Christopher Smith reflects on story and faith   ‘Story’ is a serious business.  The telling of stories is how we keep alive what is most important to us in our culture.  A story is not necessarily true, but it is [...]

As this edition of New Directions goes to press the nation is marking the one year anniversary of the first national lockdown, and event which changed the face of our country, and which left no part of society unaffected. The [...]

Thurifer is edging into the light   The walk from the leafy corner of my leafy suburb to the Underground Station is fewer than five minutes. In that distance, eight shop and business closed during the pandemic, from about two [...]

It’s the village familiar from the 1950s British Railways poster – horses by the watersplash, with the church at the top of the hill in the background (1). This image travelled all over the country; as Pevsner says, Kersey is [...]

at Pusey House Jack Nicholson looks back at the early days of Pusey House and what we might learn from them today   On Sunday 25 October 1868, the Rev’d Brooke Foss Westcott (who in 1881 founded the Cambridge Clergy [...]

In September 2008 Geoffrey Kirk looked at the link between Christianity and the eight Millennium Development Goals   The real trouble about the set your patient is living in,’ wrote Screwtape to Wormwood, ‘is that it is merely Christian. They all have individual [...]

As we approach the 300th edition of New Directions  we offer a selection of articles from the archives   In this 200th edition of New Directions we asked past editors to look back over 200 editions    Sara Low (Editor, 1992 until 2005) [...]

Edward Dowler examines the impact of this important television series   Russel T. Davies’s recent five-part Channel Four series It’s a Sin is one of the most powerful, poignant and involving TV dramas I have ever seen.  Perhaps betraying a [...]

William Davage reflects on the ups and downs of writing for New Directions as we approach our 300th edition   Although I did not contribute to the first edition of this magazine, I did purchase the first issue. It required [...]

How important is church? Andy Hawes    Priest friends are divided in predicting the effect of Corona Virus on church life. One view is that church going, being such a hard habit to establish for many people, will stop altogether [...]