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CRCW warns digital exclusion feeds inequality
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While grateful for the advances in technology which have allowed many people to remain connected during the pandemic, United Reformed Church Related Community Worker, Jo Patterson, says we must be careful not to exclude those who do not have access to the internet or adequate technology. Based at Copleston Church and Community Centre in Peckham, London, Jo says: “It may seem arduous to create multiple forms of communication but it’s essential that everyone has a voice and feels part of a community.“ While half of the Copleston community has internet access, the other half does not. Find out how the church is keeping everyone in touch. Read Jo’s reflection in full here.
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What does the United Reformed Church (URC) believe? Download and read the new series from the URC’s Faith and Order Committee. The leaflets cover subjects including God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Baptism, Creation, Being Human, Holy Communion, Salvation, the Church and the Future. Read more.
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The spring meeting of Mission Council takes place digitally from 15-17 March. Topics on the agenda include new ways to access funding for lay discipleship development, new pathways for people to prepare to become worship leaders and accredited lay preachers, and the pension fund deficit. A full report on each day’s business will available on the URC’s news page, available here. Mission Council papers can be viewed and downloaded here.
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New Synod Moderator nominated
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The Revd Geoffrey Felton, Minister of Plume Avenue Church in Colchester, has been nominated as the next Moderator of the URC Mersey Synod. Geoff said: “I am looking forward to leading the Synod through these post pandemic years – years that will help shape the Church of the future and its witness to a world in need of hope and love.” The nomination will be presented at Mission Council. Read more.
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URC Buildings Forum conference
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A conference to help consider strategies for United Reformed churches and church buildings is due to take place via Zoom on 19 April from 3-4.30pm. The conference is intended to be the first in a series that will focus on different aspects of exploring the use of URC buildings and capital assets. Guests include the Revd Dr John Bradbury, URC General Secretary, who will give a keynote address. A representative from the HeartEdge movement, begun by St-Martin-in-the-Fields, will explain ways it can offer support. The event is open to all. Please register your interest by email by 16 April and advise which church you belong to or are representing.
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The Congregational Memorial Hall Trust and Congregational Library have launched a new website which holds a wealth of information about the Library, the Trust, collections, events and much more. Find more information here.
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Attend digital copyright clinic
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The URC will be running a copyright clinic on 31 March at 3pm. This is for anyone who would like to learn more about copyright rules, hosting services online, or have copyright questions answered. To register your interest, please email Louise Ault, Communications Administrator, and you will be sent the Zoom log-on details.
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URC Daily Devotions available as podcast
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Own an Alexa device? To listen to our Daily Devotions, simply say: “Alexa, play the podcast of the URC Daily Devotions.” The Devotions are also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Blubrry, Podcast Index and Deezer.
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The Congregational Memorial Hall Trust and Congregational Library have launched a new website. The site holds a wealth of information about the Library, the Trust, collections, events and much more. Find more information here.
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URC Youth launch new programme
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To provide a way to learn, contribute, as well as equip young people and adults involved with the URC in as many ways as possible, URC Youth is launching Youth re-ASSEMBLED. Each month throughout the year, URC Youth will focus on a different theme or topic, along with free Zoom events, Trialogues and more. See here for all you need to know.
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Taxation of caretakers’ accomodation
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Currently, accommodation provided to a caretaker is exempt from tax under an extra-statutory concession (ESC) in place since 1977. The ESC expires in March, and from April, whether or not caretaker accommodation is exempt from the tax/National Insurance charge will depend on the status of the employee. It is thought that the exemption covers those employed in a full-time caretaking job who are on-call outside normal working hours. The Churches’ Legislation Advisory Service, is looking for examples of churches where the caretaker is likely to be affected by this change. The HR department is collating the URC’s response. If you have information, please email Deepti Upadhyaya, URC HR Administrator.
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Explore issues facing young women
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The Esther Collective, a podcast for a community of 18-30s women exploring the issues young women face with honesty, hope and a sense of humour launched last month. Facilitated by Girls’ Brigade Ministries, new episodes are available fortnightly and can be found on all major podcast platforms. Read more.
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Print copy of News Update
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A downloadable version of News Update, formatted for print, and for churches to cut and paste into church newsletters, will be available within a week of this issue being distributed. Download your copy here. If you know someone who would like to receive NU, they can subscribe to the newsletter here.
