IN 1963, for the Church Times's centenary issue, the
editor sent loyal greetings to the Queen. The present editor marked
the occasion of the paper's 150th anniversary by writing again, and
received the following reply:
"The Queen was pleased to receive your kind message of
loyal greetings, sent on behalf of the proprietors, staff and
readers of the Church Times on the paper's One Hundred and
Fiftieth Anniversary.
"Her Majesty much appreciates your thoughtfulness in
writing as you did and sends her warm good wishes to all concerned
on this most special occasion."
IN RESPONSE to a request for
readers' views, the editor received a number of reminiscences and
assessments, among which were the following:
'All wrapped
up'
Congratulations to the
Church Times on your 150th birthday. When I was a
16-year-old boy I bought some fish and chips, and they came wrapped
in the front pages of theChurch Times. I found it so interesting
and informative that I immediately ordered a weekly copy, and now,
60 years later, I still look forward to its arrival every
Friday.
Geoffrey Squire
SSC
'Perspective'
We value the Church Times because it provides a
balanced Christian perspective on both news items and everyday
life.
Michael and Maree
Foster
View from
Scotland
As a (Presbyterian) Church of
Scotland minister, I find the Church Times a constant
delight and reminder of all that I love and admire about the
Church of England.
When it is not engaged in one
of its periodic bouts of introspective navel-gazing, it displays
Anglicanism at its best - broad, inclusive, tolerant, quirky - and
shows the eirenic, outward-looking face of
Establishment.
Occasionally, and often
through the correspondence columns, a much less attractive side of
the Church of England is on show in the Church Times -
narrow, partisan, and bitchy. Overall, however, I find your pages a
haven and oasis of calm spiritual reflection, humane argument, and
analysis in an increasingly bitter, strident and polarised
religious landscape. . . Lang may yer lum reek!
Dr Ian
Bradley
'Penance no
longer'
Age just happens, even to a newspaper. To a human being, at a
certain point, advancing age ceases to be cause for celebration, if
it goes with deterioration, but the opposite is true of my weekly
Church Times. There was a time when reading it was my
weekly penance. That is almost forgotten. It has become a friend,
quietly promoting a truly inclusive Church, respecting its
traditions, but not being enslaved by them.
When reading it is painful, that's because it reflects, as best
it can, the world and the Church as they are. . . Blessings andad
multos annos.
Dr Paul Oestreicher
'Dear old
friend'
Congratulations in your 150th
anniversary year. . . We have taken the Church Times for
more than 50 years. We knew Rosamund Essex, a former editor, as a
dear friend and co-worker for Christian Aid. . . Her weekly column
"All Sorts and Conditions" was always topical, interesting, and
thought-provoking - a fine resource for teaching and preaching. Her
autobiographyWoman in a Man's World (1977) also provoked much
interest at the time of the debate on women's ordination to the
priesthood which, sadly, she herself was not to achieve. Long may
your excellent features continue.
June and David Pepin
Ton-and-a-half
Congratulations to the Church Times on 150 years of
weekly publication. In cricketers' parlance, that represents a
ton-and-a-half, and the Church Times has organised the
annual cup competition for diocesan cricket. Congratulations for
that, too.
In my first curacy, fresh from Cuddesdon and Oxford, I played
for the Canterbury diocese against Chichester, on the Tonbridge
School ground, and scored somewhere in the 90s. My first job offer
came from the wicket keeper!
Peter M. S. Haynes
'In
touch'
I have read the Church
Times almost every week since I was ordained at the end of the
'60s, and still do so in my retirement. I value it as a way of
keeping in touch with what is happening. Each Sunday I try to read
through the reflections on the Sunday Readings before sharing the
eucharist, and find the current ones by Rosalind Brown of
particular value. . . Keep up the good work.
Neville
Manning
'Worth the pocket
money'
I was 15 when our vicar in Norfolk handed me a copy of the
Church Times. I managed to get my mother to increase my
pocket money in order to pay for a copy, each Friday, bought from
the local newsagent. That was in 1955. Nowadays, I keep in touch
with events . . . by reading the Church Times online.
Through the years, I've been inspired, intrigued, annoyed, and
exasperated, not necessarily in that order, as I read its
pages. . . In many ways the Church Times is a symbol
of the mission of the Church at home and abroad, a voice of calm
reason in a time of instant com-ment and reaction. Long may it
continue.
Anthony
Clavier
To see what the Church Times office looks like these
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