Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,

I trust that all of you reading this message who are currently in Prague, are enjoying the wonderful Spring weather we’ve been experiencing in recent days. It is such a contrast to this time last year when winter was firmly refusing to relax its grip and I experienced a ‘White Easter’ in Brno!

Last Sunday, we had very good numbers & a great time of worship and I’m looking forward to a similar experience this coming Sunday too!

Sunday 16th March 2014 at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the Second Sunday of Lent

Over the next four Sundays of Lent, our Gospel reading comes from the Gospel of John rather than the Gospel of Matthew. This coming Sunday we hear the story of Nicodemus who came to visit Jesus at night as recorded in John 3. 1-17. The supporting readings are Psalm 121 and Romans 4. 1-5 & 13-17. There will be parallel Children’s Ministry thanks to David Hellam, and Coffee Hour will follow the service thanks to John & Evelyn Zimmerman.

Tuesday 18th March 18.30-20.00 in the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18

Our Lent Course ‘Discerning Your Spiritual Gifts’ continues. We had a very lively, well-attended and enjoyable first session last Tuesday, led by Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz. Even if you missed the first session, you are still welcome to join us this coming Tuesday. As we normally do on Tuesday evenings, we shall end our session by saying Evening Prayer together.

Annual Church Meeting – Sunday 13th April 2014

At the meeting of you Church Council last Sunday, we agreed to postpone the Annual Church Meeting (ACM) by one week. It will now take place on Sunday 13th April following worship. Please amend your diaries accordingly and plan to be there! The reason for the change is because three of the current Church Council cannot manage the previously agreed date of 6th April & it is also a Sunday when I am due to be in Brno in the evening.

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, having been amended by deleting six names of people who we know no longer live in in the Czech Republic, the area of our Chaplaincy. If your name appears there, you need to do nothing!

If you are not on the CER but would like to be, then application forms are available in a folder pinned to the noticeboard at the back of Church. To apply, you need to be baptized and a member of the Church of England or any of the other Anglican or Old Catholic Churches in full communion with the Church of England & be normally resident in the Czech Republic. Or, you need to be baptized and be a member in good standing of a Church which subscribes to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and to have ‘habitually attended public worship’ with us for at least the last six months, and be normally resident in the Czech Republic.

Application forms need to be completed and returned by no later than 29th March 2014. Please feel free to speak to me or drop me an email, if anything in the previous two paragraphs is unclear.

Please also start giving serious consideration as to who you want to serve as office holders and Church Council members in the coming year. A form for nominations will be on the noticeboard at the back of Church from this coming Sunday. Nominations need a proposer, seconder & the consent of the nominee and all three need to be members of the Church Electoral Roll. In particular, we need someone elected as a Church Council member, who would be willing to become Church Treasurer, as Gordon wishes to step down from that role having held it with distinction for the past three years. As always, I would much prefer to have volunteers rather than pressed men or women :-)

Looking forward to seeing many of you again on Sunday morning.

Best wishes

Ricky