Dear People & Friends of St. Clements,
This week’s message comes in two parts. The first part gives details of all that is happening at St. Clement’s in the week ahead. The second part is entitled Five ways to support St. Clement’s financially.
The week ahead at St. Clement’s
Sunday 11th September at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
Our worship will be enhanced this Sunday by the visit of the Røros Chamber Choir from Norway. They will sing an introit and a couple of items during the administration of Communion as well as supporting the hymns and sung parts of our liturgy. Our Biblical readings this Sunday will be Psalm 103. 1-13, Romans 14. 1-12 & Matthew 18. 21-35. The Psalm & the Gospel both focus on the important theme of forgiveness which I intend to reflect upon in my sermon. Try and read the passages, especially the Gospel, in advance of coming to worship if you possibly can.
There will be Children’s Ministry/Sunday School led this Sunday by Diane Tvaroha and cool refreshments will be served after the service in the back of the Church. Further to my note in last week’s message, your Church Council have decided, (with the exception of Sunday 18th September – see below), to continue with cool refreshments at the back of Church for the time being until it gets colder.
Tuesday 13th September 6.30-8.00pm in the small meeting room on the first floor of Klimentská 18
Understanding history – Why is the Czech Republic one of the most atheistic nations in Europe?
The second of our regular Tuesday evening get-togethers over light refreshments. I will conduct a brief historical survey of events, political, cultural & religious, that have contributed to the way the Czech Republic is today. As always, questions, contributions & contradictions from other attendees will be welcome! Last Tuesday, several attendees went on to have a meal together in a nearby bar-restaurant & I expect the same will happen this coming Tuesday. A great opportunity for fellowship & for continuing our discussions.
Thursday 15th September 12.30 – 2.00pm
Ethics at Lunchtime – Our next lunchtime discussion will take place at a new venue, Bellevue Restaurant, located across from Charles Bridge at Smetanovo nábřeží 18, Praha 1, with the following topic: “The Big Society – is civic participation essential to a properly functioning democracy?” Further to my note last week, this event is now fully booked! We’ll certainly make sure that we have a bigger venue for the next one!
Thursday 15th September 7.00 – 8.30pm – in Klimentská 18 (a notice on the outside door will say whether it is the first or third floor!)
A Real Redeemer – Who is Jesus? The second session of our course on the basics of Christianity – The Relevance of Faith in a Modern World
The pattern of the evening is Food – Talk – Discussion. As food is being provided, it is very helpful to let David Hellam david(at)hellam(dot)net or Tel. 722 223 097 know you are planning to come.
Sunday 18th September at 11.00 – Family Eucharist celebrating Harvest Festival
We are going to celebrate that, in the words of the well known harvest hymn, “All good gifts around us, are sent from heaven above” and give thanks to God for his goodness. As we don’t own our Church building, we unfortunately cannot decorate it in advance of the service as would be the case in the UK & elsewhere in the world. But I invite you to come to Church with a gift of fruit or vegetables, either fresh or tinned/packaged, that can be brought forward & laid in front of the altar as part of our worship. There will be no separate Children’s Ministry this Sunday as I plan to involve them within our worship & the service ought to be a little shorter than normal!
Your Church Council have agreed that all the donated produce will be given to the Salvation Army to support their work with the homeless & poor in Prague. Major Ruth Stannett, the deputy national leader of the Salvation Army in the Czech Republic, has assured me they can use all your gifts at a couple of their centres within the city. I will probably need some practical help to load everything into my car after the service so I can deliver it later on Sunday or first thing on Monday morning.
Our worship will be followed by a Church Family Picnic in the park on Lannova, between the Church and the Vltava River. Many people said after our previous picnic at the same venue on Sunday 26th June, that “we should do it again before the end of the summer” – so we are!!!!
Please bring picnic food that can be shared, enough for you (singular or plural!) + a bit extra so we can invite people on the day who haven’t brought anything with them. Back in June, a number of visitors to Church stayed on for the picnic and we were able to feed them. As previously, we’ll make sure that there are paper plates, plastic cutlery & serviettes. The park itself has numerous tables & benches that we can use. Again as last time, there will be entertainment for the children.
As well as planning to come yourselves, think about who you could invite to come too – both to the Harvest Festival Service & to the picnic.
Five ways to support St. Clement’s financially
Our Church Treasurer Gordon Truefit explained quite clearly to the meeting of your Church Council last Sunday, that our expenditure this year, is still exceeding our income. We are going to address the issue as a major agenda item at our next meeting on Sunday 16th October. And in the meantime, Gordon is exploring other possible sources of funding for 2012. But the Council also asked me to explain to newcomers and remind longer standing members of the Five ways to support St. Clement’s financially.
1) By regular standing order – Set up a standing order to make a regular donation each month directly from your bank account to the Church bank account.
Please make your standing order payable to the Volksbank Account Number 4030019472/6800 in the name of Farní obec Starokatolické církve pro věřící anglického jazyka v Praze and put your name in the message field so the Treasurer can identify your payments.
2) By using dated stewardship envelopes – These allow you to give a set amount each Sunday by placing your dated and numbered envelope in the collection basket during the Offertory Hymn. And they remind you to still give the set amount even when you are away on a Sunday! Boxes of dated envelopes are available on the table at the back of Church each Sunday. Just put your name & the number on your box of envelopes you take on the accompanying list to enable the Treasurer can identify your payments during the year. We are still using sets of envelopes bought two years ago to save wasting money on new ones. All you need to do is alter the date to two days earlier (for example for this Sunday, from 13th September 2009 to 11th September 2011) and to three days earlier after the end of February 2012!
3) Donating via the PayPal button on our website www.anglican.cz . This is a very good way to support our work if you are no longer live in Prague. It is also a way for your family and friends who have heard about St. Clement’s, or may have worshipped here when visiting you in Prague, to contribute to our finances.
4) Use our Amazon affiliate link when ordering anything from Amazon.co.uk – As mentioned in previous Weekly Messages, St. Clement’s is taking part in the Amazon.co.uk Affiliate program, which means that every time somebody shops via our link, we receive a small commission. The important thing to bear in mind is, that the order has to be our 1. link and then 2. start shopping. Clicking our link after you have filled your shopping basket will not benefit St.Clement’s. For more information feel free to contact the webmaster sybille(at)sybilleyates(dot)com or have a look here
As this could, potentially, be a very good, and free!, method to raise money for St. Clement’s it would be great if you could share the link also with your family and friends back home. The Christmas season is approaching and a lot of folks are using Amazon to do at least part of their shopping. And, last but not least, if you, or your family and friends back home, normally use Amazon.com, please let us know so that we can add this also to our website.
5) Buy your Christmas cards from St. Clement’s – We shall shortly have packs of Christmas cards for sale at the back of Church from which, part of the sale price will go to St. Clement’s. Buy your Christmas cards from us & tell your non-worshipping friends about them too. The text inside is in English & cards with English text are not easy to come by in the Czech Republic.
A reminder that if you are a Czech taxpayer, by giving using methods 1 or 2 above, at the end of the year the Treasurer can give you a certificate allowing you to claim your giving as tax-deductible. And a big ‘Thank you‘ to everybody who already does give to support maintaining our English-speaking ministry in the heart of Prague.
That’s more than enough for this week!
Best wishes
Ricky
