Church papers' views...

Parish magazines are often the lifeblood of their local communities, and offer a great resource for those communities as well as allowing churches to make vital contact with all their parishioners.

Some are simple: brief news sheets containing information about services and key contacts, while others are more adventurous. But all of them are a useful tool in enabling a community to speak to itself.

Here at The Church of England Newspaper we pay close attention to parish magazines, often a source for an unusual story, and they often raise a smile with pearls of wit and wisdom.

Parish magazines are a national success story, as nearly every church in the land produces one. May they continue to grow in success and influence over the next 150 years.

Colin Blakely

Editor, The Church of England Newspaper

www.churchnewspaper.com/

Parishes are run by unsung heroes (not sure how you sing a hero, actually), but among those with the fewest songs are the editors of parish magazines, who month after month cope with copy from people who don't understand about deadlines, word-counts, punctuation, illustrations - anything, really. And the laity are nearly as bad.

And yet communities around the country continue to be encouraged, informed and inspired by the magazines that these editors manage to produce.

Heroes all.

Paul Handley

Editor, Church Times

www.churchtimes.co.uk