Dear People of St. Clement’s,
With August rapidly coming to a close and with many of you having already returned to Prague or about to do so, it is time for me to resume my normally weekly ‘Midweek Messages’. I’m going to adopt a slightly different format to what I’ve done previously and start with my own thoughts & reflections, together with news of what I’ve been up to. Then at the end, I’ll put notices & details of forthcoming services & events. Therefore, if you don’t want to read my waffle & just want to know what is happening shortly at St. Clement’s, then just scroll down to the Announcements!
“What have you been up to?” & “Did you have a good holiday?” are the questions that have been asked regularly as I’ve met up with a number of you on recent Sundays or during the weeks in between. Well, back in July, I did have two weeks holiday with two Sundays off. Sybille & I mainly had a stay-at-home holiday or ‘Stay-cation’ as one American described it. We undertook a major cleaning exercise of the Chaplaincy flat including washing all the curtains for the first time since they were hung in January 2006! For the whole time we’ve been here, there has been building work going on around us as the fourth & final stage of the Podbaba development has been under construction creating constant dust. Fortunately, this finished about two months ago meaning that cleaning the outside windows and washing the balcony floors was, for the first time worthwhile!
We did also get out and about in & around Prague, exploring favourite old haunts such as Prague Zoo, as well as discovering new ones such as the Charles University Botanical Gardens and going swimming in the clean warm waters of the lake behind the Slapy Dam.
The final five days of my holiday, I spent visiting the UK, my first visit to my home country since moving to Prague nearly two years ago. Sybille stayed behind in Prague to look after Oscar & to help welcome & organise 40 visiting Americans to St. Clements on the Sunday morning. My Sunday morning in the UK was also more work than holiday – a busman’s holiday as Churchwarden Alan Schmidt kindly described it.
I made a deputation visit on behalf of the Intercontinental Church Society (ICS) to the Parish of St. Luke’s, Goostrey, Cheshire in north-west England where I was the celebrant and preacher at their Sunday morning Eucharist. St. Luke’s, Goostrey have financially supported the work of ICS for a number of years and it was my task to both thank them and say something about how ICS supports ministry to English-speakers in continental Europe. As many of you know, ICS have supported St. Clement’s, Prague since 2000 & have recently offered additional financial support to help us through our current difficulties. I was glad to be able to play my part in promoting the work of ICS in a supportive English parish.
Since I’ve been back, I’ve enjoyed meeting up with various members of the congregation, both old & new, sorted out a number of administrative things and doing some forward planning for the coming months. More of that in next week’s message. I’ve also had the pleasure of conducting a wedding and preparing for two more in early September. Then I’ve got a couple who are coming to Prague to mark their 40th wedding anniversary and would like to renew their marriage vows and there is always preparation to be done for each Sunday’s worship. And I’ve spent two days in Stuttgart, seeing if I personally & we as a congregation, can learn from the experience of the Stuttgart Anglican Chaplaincy of both numerical and financial growth since the arrival of their current Chaplain, Rev’d Ken Dimmick in June 2006. I shall report in greater detail on this to your Church Council when it next meets on Sunday 12th September.
As many of you know I have a blog in which I write about a variety of things I’ve been up to, usually illustrated with some photos. I started it for my friends & family in the UK and elsewhere but I’m well aware that it is read by St. Clement’s congregation members too. If you go to www.rickyyates.com and click on July 2010 & then August 2010 in the sidebar, you’ll be able to read & see a bit more about what I’ve just described above.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
An important financial announcement from our Church Treasurer H.K.
St Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church Giving Envelopes 2010-2011
The boxes of donation envelopes are provided for members of the congregation who may wish to make regular contributions to the church in cash in this manner, as opposed to placing cash directly in the collection basket, donating via standing orders on bank accounts or annual bank transfers.
There are several motives behind using donation envelopes, principally:
- to regularise your donations – it helps greatly if you’ve been away or missed services, and aren’t sure of how many weeks have intervened,
- to enable tax certificates to be provided by the Treasurer so you can claim the annual total of your donations from your tax bill. Please note that information regarding amounts donated is treated as highly confidential,
- from the church’s point of view, for budgetary purposes: by receiving regular donations in known amounts, the church council is able to budget according to income, which is essential in any event and particularly in times of financial constraints. For example, in applying to the ICS for a grant, this has been vital information.
In the past we have had an oversupply of boxes, so instead of ordering more for the next year, the council decided to “reprocess” that surplus, both a cost saving exercise and considered to be environmentally responsible! You will see, as a result, that the dates on the envelopes provided this year have had the dates adjusted manually, and the range of numbers on the boxes available is not based on any logic. We hope you will appreciate the reasons for this.
The council thanks you most sincerely for your generous and continued support of the Anglican parish in Prague.
These boxes of dated envelopes will be available at the back of Church this coming Sunday
A message from our Coffee Hour organiser Caroline Studdert that has nothing to do with Coffee Hour!
Caroline Studdert is organising an Exciting Evening Zoo Visit this Saturday 28th August for Prague Friends, and still has some places left. Prague Friends is a kind of smaller cousin of the Intl Women’s Assn of Prague. If you would like to go, please e-mail Caroline at crstuddert@gmail.com or phone 736 415 935. It will be 320 crowns per person if we have 25, slightly more if fewer. Dinner is optional.
For anyone who hasn’t been before, the zoo is red line metro to Nadrazi Holesovice, then bus 112 to Zoo: when you walk out of metro, turn left and it is around the corner of the building.
Caroline will be at main entrance to zoo from 6.45 for dinner in Restaurant Gaston at 7.00 p.m.; then we will reconvene at the main entrance at 9.00 p.m. to meet our young tour guide Michael Stasny, who speaks excellent English. The tour lasts about 2 hours, or more or less if we want.
Services and Events Saturday 28th August at 6pm at St. Clement’s Church
I am celebrating the Eucharist for a group of visiting American Episcopalians who cannot join us for worship on Sunday morning as they are leaving Prague early on Sunday for Oberammergau to see the Passion Play. Their accompanying bishop will be the preacher. If any one from our congregation would like to join our visitors for worship on Saturday evening, they would be most welcome.
Sunday 29th August at 11am at St. Clement’s Church Sung Eucharist for Trinity 13 followed by cool refreshments at the back of Church.
Tuesday 31st August from 4 – 7pm – Meet the Chaplain in Prague City Centre I shall once again be available for a chat + coffee or tea & biscuits, between 4pm and 7pm at
Communio Centre Karolíny Svĕtlé 21 (nearly opposite the Rotunda of the Holy Cross) Prague 1
Karolíny Svĕtlé itself lies between Charles Bridge and Národní třída. It I have no customers then between 6pm and about 6.45pm I shall be across the road in the Rotunda of the Holy Cross attending the Old Catholic Eucharist in an effort to improve my liturgical Czech! If anyone would like to meet with me after the service, then do come by 7pm and we can go to another nearby venue as Bishop Dušan now frequently has a meeting in the Communio Centre after the Eucharist.
Sunday 5th September at 11am at St. Clement’s Church Sung Eucharist for Trinity 14 with Sunday School recommencing. The service will be followed by Coffee Hour.
Until next week
Best wishes
Ricky