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Nurse gains Lundie Memorial Award
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Katie Henderson, a former URC Youth Moderator who, as a much-valued nurse, has been helping to battle Covid-19 on NHS wards, has been named February’s recipient of URC Children’s and Youth Work’s Lundie Memorial Award. Read more about Katie’s work here, and more about the award here.
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Find out more about Stepwise, what it is, who it’s for, and how it can help you develop your discipleship and faith journey through a series of webinars. ‘Faith-filled Worship’ is the next webinar in the series which will be held via Zoom on 9 March. Find out how you can take part here.
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Pray4URC in run up to next Mission Council
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Pray4URC by the Group for Evangelism and Renewal is holding another short series of prayers ahead of the next Mission Council meeting in March. The initiative began on 18 February at 8.15pm and takes place on the preceding four Thursdays on the Pray4URC Facebook page, where a guest introduces some prayer needs in the URC family and a panel leads prayers for 15 minutes while others add comments and prayers via the comment facility. Please email the team for more information.
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What does living the life of Jesus today look like online? How can we use technology to help each other walk the way of Jesus on a daily basis? The Walking the Way Steering Group hopes to set up a network of people from across the URC to explore this further. To start off, the group would like to invite you to attend a Zoom session to think about what we mean by ‘discipleship’, what’s already happening with faith development online, and how can we take things forward into more intentional community building. If this is something you or someone from your church might be interested in, please email the Walking the Way team here.
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Coronavirus: Information and resources
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Help rebuild community spirit
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A bright spot of 2020 was the resurgence of community spirit during the lockdown. ‘As One’, a street association initiative, is a tried-and-tested means to build partnerships in communities. Churches can help recapture this spirit, embed it for the long term and at the same time invest in new and fruitful links with their immediate neighbourhood, especially when we emerge from the pandemic. Watch this two-minute video from Churches Together in England Co-President, Hugh Osgood, or visit the As One website for more information.
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The URC’s ‘New Reality Same Mission’ team invites you to the first of three-monthly meetings, designed to provide people with the space to be open and honest about the difficulties and challenges experienced during the pandemic. The meetings take place via Zoom. Special guests joining the first session, which takes place on 1 April at 2pm, are Al Barrett and Ruth Harley, co-authors of Being Interrupted: Reimagining the Church’s mission from the outside. Register your interest by email here.
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The URC Equalities Committee has issued a statement which draws attention to the fact that when lockdown restrictions start to be lifted, it is essential to recognise that people are in different places on their own journeys out of lockdown. Read the statement in full here.
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This month in Reform magazine
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Are Churches united enough yet? asks Reform in this month’s issue. After all the years of ecumenical work, including the creation of the United Reformed Church, do the Churches now have all the peace love and understanding they need? Or should we continue working for further reunion? That’s the ‘Good question’ in Reform this month: Are Churches united enough yet? The England striker Eniola Aluko talks to Reform about the faith behind her 102 caps. We hear from the Tanzanian workers dealing with the plastic others discard. And about DIY pilgrimage, fasting problems – and how you can help bring water to the Revd Naison Hove’s home village in Zimbabwe. Sign up for Reform with your church distributor, or online here.
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Please order online. You can contact the shop by email or by calling 020 7916 8629. Thanks for your understanding.
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Easter booklets - A pack of 25 booklets explaining the meaning of Easter, written by the Revd Susan Durber. A5 or A6 in size, the booklet has been designed to be given away or posted through letterboxes - anywhere to tell people that Christ is Risen.
£3.99 for 25 + p&p
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He is Risen hand decorated stone. A hand decorated gift for Easter - a varnished stone saying He is Risen. Supplied in a yellow organza bag. From Heartistic - art with a heart.
£4.99 +p&p
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The URC Guide and Scout Fellowship have produced ‘Time for Thought’ to provide reflection and prayer ideas for use with children and young people. All the items can be used in part or as they stand according to your situation.
£1.50 +p&p.
