A member of the United Reformed Church (URC) Yorkshire Synod has been named in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.

Margaret Atkinson, a retired magistrate, will receive an MBE for her involvement both in the justice system, and for her work with the URC.

Margaret, who served as a magistrate for 17 years before retiring in 2017 and began volunteering with the Church in 1972, said the honour came as a ‘complete surprise’.

Members of the United Reformed Church (URC) are being asked to consider helping the people of Indonesia, whose lives have been devastated by natural disasters.

Following an earthquake and tsunami on Sulawesi on 28 September 2018, and the devastation caused to the Sunda Strait on 22 December 2018, people who have lost everything are in desperate need of water, food, shelter and access to medical care.

From the highest number of attendees at November’s new ministers' conference since 2015, to charities nesting into Church House’s social impact hub, and a URC minister being chosen as the first poet-in-residence for the Joint Public Issues Team, 2018 has had some fantastic moments.

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