Monthly Archives: October 2020

The United Reformed Church Children’s and Youth Work and Communications Teams have launched a new Advent and Christmas kit for churches to engage with families. Advent Hope & Joy is a low cost kit that can be given to families to show that the church remembers them, cares for them and wants to connect with them, and are sized so that they can be posted through letterboxes. Read More … … Continue reading →

Four young people who are using their God-given skills, time and talent to good effect have gained a Lundie Memorial Award from the United Reformed Church’s (URC) Children’s and Youth Work team. Read More … … Continue reading →

The Revd Michael J Davies, FCIS, who served the Presbyterian Church of England at Rustington and Wallasey, the United Reformed Church (URC) as its first Youth Secretary and Moderator of Thames North Province (now known as a Synod), and the World Council of Churches as Assistant General Secretary and as its representative to Britain and Ireland for 20 years, has died aged 87. After training at Westminster College Cambridge, Michael was called to St Andrew’s, Rustington, on the Sussex coast, in 1959. Read More … … Continue reading →

Despite a widely supported and passionate campaign over the summer, the world’s largest food company, Nestlé, has confirmed its June 2020 decision to drop the Fairtrade Mark from KitKat chocolate bars. We would like to extend our thanks to everyone … Continue reading →

A campaign calling for debt cancellation for people who have been swept into unavoidable debt in recent months launched on 4 October by a group of four denominations representing two-thirds of a million Christians and ecumenical charity, Church Action on Poverty. The United Reformed Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Church Action on Poverty, the Church of Scotland, and the Methodist Church urge the government to create a Jubilee Fund to provide grants to pay off and cancel unavoidable debt accrued by the poorest households during the lockdown period, giving them a more stable platform from which to face the difficult winter… Continue reading →

A petition signed by 300,000 people was delivered to Nestle’s UK KitKat factory in York on 1 October. The event was in protest at Nestle’s move to stop using Fairtrade cocoa and sugar in KitKats. The delivery, organised by Joanna Pollard of Fairtrade Yorkshire, coincided with the start of the annual cocoa harvest in the Ivory Coast and was applauded by the Revd Dr Kevin Snyman, Coordinator for Commitment for Life, the United Reformed Church’s (URC) global justice programme. Read More … … Continue reading →

Launching a dedicated webpage that explores the legacies of slavery, Karen Campbell, Secretary for the United Reformed Church’s (URC) Global and Intercultural Ministries (GIM) team, explains why Black History Month 2020 is of particular importance. October 2020 is the UK’s 33rd occurrence of Black History Month – and is considered by some to be the most important since its inception. Read More … … Continue reading →

The main question in Reform magazine this month is: How divided is our society, and what can we do about it? The October edition provides four answers from different commentators, including MSP Murdo Fraser, who gives us insight into why, for Scotland, this is an acute issue. Find out why he advocates people taking a leaf out of Nelson Mandela’s book. Read More … … Continue reading →

The Revd Paul Whittle has been nominated to become Moderator of the United Reformed Church (URC) National Synod of Scotland for a three-year term, following the move by the Revd Dr David Pickering to return to pastoral ministry. Since July 2008, Paul has served as the Moderator of the URC’s Eastern Synod and celebrated the 40th anniversary of his ordination in 2019. Read More … … Continue reading →