September Bulletin

September/October Bulletin

Dear Friends,

Well after a fantastic summer we are just about to settle into the Fall/Autumnal season and the beginning of a new church calendar year.  We have plenty of activities  this coming church year and September through to January is particularly busy.

In October we will move back to meeting on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Saturdays of every month.  Our 1st and 3rd Saturdays will follow the format of our usual service, with the 2nd Saturday being a ‘meditational type service’ – with music, reflections and candles of joy and concern.

This coming Saturday sees the visit of Michal representing the charity ‘Amelie’ our partnership charity in the November Art Project, which will run from Thursday November 8th through to Saturday November 10th.  We are still selling canvasses and hope that you will purchase some either for yourself or for family/friends.  The deadline for the submission of completed canvasses is Saturday October 6th – so please let’s make this Art Project a real success and involve as many people as possible.  Social Justice is one of the hallmarks of our Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist Faith and this project is a great way of engaging in the process of social justice – raising money and awareness for this most worthy of causes.  Also, by involving ourselves in this project, we are increasing the profile of our congregation and our Faith here in Prague.

Thanks to all of you who have registered for the Eco Spiritual Day Conference on Saturday September 15th.  Although the event starts with registration at 10am, I would like as many of you there as possible by 945am on the day of the event.  Susan has kindly taken charge of the catering arrangements and practicalities for lunch and volunteers, while Kristina is in charge of the coffee making and refreshment times at the event.  The speakers are all working hard on their manuscripts and for those Czech speakers amongst us – all of the three papers given, will simultaneously be translated into Czech by Tereza.

If you haven’t registered yet for the Eco Spiritual Conference but now find that you, or a friend, would like to attend then please email Simon by this coming Sunday September 2nd.  How we live out our lives and our faith in partnership with our planet is one of the most important issues of our time. 

My warmest wishes for this coming season.

In Faith,

Mark

September

Saturday 1st at 11am  – Service led by Susan and Cricket and Snail, together with Michal from Amelie.

Thursday 13th at 1pm – Coffee and Chat Group (see below.)

Saturday 15th at 10am – Eco Spiritual Conference.

Wednesday 26th at 630pm – Reading Group(see below).

October

Saturday 6th at 10am – Buddhist Meditation Practice led by Mark

                          11am – Service led by Mark + Cricket and Snail.

Thursday 11th at 1pm – Coffee and Chat Group (see below).

Saturday 13th at 11am – Meditational Service led by Susan and Lukas

Saturday 20th at 11am – Service led by Mark and Lukas.

Wednesday 24th at 630pm – Reading Group(see below).

November

Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th – European Unitarian Universalist Retreat in Cologne, Germany.  The theme speaker is Rev Chris Hudson, minister of All Souls Church in Belfast.  Chris and his wife Isabella are two of our closest friends.  He is a great orator and a very humorous story teller.  If you decide to come to the retreat I am sure you will find the weekend both meaningful and inspiring.  

We were accepted into formal membership of EUU, as a congregation, in 2017.  Although some of us have been individual members of EUU since 2015.  EUU members are a great bunch of people and it would be lovely to see a number of us attending the retreat from Prague.  Simon and I are going.

Saturday 3rd at 11am – Service led by Susan + Cricket and Snail.

For more info on the Eco Spiritual Conference please follow this weblink:

http://pragueunitarians.com/eco-spiritual-conference.html

For more info on our Art Project ‘Everyone’s Original’ please follow this weblink:

http://pragueunitarians.com/art-event.html

For more info on the European Unitarian Universalist Retreat in Cologne please follow this weblink: http://www.europeanuu.org/euu-gatherings/upcoming-retreats/euu-fall-2018-retreat-building-trust/

                                            

Small Group Activities:  

Currently our congregation has  three active social groups.

The Coffee and Chat Group meets on the second Thursday of the month, and the Reading Group meets on the fourth Wednesday, at different locations.  Also watch out for Impromptu Cinema notices as we have a new group who are interested in Film – especially films with an emphasis on social justice.  We will also be looking out for movies that have interesting historical, cultural and art themes.

Keep checking our Facebook Page for Small Group Activities.

September

Coffee and Chat Group

Thursday, September 13, 1:00

Pivovar Narodni, Narodni 8

https://www.pivovarnarodni.cz/

There is a large leafy garden with umbrellas for shade, and lots of room inside in case of rain.

