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For the past two years, the Revd Kevin Watson and Mr Alan Yates, Moderators of the United Reformed Church, have chaired General Assembly and other meetings, and travelled around exploring local congregations.
As they approach the end of their term, in an interview with Reform magazine, the Moderators look back on whether the past two years have been what they expected and share some of their insights.
Figures released by The Trussell Trust – Britain’s largest foodbank network – show that more families are being forced to use foodbanks to meet their day-to-day needs.
Analysis of foodbanks in areas where there has been full Universal Credit (UC) rollouts, show that these projects experienced an average increase of 52% in the 12 months after the full rollout date. In areas where UC is not yet in place, or has not been fully rolled out, people using foodbanks have increased 13%.
In the latest edition of Reform magazine, four commentators explore whether things are getting better for women – in a religious context, in the wake of the #MeToo movement and equal pay scandal.
‘Women have made a lot of progress but there’s lots more to do,’ says Dawn Butler MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Equalities. ‘And some women have made much more progress than others. We can’t answer the general question of whether the experience of women has changed for the better without reflecting on the persistent inequalities relating to class and ethnicity as well as gender … women who are disabled, working class or from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background will not simply wait for their turn.’
More than 340 United Reformed Church Ministers and Church Related Community Workers from across the denomination’s 13 synods, spent four days being inspired and challenged.
The URC’s first Ministers’ Gathering took place at Yarnfield Park Training and Conference Centre, this week (between 30 April – 3 May 2018), as part of Walking the Way: Living the life of Jesus today. The gathering offered ministers and CRCWs an opportunity to reflect on their own roles as disciples of Jesus and to consider what it means to serve in a Church that seeks to empower everyone in their call to and participation in missional discipleship.
I have always found problematic the notion that animals do not have souls.
No animal on earth can be as nasty as a nasty human. And yet, if we are to believe it, God made us the caretakers. Odd.
A Dog is a Small Shred of God
A dog is a small shred of God.
And cats and frogs are shreds of God.
And you too, Love, however odd,
are one sharp, shattered, shard of God.
And all of us however odd,
are smallish fragment-bits of God.
I like dogs more,
cats more, frogs more;
it isn’t really very odd
to find them easier to like
than splintered, human bits of God.
©LucyBerry
Lucy Berry is a poet, a mum, and a minister of the United Reformed Church. Her website is at www.lucyberry.com and she's available to perform, preach and lead workshops.
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