Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,

Summer really has arrived in Prague and we were blessed with perfect weather for our Church Family Picnic last Sunday. Thank you to everybody who contributed to it being a most successful & enjoyable occasion. But as well as good weather, we have also reached the time in the year when many of our regular congregation are away from Prague during some or all of the next eight weeks or so. Therefore from this coming Sunday 1st July, St Clement’s also goes into ‘summer mode’.

This means that there will be a Sung Eucharist at 11.00 each Sunday during July & August and we will continue to serve Cool Refreshments at the back of Church after every service. But there will be no parallel Children’s Ministry – it will resume on Sunday 2nd September. And the will be no Midweek Activities – these will resume in early September. A big ‘Thank you‘ to everyone who responded to Sybille’s request for availability over the next two months. She has been able to produce a new rota which has been circulated to everyone on it & I’m particularly grateful to those who are doing duties several Sundays running, meaning we’ve got all bases covered! And particular thanks to Larry Leifeste who will be playing the organ for us on 6 of the next 9 Sundays.

Repeating a couple of requests for help

We still have the wheelie bin from the Salvation Army at the back of Church in which we are collecting tinned food to help with feeding the homeless here in Prague. It was good to hear another couple of ‘clumps’ last Sunday morning as people added to our collection. But there is still some way to go. So please buy a few additional tins when you are next in your local supermarket & bring them to Church & drop them in the wheelie bin.

Sybille & I are ourselves away on holiday between Monday 16th – Monday 30th July. Because there will not be a Locum Chaplain coming, we need someone who would be willing to ‘Cat & Flat sit‘ for us during this time. It would mean living in the Chaplaincy Flat, feeding Oscar the cat & watering our plants. Alternatively, is there someone willing to have Oscar stay with them? We may well be able to get a neighbour to come in & water the plants but Oscar does need some company If you can help or want to know more, please get in touch with me ASAP.

And one new request for help

In the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be putting together a programme of activities for St. Clement’s from the beginning of September until the end of the year. Is there something you would like to see in that programme? A topic you would like addressed or discussed? An interesting speaker we could invite to speak to us? I’d love to hear any ideas you might have as it is always better to ‘scratch where people are itching’ if you’ll excuse the expression!

And finally for this week….

I was recently interviewed for a programme on Czech Radio about ‘People of faith’ & asked a variety of questions about the worldwide Anglican Church, my own faith and about our congregation in Prague. It was done in translation & I’m told by a native Czech speaker, that certain things were ‘lost in translation’. In particular, the was no distinction given between the Church of England & the other 43 national Churches that constitute the Anglican Communion. If you are interested in hearing it, then it can be currently found online here

Best wishes

Ricky