Colleagues old and new bid farewell to Ann Barton, United Reformed Church Facilities Manager, at a barbecue at Church House on 31 August.

After 23 years of service, she is retiring and looking forward to having the time to pursue long-held areas of interest.

The United Reformed Church brought a great splash of colour to the Greenbelt arts festival last weekend (24-27 August).

Members all over the UK had been busy for months knitting, crocheting and sewing creative flowers to turn the URC tent into a garden. Festival goers joined in the creativity, making fork flowers, decorating stones and fashioning peg people to walk through the vibrant display.

These activities were just some of the many ways Greenbelters explored the theme of this year’s URC’s association with Greenbelt: ‘Pilgrimagination’.

The Revd Lucy Berry, a performance poet and United Reformed Church minister, has been named as the first poet-in-residence for the Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT).

JPIT responds to current social, political and policy issues on behalf of the Baptist Union, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church.

Ms Berry will write and perform poetry related to the policy areas JPIT work on such as poverty and welfare system in the UK, immigration, political engagement and broader themes around peace and justice.

This poem involves two passages in my own life: the approaching death of my father, and the birth of my son. The first involves the last interaction I recall my dad ever making with someone outside the family. The second, the first time we noticed that my son was sharing his experience. They are linked, by light; and they never leave me.