Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,

I am sure I’m not alone in being saddened and hugely disappointed by the failure of the Church of England’s General Synod on Tuesday, to pass the measure which would have allowed the appointment of female bishops. Having given itself good publicity only ten days earlier, with the announcement of Rt. Rev’d Justin Welby as the Archbishop of Canterbury designate, whose appointment I believe to be an excellent one, the Church then goes and shoots itself in the foot. It leaves us looking totally anachronistic and out of touch with the real world.

I’ll write a longer piece about this whole matter in due course – a ‘Chaplain’s View’ article for our website. But in the meantime, please remember in your prayers, the House of Bishops (who voted very strongly in favour) as they grapple with how to take this matter forward. Our Anglican Bishops, +Geoffrey & +David have also written a letter to all female clergy in the Diocese in Europe & a copy of what they have written can be found here.

In the meantime, a reminder and update about activities at St. Clement’s in the coming days. Firstly, this coming Sunday……

Sunday 25th November at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the Sunday next before Advent/Christ the King

This coming Sunday brings to a close, the Christian or Church Year. We celebrate Christ as King with the Biblical Readings being Psalm 93, Revelation 1. 4b-8 & John 18. 33-37. There will be parallel Children’s Ministry and the service will be followed by Coffee Hour.

Tuesday 27th November 18.30-20.00 – Midweek Study & Fellowship continues in the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18. We shall continue looking at the Book of Job. This will be our penultimate session as I think we’ll successfully complete the study on the following Tuesday 4th December.

Then on Sunday 2nd December, the new Church Year begins with Advent Sunday. We will be joined for our 11.00 Sung Eucharist by a visiting choir, the Australian Waratah Girls Choir, who will also be giving a Concert in Church later in the afternoon at 16.00.

Advent & Christmas are a very busy time as I’m sure you are aware. There is now a page on our Church website setting out in detail, all our services and activities until the end of 2012. You can find by clicking on this link. Whilst I know many of the regular congregation return to their countries of origin over Christmas & New Year, some of you remain in Prague for some or all of this time. The various Carol Services & services at Christmas itself, are perfect opportunities to invite friends to come to worship with you! Start thinking now about who you might invite :-)

And during December, there will be several opportunities to hear voices other than mine with David Hellam preaching on Sunday 9th December, Jack Noonan on Sunday 23rd December and Rev’d Dr Karen Moritz preaching at our Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve.

Finally for this week – My sermon from last Sunday is now available to listen to our website. Just click this link. And don’t forget that if you are ordering anything for Christmas from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk please use our links that you’ll here.

Best wishes

Ricky