gordon – I’ve done it!

Looking forward to seeing many of you at worship this coming Sunday.

Best wishes

Ricky