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A parish magazine is a periodical produced by and for an
ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...
, generally within the
Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
. It usually comprises a mixture of religious articles, community contributions, and parish notices, including the previous month‘s christenings,
marriages Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
, and
funerals A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...
. Magazines are sold or are otherwise circulated amongst the parishioners of the relevant church or village. They are almost invariably produced by volunteers, usually working alongside the resident clergy. From their earliest days they have frequently been augmented by the inclusion of a nationally-produced magazine supplement or a regionally produced insert, such as a
diocesan In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...
news leaflet or similar publication (and sometimes they might include both). It has been estimated that the collective readership of parish magazines exceeds that of many national newspapers. Similar magazines have also been produced by other religious denominations, including the
Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
. The parish magazine published by St Andrew's Church,
Sonning Sonning is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England, on the River Thames, east of Reading. The village was described by Jerome K. Jerome in his book ''Three Men in a Boat'' as "the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river". Geogr ...
, is believed to be the longest-running continuously published magazine of its kind.


Early history

Parish magazines were arguably foreshadowed by the sporadic printed notices or
pastoral letter A pastoral letter, often simply called a pastoral, is an open letter addressed by a bishop to the clergy or laity of a diocese or to both, containing general admonition, instruction or consolation, or directions for behaviour in particular circumst ...
s, issued to the local community by parish clergy or by the more senior clergy and found very occasionally amongst 19th-century parish archives. However the first regular parish magazine is generally recognised as being started in January 1859 by Rev. John Erskine Clarke, Vicar of St Michael's,
Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
. (Rival claims have sometimes been made for Rev.
W. J. E. Bennett William James Early Bennett (1804–1886) was an Anglican priest. Bennett is celebrated for having provoked the decision that the doctrine of the Real Presence is a dogma not inconsistent with the creed of the Church of England. This followed ...
's ''Old Church Porch'', issued at
Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in eastern Somerset, England. The town is built on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, and centres on the River Frome. The town, about south of Bath, is the largest in the Mendip d ...
in 1854.) Erskine Clarke had prepared a number of publications which were particularly aimed at children and which were designed to counteract the commercial publications then appearing. He later produced a sixteen-page periodical, which bore on the page headings the literal title ''The Parish Magazine''. It contained general interest material, often with a strong moralising edge. The idea was that this inset should be offered to parishes to include within their own localised covers, which would very often comprise no more than four printed pages. Starting with fifty-four parishes, the circulation of the ''Parish Magazine'' was eventually extended to over two hundred churches. Whilst Clarke’s inset continued to appear until 1895, competitors soon emerged and it was eventually overtaken by other alternatives. Many publishers began to produce rival insets - over thirty such examples have been described and listed. The last two of these national examples, ''Home Words'' and ''The Sign'' finally merged in 2009. For an analysis of these insets up to 1918 see Jane Platt, '"A sweet, saintly Christian business"? The Anglican Parish Magazine, 1859-1918' (Lancaster University PhD thesis, 2010). One or two of the earlier insets had also been produced on a regional or diocesan basis. Eventually the assortment of
Diocesan Magazines From the 1860s onwards a steadily increasing number of British dioceses, especially in the Church of England, began issuing publications containing a variety of news, comment and educational articles relating to their work. Similar examples were e ...
which were increasingly appearing in many areas would often include a short monthly news bulletin in a design which could similarly be included as a parish magazine inset. Many parishes nevertheless have at different times opted to issue periodicals produced entirely from within their own community and not including any of the mass-produced insets. Being largely dependent on volunteers, they have often varied their format according to local circumstances, and in some parishes they have seemingly had a rather intermittent existence. Where insets were included, these might often have originated at completely different dates from their cover magazines, or else have been merely the short-term choices of particular local editors. This makes it highly likely that most surviving collections of insets will be incomplete.


