SPCK Group Press Release 9 November 2021

SPCK acquires the publishing rights to the York Courses

The Group SPCK and York Courses Limited today announce the acquisition of the publication rights to all the York Courses by the SPCK Group.

SPCK will publish the 2022 York Course, written by Carmody Grey, and will make the older York Courses, authored by writers including Archbishop Stephen Cottrell, Revd Lucy Winkett and Bishop Nick Baines, available free via its popular HomeGroups.org.uk website.

The York Courses were first published in 1997 by John Young and Simon Stanley, and have since become the market-leader in creating ecumenical courses for use by small groups at Lent, Advent and throughout the year.

SPCK was founded in 1698 and following significant growth in recent years the SPCK Group is now the UK’s largest Christian publisher and was voted Christian Publisher of the Year for 2021. York Courses will join the SPCK Group’s imprints including SPCK Publishing, Inter-Varsity Press, Lion, Monarch and Catholic Bible School in the SPCK Group.

James Catford, Chair of the Governing body of SPCK, said, 'At SPCK we already work with many contributors to the York Courses and we have the fantastic Home Groups website at HomeGroups.org.uk, so we are delighted to become the new home for the York Courses and excited about building on Simon Stanley and John Young’s work and increasing their impact and usage over the coming years.’

John Young, Founder of York Courses, said, ‘“York Courses began with a friendship, a movement and a national institution.

‘The Friendship was between Simon Stanley and me. Both of us are Canons Emeriti of historic York Minster; both of us are now past our sell-by date!

‘The Movement was a coming together of churches in York and the surrounding countryside under the heading One Voice. I shared the chairmanship of this with Fr Cyril Brooks (a monk from Ampleforth Abbey) and David Mullins (a visionary Methodist minister).

‘The National Institution was the BBC, for which Simon worked part time and I just occasionally. We broadcast mainly on local radio, sometimes on national radio - and just occasionally on the BBC World Service.

‘Each of these was vital to York Courses, as were the wonderful authors and participants who enriched our courses over the years - and have expressed their delight that SPCK is carrying on the torch. Our grateful thanks go to them, as well as to our loyal customer groups.’

Simon Stanley, Founder of York Courses, said, ‘John and I started in 1997 putting together on my kitchen table courses in the form of stapled duplicated pages of Christian reflections and questions together with cassette tapes for further discussion material. We hoped that local ecumenical groups would find them useful.'

‘We soon discovered there was wider demand for such material but could have had no idea that within a few years the courses would be being used (in a rather more sophisticated form and on-line) in 22 different countries.'

‘It has been a joy to produce them and an even greater joy that they have found a new home with SPCK, where I hope they prosper for the Gospel.’

Sam Richardson, Chief Executive of the SPCK Group, said, ‘I greatly admire Simon Stanley and John Young, who have been genuine pioneers in creating multimedia resources for churches through the York Courses which have been used by hundreds of thousands of Christians across all denominations.’

Notes for editors:

York Courses remain available for sale in the coming weeks from the York Courses website at www.yorkcourses.co.uk, and will be added to the SPCK website and Home Groups websites in due course. The 2022 course, God Has No Favourites by Carmody Grey, will be published by SPCK under the York Courses imprint and will be available from the SPCK website later this month.

SPCK Group company history:

The SPCK Group is the UK’s leading Christian book publisher. Its vision is a world where everyone is transformed by Christian knowledge, and its mission is to lead the way in creating books and resources which help everyone to make sense of faith. Since coming under new management following the closure of its bookshops, SPCK has seen great success from its publishing in the last six years, doubling its income and winning Specialist Consumer Publisher of the Year three times and Large Christian Publisher of the Year three times. The SPCK imprint is a broad-based imprint seeking to publish the very best Christian books. SPCK’s subsidiary Inter-Varsity Press specialises in evangelical books. More recently the SPCK Group acquired Lion Hudson’s publishing with its world leading expertise in Christian children’s books and international co-editioning. SPCK is a charity founded in 1698 and governed by a royal charter. SPCK’s patron is Her Majesty the Queen and its president is the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Sam Richardson, is available for interview. Please contact 0207 592 3900.

See The Full Press Release HERE: