Welcome - We continue to celebrate the Trinity season.
Welcome to our website. Updated on 2nd August 2020 at 1pm - Audio PODCAST, Service sheet & sermon for Sunday service 2nd August added to Worship from the Rectory page.
News from Rev 'Captain' Chris Harrington - Rector
With the lifting of restrictions under the Corona Virus Pandemic the Archbishops of Canterbury & York have now given the go ahead for public and corporate worship in our church buildings to resume if health and safety and social distancing guidelines are followed. Unfortunately, due to the size of some of our churches, the resumption of corporate worship will not be possible with 2 metre social distancing restrictions in place. We have now been advised that face masks should be worn in church.
THE ONLY CHURCHES THAT ARE OPEN IN OUR GROUP
HECKINGTON CHURCH
Open daily for private prayer 9am to 5pm - No books available or tours at present sorry.
Also open on Sundays for a said service of Holy Communion at 10am. The wearing of face masks is now encouraged.
SWATON CHURCH
Open on Sundays only during the summer for a short informal service at the back of church at 10am - led by Canon Beverley. The wearing of face masks is now encouraged.
We will continue to monitor the national situation and advice given by the Church of England. We would welcome feedback from those who attend. Other churches in our group may open again once we are ready and logistically able to do so. As the churches that are open are mainly cordoned off except for worship on Sundays there are no church tours and the books that are usually for sale are out of bounds, so please don't drop off any books as we can't receive them.
How we do church is changing, but it is not stopping. Prayer worship and pastoral work continue, but in a different way.
Weekly Pastoral Phone Rota
The weekly pastoral phone round of everyone in our Prayer & Care Directory is continuing . 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
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 is not as good). 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.
20 audio Podcasts of the radio broadcasts are now available to down load from the 'Worship from the Rectory' page, including the one for the eighth Sunday after Trinity (2nd August).
Daily Prayer
Morning Prayer & Evening Prayer are still being said home each day. If you want to join in 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.
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. With restrictions easing, 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
For help with shopping and details of a new community larder in Heckington which opened at the village hall on 1st May, along with details of charitable trusts for hardship grants, and lots of other useful details and contacts can be on the 'Practical Help' page on this website.
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
Rector