Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,
Here once more, is my regular weekly update of what is happening in the life of the Prague Anglican Chaplaincy.
Sunday 1st February at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the Presentation of Christ in the Temple
One day early, as the correct date of the celebration is 2nd February, (forty days after Christmas Day), we are going celebrate the events described in Luke 2. 22-40 which will be our Gospel reading. As well as being known as the Feast of Presentation, the festival is also known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or more colloquially as Candlemas. I promise to explain each of these designations in my sermon on Sunday! The supporting Bible readings will be Malachi 3. 1-5, which contains words which will be very familiar to all lovers of Handel’s ‘The Messiah’, together with Hebrews 2. 14-18. There will be parallel Children’s Ministry and, following worship, Coffee Hour in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18.
It being the first Sunday of the month, directly after Coffee Hour, I shall be off to Brno for our regular monthly service there, starting at 17.00.
Tuesday 3rd February – 18.30-20.00 in the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18.
Our regular Tuesday evening meetings for Study and Fellowship continue this coming Tuesday with our third Bible Study looking at St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. On Tuesday, we’ll be looking at the whole of Chapter Three. As is our normal pattern, we’ll spend the last twenty minutes or so, saying Evening Prayer together.
New faces are always welcome, as well as the regulars! If the outside door of Klimentská 18 is locked, please press the bell marked Kancelář & we’ll buzz you in!
Looking further ahead…….
The Feast of Presentation on 2nd February, also marks the end of the season of Epiphany. As my ‘Church Book & Desk Diary 2015’ tells me, on Tuesday 3rd February ‘Ordinary Time begins’. This year, because Easter Day falls relatively early on Sunday 5th April, the period of Ordinary Time between the end of the Epiphany season & the beginning of Lent, is relatively short with only two Sundays before Ash Wednesday – 18th February. If you have a secular diary or an electronic one, neither of which tend to record important Holy Days :-( , please do mark in Ash Wednesday now. On Ash Wednesday evening at 19.00, there will be a Eucharist with the imposition of ashes. It would be good to see many of you there to mark the beginning of this important season of the Christian Year.
I hope to be able to give full details about our Lent Course, looking at the Bohemian Reformation and what we can learn from it, 600 years after the martyrdom of Jan Hus, in my Weekly Message next week. But I can tell you that it will take place on five Tuesday evenings – 24th February, 3rd, 10th, 17th &24th March. Please mark those in your diaries too.
Until Sunday
Best wishes
Ricky
