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 [...]

Just before we start FEBRUARY IS A BYWAYS MONTH. Straying momentarily from the glory of the hymns, what about the pages before you actually reach Number 1 in the book? How seldom noticed, how beautifully planned! These poetic Prefaces provide [...]

127 Days Stewards for Christ our Future For those responsible for all the arrangements for Christ our Future, the great day draws frighteningly close! Much has been done in preparation, but each time we meet to review progress, more jobs [...]

The Numbers Message TWO EVENTS last month highlighted the Church's sensitivity to the number of people in the pews. The first was the launch of Christian Research's English Church Attendance survey which showed that average Sunday attendance is now approximately [...]

'HOW DO you celebrate the funeral rites of a Provincial Episcopal Visitor?' had not been a question frequently asked. It had to be asked - and urgently answered - in December 1999 when Michael Houghton, Bishop of Ebbsfleet, suddenly died [...]

John Richardson asks whether Evangelicals are still preaching an authentic doctrine of salvation I CANNOT REMEMBER the name of the TV programme, but I will never forget the snippet of dialogue, which went something like this: Anxious parishioner to Wise [...]

The World Aright: Thomas Traherne Today Millennium Blues Time at the turn of a century and a millennium seems somehow tinged with foreboding - deep down our all too human hearts faint with fear of what is coming on the [...]

Press Mess A PACKAGE THUDDED on my doormat while I was eating my Weetabix one morning last month - must be nearly Synod time, I thought. It was actually quite a small package as Synod mailings go - the postage [...]

Cuckoos in the Nest LAVINIA AND MIRIAM BYRNE, so far as I know, are unrelated except by ideology; yet it is no accident that these turbulent women have hit the headlines simultaneously. Westcott House luvvies both, they represent the strident [...]

The Numbers Game: Part II IN THE LAST ISSUE of New Directions I dedicated this column to looking at the newly available statistics on church attendance in the CofE. You will recall that these had been released suddenly and without [...]