Dear People & Friends of St. Clements,
May I start this weekly message with an important reminder – right across Europe overnight between Saturday 26th – Sunday 27th March, the clocks go forward by one hour! Don’t forget to adjust your clocks & watches before you go to bed on Saturday evening.
Sunday 27th March at 11am – Sung Eucharist for the Third Sunday in Lent
One additional piece of Lenten discipline this year is having to stand & listen to a rather long Gospel Reading on this Sunday & the next two Sundays of Lent! This Sunday, the Gospel Reading is John 4. 5-42 and tells of the meeting between Jesus and the lady we usually refer to as the ‘Woman of Samaria’. There will be Children’s Ministry which will be led by Sean Miller. However, there will not be Coffee Hour as our worship will be immediately followed by our…..
Annual Church Meeting
I do hope that as many members of the Church Electoral Roll as possible, will make every effort to attend the ACM. It is both an opportunity to both look back over the past year but also to look forward to the coming year in the life of our Church. Before the service begins, is the last opportunity for nominations to be made in writing for the election of:
Two Churchwardens
Two lay representatives to the Archdeaconry Synod
The Churchwardens & the Lay Synod Reps are ex-officio members of the Church Council.
Up to nine additional places on the Church Council
All these positions are for one year, except for the lay reps to the Archdeaconry Synod which are for three years. All nominations need a proposer, seconder & the consent of the candidate all of whom must be themselves members of the Church Electoral Roll.
As I’ve previously written, according to the laws that govern the Church of England, it is the duty and function of the Church Council to ‘work in co-operation with the minister in promoting in the parish the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical’. Please think seriously who are suitable people to do this or whether you would be willing to play a part in the future running of St. Clements as at the time of writing, there are still vacant positions.
Lent Course
We’ve had two excellent sessions so far of our Tuesday evening Lent Course on the theme What I believe and why? We’ve had eight people present on each occasion representing seven or eight different nationalities – a wonderful reflection of the St. Clement’s congregation.
On Tuesday 29th March between 6.30 – 8.00pm, using the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18 where Children’s Ministry & Church Council meetings take place, our third Lent Course evening will take place. On this occasion, I will be the speaker and tackle these same five headings as our two previous speakers.
My Christian Tradition – the rock from whence I’m hewn
My Journey to Faith – hearing the quiet still voice
Moments of Crisis in my Faith – The dark night of the soul
The Place of Victory – I will lift up mine eyes
Ways Forward – Be thou my vision
If you want to know more about my own faith journey, how I became an Anglican & eventually ended up in full-time ordained ministry, please come along. There will be a time for questions & answers and the evening will finish with prayer and the singing of one of my favourite hymns. There will be two further sessions on Tuesday 5th April when there will be a visiting speaker from the Baptist tradition & on Tuesday 12th April when I’m hoping get a speaker from the Roman Catholic tradition.
A few other reminders….
Peter Morpuss is running in the Prague Half-Marathon which takes place on Saturday 2nd April. He is running on behalf of St. Clements and this coming Sunday is really the last opportunity to sign up & sponsor him. The sponsor sheet is on the noticeboard at the back of Church. Sybille & I are hoping to organise a group to cheer Peter on as he runs. If you’re interested in joining us, please email me.
The Czech census takes place this weekend. Actually, I gather from this helpful article on the Expats.cz website that everybody has until 14th April to return their completed census forms though the information should be about the situation on 26th March 2011. Further to what I wrote last week, there is a letter in English, from Bishop Dušan which I received just after sending out last week’s Weekly Message. Please read it carefully and give it the consideration it deserves.
A new edition of The European Anglican magazine arrived last week and this week I received our supply of the new ICS News & Prayer Diary for April-June. Copies of both will be available at the back of Church on Sunday.
Best wishes
Ricky
