Welcome - This website was last updated on 24thJanuary at 12noon
PANDEMIC DETAILS - LOCKDOWN 2021
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE STAY AT HOME & STAY SAFE AND AVOID MIXING WHERE POSSIBLE.
ALL CHURCH GROUPS THEREFORE REMAIN CANCELLED
HECKINGTON CHURCH IS OPEN FOR PRIVATE PRAYER EACH DAY - 9am to 4pm. BUT HECKINGTON PCC HAVE DECIDED, ALONG WITH THOSE OF OUR OTHER CHURCHES, NOT TO RECOMMENCE SUNDAY SERVICES WHILST WE ARE IN LOCKDOWN. WE WANT EVERYONE TO STAY SAFE AND AT HOME.
LISTEN TO OUR SUNDAY SERVICE EACH SUNDAY AT 11AM ON 'HECKINGTON LIVING COMMUNITY RADIO'. THIS IS AN INTERNET RADIO SO IT CAN BE LISTENED TO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD IF YOU HAVE AN INTERNET CONNECTION. PLEASE PASS THE WORD. JUST GOOGLE 'HECKINGTON LIVING COMMUNITY RADIO' TO LISTEN.
THE SERVICE SHEET FOR EACH SUNDAY SERVICE WHICH INCLUDES THE SERMON CAN BE READ OR DOWNLOADED FROM THE WORSHIP FROM THE RECTORY PAGE OF THIS WEBSITE AND IS AVAILABLE THE DAY BEFORE.
A PODCAST OF OUR SUNDAY SERVICE IS AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD FROM THIS WEBSITE AT AROUND 12 NOON EACH SUNDAY. Plus there is a library of previous services which can be downloaded from the 'Worship from the Rectory' page of this website
OUR TELEPHONE ROTA HAS RESTARTED. TO BE INCLUDED PLEASE CALL REV CHRIS 460904
IN FOR LUNCH - Canon Beverley & David Stark have restarted their 'In for Lunch' weekly round robin email of stories by local people. If you would like to be included please phone them (461519).
SUNDAY SERVICE ON ZOOM - Canon Beverley & David Stark are offering a half hour sunday service on ZOOM at 10am. If you want to be included please contact Bill Marshall (421148) who will email you the link.
PRAYER
Lord God, in this time of uncertainty and change, help us to look out for others, grant us your peace, re-awaken faith, keep our loved ones safe, and thank you for every act of kindness and love that you inspire. In Jesus name. Amen
We give thanks to Helpringham School who organised a 'Reverse' Advent Calendar. Instead of getting a choc when a window is opened each day they gave some food to Helpringham Church Foodbank, which is administered entirely by Fiona Lightfoot one of our Church Wardens at Helpringham (07393 553091). Fiona was over the moon and understandably emotional when she collected all this food from school on 17th Dec. A brilliant effort and a wonderfully generous idea. The day after two local boys Joshua & Joseph opened their 'Elf on the Shelf' (where money appears if they have been good), and decided to spend it all on buying food for those in need and bringing it to the foodbank. How amazing is that. What a community. Fantastic everyone and especially Joshua & Joseph. Your parents must be so proud.
Thank you all so much and may God bless you all richly.
News from Rev 'Captain' Chris Harrington - Rector
(To see our Rector in The Sun Newspaper 9th Oct 2020 just Google 'Rev Chris Harrington')
Yes its lockdown time again. How we do church is changing, but not stopping.
Prayer worship and pastoral work continue, but in a different way. The new Tier 4 restrictions are now in force in our area. It means churches are allowed to be open for private prayer and also for worship services. However at present only Heckington Church will be open each day for private prayer (in the south aisle only). Masks must be worn and please use the hand sanitiser available. Social distancing must also be maintained if more than one person is in the church. The books that used to be for sale remain out of bounds, so please don't drop off any books as we can't receive them. Sorry.
THE CHURCHES IN OUR GROUP THAT ARE OPEN FOR PRIVATE PRAYER EACH DAY
Heckington Church
Open daily for private prayer 9am to 4pm - No books available or tours at present sorry. Masks must be worn. Please use the hand sanitiser provided at the door. If more than one person in church then please observed social distancing.
