Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,
I want to start my first message of 2015, by saying a public ‘Thank you’, to numerous congregation members who kindly gave Sybille & I various gifts at Christmas time, mainly of the very enjoyable ‘edible variety’ :-) , all of which have now been consumed! Also thanks to those who sent us Christmas cards.
Then, when during the Christmas & New Year period, it is very easy to forget what day of the week it is, I want to remind you that in two days time, it will be Sunday – the first Sunday of 2015. What better way to start the New Year than by coming to Church to give God the worship & praise he deserves & to meet with him in both word & sacrament.
Sunday 4th January at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist celebrating Epiphany
As the Lectionary allows us to do, we are going to celebrate two days early, the Feast of the Epiphany – the manifestation of Jesus Christ to the gentiles, represented by the Wise Men. Our Gospel reading will be the familiar account of their visit, as recorded in Matthew 2. 1-12. The supporting readings will be Isaiah 60. 1-6, together with Ephesians 3. 1-12. Parallel Children’s Ministry will resume following the Christmas & New Year break, and following worship there will be Coffee Hour in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18.
As it is the first Sunday of the month, following Coffee Hour, I shall be off down the D1 to Brno for:
Sunday 4th January at 17.00 – Holy Communion with hymns in ‘The Upper Room’, corner of Jezuitská and Mozartova, Brno.
If you have English-speaking friends who live in Brno or the wider South Moravia region, do tell them about our regular monthly services. Full details, including a map to help find the venue, can be found on the Brno page of our Church website .
Tuesday Evenings between now and Ash Wednesday
I’m planning to re-start our regular Tuesday evening meetings for Study & Fellowship, on Tuesday 13th January – 18.30-20.00 in the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18. There are five Tuesday evenings between our starting date & the beginning of Lent. If anyone has a particular topic or Bible book they would like us to tackle, then please speak with me on Sunday or drop me an email.
If you haven’t been to one of our Tuesday evening meetings, why not decide to do so as a New Year resolution? One person has already told me that it’s part of her new year plans & I shall hold her to it :-) And if Tuesdays don’t work for you, I would be very happy to have a second group meeting on another evening, if there were viable numbers to make it worthwhile. Please speak with me or drop me an email if that applies to you.
Confirmation
A reminder of what I wrote in a Weekly Message before Christmas. Bishop Robert, our Anglican Diocesan Bishop, will be conducting a service of Confirmation at Christ Church, Vienna, on Sunday 31st May 2015. The Chaplain of Christ Church, Vienna, who is also our Archdeacon Patrick Curran, has specifically said that if I have any candidates who, after appropriate preparation, would like to be confirmed, then they would be most welcome at this service. Therefore if there is anyone, young person or adult, who would like to avail themselves of this opportunity, please let me know sometime this coming month.
One final thought before Sunday
How about bringing some tinned food &/or warm winter clothing for men & women, to help continue refilling the red wheelie bins at the back of the Church & so support the work of the Salvation Army with the homeless in Prague?
Wishing you all a Happy New Year!
Ricky
