Living with Death   Some years ago, I was asked to speak to a group of newly ordained priests about the task of preparing people for their death. In a nutshell, I taught that the whole of the Christian life [...]

The 1992 vote was, for Frances Ward, a moment of breaking and remaking still with us today   Those heady days of 1992! Now seems an age away from that younger deacon me, living with the intense frustration at not [...]

For John Gayford, Advent is a quiet time of  recollection, full of hope and Christian joy   The promise of our soul’s fulfilment by our renewed response to the light of Christ’s Advent is emblazoned within Isaiah. It is disastrous [...]

Simon Cotton experiences Doom at Dauntsey   Late mediaeval doom paintings painted on wood are very rare, with the Wenhaston Doom (ND, December 2012) possibly the best known. Another is at Dauntsey in Wiltshire, where it has been replaced in [...]

Colin Woolgrove writes about Fr Wagner’s murals and pilgrimages to Buxted   Back in 2020, my March copy of New Directions arrived as we all went into lockdown – for the first time. My article, which appeared that month, beautifully [...]

Before Action by W.N. Hodgson   By all the glories of the day And the cool evening’s benison By that last sunset touch that lay Upon the hills when day was done, By beauty lavishly outpoured And blessings carelessly received, [...]

I note your comment (ND October) that Her Late Majesty was a ‘somewhat low-church Prayer Book Anglican,’ and that that is ‘a position and integrity we respect’. I should hope so, especially considering that some of these low, or middle, [...]

Anthony Denis Couchman, who died on 10 August 2022, was born on 23 May 1937, the third child and second son of Robert and Frances Couchman of Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire. After leaving school in 1953 he served an apprenticeship as [...]

Country Church  Monuments C.B. Newham Particular Books, 2022 ISBN 9780241488331   For anyone who laments the ongoing decline in standards of book production, Country Church Monuments will be welcomed as an excellent example of good design and high-quality printing and [...]

Festus   The pencil of this page remains ever sharp and vigilant. Bishop Anne Dyer of Aberdeen & Orkney, appointed in 2018, has had her appeal rejected; she remains suspended and bound to silence. Except this doesn’t stop her lawyer [...]