The Spire is the parish magazine of St James's Church and has developed over the years in both style and production and has been widely acclaimed as clear, accessible and informative. The magazine is distributed free, but each year there is an appeal for voluntary contributions. It is produced nine time a year, with three issues each covering two months. Have a look at the current Spire.
The cost of the magazine is paid by the PCC, which sets an annual budget, but this is, in effect, largely offset by voluntary donations. The Spire aims to have as wide a variety of material as possible, including not only church notices and reports but also articles reflecting the lives of parishioners, the wider community and national or global issues. Besides the magazine’s necessary factual content - days and times of services, etc. - there are features which are helpful or interesting to as wide an audience as possible.
Each issue, five hundred copies are delivered to the many volunteer distributors, all around the parish and beyond, who deliver the copies to houses in the parish. There is now also a growing group of people who receive their copies by email. If you would like to do this please see below.
The distribution was reviewed some years ago and as a result more copies were placed in the High Street, at the Post Office, and local shops with the response being "outreach at its best".
The Spire Team
The Spire Team produces and distributes the Parish Magazine, the Spire. They believe that good communication is essential to the understanding and spreading of the Christian faith. The Spire Team is small group, essentially the editorial committee, who meet early each month either to plan the next edition, or three times a year when we produce a double issue, we still meet to plan ahead for the next six months. During the following two weeks, the editors gather the material, decide on and create the layout, drafts are proof-read, sent to the printer and the magazine is ready in church before the first Sunday of the relevant month.
Find out more
The History of the Parish Magazine shows some of what happened from when records began up until 2017. The Annual Parochial Church Meeting Reports show the annual reports from most teams and groups since then. (Scroll down the document of the year you are interested in to find the report you want)
Magazine Covers
Magazine Archives
All the old magazines have been scanned and added to a Magazine Archive in the St James's archives and are recorded here. The quality of the scans vary and correspond to the quality of each original magazine: 1884-1899 | 1900-1919 | 1920-1939 | 1940-1959 | 1960-1979 | 1980-1999 | 2000-2019 | 2020 - 2039
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The team hard at work |
Two Spire copies |
Sorting for delivery |