A CLERGYMAN knew the children who attended his Sunday School, but hardly any of their parents.

Few of them attended services at St Francis Church in Hollow Way, Cowley, and the suspicion grew that they sent their children to church on Sunday afternoons to get a little peace and quiet.

So the priest-in-charge, the Rev J C W Topley, and his management committee devised a plan.

Mr Topley said in 1959: “We decided to have a social evening at which members of the committee and other members of the congregation could meet parents and get to know them.”

The idea backfired spectacularly – after all the effort of arranging the evening, only two parents, both regular churchgoers, turned up.

The organisers, however, were determined not to give in. They and a group of volunteers decided to visit all parents and give them a personal invitation to another social evening.

Did it work out this time?

Mr Topley said: “A dozen parents turned up and the social was such a wonderful success that similar events are to become a regular feature of our church life.”

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