Later format and content

Where parishes opted to go it alone they clearly had to rely on locally-written material of variable quality. In fact throughout the years a significant variety of different formats will be found. A great many magazines have been redesigned, renamed or relaunched to reflect changing circumstances, or else they have been revived after an apparent hiatus. The earliest magazines had to be printed using expensive movable type methods. However from the 1900s onwards the invention of the stencil duplicator or
mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a copy made by the pro ...
- frequently known as the Gestetner machine or Roneo machine - offered cheaper alternatives, which many editors were soon to adopt. Sometimes groups of parishes - possibly based on a
rural deanery In the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion as well as some Lutheran denominations, a rural dean is a member of clergy who presides over a "rural deanery" (often referred to as a deanery); "ruridecanal" is the corresponding adjective ...
- would reduce overall costs by working together to produce a corporate magazine, with contributions from each village. A few parishes eventually opted for simpler magazines or adopted newspaper-style formats, aiming to deliver these without charge to every household in the parish. With the growth of inter-church cooperation after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, other magazines became
ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...
and were jointly published in association with local
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
,
United Reformed The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. Origins and history The United Reformed Church resulte ...
or
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
congregations. Alternatively they might eventually be absorbed into more general community titles, and some of the latter are now further issued in an online version. This pattern could become more widespread in years to come, since the future of traditional parish magazines clearly depends on sufficient volunteers coming forward. Obviously their survival will also be affected by the widespread decline in organised religion in the UK. In January 2014 the ''
Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
'' reported on the imminent closure of the
Haworth Haworth () is a village in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, in the Pennines, south-west of Keighley, west of Bradford and east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope. Nearby villages includ ...
Parish Magazine – allegedly one of the oldest in continuous existence – after 115 years. The newspaper suggested that many similar publications were on the verge of extinction in their traditional form – victims of the digital age and the increasing use of parish websites or online social networking. However a few might eventually be rebranded as glossy quarterly periodicals.


Quality

Parish magazines, being frequently produced by largely untrained volunteers with often variable talents, have always been likely to be uneven in quality. Hence they have sometimes had to face derogatory criticism from certain quarters. Many efforts have been made over the years to help conscientious local editors in producing better magazines. In 1949 the
Church Assembly The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church ...
(the forerunner of the Church of England General Synod) published a book ''Better Parish Magazines and How to Produce Them'', with the Bishop of London
William Wand John William Charles Wand, (25 January 1885 – 16 August 1977) was an English Anglican bishop. He was the Archbishop of Brisbane in Australia before returning to England to become the Bishop of Bath and Wells before becoming the Bishop of Lond ...
commenting in the foreword: ''One of the most encouraging signs of the times for ecclesiastical administrators is the very rapid improvement that is taking place in the quality of our parish magazines. There is, of course, plenty of opportunity for further advance''. Other efforts have also been more recently made on the Church of England website to provide additional help for parish magazine editors. Another (subscription-based) website The Parish Pump issues monthly contributions of new material which may also be used or adapted. Competitions have been held for some years under different sponsors to identify the current best parish magazines. These have included the award of the John King Trophy for the winning magazine in the annual Award Scheme which is organised by the Association for Church Editors.
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
Dr
Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bish ...
has stated: “A good parish magazine is a wonderful resource that places the local church at the heart of the community it serves".


Some outstanding parish magazines: 1949

The book ''Better Parish Magazines''. (mentioned above) also offered brief details of a few “outstanding parish magazines”, including those from
St Martin-in-the-Fields St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. It is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. There has been a church on the site since at least the mediev ...
;
Southwark Cathedral Southwark Cathedral ( ) or The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie, Southwark, London, lies on the south bank of the River Thames close to London Bridge. It is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. ...
; St Barnabas,
Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of ...
; Immanuel Church,
Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...
;
Church Brampton Church Brampton is a village in West Northamptonshire in England. Together with nearby Chapel Brampton the two villages are known as '' The Bramptons''. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 251 people. At the 2011 census ...
(Northants.);
All Saints, Margaret Street All Saints, Margaret Street, is a Grade I listed Anglo-Catholic church in London. The church was designed by the architect William Butterfield and built between 1850 and 1859. It has been hailed as Butterfield's masterpiece and a pioneering buil ...
; St. Stephen's, Westminster;
Holy Trinity, Brompton Holy Trinity Brompton with St Paul's, Onslow Square and St Augustine's, South Kensington, often referred to simply as HTB, is an Anglicanism, Anglican church (building), church in London, England. The church consists of six sites: HTB Brompton ...
;
Chesterfield Parish Church Chesterfield Parish Church is an Anglican church dedicated to Saint Mary and All Saints, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England. Building of the church began in 1234 AD, though the present church dates predominantly from the 14th century. Desig ...
;
Morden Morden is a district and town in south London, England, within the London Borough of Merton, in the ceremonial county of Greater London. It adjoins Merton Park and Wimbledon to the north, Mitcham to the east, Sutton to the south and Worcester Pa ...
(Surrey); St. James’s,
Milton, Portsmouth Milton is a residential area of the English city of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, on the south eastern side of Portsea Island. Milton is bordered on the eastern coast of Portsea Island by Langstone Harbour, with Eastney to the south-east, Sout ...
, and
St Mark's Church, Kennington St Mark's Church, Kennington, is an Anglican church on Kennington Park Road in Kennington, London, United Kingdom, near Oval tube station. The church is a Commissioners' church, receiving a grant from the Church Building Commission towards its ...
. Clearly this list was in no sense official, and the author was seemingly most familiar with examples from London and the south-east. Incidentally, the same list concluded by making especially favourable reference to ''The Anvil'', ''not a parish magazine but reaching an increasing number of readers all over the country''. The ''Anvil'' was the creation of the Rev. Marcus Morris of
Birkdale Birkdale is an area of Southport, within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, though historically in Lancashire, in the north-west of England. The area is located on the Irish Sea coast, approximately a mile away from the centre of S ...
, near Liverpool, who subsequently established ''Eagle'' magazine and other weekly titles for children.