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Hook: Learning to fly, written by the Revd Heather Whyte, a URC minister, is a five-week course of spiritual journeying based on the film Hook. This course attempts to offer a contemporary spiritual experience, an exploration of Jesus’ observation that we must become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven, alongside the very real need to search for our true selves – that which is at the very heart of our being. £3.99 +p&p
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Containing the definitive list of United Reformed churches and ministers, alongside a wealth of other information about the denomination, the URC 2021 Yearbook now includes ‘Celebrated Lives’, remembering ministers and others in the life of the URC who have died in the past 12 months. The 2021 Yearbook follows the 2020 redesign to make its information easier to read. New lower price of £17.99 +p&p
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National Synod of Scotland
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URC member Debora Kayembe, a human rights lawyer who fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has lived in Scotland since 2011, has been named as a Rector of Edinburgh University. Debora will be the first person of colour and third woman to take the prestigious job since its creation in 1858. Read The National’s article on this here. Keep an eye out on the URC’s news web pages where we hope to carry a more in depth interview with Debora.
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The URC National Synod of Wales is pleased to announce the call of the Reverend Martin Spain, a Congregational Federation minister, as its Officer for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations. Martin, who will take up the post in June, said: “I am delighted to take up this important role.“
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Trinity Methodist and United Reformed Church (URC) in Skelmersdale, is one of four organisations in West Lancashire that will share a windfall of almost £70,000. The church will spend the its share of the money on its refurbishment.
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Cornerstone Church Cranbrook, a fresh expression project of the URC, Methodist Church and Church of England based in a new growing town on the edge of Exeter, is successfully reaching out to new families through its digital Messy Church service. The project sends activity packs out on a Saturday and then deliver a themed livestreamed service on Zoom on the Sunday. The Revd Lythan Nevard said: “The service has a Blue Peter feel and in return we get sent photos and other messages which is encouraging.“
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Amersham Free Church in Buckinghamshire has opened its buildings to the NHS for use as a rapid Covid testing site. The testing is for non-symptomatic people specifically wishing to return to work reassured that they do not have the disease. The NHS runs the centre six days a week and serves the Amersham community and surrounding area.
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Take action on climate change
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Local churches across Britain and Ireland are encouraged to hold a climate-focused service on any Sunday before 5 September. Free resources are available to suit every tradition and style of worship from the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website. Along with the service, churches are invited to make a commitment to taking long-term action; join with wider society by adding its name to a common call for the UK government to take much bolder action on climate change. The culmination of the campaign will be a national Climate Sunday event on 5 September to share church commitments and pray for bold action and courageous leadership at COP26, the United Nations climate change conference taking place 1-12 November in Glasgow. Read more.
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Help end modern slavery this Lent
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On 17 February, anti-slavery charity International Justice Mission UK launched a six-week video course for Lent. The course challenges Christians to help stop slavery and exploitation in the production of everyday items and asks participants to give up a slavery-impacted item for 40 days and donate what they save. Read more.
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Stop using barracks as housing
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Church leaders from across denominations, including the Revd Claire Downing, Moderator of the URC General Assembly, have written an open letter to the Home Secretary to urge the government to stop housing asylum seekers in barracks. Read the letter here.
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JPIT hustings guide now available
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A number of elections are due to be held in England, Scotland and Wales on 6 May. These include local council, police and crime commissioner, mayoral, and Welsh and Scottish parliamentary elections. Many churches are now skilled in running online meetings and like never before would be able to provide an important service to their neighbourhoods by hosting a virtual hustings. The Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT) has produced a new hustings guide which is designed with online hustings in mind and offers lots of tips and advice to get started. Read the guide here.
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The Bible Reading Fellowship is offering ‘Holy Habits: Following Jesus’, a new online Holy Habits Lent group based on Andrew Robert’s book of the same name. The group, which began on 16 February, meets from 7.30-8.30pm followed by a 30-minute Facebook live session hosted by Andrew Roberts. To find out more and to join, click here.
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‘More questions than answers’ is a monthly digital event hosted by Urban Life – an organisation which cultivates mission in urban areas and marginalised neighbourhoods. Selina Stone, Tutor and Lecturer in Political Theology at St Mellitus College, joins the next webinar which takes place on 11 March from 7.30-9pm. Sign up here.
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Christian communities in Wales can now benefit from an advice pack on coping with rural isolation and loneliness. The Arthur Rank Centre, has translated its rural isolation toolkit, into the Welsh language. This free toolkit is available alongside the Centre’s ‘Worshipping Together’ pack which aims to help rural Christians to create church services for themselves.
