Dear People & Friends of St. Clements,
Alleluia. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
These words rang out at the beginning of our worship at St. Clement’s on Easter Day and on last Sunday morning, as they will continue to do so until Pentecost on Sunday 12th June. The Easter Season of the Church’s Year lasts for 50 days – not just for one Sunday! Therefore, I hope to see many of you again this coming Sunday as we continue to celebrate Jesus Christ – risen from the dead.
Sunday 8th May at 11am – Sung Eucharist for the Third Sunday of Easter
The Gospel Reading set for this Sunday is Luke 24. 13-35 and tells the familiar and much loved story of Jesus’ appearance to two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus. There will be Children’s Ministry led by Sybille Yates and Coffee Hour will follow the service in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18.
Please note that the Prague Marathon takes place this Sunday which will disrupt both public & private transport. Please check tram & bus timetables carefully & give yourself more time than usual to get to Church.
Next week, our Midweek Activities resume after the Easter break. As meeting on a Tuesday evening in Klimentská 18 worked well during Lent, I’m planning on continuing with that pattern between now and the end of June. Therefore….
Tuesday 10th May between 6.30-8.00pm in the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18
Our speaker will be Johanna Kulmala a Finnish young lady who has been regularly worshipping with us since February whilst undertaking a creative writing course here in Prague. She is going to speak about the Challenges facing the Finnish Church & Society and should give us some insights into a culture with which I suspect that most of us are fairly unfamiliar. As with our Lent evenings, there will be the opportunity for questions and discussion in response to what Johanna has to say.
And here is a brief outline of what is planned so far for the following weeks;
Tuesday 17th May – An evening on the theme of Pilgrimage.
Tuesday 24th May – tba (as I need to be at the AGM of the British Chamber of Commerce in the ČR that evening)
Thursday 2nd June – Eucharist for Ascension Day (therefore no meeting on Tuesday 31st May)
Tuesday 7th June – The Old Catholic Church in the ČR with guest speaker Kvĕtoslav Krejčí, an elected lay member of their Synodal Council.
Tuesday 14th June – tba
Tuesday 21st June – The Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren with guest speaker Rev’d Gerhard Frey-Reininghaus, the head of their Ecumenical Department.
There will be more details in future Weekly Messages and on our website www.anglican.cz but I encourage you to put these dates in your diary now. In particular, the two speakers in June will each provide the opportunity to learn more about and gain a better understanding of the two Czech Churches with which we have the closest relationship – the Old Catholic Church, with whom the Anglican Church is in full communion & who give our congregation legal status, and the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren who have kindly hosted our congregation for the past 21 years.
This coming week also sees our next Ethics at Lunchtime, a joint event organized by St. Clement’s and the British Chamber of Commerce in the ČR.
Thursday 12th May at 12.30pm in a new venue, the Monastery Restaurant, Augustine Hotel, Letenská 12/33, Mala Strana. The topic for discussion will be:
‘Are environmental care and profitable business mutually exclusive’
Everyone is welcome but each person will be responsible for paying the Monastery Restaurant for their own lunch (390CZK per person for a two course set menu including coffee, petit fours and one non-alcoholic beverage). This time the set menu will be Minted green pea soup with Prague Ham for starter and the main will be Ox Cheek braised in St. Thomas Beer and mashed potato. Registration for the event is via the BCC website Please register no later than Tuesday to give the restaurant accurate numbers for catering purposes.
Good publicity for St. Clement’s
As some of you already know, over the past couple of weeks I’ve been somewhat in demand from the local media!
In the 20th April 2011 edition of ‘The Prague Post‘, an interview with me & about St. Clement’s was featured in the ‘Tempo’ section of the newspaper. The printed version had three inaccuracies which have since been corrected in their online version which can be found here. One American couple came to worship on Easter Sunday morning because “…..we realised there was an Anglican Church in Prague after we read the article”.
Then on Friday 29th April 2011, I made my debut on Czech TV, being interviewed as part of their coverage of the Royal Wedding that day. I’ve since written about the experience in my latest blogpost which also has a couple of screenshots that Sybille managed to capture as the broadcast was also streamed over the internet.
New Appointments
Further to the list of appointments that appeared as part of my last ‘Weekly Message’ in Holy Week, I can now confirm that Gordon Truefit has taken on the role of being Church Treasurer. I am most grateful to Gordon for taking on this responsibility and also to David Hellam who has been looking at ways of simplifying spreadsheets & accounting procedures in support of Gordon. And I would also like to once more thank our previous Treasurer H K, who kindly spent several hours with Gordon ensuring a smooth changeover.
The other new appointment concerns the compilation of the rota for ‘who does what’ at each of our services. Having undertaken this task in an extremely effective & efficient manner for at least the last four years, Alan Schmidt is stepping down from the role of being Rota Coordinator. I would like to thank Alan for the wonderful job he has done in this important role. He will be a very hard act to follow! However, the person who has agreed to try & do so is my wife Sybille. She will be in touch in a few weeks time, with everyone who participates in the various roles, in order to compile the next rota covering July, August & September.
A reminder that details of the various people who hold office in St. Clement’s can be found here along with photographs of most of them!
Is somebody ill, in need of a Pastoral visit etc?
Contrary to popular belief, I am not super-human or omniscient. As I have discovered in over twenty years of ordained ministry, it is frequently assumed that I know that a member of the congregation is ill, or in hospital, or in a particular need of some sort. The problem is, I only know if somebody tells me! As I eventually educated my former parishioners in North Oxfordshire to understand, I much prefer to get three separate phone calls, each telling me that Mrs Smith is in hospital or has died, rather than everyone assuming that I already know.
Please – if someone from the congregation is ill &/or in hospital, let me know by phone, email or in person. If you yourself would like a pastoral visit, or the opportunity to talk an issue through, don’t be afraid to ask. It is one of the reasons that I’m here.
And finally a special message from our newest family member:
Woof! Hi, I am Sam. As some of you know already, Sybille and Ricky got me
‘out of doggy jail’ aka the police dog shelter in Troja and I am now a
happy part of their family! We all will be furrever thankful to Karen York
because she helped us to overcome the bureaucratic obstacles!!! But that
is not why I am writing. I write because I do love people and would like
to learn to know as many as possible of you. Therefore I would like to
invite you to come with Sybille, Ricky and me to the ‘Walk with Dogs’
that is part of the big Prague Marathon Weekend on Saturday 7th May. We
three have already registered, but I am sure you can just ‘meet us’ in
the park and join us unregistered if you prefer ;-) More info can be
found here (in English!)
Looking forward to meeting you all, and if you have a dog, bring it along.
I am very friendly, but also very lively ;-) And if you have any further
questions, just send an email Sybille or Ricky and they will do their
best to sort things out.
Woof, your new friend, Sam
Best wishes
Ricky
