Welcome to this week’s St. Clement’s End of Week Message

This Sunday 28th June at 11am – Sung Eucharist
The Gospel reading set for this coming Sunday is Mark 5 v21-43. It tells of not one, but two healing miracles by Jesus because the two stories are intertwined. Why not read the passage in advance of our worship on Sunday?

The service will be followed by our last Coffee Hour in Klimentská 18, before the summer break. As in previous years, during July & August, we will be serving cool drinks after our Sunday service in the back of the Church. We need volunteers to help to do this & there is a list on our noticeboard at the back of Church for people to sign up. Please don’t leave Caroline to do it every week, especially as she is herself away for a number of Sundays during that period!

Sunday School
There will be no Sunday School this Sunday or during July & August. Sunday School will resume on Sunday 6th September.

Children will still be most welcome at our Sunday services during this time and the ‘Rug Rats’ provision will be available each Sunday at the back of Church.

www.anglican.cz
If you have visited our website recently, you will notice some changes. The way it was set up previously meant it took an awful lot of effort to change anything and it therefore easily got out-of-date. We have recently made considerable technical changes so that Sybille or I can alter things easily. We also hope to make it so that other people with responsibilities within the Church, can access their part of the website and update it accordingly. This will be a work in progress over the summer, but do visit it regularly & you will hopefully notice changes taking place.

In the meantime, we have posted on the website, the English translation (courtesy of Gerry Turner) of Bishop Dušan’s sermon from last Sunday. If you missed it, you can read it there!

Ordination of Petr Jan Vinš
Mentioning Bishop Dušan’s visit reminds me to remind you what he said via Gerry at the end of the service last Sunday. On Saturday 4th July at 11am in the Old Catholic Cathedral on Petrin Hill, Petr Jan Vinš will be ordained priest. Petr is currently a deacon in the Czech Old Catholic Church and those of you who were present for my licensing on 28th October last year will remember him as he read the Gospel & interpreted for Bishop Dušan on that occasion. He speaks extremely good English & the plan is that he will help us at St. Clement’s on some occasions in the future. Therefore, it would be lovely if there was a St Clements contingent present for his ordination service that was greater in number than just Sybille & me! If you want to know more or want to organise going as a group, please speak with me or drop me an email.

Financial Matters
Unfortunately, our June fundraiser on Sunday 14th June, was not very well supported. As a result, we only raised just under 2000Kc. Our Fundraising Committee are taking a break over the summer & will resume their activities in September.

But now the good news! Our Church Treasurer Peter Broster told me a couple of weeks ago, that our monthly income in May was the best one month’s income ever during his time as Treasurer. The Church Council will be given the exact figures when they meet this coming Sunday after Coffee Hour. But in simple terms, as at 31st May 2009, we had broken even for the first five months of the year. This is a tremendous result and I want to place on record my thanks to everybody who has played their part to help us achieve this.

Unfortunately, we cannot rest on our laurels. It still costs virtually the same amount of money to run the Church during June, July & August when many of you are away from Prague for several weeks. We will have more visitors during this time & will encourage them to give generously. Part of the reason for the recent improvement in our finances has been an increase in cash collections most Sundays, which seems to be in good measure due to greater giving by visitors. But it does also emphasise the importance of regular members of the congregation giving, either by standing order or the envelope scheme, which means you contribute to the running costs of the Church even when you are away from Prague. Again, my thanks to everyone who does this and if you don’t but would like to, please contact Peter brosterscz@yahoo.co.uk for more information how to do this.

Breakfast Study Group
A reminder that we meet again on Tuesday 30th June at 8.15am at Bohemia Bagels to discuss the last two chapters of ‘When the game is over it all goes back in the box’ by John Ortberg.

Liturgy
Those of you who were in Church last Sunday will know that we used new service booklets, entitled “Holy Communion for ‘Ordinary Time'”. We will continue to use these same booklets Sunday by Sunday during ‘Ordinary Time’ which means up to & including the Last Sunday after Trinity on Sunday 25th October.

Why change the service booklets you may well ask? Firstly, a bit of background.

My predecessor John Philpott, arrived in Prague just before the publication by the Church of England of ‘Common Worship – Services and Prayers for the Church of England’ in the Autumn/Fall of 2000. He produced the various booklets for the different seasons of the Christian Year, to show to the Church Council & congregation, the variety of material in ‘Common Worship’. At the time he produced them, I don’t think he expected them still to be in use nearly nine years later!

When I arrived as Chaplain in September 2008, the Church Council said that I didn’t have to continue using the existing booklets if I didn’t want to do so. I said that I would use them, until I had been here for several months and use that period to reflect on what changes if any, I felt I would want to introduce with regard to liturgy.

Therefore, why change?

* The existing booklets are physically reaching the end of there useful life & would need to be replaced in some shape or form anyway.
* Since ‘Common Worship – Services and Prayers for the Church of England’ was first produced in 2000, additional volumes have been produced. Some, such as ‘Common Worship – Pastoral Offices’ covers weddings & funerals & the like & don’t directly affect Sunday worship. But ‘Common Worship – Times & Seasons’, produced in 2006, provides a wonderful array of fresh material to enrich the Christian Year and I would like to incorporate some of this material into our worship. I have already done so earlier this year on both Ash Wednesday & on Maundy Thursday.
* The existing booklets have instructions which are now irrelevant or don’t apply to St. Clements.
* The sung texts of Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus & Agnus Dei differ slightly to what appears in the service booklets which is confusing especially for newcomers & visitors.
* Having a set form of intercession in a particular booklet is very restrictive for the person leading intercessions.

Therefore, what has changed? For this first new booklet for ‘Ordinary Time’, the answer is “not that much!”

* The rubrics or instructions in italics now accurately reflect what we do or don’t do at St. Clements. They also accurately tie in with the hymnbook & the weekly bulletin.
* The texts of Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus & Agnus Dei are exactly as we sing them.
* There is no set form of intercession – just some possible congregational responses.
* The Eucharistic Prayer is Prayer B. (For those of you who don’t know, there are 8 possible Eucharistic Prayers labelled A -H). This allows for a long or short ‘proper preface’ which during ‘Ordinary Time’ means that when an important saints day falls on a Sunday, we can mark it with the appropriate preface being inserted.
* There is one other small liturgical change, incorporated for good ecumenical reasons. There might be a small prize for the first person who spots it & tells me!

And finally……
On a lighter but important note, my British right-hand drive car finally became a Czech car this week & is now proudly displaying it’s Czech number plates! A big ‘Thank you’ to Gerry Turner who has kindly accompanied me speaking Czech on my behalf as I’ve jumped through the last bureaucratic hoops.

Best wishes

Ricky

PS My email list to which I send out this Midweek/End of Week Message, grows week by week. Most people tell me how much they appreciate receiving it. However, if anyone wishes to be deleted from the mailing list, please let me know & I will unsubscribe you.