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A parish magazine is a periodical produced by and for an ecclesiastical parish, generally within the Anglican Church. It usually comprises a mixture of religious articles, community contributions and parish notices, including the previous month‘s christenings, marriages and funerals. 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 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.〔() ''Daily Telegraph'', 13 Jan 2009〕 Similar magazines have also been produced by other religious denominations, including the Church of Scotland. ==Early history== Parish magazines were arguably foreshadowed by the sporadic printed notices or pastoral letters, issued to the local community by parish clergy or by the more senior clergy and found very occasionally amongst 19th-century parish archives.〔The Rev. W. J. E. Bennett, often regarded as a pioneer of magazines for Victorian church congregations, included amongst his numerous publications (listed in successive editions of ''Crockford's Clerical Directory'') ''A Farewell Letter to the Parishioners of St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge'' (1851) and ''A Pastoral Letter to the Parishioners of Frome'' (1852).〕 However the first regular parish magazine is generally recognised 〔(), retrieved 24 November 2011. The Anglican Communion News Service website states: ''It is generally thought that Erskine Clarke's Parish Magazine of January 1859 probably marks the real start of the genre.''〕〔() retrieved 24 November 2011. This Is Somerset local newspaper website states that the Frome periodical fits ''some of the criteria (earliest parish magazine ), but probably doesn‘t quite get there''.〕 as being started in January 1859 by Rev. John Erskine Clarke, Vicar of St Michael's, Derby. (Rival claims have sometimes been made〔() Project Canterbury article: ''William James Early Bennett, London'': The Catholic Literature Association, 1933, retrieved 23 November 2011〕 for Rev. W. J. E. Bennett's ''Old Church Porch'' ,〔() F Bennett in ''The Story of W. J. E. Bennett '' (1909, chapter 10) quotes from W J E Bennett’s work ''Cousin Eustace'', which describes the origins of The Old Church Porch: ''I had intended, had it pleased GOD to permit me to remain at S. Barnabas', to publish a little monthly paper for the use principally of the poor and unlearned and the children … I thought that much good might be done by a local periodical press as an organ of communication on holy things between the priest and his flock; especially in such a large parish as ours, where even sermons do not reach one-third of the people and private pastoral intercourse is confined to a very scanty number indeed … For this purpose I had prepared many little bundles of papers of various kinds and degrees of interest, ready to begin on the first of January, 1851, and so continue on the first day of every month … The bundles of papers remained for a while, and then 'The Old Church Porch' began on January 2, 1854, and continued monthly till April 1, 1862''. The lists of W J E Bennett’s works within successive editions of ''Crockford's Clerical Directory'' state however that ''The Old Church Porch'' appeared in just four volumes between 1855-1860.〕 issued at Frome 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.〔Peter Croft, ''The Parish Magazine Inset'', Parish and People, 1993, ISBN 1-873529-60-0〕 The last two of these national examples, ''Home Words'' 〔''Home Words'' was founded by Charles Bullock, Rector of St Nicholas, Worcester, in 1871〕 and ''The Sign'' 〔''The Sign'' was published by A R Mowbray & Co. from 1905 onwards〕 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.〔For example ''Bath & Wells Diocesan & Parish Magazine'', 1883-1905. However the ''Oxford Parochial Magazine'', 1860-1863, was intended as a separate publication, being neither centred on nor published by the diocese.〕 Eventually the assortment of Diocesan Magazines 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Parish magazine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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