Reading Group

Wednesday, September 26, 6:30

Friends Coffee House, Palackeho 7

http://www.milujikavu.cz/cs/home/

This is a warm and inviting place with cushy chairs and a lovely cakes menu.

Please read the book:

Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey is a best-selling non-fiction book on the lives of the Romani people by the American-Uruguayan writer Isabel Fonseca published in 1995.

October

Coffee and Chat Group

Thursday October 11th at 1pm

Venue: TBA

Reading Group

Wednesday October 24th at 630pm

Venue: TBA

Annual Membership Donation

This is just a reminder that we are asking for your Membership donations by Thursday November 1st.  The Membership donation/fee is 600 Czech Crowns per person.  If you cannot afford the donation, please have a word with Mark as we have a few members who will give the donation on your behalf – this is a totally confidential process.

For every 600 Czech Crowns donation we get 4 times this amount back from Church Headquarters which helps fund our church program.

Donations can be given to Simon, our treasurer, or to Susan in Simon’s absence.  You can contact Simon by email : simon@pragueunitarians.com

Thought Provoking Documentaries To Look Out For:

THE KING

Forty years after the death of Elvis Presley, two-time Sundance Grand Jury winner – Eugene Jarecki’s new film takes the King’s 1963 Rolls Royce on a musical road trip across America.  You get to meet many colourful and interesting characters (both famous and non) on this road trip, some of whom knew the King personally.  There is some fab input from Alec Baldwin along the way!

THE EYES OF ORSON WELLES

Granted exclusive access to hundreds of private drawings and paintings by Orson Welles, filmmaker Mark Cousins dives deep into the visual world of this legendary director and actor, to reveal a portrait of the artist as he’s never been seen before – through his own eyes, sketched with his own hand, painted with his own brush.

The Eyes of Orson Welles brings vividly to life the passions, politics and power of this brilliant 20th-century showman, and explores how the genius of Welles still resonates today in the age of Trump, more than 30 years after his death.

Welles mother, Beatrice Ives Welles, was a Unitarian and a social activist.  His mother is considered to be the greatest influence on his life.   The filmmaker attributes this influence to her Unitarian Faith and her social justice activism.  His mother is mentioned in the documentary as is the Unitarian Church Orson attended as a child.

FACES PLACES

Making her long awaited return to filmmaking, at the age of 90, Agnes Varda embarks on a road trip with a young photographer known as JR.

Both Varda and JR share a lifelong passion for images and how they are created, displayed and shared.  When the pair first met they instantly recognised the opportunity for a unique collaboration and set about exploring the villages and small towns of rural France. Meeting different groups of people, they were inspired to create large-scale portraits plastered across unconventional locations. What followed was a heartwarming insight into hitherto unnamed communities, documented here in Varda’s typically tender, playful and humanist manner.

This film is tender, funny and inspirational.

Greeting and Stewarding Rota

As our congregation continues to grow, we need volunteers to sign up for the Greeting and Stewarding Rota.  The Greeting volunteer will welcome people to our services + hand out the orders of service.  The Stewarding volunteer will help set up the table for refreshments + help with the coffee etc.  For those volunteering, we would ask that you be at the Capek Hall by 1045am – 15 minutes before the service starts.  We will start up the rota in October and ask for volunteers for the following Saturday services:

Saturday 6th October         – Greeter and Steward

Saturday 13th October.       – Greeter and Steward

Saturday 20th October        – Greeter and Steward

Saturday 3rd November       – Greeter and Steward

Please let Susan know if you are volunteering for one of these roles and for which Saturday service/services.  You can email Susan on susan@pragueunitarians.com

Finally:

  1. If anyone knows of a Yoga Teacher who teaches ‘Chair Yoga’ can you please let Mark know.
  2. Mark is starting up a monthly Buddhist Meditation Practice from Saturday October 6th at 10am.  Mark would like to know if the meditators would like him to introduce a form of ‘Mindful Movement’ into the Meditation Practice which comes from ‘Kum Nye’ a form of Tibetan meditational movement practice/ancient Tibetan medical body practices brought to the West by Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche.  Mark did his training in Kum Nye alongside his psychotherapy training.   You can contact Mark on mark@pragueunitarians.com, or via Facebook. 

Leave a Reply