A two-minute film calling on Christians to safeguard God’s world by working towards a future free of nuclear weapons was released this week.

The United Reformed Church along with four other Christian denominations – the Baptist Union, the Methodist Church, the Quakers, and the Church of Scotland – is distributing the film to thousands across the world in a joint call to action.

The Bible is full of rivers - and other great bodies of water - into which Bible people go with more, or less, willingness ... Will we be cleansed or drowned? Will we cross or sink? And what is waiting on the other side? Baptism into truth isn't a one-off thing. But we stand, both as souls and as churches, at the brink of much that we neither choose nor understand. Shall we trust and jump in, or linger un-washed and un-travelled on familiar shores? 

The Revd John Proctor, General Secretary of the United Reformed Church, explores the true meaning of hope at Advent 

Advent. Candles, calendars and countdown to Christmas. Lighting the darkness, logging the passing days and looking ahead. Waiting, watching, yearning. 

A friend of mine fell into conversation with an old man at a rural bus-stop. When was the bus due? Some time yet. ‘But it won’t take me as long to wait,’ said the old man, ‘as it will take you.’