New Directions Northeast held its annual meeting in Stony Point, N.Y., in mid-November. Participants, from the Northeast U.S. and the Southeast of Canada, were clerical and lay leaders of small churches and clusters of such churches which are developing "new directions" or so-called total or mutual ministry, in which members of congregations are trained to assume responsibility for their church's life and witness in the community.

A main speaker was LaDonna Wind of Louisville, Ky., who is vice president of the Rural Workers' Fellowship (RWF) and also of New Directions Ministries, Inc., an agency with which the Northeast conference is affiliated and which sponsors the continuing education program Leadership Academy for New Directions (LAND). She spoke on the development of suitable leadership in small congregations, fitted to the culture and life of their locality.

The Rev. Stephen Kelsey of the Middlesex Area Ministry in Connecticut spoke of Leaveners, a Connecticut-based agency providing programs somewhat similar to LAND's. The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, chaplain of Trinity College and former Bishop of Alaska, presented the basic ideas of Roland Allen with particular attention to Allen's doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

Participants gave encouraging reports of churches coming alive, sometimes after a long period of dormancy and passive dependence. Regret was expressed, however, over situations where the diocesan leadership did not see this vision, and where the ordination of locally selected priests and deacons has been opposed.

Participants were advised of a North American conference to be held in June of 1999 intended to put total ministry squarely before the American and the Canadian churches. Officiating in the closing Eucharist, the bishop sent people away with a memorable blessing of the Holy Spirit.

(The Rev. Canon) H. Boone Porter