St Bride's, the spiritual home for hundreds of journalists around the world, has been creating regular pieces of history down the centuries from its position in London's Fleet Street. Now, the church is about to embark on an historical chapter with a difference.

October, the usual month when churches are filled with fruit and vegetables to celebrate harvest festival, St Bride's will be filled with hundreds of newspapers from the UK and abroad to mark its very own unique harvest.

Church officials are confident - with the cooperation of newspaper chiefs - of setting a world record for the maximum number of different physical world newspapers collected and displayed in one place. The target is 2007 different titles, as part of the church's celebrations throughout this year to mark the 50th anniversary of the rebuilding and rededication of St Bride's, in December 1957, after it had almost been bombed to the ground in 1940.

To qualify for inclusion in the record-breaking attempt, only registered newspapers published between Sunday September 2 and Saturday September 8, this year, can be accepted.

St Bride's Church Administrator James Irving says that as soon as publications are received, the front page will be removed and displayed in every available part of the church on Sunday October 14. Inside pages will be bundled into packs of 100 for counting and following an official audit, every single publication will be sent for recycling.

The idea, which St Bride's hopes will attract a great deal of world-wide media interest, has already gained widespread support, including backing from the Newspaper Society, the Commonwealth Press Union, the Society of Editors and the London Press Club.

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:

St Bride's welcomes all media inquiries. Contact James Irving on 020 7427 0133. e-mail: j.irving@stbrides.com or visit the 50 Years on website at http://www.stbrides.com/fyo/index.html