Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,
What a wonderful beginning to the season of Advent last Sunday morning at St Clement’s! According to NAME’s headcount, we had 74 people in Church, including 21 children & young people. And the children & young people will be playing an important part in leading our worship this coming Sunday too, under the leadership and guidance of David Hellam.
Sunday 4th December at 11.00 – Family Eucharist for the Second Sunday of Advent
The theme of our worship will be John the Baptist, the one who prepared the way for the coming of Jesus. The story of his life will be re-enacted in three scenes, including what is recorded in Matthew 3. 1-12, the Gospel reading set for this Sunday. David will be giving a talk which he has entitled, ‘Doing the right thing (whatever the cost)’ and the children will also be helping to lead our intercessions. Obviously, there will be no separate Children’s Ministry but the rug-rats area for the very little ones will be available at the back of the Church, as usual.
Following worship, there will be Coffee Hour in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18. As David famously said last Sunday – ‘We want your money!’ At Coffee Hour, there will be a Bake Sale, to raise funds for Bishop’s Advent Appeal, the details of which can be found here, and also on the noticeboard at the back of the Church. A wonderful opportunity to support a project at the other extremity of our far-flung Diocese in Europe, even though Morocco is in Africa :-)
St Clement’s Christmas Cards
A big ‘Thank you!’, to everyone who bought packs of our brand new St Clement’s Christmas Cards, last Sunday. Here again is the front cover as a reminder.
Inside each card is a photo of St Clement’s in the snow, a few details advertising our Church including our website address, and a Christmas greeting in both English & Czech. The cards will be available for sale at the back of Church again this coming Sunday & at every service between now and Christmas. A pack of ten cards with envelopes sells for CZK 200 with all profits going to support the work of St Clement’s.
As all of you who bought packs last Sunday will know, they contained no envelopes!!! This was a major mistake by our supplier which I’m pleased to report, has finally been rectified today! Therefore on Sunday, cellophane wrapped packs of ten envelopes will be available for everyone who bought packs last Sunday. All new packs of Christmas cards will definitely have envelopes with them.
Two other events to highlight
St Clement’s will once more be hosting an Ecumenical Carols event, raising funds for UNICEF. Details of the event, a week today, are in the poster below.
Poppy Appeal
And finally for this week……
A reminder of my Advent challenge of last Sunday morning. On Advent Sunday, we moved from Year C to Year A in the three-year Lectionary cycle of readings, meaning that most Gospel readings each Sunday in the next twelve months, will come from the Gospel of Matthew. This year, Advent is a full four weeks – twenty-eight days. The Gospel of Matthew has twenty-eight chapters. How about setting out to read a chapter a day during Advent???? I started doing so last Sunday and I’m shortly going to read chapter six :-)
Best wishes
Ricky
