Welcome

St. Helen's Church, set at the heart of the market town of Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, is an historic and attractive 15th century building. It is open daily from 9am until 5pm, giving plenty of opportunity to explore its wonderful history and splendid interior, with a variety of church guides, written and via 'phone app to help you. On Wednesday and Saturday mornings our helpful volunteers will be on hand, and our Heritage Centre will have exhibitions for you to enjoy, and the opportunity for a sit down with a cuppa.
At other times you may wish to sit quietly, to rest and reflect. Or you could join us at one of our weekly services or frequent fellowship and community events. To see a little of what we do, visit our Facebook page 
https://www.facebook.com/St-Helens-Church-Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

On Saturday mornings our St Helen's Community Heritage Centre is open ... and it's interactive! Between 10.30am & 12.30pm it is not only a Heritage Centre with great displays and ever new exhibitions but also a meeting place to chat, play board games, make art, do your own knitting or crochet, add a piece or two to the communal jigsaw, and all with good coffee and yummy cake to help it along.


Coming up:
 

December’s Extra Services:

  • Candlelit Advent Carol Service: 6.30pm, Sunday 1st December
  • Christingle service: 3pm, Sunday 8th December
  • Candlelit Carol Service: 6.30pm, Sunday 22nd December  
  • Children's Carol Service: 5pm, Christmas Eve
  • Midnight Mass: 11.30pm Christmas Eve
  • Christmas Day All-Age celebration service: 10.30am, 25th December
 

Pilgrim+

Pilgrim+ is the continuation of the Pilgrim course we ran here at St. Helen’s and provides an opportunity to meet in a small group and deepen your faith through discussion with others.
Last year we met to discuss how we might do advent differently, and very interesting it proved to be, leading to the introduction of a posada amongst other things. This year we will be looking at how Christmas could be approached with some different thinking. Although it is a 6 weeks course, each session is stand alone.
The Autumn module will run until Wednesday 20th November (7.30 - 9pm).

Festival of Angels
We will be celebrating our Angel Festival in church on Saturday November 30th, 10:30am to 3pm.  There will be art and displays, craft-workshops for all ages, a community art project, storytelling, song, and food. The weekend will be rounded off with the beautiful music of our Advent Carol Service at 6.30pm on Sunday 1st December.
Ahead of the event there will be ‘secret angels’ hidden around town, and our November Ashby Life article is all about angels.

Brunch on Sunday
Q.What could be nicer than enjoying conviviality and a bacon bap and some good coffee?
A. Enjoying conviviality and a bacon bap and some good coffee at St Helen's!
All of these things are served at 9.15am on the first Sunday of each month. Our next one will be on 1st December.

The Posada: playing host to Mary and Joseph in Advent
Throughout Advent, members of St Helen's are taking it in turns to host the beautiful knitted figures of Mary and Joseph created for us last year, as we think and pray about them travelling from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and think about what it means for us to travel to meet our Saviour on Christmas Day. Follow their journey on Facebook - St Helen’s Ashby de la Zouch

Pomander-making workshop:
11am to 2pm
Saturday 7th December
An event for children and adults.
£3 per child

Heritage Talks
Our winter season of Heritage talks is underway. They happen on the first Monday of the month, starting at 7.30pm. (£3 including light refreshments). Next month's, on December 2nd, is a talk on the Medieval Pottery found at our site, its dating, how it was made and what it was used for.
The speaker is David Budge who was part of the team from Mercian Archaeological Services
who ran the “Finding the Vaults” community project.
Future talks are:
January 6th - Medieval Pilgrimage to and from Leicestershire, Speaker - Peter Liddle
February 3rd - 'Pushing Up the Daisies': The Flora & Fauna of Churchyards, Speaker - Steve Woodward 
March 2nd - 'Hot off the Press', more recent finds from our research team

    


 

 
If you have a safeguarding concern, then please contact our local Safeguarding Co-ordinator, Liz Smith, via the Parish Office. If you wish to speak to the Diocesan Safeguarding Team, or to someone outside the church, their contact details are available here.
Mary Gregory, 16/05/2016