Business Session two
‘Charter for children’ sparks lively discussion
On Saturday 7 July, the United Reformed Church General Assembly was asked to consider the relevance of the ‘charter for children’ – a set of ten statements affirmed by the 1990 Assembly on the place of children within worship and church life. After a short presentation, the Revd Jenny Mills, convenor of the URC’s children’s and youth work (CYW) committee, moved Resolution 22, which asked the Assembly to recommit implementing the charter for children. The issue sparked a lively debate on the floor of Assembly; comments ranged from linguistic concerns about the resolution’s wording and whether the existing charter is written in child-friendly language, to whether the charter needs significant new work.