Over the past 30 years Rye has seen many changes, yet St Mary’s Church has remained a constant presence at the heart of the town.
Rye has flourished as a tourist destination with its historic streets, festivals and thriving local life drawing visitors from near and far. Through all these changes, St Mary’s has continued as a place of prayer, reflection and community, as it has been for centuries.
Thirty years ago a small group in the parish had the simple but important idea of creating a magazine that would keep the community connected. The Pendulum was born: a modest publication delivering news of church life, village happenings, reflections of faith and the stories that weave a parish together.
Three decades on, The Pendulum continues to swing faithfully from edition to edition, linking St Mary’s with the wider parish and reminding us that the life of a community is written not only in great events, but in the steady sharing of everyday moments.
Shelley Jebb was the first editor and she describes how it all began:
In 1994/5 a small group of PCC members felt strongly that it was about time that St Mary’s had a parish magazine so after a great deal of discussion a small editorial team was formed which consisted of myself as editor, Jane Horne (then Churchwarden who now lives in Romsey) and the late John and Maureen Sherwood. Our original idea was that this should be a Rye team magazine but the other parishes in the team were unwilling, for various reasons, to join in so, undeterred, we forged ahead with creating The Pendulum. The name was chosen as the pendulum is, along with the clock, our most famous and unique feature.
When I started I had a very basic PC which I had been given by my father. It had a 64mb memory and when he bought it he paid extra for that 64mb! My current laptop has 1Tb – how technology has moved on! I also had a dot matrix printer and extremely basic software so I literally had to print, cut (with scissors) and paste (with glue) onto an A4 sheet of paper. Graphics were photocopied and then cut out and pasted into place. This didn’t last very long as I was soon fed up with the basic process and we, as a family, bought a complete package of PC, monitor, inkjet printer and a separate scanner. We also had the internet installed! Great excitement! Although it was a dial-up router – need I say more? The package came with a decent (well, it did what I wanted it to do) desktop publishing program and if you have a look at the archive you will be able to see where the changes in technology use took place.
The magazine was printed on the copier in Camber Vicarage and then collated, stapled and folded on my dining room table. Later on Camber had a collating machine and even a copier that did everything from printing through to folding. Although the collating could be somewhat unreliable and needed checking.
How many people wrote for the publication in the first few years?
I really don’t know! The rector, Martin Sheppard, would write a letter for the opening page. I didn’t write very much as I saw my role as being editorial and used to call people to encourage them to write something. We discovered Parish Pump and used the website for seasonal articles, graphics, funny one-liners, cartoons and the front cover etc. Jane Horne wrote a children’s page with puzzles which was much enjoyed by many adults and there were protests when we announced it wouldn’t be published anymore!
How long were you the editor?
1996- 2007: then I handed over to Jane Orchard.
Do you have one favourite story ?
I didn’t write much but I do remember that in 2003, when we celebrated the 900th anniversary of the founding of St Mary’s, we held various events during the year and in one of the autumn issues we inserted a pull-out supplement of photos of all those events. We had fun that summer.
In the vestry safe there are two bound volumes of Rye Parish Magazine dating from the early 20th century and I remember extracting information from them about various events, particularly how they raised funds for the repair of The Monastery roof which was a great concern at the time.
Jane Orchard, editor 2007-2024
I was approached by the vicar, Hugh Mosely, fairly soon after we had retired to Rye in 2006. In fact, I had edited the university Geography magazine and the Sierra Leonean Geographer 50 years previously. So I thought I’d give it a try.
I gathered a team round me that met two weeks before publication date when we brainstormed all sorts of ideas and then I put the magazine together. We even carried on during Covid via Zoom even though there was little news.
I tried to include voices from all of the team churches with news of events, people and services plus they promoted future church and village events. I also tried to get away from the parochial. In other words, include articles about the broader church, the diocese, the Church of England and the Anglican community. I also wanted articles which commented on current issues from a Christian perspective.
In retrospective, it was a rather wordy and serious magazine with no colour and few photos. It is fascinating how only few years later we now live in a more visual society with a shorter attention span. People like to hear about the local stories especially if there are photos of themselves and their friends. I welcome and read with enjoyment the current magazine and do congratulate the current editor, appreciating what hard work it can be; the dreaded deadlines, encouraging the advertisers and ‘putting the magazine to bed’. Good old Adams who print it for us do a wonderful job.
You can gather it was a great relief to step down after seventeen years. Thank you, Susan for volunteering to take over.
Susan Desrosiers writes:
I became editor of The Pendulum primarily because there was a need. Jane Orchard had been doing a sterling job for years and was ready to pass on the baton. She’d heard I had magazine experience in some of my husband’s previous parishes, so after a few times of her asking, I eventually decided to take up the editorship.
I enjoy the challenge of helping to produce a top-notch magazine. The difficulty is sometimes having to encourage people to submit their articles on time! The best part is collecting the fresh new issue and seeing how well it’s all come together. It’s very much a collective endeavour and its success relies partly on Kt for her stunning photos and on all the people from Rye and the surrounding villages who contribute articles. Of course all the businesses and individuals who help to financially support it are crucial. Long may it continue!
Image Credits: Kt bruce , Jane Orchard .