This is the Anglican parish church serving Hethe. The parish is part of the Shelswell Benefice and works in partnership with our neighbouring parishes.
The church is dedicated to the original and current patron saints of England, St Edmund & St George.
Our history is found at the bottom of this page.
Open Church
The church is open every day for visitors and individual private prayer. There is also a box of food and books to borrow in the church. The food which is not used locally will be taken to Bicester food bank.
Please take care and think of others using the church.
The church is a place where people come, whether regularly or just occasionally, to find refreshment, peace, inspiration and perhaps seeking answers to some of life’s biggest questions.
This space of sanctuary and sacredness, this nourishment of the soul, affects the health and wellbeing of the whole community.
Extracted from “How Village Churches Thrive” published by Church House.
Worship
St Edmund & St George Services
The revised service pattern to take effect from January 2022
Special Service in St Edmund & St George Sunday 14 August 2022
Lay led service:
A new lay led service started in 2022. It takes place at 9.30am on the 4th Sunday of alternate months. This modern service will focus on gratitude for the world around us and care for the environment. We want to use music, words and silence for praise and reflection. All are welcome and we encourage families to bring children – they can just be themselves.
The PCC are considering the options for providing other opportunities for worship in Hethe. All parishioners are welcome to attend services in other villages (perhaps getting there through car share or rambles) or we could introduce something different in our village such as lay lead services or a contemplation/meditation group. The PCC would welcome your opinion and ideas.
All Services in the Church are recorded on the Village Calendar. For other services in the Shelswell Benefice – http://www.shelswellparishes.info/.
Baptisms, Weddings & Funerals
Our beautiful church is a public building, here for the community it serves. If you live in our parish or have a connection with our parish, we welcome you to celebrate a baptism or to get married here. Our clergy are also available to conduct funeral services in the church or at a crematorium. Do contact the Benefice Office if we can help – tel 01280 848192 email admin@shelswellparishes.info.
Retirement of our Rector
Thank you – Open Village Meeting to discuss the future of St Edmund & St George Church
MEMBERS OF HETHE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL 2026
The PCC is the committee who have the responsibility of promoting in the ecclesiastical parish, the whole mission of the Church: pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. This is achieved with the assistance of the Shelswell Benefice team under the direction of the Rector, the Revd Alice Goodall. The PCC is also specifically responsible for the maintenance of the Church of St Edmund and St George in Hethe.
Three past members of the PCC died in 2021/2022:
- John Sermon NDD PPCSD
- Penny Jacoby
- Iris Alder who was a regular at services and served on the PCC from April 2016 to March 2019. Her funeral took place in our Church on 9 June 2022.
Opportunity to serve your Parish Church and Community
Next PCC Meeting – Wednesday 14 October 2026 starting at 1.30pm.
Safeguarding
The parish of Hethe is committed to the safeguarding of children, young people and adults. We follow the House of Bishops guidance and policies and have our own Parish Safeguarding Officer (PSO), Flora Skinner. The Diocese of Oxford’s safeguarding pages contain vital links and information including contacts for the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor (DSA) who advises our PSO. If you are concerned that a child or adult has been harmed or may be at risk of harm, please contact the DSA. If you have immediate concerns about the safety of someone, please contact the police and your local authority Children or Adults Services.
Hethe PCC members are receiving basic safeguarding awareness training.
Activities
Concert in St Edmund & St George Church 6 July 2025
Opus Sax Concert 6 July 2025
If you are concerned by the lack of gates at the end of the church path, they have not been stolen! They were removed to enable a thorough cleaning of the path and their fate is under consideration.
Fund Raising
News
Maintenance of the Parish Churchyard
Thank you to everyone who contributed towards decorating the church for Christmas 2024.
Updates to how you may give to support our church.
Thanks are due to PCC members Helen Pritchard and Helen Wood for the plants given away on Mothering Sunday and to Flora for the Hot Cross Buns and Easter eggs.
Many thanks to the volunteers who work so hard to make our church a special place in the community. They undertake varied roles from helping to maintain the churchyard, to church cleaning, to providing flowers, to being members of the PCC – all are thanked for their contributions.
Save our Church
Please see our Fund Raising Page.
