Dear People & Friends of St. Clements,
Sybille and I returned from our two weeks away late last Sunday afternoon, twenty four earlier than originally planned. We did so in order to be able to attend the funeral of Josef König, the Lay Vice-President of the Old Catholic Church’s Synodal Council, which took place in the Old Catholic Cathedral on Monday afternoon.
We had a thoroughly enjoyable time on holiday spending the first week in the Krkonoše Mountains where, together with Sam the dog, I successfully climbed Sněžka, the highest mountain in the Czech Republic. Then, after 24 hours in Prague, we spent the rest of the second week in the far west of Bohemia, enjoying the hospitality of Jack Noonan at Babylon and walking in the rolling hills and forests of Český les. I’ve begun to write about our time away & post some photos on my blog & I hope to add to it in the next week or so.
I’ve spent a good part of this week catching up on what I missed whilst away, most notably responding to two weeks worth of email! Whilst much of it was routine but still necessary, it has been very nice to respond to a couple of emails from people moving to Prague & wanting to join the worshipping community at St. Clement’s. Let’s make sure that we make newcomers such as these, welcome when they do first come to St. Clement’s and play our part in helping them to adapt successfully to living, working and worshipping in Prague.
A big ‘Thank you’ to everybody who helped keep St. Clement’s running whilst we were away. Especial thanks to Tasci Gibson who did cat, plants & flat sitting duty for us as well welcoming duty on Sundays. Tasci, along with David Pattison and Sybille, are between them doing nearly all welcoming duties in July and August whilst others are away from Prague. Thanks also to Rev’d Karen Moritz for preaching on Sunday 17th July and to Jack Noonan who led Morning Prayer that day & who oversaw the clearing up & locking of the Church building on both Sundays. I am extremely grateful to all of you.
This Sunday, I am back on duty and look forward to seeing all of you who are in Prague at the present time.
Sunday 31st July at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity
The Gospel reading is Matthew 14. 13-21 which is Matthew’s account of the feeding of the 5000 and has the distinction of being the only miracle of Jesus recorded by all four Gospel writers. As is always our pattern in July & August, there will be cool refreshments served after the service in the back of the Church.
Looking ahead…….
During August, there will be regular worship each Sunday at 11.00 but no midweek activities. These will re-start at the beginning of September & I intend to get on with the planning of our September – December programme next week. However, we may have an impromptu social event sometime during August – watch this space!
As I will be in Prague throughout August, if any members of the congregation who are also here during the month would like to meet up socially, then please drop me a line or speak with me on Sunday. It would be good to spend time with people, especially whilst my time is more flexible with no fixed weekday activities.
That’s enough for this week!
Best wishes
Ricky
