The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times

The Baptist Times newspaper has been part of my life since…well, since my parents put in the announcement of my birth, many years ago. The BT was already one hundred years old when I was born.

The newspaper has recorded the births, baptisms, marriages and deaths in the wider Baptist  family – as well as my own family. I have written letters and articles, and had my photo in there many times over the years.

For us ‘BT’ was about the happenings in the church, for years before Maureen Lipman [Beattie] and British Telecom came along. Our ‘ologies’ were subjects like theology, doxology, and eschatology!

Sometimes the content has been great – other times I have ranted round the kitchen on a Thursday saying “This article is rubbish!” or “This cartoon is a waste of space!” while Bob laughs at me.

The BT has changed its logo and style too – and a few years ago became available in an ‘on-line’ as well as a ‘paper’ format.

But on January 20th, the BT will cease to exist as a weekly newspaper. It is going to be just an on-line magazine.

Despite its faults, I think I shall miss it – the current editorial team have worked very hard to keep the paper going in a difficult economic climate. It cannot have been an easy decision to close down

This post is really to say thank you to all of them for their hard work, and also to alert any fellow Baptists out there to the fact that you can sign up for the emails here.