To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.
Hebrews 11:1
Book Club
Thanks to Flora we now have a reorganised and professionally displayed range of books and CDs in the church. A wonderful opportunity to browse and borrow!
If you have books which are in good condition to contribute to the stall please leave them in the church.
Local Church and Village Information
To obtain up to date information from all villages in our area, read the Shelswell News. A copy is available in our church, alternatively you can subscribe and receive your own copy every month. Contact the Benefice Administrator, Becky Adams, on 01280 848192, admin@shelswellparishes.info.
We are also on “A Church Near You” and “Explore Churches”
Electoral Roll
Remembrance Service
If you would like a copy of the remembrance leaflet there are still spare copies in the church from the 2018 Service.
Churchyard Tidy-up
Please see the Eco-Church Page. Many thanks to everyone who helped with the 2025 spring tidy up. We are grateful for help at any time – strimming, weeding, etc – but please do not pull ivy off the stone walls as it damages the stonework.
The PCC
Hethe Parochial Church Council (PCC) is the elected governing body responsible for promoting the mission of the Anglican Church in the Parish of Hethe. It is chaired by the Rector for Shelswell. The PCC is responsible for the financial affairs and the care and maintenance of the fabric and contents of the Church of St Edmund and St George.
Our PCC consists of the following members:
• Chairperson – our Rector
• Church Warden
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Deanery Synod Representative
• Three other members
The Church Wardens are elected at an annual meeting of all parishioners from Hethe and automatically become PCC members while in that office. Their duties include:
• representing parishioners and co-operating with the Rector;
• encouraging the parishioners in the practice of religion and promoting unity and peace among them;
• maintaining order and decency in the church and churchyard and ownership of the plate, ornaments and other moveable goods of the church.
The PCC members and Deanery Synod Representative are elected at an annual meeting open to all parishioners who are on the electoral roll (see the list in the church porch).
The PCC is a charity and all PCC members are trustees of that charity.
Opportunity to serve your Parish Church and Community
Annual Meetings 2026
Flora was re-elected as Church Warden at the Annual Meeting of Parishioners. The following were agreed at the APCM.
The last examined reports from the PCC:
Report and Accounts for Hethe Parochial Church Council 2025 Vers 0.1
MEMBERS OF HETHE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL 2026
History
The Church is Grade 2 Listed and is sited within Hethe Conservation Area. There is also a Grade 2 Listed Headstone dated 1682 (approximately 10 Metres South of the Porch).
The first church on this site was dedicated to St Edmund and was built in the early 12th Century by a Lord Norman de Verden, whose father served with William the Conqueror. A hundred and fifty years later Hethe had outgrown its small Norman church which was rebuilt and on a St George’s Day around the turn of the 14th Century it was rededicated to become the Church of St Edmund and St George.
In 1859 the Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street restored the building, widened the chancel arch, and added the bell-turret and the north aisle. Street moved the east window from the chancel to the north aisle and inserted a new east window in the chancel in its place.
St Edmund the Martyr
In November we remember the death of St Edmund on 20th November 869.
Our church is dedicated to St Edmund and St George, the original and current patron saints of England. St Edmund (also known as Edmund the Martyr or Edmund of East Anglia) was the Anglo-Saxon King of East Anglia from about 855 until his death at the hands of the invading Vikings. By tradition he met his death after he refused the invaders demand that he renounce Christ.
St Edmund is the patron of Kings, pandemics, the Roman Catholic diocese of East Anglia, Douai Abbey, wolves, torture victims, and protection from the plague.
The above photo is taken of the front of the “Chapel of St Edmund, King and Martyr” in Exeter Cathedral.
Church by Drone
In 2014 a drone was used to film the church during the quinquennial inspection….
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hate, that I may bring love;
where there is offence, that I may bring pardon;
where there is discord, that I may bring union;
where thers is error, that I may bring truth
where there is doubt, that I may bring faith;
where there is despair, that I may bring hope;
where there is darkness, that I may bring light;
and where there is sadness, that I may bring joy.
O Master,
make me not so much to be consoled as to console;
not so much to be loved as to love;
not so much to be understood, as to understand;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
St Francis of Assisi – 13th century
