For many years in the Catholic Church the International Diaconate Centre (IDC), based in the diocese of Stuttgart-Rottenburg in Germany, has been the main centre for theological reflection about the diaconate, organizing a study conference every four years and publishing the review (largely in German), Diakonia Christi. In recent years local regional IDC networks have been set up in various parts of the world, and in 2007 a new North European Circle of the IDC was established, the IDCNEC. This network aims primarily to support deacons, those involved in their formation and others, laypeople and religious, working in forms of diaconal ministry, in northern Europe and places which are primarily or partly ‘Anglophone’: England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders), Scandinavia and the Baltic states. The aim is also to draw interest from deacons in the USA and Canada. The network aims to organize regular international conferences (the first being planned for 2011) and to publish twice-yearly the New Diaconal Review. This journal will combine academic articles originally published in other languages, original material reflecting the pastoral work of those in diaconal ministry, news items, articles focusing on the deacon’s specific ministry of Eucharist, Word and Charity, and book reviews. The journal is to be published alongside the English journal The Pastoral Review (formerly Priests and People and The Clergy Review) and new subscribers will also receive a free copy of that journal twice a year. Deacons need resources to help them in their ministry, in the process of theological reflection; many work in isolated situations and New Diaconal Review is designed to help them by sharing the good that is done in different places. The editors of New Diaconal Review are Fr Ashley Beck, Dean of Studies of the Diaconate Formation Programme in Southwark and Chair of the Conference of Diaconate Directors and Deacon Delegates for England and Wales and Deacon Tony Schmitz, Director of Studies for the Permanent Diaconate for the Dioceses of Scotland.

To join the IDCNEC and subscribe to New Diaconal Review (£15 per year), contact:
New Diaconal Review, IDCNEC, Ogilvie Institute, 16 Huntly Street, Aberdeen AB10 1SH, Scotland.