Dear People & Friends of St. Clement’s,
As I wrote two weeks ago, during the months of July & August, St. Clement’s goes into ‘summer mode’. One aspect of this is that my normal ‘Weekly Message’ will be less frequent during this time – the observant ones amongst you will have noticed that I didn’t write & send out a ‘Weekly’ last week. Simply, there is less to write about and I myself will be on annual leave for part of time (see below). However, before that, I have a busy weekend ahead as I’m officiating at a Welsh – Czech wedding in the Old Catholic Cathedral on Petřín Hill – rehearsal this evening & wedding tomorrow – as well as conducting worship at St. Clement’s on Sunday at 11.00.
Sunday 15th July at 11.00 – Sung Eucharist for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity
Whilst the Gospel Reading is the sad story of the beheading of John the Baptist (Mark 6. 14-29), we also begin a series of readings from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with chapter 1. 3-14 being our second reading, which will be preceded by Amos 7. 7-15 that tells of the prophet’s vision of a plumb line. As always, it is well worth reading the passages yourself in advance of attending worship. Cool Refreshments will be served at the back of Church following the service.
Your Chaplain will be on annual leave
Sybille & I are away on holiday between Monday 16th – Monday 30th July. However, there will be a Sung Eucharist as normal on both Sunday 22nd & Sunday 29th July. The celebrant & preacher on both Sundays will be ThDr Petr Jan Vinš, the fluent English-speaking priest from the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic. My especial thanks to everybody on the rota of welcoming, interceding, administering the chalice & reading on these two Sundays. I will be speaking with one or two Church Council members on this coming Sunday & passing on keys to ensure that we leave the Church both tidy & secure each Sunday whilst Sybille & I are not around. And please will everybody make Petr welcome as he officiates during my absence.
A couple of notes of thanks
Firstly, to everyone who has been contributing to the wheelie bin from the Salvation Army at the back of Church in which we are collecting tinned food to help with feeding the homeless here in Prague. There were some more ‘clumps’ last Sunday & lets have some more during the coming weeks!
Secondly, to everyone who has put used postage stamps into the collecting envelope on the noticeboard at the back of Church to help support the work of the Intercontinental Church Society (ICS), who have been & continue to be, so supportive both prayerfully & financially, towards the Prague Anglican congregation. Earlier this week, I sent off a large quantity of used postage stamps to the UK organiser of the scheme which is why the collecting envelope is once more empty :-)
A couple of news items
Mentioning ICS, reminds me to say that there are copies of the ICS News & Prayer Diary for July-September available free at the back of Church. They unfortunately came rather late through the post but a number of you did pick up copies last Sunday.
Also last Sunday, we used our new altar cloth for the first time or ‘Jesus’ new tablecloth‘ as Marshall likes to call it :-) The total cost, including a new corporal and six new purificators which we first used a couple of weeks previously, has been just under CZK 1400, far less than I originally envisaged. However, it wasn’t budgeted for & therefore if somebody would like to donate the total cost of renewing our altar linen, I’m sure our Treasurer Gordon Truefit would love to hear from you truegordon1(at)volny(dot)cz.
And finally, one request for help
Once I’m back from annual leave, I’m going to be putting together a programme of activities for St. Clement’s from the beginning of September until the end of the year. Is there something you would like to see in that programme? A topic you would like addressed or discussed? An interesting speaker we could invite to speak to us? I’d love to hear any ideas you might have as it is always better to ‘scratch where people are itching’ if you’ll excuse the expression!
Best wishes
Ricky
