HELPRINGHAM Parish Council is seeking to recruit a new Clerk, following the resignation of Mrs. S. Tarry.
The post is for 22 hours per month to cover administration of the Council’s business/finances and attendance at meetings.  A flexible approach is necessary, as the position involves some evening work. A competitive salary is offered.
For a job description and an application form please contact the Chairman Mr. G Hotchkin at Bridgeway, Highgate, Helpringham (01529 421211).
Applications should be received by 12 noon on 12th March please.

GIFT AID AT LINCOLN CATHEDRAL
Lincoln Cathedral now offers a gift aid scheme. If you are a UK taxpayer and are able to gift aid your entrance charge, as a thank you we will give you a free annual pass. This pass enables free entry into the Cathedral for one whole year and includes ground, roof and tower tours throughout the year, when the tours are available.
If you are not able to gift aid you can make your entrance charge a donation and still receive a free annual pass.
For more details please contact our visitor services office by telephone: 01522 561600 or by email: visitors@lincolncathedral.com.
We thank you for your support and hope that you will be able to visit soon and make the most of your wonderful Cathedral.

Further details, including a programme of events for 2013, are available on the notice board inside the church.

49 CLUB
The winners of the 49 Club from 19th January 2013 through to 9th February 2013 were as follows.

Each winner receives £25

Sat 19th Jan Rosemary Bailey
Sat 26th Jan Rosemary Bailey
Sat 2nd Feb Fred Jervis
Sat 9th Feb Janet Simpson

All proceeds go to the Memorial Hall

MEMORIAL HALL NEWS

So a new year of events begins at the Memorial Hall, with many clubs returning after the Winter break and everybody ready to come out after the cold and wet.
We do hope all of you will support our first event of the year by coming to
THE SPRING FAIR ON SATURDAY 23RD MARCH 10AM TO 3PM.
MANY CRAFT STALLS some new, CAKES, RAFFLE, TOMBOLA AND OUR FAMOUS CAFE FOR TASTY FOOD.
ADMISSION 20P (Proceeds to the Memorial Hall Funds)
Watch this space for news of forthcoming events this year; we look forward to seeing you all. Remember the Memorial Hall is available for private bookings contact Mick on 421853 or Laraine on 421110.

HALL DIARY March 2013

FRi	1st	Kung Fu	7:00pm
Tue	5th	Arts and Crafts	1:30pm
		Ballroom Dancing	7:00pm
Thur	7th	Lunch Club	12:30pm
		Ballroom and Sequence for beginners	6:30pm
Fri	8th	Kung Fu	7:00pm
Tue	12th	Arts and Crafts	1:30pm
		Ballroom Dancing	7:00pm
Wed	13th	Petticoat Club	7:30pm
		Parish Council	7:30pm
Thur	14th	Ballroom and Sequence for beginners	6:30pm
		Darby & Joan AGM	2:00pm
Fri	15th	Kung Fu	7:00pm
Mon	18th	Hall Committee	7:30pm
Tue	19th	Arts and Crafts	1:30pm
		Ballroom Dancing	7:00pm
Thur	21st	Lunch Club	12:30pm
		Ballroom and Sequence for beginners	6:30pm
		History Society	7:00pm
Fri	22nd	Kung Fu	7:30pm
Sat	23rd	SPRING FAIR	10am - 3pm
Tue	26th	Arts and Crafts	1:30pm
		Ballroom Dancing	7:00pm
Wed	27th	Gardening Club	7:30pm
Thur	28th	Ballroom and Sequence for beginners	6:30pm
Fri	29th	Kung Fu	7:00pm
Every Monday and Friday: Take Care Lincs 10:30am to 3:30pm

To hire the hall for all your functions, weekday rates are £6.50 per hour for clubs
and £11.00 per hour for fund raising and weekends, plus £10.00 for use of the
kitchen and £10.00 for use of the bar.
Hire of Conference Room £6.00 per hour
Daily Hire of complete Hall £140.00
These prices include heating or air conditioning.
For Bookings please telephone Mick 421853 or Laraine 421 1 1 0

Enquiries re Baptism, weddings etc. should be made to The Reverend Chris Harrington on 01529 460904.
For other Church queries in Helpringham please contact John West on 421871

