Andrew Carey, editor of The Church of England Newspaper since 2022, made an announcement July 22 that any editor dreads: his publication may have seen its last edition.
The newspaper, founded in 1828 as The Record, merged with The Church Family Newspaper in 1949 and adopted its current name. The paper became a voice for evangelical members of the church after John Cordle purchased it in the mid-1950s.
In the past year, CEN published news-making commentary. Bishop Philip North of Blackburn wrote that he had not spoken out against grooming gangs because of a “fear-driven silence.”
CEN also published an editorial, “Lucy Letby must be forgiven,” about a nurse who was found guilty of killing seven newborns and trying to kill another seven.
“[There] is now a convincing analysis of the fate of those babies in Chester … those who monstered Letby must realise that this may have been a mistake,” CEN said. “We must profoundly hope that establishment self-defensiveness will not set in and prevent speedy dealing with this situation.”
In announcing CEN’s stepping back from publication, Carey mentioned that its latest owner, the wealthy entrepreneur Keith Young, had kept the paper alive by subsidizing it.
“Keith was generously the sole provider of additional finance to continue supporting the paper and we are now exploring all options to secure a future and hope that you will bear with us as we seek an orderly transition to serve our readers and subscribers, our advertisers and all other partners,” Carey wrote.
Carey said he would continue to send a weekly newsletter “for the foreseeable future.” He does not invest much hope in CEN continuing as a web-only publication. “That has been considered many times over the years and put into practice during COVID lockdowns,” he said. “It’s not workable as far as I’m concerned.”
Nevertheless, he expressed some hope that the paper will have a future.
“And there are talks that are taking place with regard to a new future for CEN,” he said. “I’m optimistic that the CEN—or at least some sort of media presence representing the CEN’s generous, orthodox, open evangelicalism—will carry forward in some form or other.”
Carey told The Living Church that the paper’s struggle was on his mind as he wrote an obituary about former CEN editor John Kingsley Martin on July 3.
“We’ve sadly lost a succession of editors of the CEN in the last few years, beginning with Colin Blakely, who tragically died on the job in 2022,” Carey wrote. “Philip Crowe and John King—editors from the 1960s followed and now John Martin, who edited the CEN from 1988 to 1995 and left his mark on religious affairs journalism and church communications.”
Douglas LeBlanc is an Associate Editor and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
