Facilities and features
Accessibility
Our Building
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 Heritage Centre is open, with permanent and changing exhibitions and the opportunity for a sit down with a cuppa.
Music and Worship
Our bell-ringers practice at 19:45 every Wednesday evening. They also have a 10-bell practice on the first Tuesday of the month at 19:30. They are a wonderful addition to a St Helen's wedding.
As well as our own choir's music making we enjoy hosting a Spring and Autumn concert series each year
The St Helen's Choir sings at the 10:30 a.m. Communion Service on the 2nd and 4th Sunday's of each month, and the Morning Worship service on the third Sunday. On the 1st Sunday of the month St Helen's has an all-age worship service at 10:30 a.m. with a music group, including singers. The Choir leads the singing at the 6:00 p.m. evensong service on those Sundays.
Our choir meets to practice every Thursday (except in August) with under-16s having a separate trebles practice from 6:30 p.m, and adult singers join them at 7:15 pm
Our excellent choir are an excellent addition to a St Helen's wedding.
Groups, Courses and Activities
‘PRG’ for Key Stage 3 young people meets during the service on the second Sunday of the month, and at 5pm, for food and fun, in the Heritage Centre on the third Thursday of the month
Children in Key Stages 1 and 2 have a Lanterns group during part of the 10:30 Sunday services, starting the service within the congregation, and coming back again to share the end of the service, and to let their church family know what they've been up to.
We have a regular series of of courses on Wednesday evenings throughout the year
Every Sunday morning after our 10:30 service we have a convivial time with good coffee and yummy biscuits served
Our Mothers' Union meet monthly on the first Tuesday of the month at 10am. They write regular updates for our monthly magazine.
Little Fishes Toddler Group is a free event for parents, grandparents, carers with pre-school children, including stories, Bible stories and fun craft activities. A healthy snack and juice is provided for the toddlers, with teas, coffees and biscuits for the adults.
Plenty of indoor 'parking' for buggies, pushchairs and prams.
Monday mornings, 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m in the St Helen's Community Heritage Centre
Having successfully completed the Pilgrim Course we now run 'Pilgrim Plus' on Wednesday evenings
St Helen's church is the base for Ashby de la Zouch's Street Pastors, and their supporting 'prayer pastors', on Saturday evenings.
Help for Visitors
Our Heritage Centre 'cafe' is open on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, serving tea, coffee, biscuits and cakes.
On the first Sunday of each month we serve 'Brunch on Sunday' at 9.15am
Other Features
We are a Fairtrade church, using fairly traded tea, coffee and sugar in our refreshment, having articles about fair-trade issues in our monthly magazine. A couple of times a year we have a Fairtrade 'shop'
Reverend Mary and our Foodbank link, Alan Sedgman, are both able to give vouchers to anyone needing to use Ashby's Foodbank.
We collect food and toiletries to donate to the Foodbank in a box in church, and a poster updates us on what is most urgently needed.
To hire either the large hall or the small meeting room in the Community Heritage Centre, contact :
[email protected] or 07392 409745