There’s nothing complicated about it. We simply want to let as many people as possible know about our latest subscription offer: You can try your first 10 weeks of Church Times for only £10. All new Church Times subscriptions received in March will receive a FREE additional 3 month subscription to the bestselling app, Reflections for Daily Prayer.
Leaflets
Want to help? Take part in Church Times promotional month by ordering copies of the Church Times leaflet and poster to distribute in your church.
Email subs@churchtimes.co.uk or phone 01603 785911
Giveaway Postcards
Retro advert and cartoon postcards in the issues of 8 and 15 March
Extra copies
Free extra copy of the Church Times for you to pass on, in the issue of 22 March
Free online access
Completely free online access, so you can share stories without a paywall
Free Seminar
On 11 March, at 6 pm GMT, we had a FREE online seminar: ‘Keeping faith in journalism: Why it matters and what it’s worth’: Four experts discussed some of the challenges of reporting on religion in today’s confusing world, chaired by the broadcaster Roger Bolton and featuring Madeleine Davies, Senior Writer, Church Times; Kaya Burgess, Religious Affairs correspondent, The Times; and John Bingham, Head of News, Church of England, and former religious correspondent of The Daily Telegraph. Watch a recording of the event here.
Free Gift
All new Church Times subscriptions received in March will receive an additional FREE 3 month subscription to the bestselling app, Reflections for Daily Prayer.
There are three myths about the Church Times which circulate from time to time.
Myth One: The Church Times is an official publication, owned and funded by the Church of England. The simple answer to this is just to say that it is wrong: we have been independent since our foundation in 1863, first owned by a family, now by a charity: Hymns Ancient & Modern. Our only income — what pays for all this journalism — comes from our readers and our advertisers.
A slightly more complicated answer is that we think that we do belong to the Church of England — but the Church of England defined as the people who attend its services or contribute to it in their thousands of different ways — the people who have a stake in how it is governed.
Myth Two: The Church Times is just for the clergy. Of course, many of the clergy read it. (Frankly, we’re surprised that more don’t.) But most of our readers are the lay people I have just described: those who care for their neighbours and believe that the Church, for all its faults, has none the less the potential to manifest God’s love.
Myth Three: The Church Times has its own agenda. Again, there are simple and complicated answers to this, but we have no megalomaniac owner telling us what to say, no editorial board setting policy. All the editorial staff have opinions, of course, but these differ wildly. We believe in unity, accountability, the intelligent exchange of views, peaceable enjoyment of variety, and so on; but doesn’t everyone?
All these attributes seem normal to us — but, looking at the polarising world around us, we see them beginning to be rare. All the work that we do to gather important information and wise opinion counts for something only if there are people who will benefit from it. So, please will you help us by introducing the paper to friends and neighbours?
It’s very straightforward: all you have to do is order copies of our new leaflet to distribute in your church.
We want to let as many people as possible know about our latest subscription offer. Simply email subs@churchtimes.co.uk, giving a name, postal address, and the number of leaflets you’d like (multiples of ten); or phone 01603 785911 with these details. If, by chance, two or more readers from the same church order copies of the leaflet, it’s not a problem: we have plenty.
-Paul Handley, Editor