On the holiest of days in the Jewish calendar, a gunman ruthlessly shot dead two people in Halle, East Germany yesterday.

The man allegedly attempted to gain access to the city’s Humboldt Street Synagogue, where 70-80 people were marking Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. A video was posted online by the suspect, who is now in custody, filled with hatred and anti-Semitism, including denial of the Holocaust.

“The senseless attack is yet another reminder of the rise in the kind of extremism, which so often targets people of faith at worship,” says the Revd Philip Brooks, the United Reformed Church’s Secretary for Ecumenical Interfaith Relations.

URC General Secretary the Revd John Proctor reports from the Council of World Mission's (CWM) meeting of church leaders

The Council for World Mission is a fellowship of 32, mainly Reformed, churches around the globe, worshipping and working in some 40 countries.

Many of these churches came into being through the missionary work of British Christians in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet now some are much bigger than we are – in Korea, Madagascar and South India, for example. And others are smaller – in the various Pacific islands.

Featuring prayers for every week of the year, the 2020 United Reformed Church (URC) Prayer Handbook - Prayers from the heart is now available.

Edited by Karen Campbell, a Church Related Community Worker, and the Revd Ian Fosten, a URC Minister, Prayers from the heart features a mixture of prayer styles and approaches for all readers.