What a parish newsletter is for

The parish newsletter is the single most read piece of communication a parish produces. It goes home with families on Sunday, sits on kitchen tables during the week, and travels onto fridges, dashboards and pinboards. A good newsletter holds the parish together. A bad one mislays Mass times, omits the safeguarding contact, and breaks copyright on hymn texts.

This guide sets out what every Diocese of Shrewsbury newsletter must include, how to brand it consistently, and how to produce it without burning out the parish secretary.

Required content

Every newsletter must carry the following, every week:

• Parish name and the name of the parish priest.
• Mass times for the coming week, including Sunday, weekday and Holy Day Masses.
• Confession times (or a note of where to enquire).
• Contact details for the parish priest or parish office: telephone number and email address.
• Parish Safeguarding Representative name and contact, or a signpost to the Diocesan Safeguarding Office (contact below).
• Diocese of Shrewsbury identification and charity number 234025, normally in a footer.
• Date of this edition.

Add notices, parish group news, sacramental dates and a short reflection from the parish priest as space allows. Keep the layout consistent week to week so readers know where to look.

Branding and look

A clean, dignified newsletter says something true about the parish. A few principles:

• Use the diocesan logo or your parish logo, not both at once and not at competing sizes.
• A consistent masthead week to week helps readers recognise the newsletter at a glance.
• Avoid dense blocks of text. Short paragraphs, a clear heading hierarchy, and white space make the page readable in under two minutes.
• Colour printing is not needed. A well-laid-out black-and-white A4 sheet is often cleaner and cheaper than a glossy design that obscures the information.

Accessibility

Plenty of parishioners are over 70. Print body copy at 11 to 12 point in a serif typeface. Avoid all-italic paragraphs. Keep contrast strong. If you produce a digital PDF, save it as text-searchable, not as a flat image. The Diocese is committed to making parish life reachable to everyone, especially the older parishioners who keep parish life alive.

Copyright

Two copyright traps catch parishes regularly. The first is reproducing hymn or liturgical texts without holding an appropriate licence, such as a CCLI licence, a Calamus licence, or a ONE LICENSE licence. Printing verses from a hymnal, a responsorial psalm setting, or a Mass setting without a licence is an infringement, even for a small parish newsletter. The second trap is using images or photographs without the photographer's or rights-holder's permission, whether taken from internet searches, social media or third-party websites. Free to view online is a different thing from free to reproduce in print. Both risks are easily avoided: check which licences the parish already holds, use only photographs taken by or for the parish, and contact the Communications Director if you are unsure.

Weekly process

Build the newsletter into a fixed weekly rhythm. The pattern below works for most parishes:

• Monday: parish priest confirms Mass intentions, notices and the week's pastoral priorities.
• Tuesday or Wednesday: parish secretary or newsletter editor drafts the layout.
• Thursday: draft reviewed and approved by the parish priest.
• Friday morning: final version printed and PDF uploaded to the parish website.
• Sunday: printed copies available at Mass; digital version sent to the email list.

Publishing the PDF

Upload the weekly PDF to the parish website on Friday afternoon. Many parishioners read the newsletter during the week, not just on Sunday. Older parishioners, those unable to attend, and those visiting from elsewhere all rely on the online edition. Keep an archive of the last 12 weeks at minimum.

Diocesan support

The Communications Director can advise on layout, branding and copyright questions. The contact is listed below. For general queries, the Curial Office is at 2 Park Road South, Prenton, Wirral CH43 4UX.

Why this matters

The newsletter is a small weekly act of catechesis. It teaches what the parish believes, who it cares for, and how to step in. Done with care, it is one of the simplest tools the parish has, and it sits within the wider Catholic life that runs from Shrewsbury Cathedral, where Sunday Masses are at 8.30am, 11am and 6pm, through to every parish hall and presbytery in the diocese.

To review your current newsletter against this checklist, sit down with the parish priest and a printed copy on a Wednesday morning before the next edition begins.