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Frequently Asked Questions

Parish Magazines | Back to top

Our parish is trying to introduce a twice yearly parish magazine in order to further enhance the sense of community and welcome.  Would you know of other parishes in the diocese who have a magazine already? If you could let me know which ones, I would very much like to speak with them to get some ideas and their experiences of putting a magazine out.

If you can help Betty P. with this request please email the project office and we will put you in touch with each other.

Reply from Nick Yates of St Alban & St Stephen Catholic church in St Albans. 
Our church has a parish magazine called the New Beacon (A5 size) that usually comes out each quarter. It contains articles written by the parishioners and I usually design the front cover. Click the link to take you to the last edition - NEW BEACON I am happy to share any of my cover illustrations with other parishes.

A Parish Welcome Leaflet | Back to top

We would be delighted if you could help us with ideas on organising our communications on the life of the parish. We are a small (ish) RC parish - no resident PP, one Sunday Mass, avge attendance 80, we have formed a Pastoral Council and are beginning the process of building on the care & maintenance activities of a loyal core of parishioners. A welcoming leaflet was one of the things on our shopping list and any help with this would be invaluable.

Every parish is different so in every parish a welcome leaflet would look different. We prefer to share examples of what others have done as a starting point for parish communities to consider what they would like to include in their own publication. Here are a few online examples. We would be glad of more.  

Our Lady & St Joseph's Parish, Alcester
Catholics in Eastleigh
St Swithun's, Yately (handbook)
St Mark's, Newnham (leaflet)
Woodstock Road Baptist Church, Oxford (booklet)
St Mary's Church, Banbury (leaflet - see also their welcome form)
St Luke's, Cosby

Frequently Asked Questions | Back to top

Where can I get more copies of the What is Life Like? leaflets? We have recently been forwarded a selection of leaflets produced by yourselves from the Pastoral Formation Department of the Liverpool Archdiocese. These we feel could be most useful and are enquiring if it is possible for us to obtain more copies and at what cost.

The leaflets are available in a number of ways. You can download the .pdf files from this website - go to the Specific Resources page and click on the links on the sidebar. If running them off at home is heavy on ink you can cut and paste the webpage text into your own format  - or use the MS Word large print versions that are also available to download. We have more sets of the leaflets in the Project Office but they are for sale only in sets at a cost of £2 each. Please feel free to photocopy the leaflets if you wish.    

Where can I get copies of Everybody's Welcome? I have been looking for information on the internet and have come across your document Everybody’s Welcome – is it possible to purchase a copy? If yes, where would I buy it. I am the Pastoral Assistant in our parish and am also the School Chaplain at our local RC primary.   This document would be very useful.

The document is available to download free of charge on this website. Go to the General Resources page. You can read it webpage by webpage or save it as a MS Word file. There are two versions: one that we have adapted in 2006 for the Roman Catholic community and the original one that was created in 2000 by Churches Together for Families. (It's therefore a great resource to use alongside other Christian communities in your locality.) 

Where are the resources for Home is a Holy Place? Some time ago I downloaded material for Everybody's Welcome? I used this to initiate a programme throughout the Deanery. This has proved successful. At the time I thought I could see material for 'Home is a Holy Place' (for 2007). I cannot now find this material!  As Dean I want to press on with the next stage of the three year programme and introduce it to the clergy of the deanery at our next meeting with the appropriate material/downloads. Are you able to help me? If there is other material (not available as a download) can you advise me as to where I can obtain it?

When Everybody's Welcome was launched we were very fortunate to have a wealth of existing material to draw on that could be adapted and rolled out relatively easily. Materials for Home is a Holy Place will need a greater investment of our resources at the development stage. However, now that the Releasing Formidable Energy symposium has taken place the working group has a much clearer idea of what is needed. In the meantime a list of existing resources is being compiled for evaluation purposes and it is hoped to organise a national training day in Leeds on February 3rd 2007 to look at these in more detail.