Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,
A few days later than originally intended, here is my promised Monthly Message for August.
Firstly to report that I returned safely to Prague in the early hours of Monday morning, following my four day visit to the UK. On Thursday 28th July, I successfully obtained a new British passport which is valid until December 2026! Then on Saturday 30th July, I officiated at the marriage of my son Phillip, to my new daughter-in-law Lisa. A blog post with photos can be found here.
A big ‘Thank you’ to Jack Noonan for leading & preaching at a service of Morning Prayer last Sunday morning, in my absence.
Whilst we will still be in summer mode during August, there is much to look forward to.
Sung Eucharist at 11.00 on each of the four Sundays of the month – 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th August
Following worship each Sunday, there will be Cool Drinks & Light Refreshments served at the back of the Church. However, there will be NO parallel Children’s Ministry. This will resume on Sunday 4th September. Children are obviously still most welcome to attend & the ‘rug-rats’ area for younger ones will be available as usual, at the back of the Church. Whilst there will be no Brno service in August, (the next one will be on Sunday 4th September), I will also be officiating at the monthly English-language Anglican Service of Evening Prayer, in the Frauenkirche, Dresden at 18.00 on Sunday 21st August.
The highlight in August is that you will have four different preachers! Here are the details.
On Sunday 7th August, our preacher will be Dagmar Wilkinson. Dagmar originally hails from Kunčice pod Ondřejníkem in North Moravia but has lived & worked in the UK for several years. She is currently training for ordained ministry in the Church of England, at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, just outside of Oxford. She has recently undertaken her long summer placement at Westminster Abbey but the one thing she was not allowed to do in that Royal Peculiar, was preach. So Westminster Abbey’s loss will be our gain!
Sunday 14th August will be the one Sunday when I will be preaching. Within our worship that day, I will be baptising the two youngest children of our Church Treasurer, Andrew Kasembe.
On Sunday 21st August, our preacher will Rev’d Nathanial Nathanial. Nathanial has been worshipping with us since earlier this year, after moving to Prague, supporting his wife Aditi who is studying for her PhD at Charles University. He is an ordained priest in the Church of North India, a Church where Anglicans have united with some other Christian denominations but is still a recognised part of the Anglican Communion.
As I said to the congregation a couple of weeks ago, the Archbishop of Canterbury under the Overseas and Other Clergy (Ministry and Ordination) Measure 1967, has granted Nathanial permission to officiate, and our Anglican Suffragan Bishop David Hamid, has licensed him to St. Clement’s to be able officiate at my request, and during a future vacancy, at the request of Archdeacon Colin or the Churchwardens. I’m very much looking forward to hearing him preach and I shall also be inviting him to celebrate the Eucharist on a Sunday in September.
On Sunday 28th August, our preacher will once more be Licensed Reader, Jack Noonan who of course, needs no introduction :-)
Whilst I may not be preaching so frequently in August, I will still be busy as I have a wedding this coming Saturday, just outside Kutná hora, and another wedding on Saturday 20th August, in Mariánské Lázně.
Normal ‘Weekly Messages’ will resume at the end of this month with details of everything being planned for the Autumn. But if you are in Prague in August, do plan to join us each Sunday at 11.00.
Best wishes
Ricky
