John Richardson on the joys and tribulations of a chaplaincy in Higher Education LATE NIGHT discussions over coffee, alert minds keen to debate the existence of God, intelligent study of the scriptures, an idealistic desire to change the world, the [...]

Dear Wormwood, It is now more than fifty years since I last wrote. How time flies when things are going well. My present address causes me some embarrassment. These New Directions people are not my cup of gall. They are [...]

Elaine Bishop considers the biblical and patristic models for women's ministry WOMEN DEACONS have become a fact of life in the Church of England. While some believe that women may proceed from deacon to priest to bishop, others hold that [...]

George Austin considers the proposals - and counts the cost - of so much Millennium humbug THE MILLENNIUM bug is, so they say, to be avoided. Actually I should like to avoid the Millennium altogether. The Archbishop of York is [...]

The revised text of the document The Case for a Free Province of the Church of England which the Council of Forward in Faith is commending for discussion in the regions. THE FOLLOWING is the revised text (as at Dec [...]

Geoffrey Kirk examines an ill-considered attempt to end the Act of Synod. AT THE TAKING of biscuits (and / or crackers) John Saxbee is probably as adept as anyone in the long history of effrontery. The Bishop (and Archdeacon) of [...]

UNSATISFACTORY The ageing lothario, fag dancer and world's oldest angry young man, Mr Michael Jagger, is being sued by his model wife, Jerry Hall, for divorce. Married for eight of their twenty years together Ms Hall was not altogether pleased [...]

The Churchwardens Measure (see New Directions passim) is providing, at every opportunity, an insight into the government of the Church of England. The measure, giving Bishops the right to suspend wardens without the right of appeal, got rough treatment at [...]