Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,
I’m writing this whilst staying at Ashburnham Place Conference Centre, in East Sussex, UK, where the 2016 ICS Chaplains Conference is taking place. I’m looking forward to our Anglican Diocesan Bishop Robert Innes shortly leading a seminar on ‘The changing face of European Chaplaincies‘ as well as him celebrating & preaching at our end of conference Eucharist this evening. Unfortunately the conference centre has limited wifi, mobile phone reception is patchy, and Skype on my laptop computer crashed last week. Therefore communication has been difficult these last few days to say the least :-(
I’m booked on a car ferry out of Dover at 10.00 BST tomorrow, (Friday 29th April), arriving at Dunkirk at 13.00 CEST, from where I’ll begin my long drive back to Prague in order to be with you for worship on Sunday. Therefore…..
Sunday 1st May at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
Our first reading will be Acts 16. 9-15, which tells of St Paul receiving a vision to ‘Come over to Macedonia’ and thus he brings the Christian Gospel to Europe for the first time. We shall also say Psalm 67 responsively. The Gospel reading will be John 14. 23-29 where Jesus tells his disciples that he is ‘going to the Father’, but promises to send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. There will be parallel Children’s Ministry and following worship, there should also be Coffee Hour in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18. However, I’ve just noticed that there is no one down on the rota to run Coffee Hour this coming Sunday :-( If someone has already agreed to do this whilst I’ve been absent, please let me know. Or if you would be willing to do so, also please let me know. Hopefully, I will be able to pick up an email at some point in the next couple of days.
Following Coffee Hour, I shall be off down the the D1 for……
Sunday 1st May at 17.00 – Holy Communion in ‘The Upper Room’, corner of Jezuitská and Mozartova, Brno.
In highlighting the monthly Brno service, it reminds me that it is a very long time since any member of the Prague congregation, has travelled down to Brno with me for the service. It would be great to build up more of a connection between the two congregations. Let me know if you might be interested.
Then a reminder that next week, one of the most neglected festivals of the Christian Year occurs.
Thursday 5th May at 19.00 – Ascension Day Sung Eucharist
Do please join us for worship & mark the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to heaven & give voice to some Ascensiontide hymns.
I want to end this week’s ‘Weekly Message’ with a couple of ‘Thank yous’.
Thank you to all of you who have donated used postage stamps in the collection envelope at the back of Church these last few months. I have been able to bring a sizeable collection to the conference this week, where their resale supports the work of ICS who in turn, support us. And thank you to Jack Noonan for leading Morning Prayer last Sunday, and to the Churchwardens & other Council members, who have hopefully kept St. Clement’s running smoothly in my absence.
Best wishes
Ricky
