Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,
I want to start this week with two notes of thanks.
Thank you to Jack Noonan for his sermon last Sunday morning. If you missed it or want to hear it again, then you can do so here
Thank you to everybody who contributed to Bishop Robert’s Advent Appeal. We raised around CZK 4000 / £120.00, about half of which came from the bake sale organised by David Hellam & the children.
And now, a look ahead to the coming week
Sunday 18th January at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the Second Sunday of Epiphany
The theme of our worship will be how Jesus was ‘made manifest’ or ‘shown forth’ in the call of the first disciples, as recorded in John 1. 43-51. The supporting readings are 1 Samuel 3. 1-10, which describes the call by God of the young Samuel and his response, and parts of Psalm 139, where the Psalmist expresses his realisation that God know all about him, as of course he knows all about each one of us! There will be parallel Children’s Ministry but unfortunately, NO Coffee Hour in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18, as our host congregation are using the hall for a congregational lunch.
This coming Sunday is also the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Monday 19th January at 18.00 in the Methodist Church, Ječná 19, Praha 1 – Nové Město
A Service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, organised by the Czech Ecumenical Council and the Czech Roman Catholic Bishops Conference. The service will be in Czech but both Karen Moritz & I are planning to attend & if others would like to go with us, please speak with either Karen or me on Sunday or drop me an email.
Tuesday 20th January – 18.30-20.00 in the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18.
Postponed from last week, our regular Tuesday evening meetings for Study and Fellowship, will definitely recommence this coming Tuesday. On the four Tuesday evenings between now and the beginning of Lent, we will have a straightforward Bible Study looking at St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. In our first study, there will be some words of introduction to the letter and a study of Chapter 1. 1-26. As has been our pattern for the last couple of years, we’ll spend the last twenty minutes or so, saying Evening Prayer together.
I do hope that we’ll see both old and new faces on Tuesday evening. If the outside door of Klimentská 18 is locked, please press the bell marked Kancelář & we’ll buzz you in!
Looking further ahead – some more dates for your diaries
Friday 30th January in the evening – Our Churchwarden Gordon McDonald Truefitt, is organising another Burn’s Night Supper & Ceilidh. More details on Sunday & hopefully an electronic publicity note will be circulated next week. But in the meantime, please mark the date in your diaries, now!
Sunday 8th February at 11.00 – Our preacher at our Sung Eucharist will be Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz.
Wednesday 18th February at 19.00 – There will be a Sung Eucharist for Ash Wednesday with the voluntary imposition of ashes.
Tuesdays evenings in Lent: 24th February, 3rd, 10th, 17th & 24th March – In this year that marks the 600th anniversary of the martyrdom of Jan Hus, our Lent Study Course will look at various aspects of the Bohemian Reformation and what we can learn from it six hundred years later. We are in the process of lining up three outside speakers so I look forward to your support for what should be a fascinating course.
Sunday 19th April following our Sung Eucharist – is the date set for our Annual Church Meeting.
The final two things for this week – hoping that you’ve read all the way down to here :-)
František from the Salvation Army, will be meeting me sometime next week, to collect the contents of the red wheelie bin at the back of Church where we have collected warm winter clothing for men & women, supporting their work with the homeless in Prague. Thank you to everybody who helped fill it! However, the other red wheelie bin for tinned food, is not very full. Therefore I would like to hear plenty of ‘clonks’ from tins of food being dropped into the bin, before worship on Sunday.
Your Church Council is seeking to put together two sub committees. The first, chaired by Gordon Truefitt, will seek to organise events and other activities to which we can invite non-Church-going English-speakers. The second, chaired by David Hellam, will seek to create more events and activities that might deepen the spiritual lives of our congregation. The aim is to grow the congregation both numerically & spiritually. There will be more information forthcoming shortly, but if you would be interested & willing to serve on either of these sub committees, please drop an email to either Gordon or David.
Best wishes
Ricky
