Dear People & Friends of St. Clements,
Once more, the working week is rapidly drawing to a close so a reminder of what is happening in the life of the St. Clement’s congregation this Sunday & in the coming weeks.
This Sunday 20th February at 11am – Sung Eucharist for the Third Sunday before Lent
Our Gospel Reading this Sunday is our third instalment of what we usually refer to as the Sermon on the Mount. It is Matthew 5. 38-48 and contains some further difficult teaching by Jesus. I must say that preparing to preach from the set Gospel passage these past two Sundays & this forthcoming one, has been really challenging but also extremely worthwhile. I’m also most grateful for several positive pieces of feedback from various members of the congregation. Our Epistle Reading continues our journey through St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians being 1 Corinthians 3. 10-11 & 16-23. Please try and read both passages in advance of worship on Sunday.
There will be Children’s Ministry (formerly known as Sunday School) which will led this week by TerriAnne Novak.
And following the service there will be a Coffee Hour in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18 with thanks to Darina Vystrčilová who has volunteered to host it this Sunday whilst Caroline Studdert is away.
Wednesday 23rd February at the Communio Centre, Karolíny Svĕtlé 21 (diagonally across from the Rotunda of the Holy Cross), Prague 1
5pm – 7pm – I will be available for Coffee & Chat for anyone who wants to drop by & talk.
7pm – Evening Prayer followed by Bible Study & discussion aiming to finish no later than about 8.15pm.
Please note the recent change to slightly later times which seem to be more suitable to most people. If anyone wants to drop by to chat earlier, just drop me an email and we can make suitable arrangements.
Advance Notices
Ethics at Lunchtime
Jointly organised by St. Clement’s and the British Chamber of Commerce in the ČR, our next Ethics at Lunchtime event will take place on Wednesday 2nd March starting at 12.30pm and the subject for discussion will be “Is religious faith necessary in order to have ethical values in business?” Everyone is welcome but each person will be responsible for paying the Zinc Restaurant for their own lunch (390 CZK per person for a two course set menu including tea/coffee and petit fours). If you plan to attend, please register at http://www.britishchamber.cz/event-detail/polozka:147/ Particularly if you work in central Prague, try and invite colleagues for what is always an excellent lunch and what promises to be a lively discussion.
Visit by Archdeacon Patrick Curran & David Healey, Head of the Intercontinental Church Society (ICS)
Patrick & David will be visiting us on the weekend of Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th March. As well as having meetings with me, your Churchwardens & Church Council, they will also both speak during our 11am Sung Eucharist on Sunday 6th March. The service will be followed by our next Shared Lunch giving the wider congregation a chance to meet with them both. Do try if at all possible to be at both worship & lunch that day.
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday 9th March.
At 7pm on Ash Wednesday Evening, there will be a Sung Eucharist with the (voluntary) imposition of ashes. We shall have the privilege of welcoming an Episcopal High School Choir from Baton Rouge, La, USA that evening which will no doubt enhance our worship.
I am in the final stages of planning a Lent Course for the following five weeks of Lent which will hopefully feature some visiting speakers. It is provisionally scheduled for 7pm – 8.30pm on Wednesday evenings. I’m hoping to be able to give more details next week.
Annual Church Meeting – Sunday 27th March 2011
I have explained in previous messages about being on the Church Electoral Roll in order to be able to vote or stand for election at the Annual Church Meeting. Forms to apply to join the Electoral Roll & a copy of the Electoral Roll as it currently stands, are both on the noticeboard at the back of Church.
At the Annual Church Meeting, the following need to be elected.
Two Churchwardens
Two lay representatives to the Archdeaconry Synod
The duly elected Churchwardens & Archdeaconry Synod Reps are ex-officio members of the Church Council. Churchwardens hold office for one year but the Synod Reps hold office for the next three years unless they resign in the interim. It is perfectly possible for a Churchwarden to also be a Synod Rep.
Then there are up to nine additional places on the Church Council, each to hold office for one year.
At the first meeting of the newly elected Church Council, it appoints various officers for the year, most notably a Secretary & a Treasurer. Our current Treasurer H.K., has indicated that she will be standing down at the Annual Church Meeting. Therefore, we need to find a candidate willing to stand for election to the Church Council with a view to taking on that role. H.K., your Churchwardens & I have discussed ideas as to how certain parts of the role might be shared & the task has been made easier by H.K. setting up internet banking by which to manage our account. As a volunteer is always preferable to a pressed man or woman, I would love to hear from anyone who might be willing to consider taking on the role of Treasurer for the forthcoming year. Ideally, your Churchwardens & I would like to find a possible candidate in advance of the visit of Archdeacon Patrick & David Healey so they can talk future financing with David.
Financial Update
Your current Church Council has agreed that I should provide a regular update as to our financial position. It will be much easier to see how we are doing in 2011 at the end of March as several items of both income and expenditure happen on a quarterly basis. However, I can tell you that our income in January was CZK 90932 & our expenditure CZK 94986. Additionally in January, we received a grant of GBP 5000/ CZK 140,700 from the Diocesan Development Fund. This grant was approved late last year and became payable in January this year. This grant is designed to help us as we work towards seeking to be self-sufficient financially over this coming year. We have taken advantage of receiving this grant to make our annual payment back to the Diocesan Common Fund of CZK 60248 early, thus receiving a slight discount for doing so!
I plan to write to all the membership of the Church Electoral Roll in the next few weeks, setting out our budget of projected income and expenditure for the coming year and asking for your ongoing, and if possible, additional support. But put in simple terms, we need to raise just over CZK 26000 per week from all sources, in order meet our anticipated expenditure. This is higher than our normally quoted figure of CZK 25000 per week because of now being required to make a partial pension fund contribution to the Church of England Pension Scheme following changes in pension legislation in the UK which came into effect at the beginning of 2011.
And finally……
Although I know that with half-term holidays this coming week in a number of the International Schools, meaning that some folk will be out of Prague skiing or doing other exciting things, I do still hope to see many of you on Sunday at 11am.
Best wishes
Ricky