PASTORAL PHONE ROTA
The weekly pastoral phone round of everyone in our Prayer & Care Directory will be restarting. If you haven't received a call either from me, or one of our pastoral team then please give me a ring (01529 460904) as your name might not be in our Prayer & Care Directory, but can soon be added for future weeks. We are also praying for everyone in it by name too.
Sunday Morning Worship on 'Heckington Living Community Radio' at 11am each Sunday
The Sunday morning broadcasts will be continuing. Each week I put a Sunday Morning Service on the 'Worship from the Rectory' page. It has the readings set for that week along with prayers, hymns and a sermon, so you can join in at home if you want to. I record the service at the Rectory either on Friday or Saturday to be broadcast live on 'Heckington Living Community Radio' at 11am that Sunday and afterwards put a podcast on this website (though sadly the sound quality for the music is not as good as the live broadcast). In order to add variety, and include the ministries of others, Rev Stephen, Canon Beverley and David Stark contribute sermons every other week, and those who usually lead the intercessions in our churches send in their prayers which I read out on their behalf. To hear the service on a Sunday just Google 'Heckington Living Community Radio' and click on the play symbol - If you don't hear the service straight away don't worry you are on the station just wait for the music to finish which sometimes is 11.05am.
Library of Sunday Service Broadcasts
There are now 47 Audio Podcasts of the radio broadcasts from the start of the Corona Virus pandemic in March which are available to download from the 'Worship from the Rectory' page, including the fourth Sunday of Epiphany - 24th Jan 2021.
Daily Prayer
If you want to join in morning prayer and evening prayer at home there are service sheets you can download in the links below and other prayer resources. Please do feel free to phone me for personal prayer and spiritual help if needed (01529 460904).
There is the usual 15 minute daily service from the BBC on Radio 4 LW at 9.45am each morning (Monday to Friday) with plenty of thoughts for each day. Its always worth a listen with a different contributor each day including hymns and songs.
THE CALL TO PRAYER IN OUR GROUP OF CHURCHES
MORE PRAYERS FOR USE DURING THE PANDEMIC
A chance for YOU to contribute to our website
There is a page to our website called 'Reflections, Readings, Prayers and Blogs' in order to share some of the things others have sent in to me. If you want to send me yours please email them to me. I have already posted a couple of Blogs on there and will do more when feel inspired to do so.
During the first lockdown Canon Beverley and David organised a daily 'round robin blog' by email for over 80 days and have now published a booklet of reflections from members of that group. If you want a copy let me know. Their daily blog has now finished but was greatly appreciated by all those who subscribed to it. So a big thanks to them and all who contributed to it.
Other resources
Please do look at the Church of England Website - (churchofengland.org) where there are national updates and lots of resources for prayer and worship at home + links to live-streaming of services around the country. There is also the website of Lincoln Diocese (lincoln.anglican.org) with local news, letters and updates from our Bishops.
In addition to our Sunday Service on Heckington Living Community Radio at 11am every Sunday, there is a daily service on BBC Radio 4 LW at 9.45am each morning with plenty of thoughts for each day. Songs of Praise on Sundays at 1.15pm on BBC 1. Choral Evensong on Radio 3 at 3pm on Sundays and 3.30pm on Wednesdays. BBC Sounds App has lots of resources too. It's a chance to catch up with some great radio programmes you may have missed in the past. In this digital age we are certainly not short of resources!
Financial and Practical Help is available
Please see the 'Practical Help' page on this website for details about help with local shopping and the community larder in Heckington and the Church food bank at Helpringham along with details of charitable trusts for hardship grants.
WHO WE ARE
The Heckington & Helpringham Group of Parishes are a group of eight Anglican Parish Churches who are part of the Lafford Deanery within the southern part of the Diocese of Lincoln. The churches in our group are:
St Andrew's Asgarby
St Andrew with St Nicholas & The Blessed Virgin Mary, Burton Pedwardine
St John the Baptist Great Hale
St Andrew's Heckington
St Andrew's Helpringham,
St Andrew's Scredington
St Michael's Swaton.
They each have their own pages on this website. Do browse the site and if there is anything you are looking for but can't find it please do contact me.Keep safe & enjoy life despite the circumstances.
Rev 'Captain' Chris Harrington