A round-up of news from the around the United Reformed Church and beyond from the past seven days.
Reform Editor marks 100th edition
Congratulations to Stephen Tomkins, Editor of Reform, on reaching his 100th issue on 18 January – which coincidently arrived on press day!
Church House colleagues helped Steve celebrate with a cuppa and lots of cake donated by Andy Jackson, Head of Communications.
Steve said of all the issues he’s worked on, the URC’s 50th-anniversary edition was one of his favourites and his dream interview would be with singer, songwriter and activist Billy Bragg.
New ministers welcomed at Church House
Church House welcomed seven new ministers on 19 January, who were ordained and commissioned last autumn.
Solomon Aryee-Brown, Felicity Barker (Church-Related Community Worker), Adam Earle, Mark Hayes, Kate Hunt, Nicola Robinson and Lisa Wilson met with Church House staff and their EM2 chaplain, the Revd Sohail Ejaz.
The new ministers were due to visit Church House in November but this was postponed due to a national rail strike.
When they were finally able to visit Church House in person the group benefited from networking, staff presentations and met all the different teams.
Image from left to right: Fliss Barker (CRCW), Lisa Wilson, Solomon Ayree-Brown, Nicola Robinson, Adam Earle, Kate Hunt, Mark Hayes
Holy Land’s first woman pastor ordained
Congratulations to the Revd Sally Azar, a Palestinian from Jerusalem, who was ordained at an event at the Lutheran church in the heart of the Old City at the weekend, becoming the Holy Land’s first woman pastor.
Kevin Snyman, The URC’s Commitment for Life Programme Officer, said he was delighted to hear about Sally’s ordination.
The long running programme offers a wide range of congregational support from local URCs to the Church’s global partners. R
Read the full story here: .
Synod administrator retires after 46 years’ service
Patricia ‘Patsi’ Dickie, Administrator for the URC National Synod of Scotland, retired at the end of December after 46 years of supporting Congregational and United Reformed Church local churches and people across the country.
Patsi is wished many good wishes for the next chapter of her life and gratitude has been expressed across the Synod for all her support. Gemma Walker is now the Synod’s new administrator.
Seasonal superhero returns lost Christmas presents
A seasonal superhero delivered a true Christmas miracle after returning a package of festive gifts to a retired United Reformed Church minister who dropped them in a river.
The Revd Martin Camroux was walking to Colchester’s city centre on 14 December to post Christmas presents to his mother-in-law and do some festive shopping, but disaster struck when he slipped on ice and hit his head while making his way across a Bridge, dropping his gifts into the River Colne in the process.
The gifts, which included photographs, a photo calendar and handmade book, floated away while Martin watched on dejectedly. He thought he would never see them again.
But, the following day he was left dumbstruck when he received a visit from Good Samaritan Sue Hyett, who had retrieved his soggy presents from the river.
“The absolutely wonderful Sue knocked on my door and returned the presents,” Martin said.
“There was a calendar made by my daughter with a photo of family members on each page, which is slightly damp in one corner, a hand-made notebook sent by my son’s family, and some photos of our granddaughter.
“Someday this will be a sermon story and it will be true. It is a story to restore faith in human goodness.”
In the true spirit of Christmas, Sue tracked down Martin after embarking on a mission to find him. She knocked on doors and searched all over social media.
Against the odds, she found the owner of the gifts.
Read the full story here.
Image: gazettte-news.co.uk