Thanks for the Awesome Journey

The editorial team of the Door has recently bid a sad farewell to editor Rebecca Paveley who has left to spend more time with her young family and work freelance.

Rebecca took over as editor in 2003 from Christine Zwart, having previously worked for the Daily Mail.  Under her leadership the newspaper has gone from strength to strength with a lively mix of news from around the diocese and coverage of wider Christian issues.

Here is Rebecca's final editorial:

The Door has trod the path perilous for quite some time now. Some readers may be aware that we have undertaken a market research operation to ask people what they value about the Door; whether you thought it was time for change and, if so, what needed to change. Hearteningly (for me anyway, having edited the paper for nearly five years) the response was overwhelmingly positive. Yes, a few things could do with a fresh look but by and large most of our regular readers like it and know what the purpose of the paper is – to, in our huge diocese,  create a sense of community and cohesion. If that is our lodestar, then we seem to be doing ok.

Sadly, that isn’t the be all and end all as inevitably money plays a key part in deciding the paper’s future, and the Door has long been a target for those who look to make savings. As I write, its future is still uncertain: a meeting by the great and good on Bishop’s Council this month will decide the way forward. But in the meantime, from me, a thank you to those who have long supported and distributed this paper, to all who took part in our focus groups, to the clergy who dutifully filled in web questionnaires... and an extra big thank you to the person who told our market researchers that the Door had a ‘friendly and independent voice’. For an outgoing editor, that felt like a very warm pat on the back!

Editing the Door has been a tremendous privilege. I came here from the Daily Mail thinking I knew pretty much all there was to know about journalism, thank you very much. But then I started interviewing and meeting and writing  about the people of this diocese, and realised I still had a lot to learn (and not just about the correct style of address when referring to a Revd or a Bishop!)

I may have previously interviewed Secretaries of State and the odd Prime Minister, but no interview has had as great an impact on me as that I had with Michael Wenham (who also writes on page 10 of this issue). The two hours I spent talking with him were enormously enjoyable and inspiring. And from our regular columnist David Winter I have learnt about all that is good in religious journalism.

But thank you most of all to those who have helped fill the pages of this paper 10 times a year, with the innovative, the inspiring and the sometimes just plain heartening stories of life in our diocese.

One of our market researchers came back fired up and moved by the focus groups he ran; he was amazed by what he described as the enormous courage and innovation of Christians in our churches on the ground, many of whom are working and living in difficult places, often meeting with little enouragement. He described it as awesome. He’s absolutely right. And I hope The Door may continue a little while longer to pay testament to it.