‘Back to Church’ is a national campaign in which we as a diocese have participated since 2006. Feedback suggests that many churches in this diocese and elsewhere have found ‘Back to Church’ a useful tool for considering how welcoming they are, and inviting people to church for a particular occasion. ‘Back to Church’ is one of the easiest pieces of evangelism a parish church can do and a useful first step for many.

As Bishop John says: “Back to Church Sunday is now established as a great opportunity for a low-key but effective form of invitation to reconsider the Christian way. It's only one item on the menu, but I very much hope many parishes will see the possibilities it offers.”

In March we emailed churchwardens to share some news about this year’s resources. The 2009 campaign has the headline "Come as you are" and most of the resources are un-dated leaving you free to run programmes on an alternative date.

All orders are made through the diocese and all of the resource packs are delivered to Diocesan Church House. Having experimented in the past with different ways of distributing the packs, we now mail all orders and add the cost of postage to the price of resources. I am sorry that this is frustrating for those of you who could easily collect them from Church House.

We will be placing our diocesan order for resources on Monday June 1st, so we need to have received your orders by Friday 29 May. NB – this is in half term!

Last year, by producing our own resources, we were able to offer a small pack. This year the smallest pack contains 100 invitations. If this is too large for you, why not share with a nearby church...?

Janet Russell