Much of this issue of NEW DIRECTIONS is devoted to the proceedings of the 2014 National Assembly of Forward in Faith. What a splendid occasion it turned out to be. An outstanding sermon from our newest bishop-designate; challenging but also [...]

ST JOHN BAPTIST, HOPE BAGOT, SALOP Despite the efforts of those who wish to concrete over England, there do survive remote and rustic areas, and much of Shropshire is one such, with narrow, winding roads between high hedges (Devon, eat [...]

Ian McCormack ponders funeral ministry in post-Christian England PEACE AT THE LAST Leading Funerals well Robert Atwell Canterbury Press, 160pp, pbk 978 1848256668, £16.99 The phone rings. ‘Hello Father, it’s Deadman and Sons Funeral Directors here. We’ve got a family [...]

Christopher Smith worries about the restlessness of living life through a lens Whether we live in a city which attracts tourists or have been on holiday to the kind of places tourists visit, few of us can fail to have [...]

Tom Sutcliffe reviews Mozart’s Idomeneo and calls for radical change in the world of British opera An hour’s drive south of Toulouse in the Ariège northern mountains of the Pyrenees, the Niaux cave contains a series of animal paintings from [...]

Christmas Cards Andy Hawes is Warden of Edenham Regional Retreat House Readers will now be writing or receiving Christmas cards. This is a task that can be time-consuming and sometimes expensive but it is one that I particularly look forward [...]

Stewards of mysteries and the master touch Arthur Middleton Who would be a Priest? It was the title of a pamphlet published in 1953 by SPCK. It opens with a priest in hospital recovering from an operation. Sunday morning had [...]

Arthur Middleton on the divine institution of bishops Apostles or apostolic delegates in the New Testament and their successors in the bishops in the subsequent history of the Church is one way of exercising the divine authority committed to the [...]

J. Alan Smith considers the description of angels in the Summa Theologiae of St Thomas Aquinas In his books, The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey and Can Reindeer Fly?, Roger Highfield considers [...]

Peter Mullen on the importance of fundamental belief in the doctrines of Christianity What does it mean to believe the doctrines of Christianity, the articles of the Creed, the story of our redemption as told in the Bible and the [...]