Fr Patrick writes…
Last month I wrote about my experience of losing and receiving with the May edition of the Parish Magazine. On 11th April, with great reluctance, I finally accepted that that CofE guidance on the Coronavirus meant that our volunteer distributors could not distribute a May edition. But then, on 13th April someone offered to pay for postal distribution. It felt like a wonderful gift from God, but that was not the end of the story.
First, there was a huge amount of work to do in addressing envelopes and working out with the Post Office the best way to post almost 1000 letters. I am very grateful to Norma Aslin who took on most of that work.
Secondly, we had an issue with weight. We thought we would be able to do a 52 page edition and still get away with an ordinary second class stamp. But when we weighed in a test sample at the Post Office it came to 101 grams. I thought that would be close enough, but apparently that extra gram really matters and the postage goes from 65p to £1.40. By this time we were committed to 52 pages, so an anxious few days followed. We made enquiries about buying lighter envelopes, but in the end the printers were able to make a small trim round the magazines which saved us the gram and a half that we needed! Phew!
The kind offer to pay for postal delivery has been extended to cover the June edition. We are all very grateful for that. At the time of writing it looks as though we will need to do a postal delivery, so we will once again be restricted to 52 pages and a trim!
I am delighted that the Parish Magazine has so far survived in these Coronavirus times. I’d like to thank the many people who support the Parish Magazine in many different ways.