Satirical usage

The format of the parish magazine was used while
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
was Prime Minister as a basis for a section in the satirical magazine
Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satire, satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely r ...
entitled
St Albion Parish News St Albion Parish News was a regular feature in the British satirical magazine ''Private Eye'' during the premiership of Tony Blair. It was in the ''Private Eye'' tradition of featuring a fortnightly column lampooning the Prime Minister of the day ...
. In this the Rev A R P Blair was presented as the Vicar of St Albion. A humorous paperback entitled ''Father Ted: The Craggy Island Parish Magazines'' was issued in 1998 to accompany the popular Irish/British television comedy series
Father Ted ''Father Ted'' is a sitcom created by Irish writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews (writer), Arthur Mathews and produced by British production company Hat Trick Productions for Channel 4. It aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until ...
. It was described as "a collection of the lead character's favourite editions of his parish magazine". One reviewer commented: "Every page looks exactly like a tatty church magazine, written with extensive use of a plastic stencil and an ancient typewriter, complete with terrible drawings and tacky-looking adverts".


Survival and location of earlier parish magazines

Surviving examples of early parish magazines are usually included within the archives of the parish in the appropriate
county record office In the United Kingdom (and particularly in England and Wales) the term county record office usually refers to a local authority repository, also called a county archives. Such repositories employ specialist staff to administer and conserve the h ...
or
diocesan record office Originally within the United Kingdom the title of diocesan record office would frequently have referred to a church-owned diocesan registry or chancery. This would have been where the episcopal registers, administrative papers and title deeds were ...
– indeed the preservation of archive copies is explicitly required under the current guidance for the
Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978 Parochial is an adjective which may refer to: * Parishes, in religion ** Parish churches, also called parochial churches * Parochial schools, primary or secondary schools affiliated to a religious organisation * Parochialism Parochialism is the ...
. Sometimes a conscientious editor may also have donated copies to a local library. However comparatively few parishes have managed to preserve long runs on a very systematic basis. Whilst some examples doubtless remain in private collections there are also likely to be hundreds of magazines for which only a few surviving copies can still be traced. During the 19th and early 20th centuries quite a few individual parishes or subscribers had their annual sets of magazines bound up each year (with or without the national insets) and this has undoubtedly assisted in their survival. A number of examples may be traced via the online catalogues of individual county record offices, or via the Access to Archives website. In recent years a small number of very early parish magazines have been reprinted in facsimile – either as curiosities or as a contribution towards the study of social history within their local area. They include a number of the early volumes of John Erskine Clarke's original ''Parish Magazine''. For similar reasons other compilers have produced anthologies relating to particular parishes.See for example R Jewers & T Jewers, ''Rev.elations from Old Parish Magazines'', 2010, . This is based on extracts from a number of parishes in the
Little Massingham Little Massingham is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is located on the northern boundary of Great Massingham. It covers an area of and had a population of 74 in 37 households at the 2001 census.
and
Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places * Sandringham, New South Wales, Australia * Sandringham, Queensland, Australia * Sandringham, Victoria, Australia **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station **Electoral district of Sandringham * Sand ...
areas of Norfolk, 1908-1933.
Early and more recent magazines are also sometimes seen advertised for sale on the World Wide Web.


References

{{cite web , title=The Parish Magazine , website=theparishmagazine.co.uk , url=http://www.theparishmagazine.co.uk


External links


A2A/Access to Archives An incomplete series of catalogues for selected categories of archives drawn from record repositories throughout England & Wales
(now linked to National Archives databases. In many instances this website can be used to obtain a limited indication of their holdings of parish magazines, although the position varies from county to county.
The ARCHON Directory includes contact details for many record offices and other archive repositories within the United Kingdom
Some of these have further online catalogues (albeit generally incomplete). These are usually linked to the repository’s individual website, which can then be used to trace further numbers of parish magazines.
Church of England website page celebrating parish magazines over the years

The Association for Church Editors
exists ''to provide practical help and advice to those concerned with producing church-based communications in the UK and overseas''. Religious magazines published in the United Kingdom