NEWS FROM THE PEWS

On Ash Wednesday, which literally marked the beginning of Lent, the Bishop of Grantham Rt. Rev'd Dr Tim Ellis came to St Andrew's Heckington to dedicate the new meeting room, toilets and servery along with some new hymn books and service books. Although it was a bitterly cold snowy night, a good congregation of people, including the architect Tim Benton and the builders D. Hatcher & Sons braved the weather to celebrate the conclusion of another major project at the church. The new meeting room is dedicated to Betty Arnold who ran the church Sunday school at Heckington for many years, teaching hundreds of children the basics of the Christian faith before her death several years ago. Hanging on the wall in the room is a large knitted tapestry of the top section of the huge east window, knitted entirely by Gill Bland, who died suddenly two days before.  Gill was always seen with a pair of knitting needles in her hands and was 'chief knit' of the recently formed craft group 'Stitching Together' which meets on a Tuesday morning at 10.30am at the Wesleyan Chapel in Heckington. The news of her sudden death, and those of other recent bereavements, remind us of the fragility of life and the need to "seize the day". 
On 1st March there will be a St David's Day concert at Helpringham church at 7.30pm to help raise funds for the group choir. We are so blessed with a high standard of church music here and it is right to encourage them in their ministry. There is also an opportunity to hear some new talent too, so do come along.
The movable feast of Easter is celebrated early this year and marks the end of my first year in this group of parishes, I can hardly believe that it was a year ago that I was so warmly welcomed at that wonderful licensing service here at Helpringham. This Easter we will be celebrating Maundy Thursday at Helpringham on 28th March with an opportunity to have your feet washed by the vicar!
A new church electoral roll, allowing those on it to vote on church matters, is currently being produced in time for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting in April, and will replace the old one. If you want to be on the new roll please contact Ros Prior (421632)and ask for a form. Details will be on the church notice board.   
If you have never been confirmed but would like to be, there is another wonderful opportunity to be confirmed at Lincoln Cathedral on Saturday 18th May at 5.30pm. A five session 'preparation for confirmation' course will be starting sometime in March, so if you want to be confirmed please contact me for more details.
If I don't see you, have a very happy Easter.
Rev 'Capt' Chris

 

CHURCH SERVICES ACROSS THE GROUP IN MARCH 2013

3rd MARCH - 3rd Sunday of Lent
9.30am Great Hale (Holy Communion)         
11am Burton Pedwedine (Holy Communion)
11am Heckington (Morning Praise)
6pm Scredington (Evensong)

10th MARCH - Mothering Sunday
9.30am Scredington (Holy Communion)
11am Heckington (Holy Communion)
11am Swaton (Morning Praise)
11am Great Hale (Informal Family Service)
4pm Helpringham (Evensong)

17th MARCH - 5th of Lent
9.30am Helpringham (Holy Communion)
11am Heckington (Holy Communion)

24th MARCH - Palm Sunday
9.30am Swaton (Holy Communion)
11am Heckington (Holy Communion)
11am Helpringham (Morning Praise)
11am Scredington (New Morning Service)
6pm Great Hale (Passion Readings)

28th MARCH - Maundy Thursday
7pm Helpringham (Holy Communion & Footwashing)

29th MARCH - Good Friday
9.30am Great Hale (Stations of the Cross)
10.30am Walk of witness from Great Hale
11am Heckington (Open air service on village green followed by hot cross buns at Methodist chapel)

31st MARCH - Easter Sunday
6pm Heckington (Dawn Eucharist & Breakfast at the Rectory)
9.30am Howell (Holy Communion)
11am Heckington (Holy Communion)

Rev Chris Harrington,
Priest in Charge of the Heckington & Helpringham Group
10 Cameron Street, Heckington (460904)
c.r.harrington@btinternet.com
www.heckingtonandhelpringhamgroup.org.uk

   

PETTICOAT CLUB NEWS
First of all a big thank-you to those who braved the snow and managed to get to our February meeting to be entertained by Ruth Andrews in her inimitable way. This time we were treated to “Weird and Wonderful” and as ever Ruth made the evening interesting and fun. She brought along an odd assortment of items all of which had a tale to tell and our task initially was to try to guess exactly what they were.  From Peking Opera cards and a strip of embossed lead from a child’s coffin to bags, boxes, boudoir sets, tortoiseshell, jade and clothes the items were unique and the stories attached to each, fascinating.  We were left wondering what undiscovered ‘treasures’ of our own might be hidden in our lofts.

Our next meeting will be the AGM at 7.30pm on Wednesday 13th March. Please come along and let us know how we’ve done and what we could do better! We’re always looking for new ideas and new things to try whilst having lots of fun.  Please also think about lending a hand on the Committee; your contributions and support are needed for the club to flourish.

HELPRINGHAM AND DISTRICT GARDEN CLUB
In November
Janette Merilion from Billinghay not only entertained us with stories about the various plants and shrubs used for decoration at Christmas, she also showed some spectacular slides. The effects of sunlight through frost transformed even the most basic of plants. It was a truly memorable show and gave us all ideas for filling our borders with sculptural plants and flowers as well as giving us lots of information about plant origins and customs.

HELPRINGHAM HISTORY SOCIETY
The Society would like to thank all those who helped us mount the "Sporting Helpringham" exhibition in St. Andrew's Church over the Feast Weekend. It was amazing to see how many people in Helpringham have had sporting success and we hope all those who attended found it enjoyable and interesting.
We are already planning the exhibition for next year's Feast "School Days" so please keep this in mind and look out your old school photos, artefacts and stories. This will include not just those educated in Helpringham but everyone. We ALL have school memories.
On Remembrance Sunday this year we will once again be remembering our war heroes at the Memorial Hall and would welcome any information or artefacts you may have to add to our already sizable collection, including all conflicts since the Second World War where our heroes have served and died.
The Society is now starting work on its next project "Buildings and People of Helpringham". To help with this we are seeking information on all buildings in the village and knowledge of previous ones. If you can help with this we would love to hear from you. Contact Laraine on 421110 or Julie on 421265 or any other Society members.

DARBY AND JOAN CLUB

The Darby and Joan Club Annual General Meeting will be held in the Memorial Hall on Thursday March 14th at 2.p.m. The club requires volunteers to take on the position of Secretary and Chairman to be able to continue. Anyone interested please contact Alison 421478 or Margot 460923.