Firstly this week, a big ‘Thank you’ to everyone who came last Sunday, both to the service and the many who stayed on for the most enjoyable shared soup and sandwich lunch that followed. Special thanks go to Sue Anderson who organised the lunch and to all who helped by contributing food and washing up afterwards. Our Archdeacon Patrick Curran has written to me this week to express his appreciation of the warm welcome he received from the St. Clement’s congregation last Sunday, as well as enjoying sharing worship & fellowship with us.
This Sunday 7th February 2010 at 11am – Sung Eucharist for the Second Sunday before Lent.
Please join us for worship once again this coming Sunday. There will be Sunday School led by Diane Tvaroha and Coffee Hour following the service.
The period between the Feast of Presentation/Candlemas that we marked last Sunday, and the beginning of Lent, is known as ‘Ordinary Time’. Whilst the Feast of Presentation/Candlemas is a fixed date, 2nd February; the date of Ash Wednesday marking the beginning of Lent isn’t, simply because it is tied to the date of Easter which is a moveable feast. This year, Easter Day is quite early falling on the first Sunday in April. Therefore Ash Wednesday falls on 17th February meaning that this year we just have two weeks & therefore two Sundays of Ordinary Time.
Some advance dates for your diary
Wednesday 17th February at 7pm – Eucharist with (voluntary) imposition of ashes for Ash Wednesday
Sunday 21st February – Our next post-service shared lunch. Following the success of last Sunday’s shared lunch, we plan to hold one once a month through to June. This next one may need to be slightly more frugal bearing in mind it will be the first Sunday in Lent!!
Sunday 14th March – Our Annual General Meeting will take place in Church immediately following our Sung Eucharist that morning.
More details about all of these events in future Midweek Messages and via the Sunday Bulletin. However, please put all three dates in your diaries NOW and plan to be present if at all possible.
Midweek Activities
Last Sunday, we circulated copies of short questionnaire to try and find out what Midweek activities, at what times & on what days, members of the St. Clement’s congregation might be interested in. If you took a questionnaire last Sunday, please bring it back duly completed this Sunday. Further copies will be available in Church, the next couple of Sundays. The information gained from the completed questionnaires will help me in planning future Midweek activities so I can hopefully lay on what people are looking for at times when they are free to attend.
Haiti Earthquake
I forgot to put in my message a couple of weeks ago that, despite our financial problems, your Church Council felt it was right to honour its longstanding commitment of giving away 5% of its income to charitable causes, just as we encourage members of the congregation to give at least 5% of their income to the Church. We had already made some charitable donations earlier in 2009. We had originally planned to give the balance of our ‘tithe’ to the Czech charity Nova Škola, supporting the work of classroom assistants working with Roma children in mainstream schools. This is a project St. Clements has supported in previous years. Unfortunately, as far as Gerry Turner has been able to ascertain, this is not currently happening. Therefore, in view of the magnitude of the suffering of the people of Haiti following the recent earthquake, your Church Council decided to give the balance of our ‘tithe’ to Christian Aid to support relief work in Haiti. This is a course of action which has very much been recommended to us by Bishop Geoffrey and Bishop David.
So that this remains a ‘Midweek Message’ rather than one of the End-of-Week variety, I’d better finish here!
Best wishes and hoping to see many of you at worship this coming Sunday
Ricky
PS My usual disclaimer which I sometimes forget to include. Most people tell me that they enjoy receiving my regular email messages. My email contact list grows a little each week! But if you have left Prague or do not want to be a regular recipient in future, please let me know and I’ll delete you from my circulation list.
