CHURCH PERIODICAL CLUB

The Church Periodical Club is an Episcopal institution; its ministry is to supply books, magazines, tapes, videos and computer programs free to those who cannot otherwise obtain them and to raise the money to do this.

It was founded in 1888 by Mary Ann Drake Fargo, wife of a member of the Wells-Fargo Express firm. Mary Ann and her friends in the Church of the Holy Communion, New York, sent their bundles of books and periodicals westward to missionaries and pioneers via stagecoach.

There are two primary granting funds. The National Books Fund grants annually and responds to requests for books and related materials around the world. The Miles of Pennies fund is exclusively used for the book needs of children; grants are made year round.

The Church Periodical Club is an independent, affiliated organization of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, dedicated to the worldwide Ministry of the Printed Word and to the Promotion of Christian Mission. It is the only organization in the Episcopal Church dedicated solely to providing free literature and related materials, both religious and secular, to people all over the world who need and request them and who have no other source for obtaining them. Prayer Books, books for seminarians, educational materials, medical textbooks, agricultural manuals and books for those in local and global mission are some of the publications The Church Periodical Club supplies. The Church Periodical Club operates at all levels of the Church - national, provincial, diocesan and parish. The goal is to make the CPC program a concern of the whole Church. That goal includes having an active and enthusiastic CPC representative in every parish and diocese. The Church Periodical Club is funded by voluntary contributions from all levels of the Church by people in the pews. CPC is supported by the prayerful concern, time, talents, labor and money of those who believe in the Ministry of the Printed Word.