Dear People & Friends of St. Clements,
Having gone through the whole of this past winter without getting ill in any shape or form, just as the temperature begins to rise and the first very early signs of Spring begin to appear, I’ve gone down with a cold & sore throat! So I’m going to try & keep this Weekly Message short & sweet.
A big thank you…….
……to everyone who contributed clothing & food to the two Salvation Army Wheelie bins which have been at the back of St. Clement’s Church since the beginning of this year. Earlier this week, I met with Pavel & two other colleagues from the Salvation Army at Church. They brought a van & took both wheelie bins away so all that we have collected can now be used to clothe and feed the many homeless people who attend their centres in Prague. FYI, the clothing bin was almost completely full & the food bin was more than half full & extremely heavy!
A reminder……
……..that our Annual Church Meeting is scheduled to take place immediately following worship on Sunday 18th March. The Church Electoral Roll is now closed until after the ACM & an up-to-date copy is pinned on the noticeboard at the back of the Church. Please let me know ASAP if by any chance you think your name has been omitted in error.
At our forthcoming Annual Church Meeting, elections will take place for two Churchwardens, one Archdeaconry Synod representative & up to nine ordinary members of the Church Council. The Churchwardens & the Archdeaconry Synod reps are ex officio members of the Church Council. From this coming Sunday, there will be a form on the noticeboard at the back of Church for written nominations for these positions. Each candidate needs a proposer & seconder & the written consent of the proposed candidate. The candidate & their proposer & seconder must all be members of the Church Electoral Roll.
Please give serious thought as to who would be suitable candidates for these positions or whether you yourself would be willing to serve. I will be doing a little bit of leaning on a few people in the coming couple of weeks but I would much prefer to have volunteers rather than pressed men or women! In particular, the existing Church Council is all male, therefore a few female faces would be most welcome.
Worship this Sunday at 11.00…..
…….will be Sung Eucharist using our appropriately penitential Lenten liturgy and the preacher will be trainee Lay Reader Jack Noonan. There will be parallel Children’s Ministry and the service will be followed by Coffee Hour.
Study & Discussion
A reminder that, as I wrote last week, during Lent, there will be two Lent Study Courses running, one on Tuesday Evenings & the other on Thursday evenings. Dates & titles can be found here
Tuesdays 18.30- 20.00 in the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18
A look at five Common objections to the Christian Faith. The aim is both to address issues that are a challenge to even some of the most faithful Christians as well as to hopefully give some guidelines as to how to respond to people when they raise these objections with us.
Thursdays 19.00 -20.30 at Chez Hellam, Namesti Interbrigady 949/3, Prague 6.
Under the theme of Stewardship, David Hellam is going lead five sessions thinking about how we might be good or better stewards of all that God has given to us. As with previous courses at the Hellam residence, there will be a simple shared meal followed by a talk & discussion.
If you want to know more about either of these courses, then be in Church this Sunday morning as both David & I will say a little more about them during the notices. Or alternatively email me chaplain(at)anglican(dot)cz about Tuesdays or David david(at)hellam(dot)net about Thursdays. This coming Tuesday’s session, looking at the question, ‘How can three persons be one God?’, will be led by Alasdair Duncan as I will be at a Consular Services event at the British Embassy which unfortunately clashes.
Wishing you God’s blessing in the keeping of this Lenten season
Ricky
