Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,
What a wonderful congregation we had for our Palm Sunday Eucharist last Sunday! A good turnout of regulars, together with a surprising number of visitors, resulting in a congregation of twice the size of what can be normally expected on a Sunday.
A big ‘Thank you’ too, to all those of you who stayed on to attend the Annual Church Meeting (ACM). I was most grateful for many supportive comments and for a number of pertinent questions. If you were not at the ACM but would like to read the papers & see the accounts for 2013, then spare copies to take away will be on the table at the back of Church for the next few weeks. Or they can be sent electronically – just reply to this email & I’ll get the papers & accounts forwarded.
This is Holy Week – so a reminder of our services.
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.
Please note the different starting times for these two services. Our host congregation do not have a service on Maundy Thursday but do have one on Good Friday evening at 18.00. Hence we have to start half-an-hour later on Good Friday.
Easter Day 20th April at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. We shall hear St. John’s account of the resurrection – John 20. 1-18. We shall also hear of St Peter preaching about seeing the risen Jesus, as recorded in Acts 10. 34-43 and a brief reading from Colossians 3.1-4 where St Paul explains how the resurrection should impact our own Christian lives. There will be Coffee Hour following worship, being kindly hosted again by John & Evelyn Zimmerman, & I gather they have a special something for the children to enjoy :-)
Easter Day 20th April at 17.00 in Brno – Holy Communion with hymns in our new worship location in Brno – ‘The Upper Room’, corner of Jezuitská and Mozartova, Brno. As one of the Brno congregation remarked in an email reply to me today, “It is quite fitting that it’s the Easter service that will be our first in ‘The Upper Room'”, a sentiment I concur with entirely.
Once I get back from Brno late on Sunday evening, I shall be taking the rest of Easter Week off as annual leave, as I’m Episcopally instructed to do! Therefore, there will not be a Weekly Message sent out next week. So a reminder now of our worship the following Sunday.
Sunday 27th April at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the Second Sunday of Easter
There will be parallel Children’s Ministry and the service will be followed by Coffee Hour.
With best wishes for the rest of Holy Week & for Easter
Ricky
