Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,
I’ve been back ‘on duty’ since Tuesday 18th October and have by now, hopefully responded to all the contents of my email Inbox ;-) My grateful thanks to David Hellam, Jack Noonan and Nathanial, for helping to provide worship and preaching on the two Sundays I’ve been away. David’s Harvest Festival sermon can be listened to once more here. Jack’s sermon from the following Sunday, can be listened to here.
Unfortunately, during the time I was on annual leave, I was struggling with infections in both my ears. Whilst I’m somewhat better than I was, I’m still not hearing as well as normal, so please forgive me if I don’t hear clearly when you speak with me this coming Sunday! I saw my GP again today, and she has referred me to an ENT specialist who I hope to see early next week.
Another thing I have done during this past week, is to write to a Bishop-elect, two Bishops, an Archdeacon & a Mission Director, formerly confirming that I am resigning as Chaplain of St Clement’s, with effect from 30th April 2017 and retiring from full-time ministry. This should not be news to most of you as I’ve been saying this since the Annual Church Meeting of April 2015. However, what it does allow is for the process of recruiting my successor as your Chaplain, to begin. Archdeacon Colin Williams will be coming to Prague on Wednesday 23rd November to meet with your Church Council and set this process in motion.
Please may I commend two things to you? The first is to PRAY! Pray for the recruitment process and for a suitable candidate to be your next Chaplain. Secondly, please look seriously at your financial commitment to St. Clement’s. If you want another full-time Chaplain, s/he will need to be paid! We are currently not properly paying our way, and our financial situation will be a major consideration, when Archdeacon Colin visits in November. Please read this page of our Church website and think seriously about setting up a regular monthly standing order, rather than just putting something in the basket when you are in Church on a Sunday. Remember, giving by standing order can be set against the payment of Czech income tax.
Now looking forward……
Sunday 23rd October at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the Last Sunday after Trinity
With Easter being so early in 2016, it seems as though we’ve been counting Sundays after Trinity for a rather long time :-) However, after this coming Sunday, we start counting down the Sundays before Advent. As well as saying Psalm 84. 1-7 responsively, we will also have a reading from the last chapter of the last Letter of St Paul – 2 Timothy 4. 6-8 & 16-18. Our Gospel reading is another parable that is unique to the Gospel of Luke – Luke 18. 9-14. It is the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector which may be nearly two thousand years old but is a relevant today as it was in the time of Jesus’ public ministry on earth. There will be parallel Children’s Ministry and following worship, Coffee Hour in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18.
Tuesday 25th October 18.30-20.00 in the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18
The first of six Bible Studies, looking at Paul’s First Letter to Timothy followed by Evening Prayer. If the ground floor door of Klimentská 18 is locked, press the bell marked Sborový Kancelář & we’ll buzz you in!
One final thing for this week……
………. which also relates to our Church finances. Earlier this week, I was able to pass the sum of CZK 921 into our Church bank account, being the commission earned from people who used our link when ordering things from Amazon.com. With Christmas rapidly approaching, a reminder that if you are ordering from either Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, please do so by first visiting http://susanaj10.sg-host.com//support-us/ and placing your order using the appropriate link. In case you are wondering, Amazon.co.uk does happily deliver to the Czech Republic.
Until Sunday
Best wishes
Ricky