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Recognising and resisiting empire in the Bible
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The URC’s Commitment for Life and Walking the Way teams are supporting an international Easter online festival, taking place from 21-22 March. On 21 March from 6.30-8pm, author Wes Howard-Brook, Senior Instructor, Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University, begins by leading a talk on recognising and resisting empire in the Bible and early Church. On 22 March from 10-11am, Chine McDonald, author and Head of Community Fundraising and Public Engagement at Christian Aid, leads a talk on recognising and resisting white privilege. William Young, Pastor of the Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ in Washington DC, explores resistance music in Washington, Brazil and Palestine from 11am-12pm. Mr Howard-Brook looks at recognising and resisting Empire in the Church today from 6.30-8pm. The event is free. For details of how to join, please email the Revd Dr Kevin Snyman, Commitment for Life Coordinator.
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The Group for Evangelical and Renewal is holding a gathering for ministers, CRCWs and local church leaders at The Hayes in Swanwick from 23-25 November. Themed ‘Lift up your heads’, the event features worship, Bible study, prayer, ministry and networking. Guest speakers include Steve Uppal, Senior Leader of All Nations Christian Centre in Wolverhampton, Paul Woolley, CEO of the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity, and Phil Knox, the Evangelical Alliance’s Head of Mission to Young Adults. Book here.
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The Revd Michael Hopkins, Clerk of the URC General Assembly, is hosting an Oberammergau Passion Play and Austrian Tyrol tour. The seven-day trip departs on 15 May 2022. Prices start from £1,337 and includes: category one Passion Play ticket, one-night half board accommodation in Oberammergau, five nights half board accommodation in Austria, all excursions, entrance fees and guided tours, return scheduled flights from London, and more. For full details and to book, read more.
Image: Wintershall
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Holiday forum explores which lives need to matter more?
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The URC Holiday Forum is holding a webinar on 20 March themed ‘Naming the elephants in the room’. Lawrence Moore will be talking to Professor Anthony Reddie, Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture, and the Revd Dr Munther Isaac, Dean of Bethlehem Bible College and Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. Together they will explore which lives need to matter more in our churches than they currently do? The event runs from 10am-8.30pm. The event is free and open to all. Register here.
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As the lockdown continues, a group of young people from across the North Western Synod, and beyond, meet up digitally every Tuesday at 7pm to chat and play games. Aimed at young people of secondary school age and above, the sessions are overseen by the Synod’s CYDO, Leo Roberts, along with others. Email the Synod office for details of how to join, or telephone 0161 769 1122.
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The Council for World Mission Europe is facilitating a series of webinars around the theme ‘Life-flourishing communities’. On 8 March, Carole Troupe, a research associate on the Legacies of Slavery project, leads ‘Looking back, looking forward’. Dr Eve Parker, leads ‘What would a life-flourishing curriculum for theological education look like?’ on 22 March. Both sessions take place from 2-3.30pm. Register by email.
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Is the 21st century church fit for the young?
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St. David’s Uniting Church and Castle Square URC in Wales are holding ‘Exile or Exodus: The Church and the lost generation’ – a webinar on 15 March at 7.30pm. Guests include an Anglican podcaster and URC minister for young adults who will consider whether the 21st century Church is fit for the young. The event is free, and all are welcome. Please email the Revd Phil Wall for joining details.
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URC Deputy General Secretary (Discipleship)
Based: Church House, London. Full-time. Salary: £64,994. Closing date: 12pm on 12 March. Apply here.
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Congregational Federation, Project Leader – Disciples in the Community. Based: Nottingham. Full-time, flexible hours. Salary: £27,156. One year contract. Closing date: 14 March. Apply here.
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The United Reformed Church
Church House, 86 Tavistock Place
London, WC1H 9RT
Tel: 020 7916 2020
Email: urc^urc,org,uk
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The United Reformed Church was created by church unions in 1972, 1981 and 2000, facilitated by Acts of Parliament passed in each of those years. It has a number of associated bodies: The United Reformed Church Trust (URC Trust) is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England & Wales (Registered Number: 135934); it is also a registered charity (Registration Number: 1133373). The United Reformed Church Ministers’ Pensions Trust Ltd is a limited company registered in England & Wales (Registered Number: 2821011). The United Reformed Church Retired Ministers’ Housing Society Ltd. is a registered Community Benefit Society under the Co-operative & Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Number 15986R). The Registered Office for all the aforementioned bodies is Church House, 86 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9RT.
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