Newspaper Article

Our parish and news of me as the new priest were in a newspaper article last weekend. It ended up not only in our small local paper that comes out on Sundays (on the front page - doh!), but also the nearby larger city's paper in it's Saturday religion section, which it turns out is a parent company of the local paper.

I was a little disappointed they started off with some of the negativity/history of the conflict caused by the previous rector and his leaving and the parish losing members in the fallout, since we're trying to move forward and to me that's really the most current, most important news so what should lead if you're doing the "inverted pyramid" style of writing a news article. But I guess one needs to mention why you're moving forward so it needs to go somewhere... just wish it was farther down in the article. Anyway, while a few agreed that they wish that piece had been farther down in the article rather than the first sentenced, parishioners who have seen it say that the article is more objectively done than some past articles and seemed pleased with it.

A friend pointed out that since our service time, website, and a couple of Adult Ed offerings were listed as part of the article, that as disappointed as I might be about it, that I probably couldn't buy better advertising. I think she's right. I hope some people will see the article and either decide to visit if they've never been, or maybe come back to visit if they've been away.

I went to a local Hospital to get a clergy ID badge on Thursday and the woman who runs their pastoral care/chaplain's office turned and saw me as I entered the room and asked something like "are you *myname*?" Uhhhh yeah. Then she said that she had seen the article. Also since my deacon is a chaplain there she said that they'd been praying for my safe travel. Kind of weird having someone recognize you from a photo they saw in the newspaper.