Jack Chapin had a knack for telling a good story. He started one 50 years ago that is still being told.

Chapin manned the Department of Promotion during a period of unparalleled growth and expansion for the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan. He was the founder of The Record and served as editor until he become the communications warden of the National Cathedral in Washington, D. C.. When he left Michigan in 1963, Chapin also left his mark on a newspaper and an editorial policy that still stands as an example for religious newspapers across the country and the entire Episcopal Church.

Chapin was more than a newspaper editor. He championed the cause of communication in general for Bishop Richard S. Emrich in an era when the Diocese of Michigan set the standard for evangelism across the Episcopal Church and seminarians were itching to come to Michigan. When Chapin wanted to make some changes to the communication strategy for the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, he had the savvy to understand the demands of changing times for a changing Church. He also had something else: The bishop's ear.

“The newspaper will be not only independent, it will be frank,” Chapin told Emrich, which he recalled in a 1998 interview. “I told him point blank and made it crystal clear: Your picture will appear no more than once in any issue of the newspaper. The newspaper is not an in-house sheet to show the world we have the world's greatest bishop.”

SEE the original editorial that launched The Record

“The Church was going through an upheaval or a metamorphosis,” said Chapin. “After the War, there was ferment, naturally, as the world tried to return to civilian life. The Church faced two pressing factors. One was the move to suburbs ... and the concomitant results in many places: the strangulation and abandonment of inner city churches.”

According to Chapin, Emrich promoted an evangelism strategy that included an emphasis on parochial missions, a massive effect to address suburban migration, and a principle that “we are not going to close any downtown churches, no matter what the pressure was.

“This caused all sorts of pain and problems,” Chapin said. “It was the right thing, but it was difficult. This too was reflected as an issue in The Record.

“There is a more subtle element that was going on, partially spurred from Europe,” Chapin added. “The ministry of the laity was also greatly involved in the life of the diocese and therefore in the stories in The Record.”

In 1952-1953, the newspaper covered the visit of Dr. Hendrik Kraemer and Suzanne de Dietrich, of the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches. They came to Parishfield, which Chapin called “the preeminent lay leader training center of the whole United States.”

Episcopalians who came to Parishfield in Brighton, on the grounds of what is now called the Emrich Conference Center, returned home and promoted lay ministry and lay leadership throughout the Episcopal Church. The activities there were consistently covered by The Record.

Another central theme of the Emrich era, which was covered thoroughly in The Record, was stewardship and tithing. The diocese began to produce stewardship materials that were used throughout the Episcopal Church.

“These were the issues that reflected the life of the church and the life of the newspaper,” Chapin explained. “The publication ought to reflect the tone of where the diocese is trying to head, not where it has been.”

The newspaper also developed a sense of editorial independence in those formative years that has become a standard throughout the Episcopal Church. For Chapin, it often came down to arithmetic. There was generally one bishop. One percent of the Episcopalians was clergy. Ninety-nine percent were lay people. As he stated in the lead story that launched the newspaper:

“Clergy are people too, we happen to know, and they will read and participate in these columns. But it is the man who worships with his wife in a pew on Sunday mornings (perhaps not every Sunday at that), that lends a hand when the church needs redecorating and sends his children to Church School who, by and large, makes the Church tick. We feel that his interests and activities are far from dull. This is his paper—for and about him. We hope he will read it.” --September 1951

“This is the newspaper to reflect the total life of the diocese of which the bishop is obviously a part,” said Chapin. “So the independence of the editor was a crucial thing and never once in 12 years did the bishop try to push or blow up something or tuck away something else. Not once.”

The challenge of reaching the people of the diocese with a newspaper was two-fold, Chapin explained. It depended upon good distribution and good content.

Chapin said The Record approached the challenge of distribution “the hard way.” He sought to get vestries to underwrite the expense of subscriptions.

Chapin spoke at every convention. He went to vestry meetings, clergy conferences, deanery meetings, gatherings of the Episcopal Church Women, you name it. “In other words,” he added, “it was a constant drum beat of getting to people about subscriptions.”

Chapin's goal of every household distribution was never realized. After the diocesan budget paid for the initial year to 13,796 people, subscriptions dropped to 6,022 the following year and 5,282 by the third year. Basically, the method of distribution by paid subscription prevailed from 1951 until 1998, when the Diocesan Trustees made a three-year grant to the newspaper for every household distribution. When that grant expired at the end of 2001, circulation of The Record to 11,000 households was continued as a regular part of the diocesan budget.

In his era, Chapin understood that distribution was only half of the challenge.

“You can put it in their hands, but if they are turned off, you haven't achieved anything. They have to get it and they have to be interested in it,” he said. “On the content side, you have the same goals that any good publication has. How do I have this be timely, well-written, broad, meaningful, deep, sometimes moving? That's not easy.”

Chapin had a journalist's eye for the news—and a hunger to look at every angle for possible stories. He used to sit in the back of practically every meeting Emrich held with people and let his mind absorb information for possible stories. He read parish newsletters and while many vignettes were not necessarily diocesan stories-sometimes he found the basis for a broader story tucked into a single line.

Other stories grew from just tilting his head slightly when he was presented with what seemed like a straight news story. An example he gave was the decision to move Mariners' Church during the time when Mayor Al Cobo wanted to refurbish downtown Detroit. Chapin personally met with the mayor and when the decision was made, the editor's instincts kicked in.

This involved more than moving a church, inch by inch, down Woodward Avenue, he thought: There was the technology involved in moving the building; there was the physical challenge of transforming the previous structure to something worthy of its new location; and there was the rebirth of the ministry.

Chapin helped to create a religious newspaper 50 years ago that continues to be a model for other dioceses around the Episcopal Church. He did it with tireless dedication, a little grit, and a lot of perseverance. He also did it with one seemingly casual question:

“When things happen, you see,” said Chapin, “you look and say: 'What's the story here?'”