A church is recruiting a full-time journalist to its staff in order to combat what a bishop termed a “lack of local journalism” in the area it serves.

St Margaret’s Church, in Rainham, Kent, is looking for a “multi-skilled qualified journalist” to produce a mix of community and church-based news.

The successful applicant will also be responsible for digital content, including overseeing the live streaming of the church’s services.

Vicar Nathan Ward, pictured, explained the idea in a piece for the Rochester diocesan magazine.

He said: “For thousands of years it is stories which have kept communities together and sadly in recent years local journalism has been under increasing pressures which reduce the amount of truly ‘local content’.

“As a church we want to step into this gap and employ a community journalist – an appointment which I believe is revolutionary.

“It comes as we respond to a community survey, we conducted which revealed that people wanted local news as a way of dealing with the lockdown.

“We know that there are some fantastic things going on in Rainham which we need to celebrate and also some real challenges which people are facing and overcoming every day.

“The lockdown period has taught us a huge amount about our community and for us the importance of staying in touch with people is crucial.”

HTFP reported last month how former Church of England director of communications Peter Crumpler had urged Christians to buy their local newspaper – warning them they are in danger of losing their “best friends in the media” if titles are forced to close.

Simon Burton Jones, the Bishop of Tonbridge, has welcomed the move at St Margaret’s.

He said: “The shrinkage in local journalism as advertising gravitates online is already having really important consequences at community level.

“As long-standing local papers disappear and the remaining ones have to cut back their staff and close, their long-standing and important links with their communities can be lost.

“Online alternatives like clickbait, lists, gossip and the like are no substitute for real journalism.

“The lack of local journalism also brings a lack of scrutiny – Grenfell is an example, where local residents had raised concerns about the cladding, but it was too local a story for the nationals and there was a lack of local reporting to pick it up, through which a wider audience might have connected.”