The 2022 United Reformed Church General Assembly takes place from 8-11 July at The Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick.
This will be the first in-person General Assembly since 2018.
Items on the agenda include response to the legacies of transatlantic slavery; the launch of URC Children; one-off payments to ministers and lay staff in light of the recent energy cost increases; future pension arrangements; reinvigorating the ecumenical vision of the URC, an update on the Church Life Review, and Assembly Committee and Church House structures.
- A round-up of all the business discussed and decisions made will be available here, and in the September issue of our monthly email News Update.
- General Assembly papers can be downloaded here.
- The proceedings will also be livestreamed on the URC website, urc.org.uk.
The URC’s 50th jubilee
On October 5th, 1972, at Methodist Central Hall Westminster, the Uniting Assembly of the URC took place and the new denomination came into being.
We give thanks for the many ways in which the URC and its antecedents were trailblazers for the Church in the UK.
For example, the URC was one of the first major organisations to campaign for people with AIDS and it produced the Charter for Children, introduced at General Assembly in 1990, paving the way for intergenerational awareness.
In 2016, it became one of the first mainstream UK denomination to allow its churches to carry out marriages of same-sex couples.
Our 50th year will help us to plan for the future, as papers for this year’s General Assembly show, not only to keep pursuing our ecumenical vision, but also to plan for how we will continue to be an active, engaged and faithful Christian presence in our communities and in new ones.
Not least, marking our Jubilee will be an opportunity to give thanks.
The URC has already marked the jubilee in local churches, at our URC Youth Assembly, at national and regional Synod meetings and events, at our Ministers’ Gathering, at a special reception at the House of Lords and at the URC History Society Conference.
- Watch videos from URC History Society conference on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/URCUK
Free jubilee resources
A free jubilee resources pack and intergenerational book, Celebrate Together, is available from the URC Bookshop, www.urcshop.co.uk/50.
October 1 jubilee events
On October 1, the culmination of the jubilee will take place at United Reformed Church House and Methodist Central Hall Westminster.
Between 10am and 1pm United Reformed Church House at 86 Tavistock Place will hold an Open Church House event, with dozens of activities and crafts related to the jubilee including: a Living Library, our Mersey Synod with LICC/LYCIG, Free-to-Believe, GEAR, the URC History Society and Westminster College Cambridge, a Prayer Labyrinth, an Enquirers’ Conference, Greenbelt, Christian Aid, Roots for Churches, Single Friendly Church, The Trussell Trust, an exhibition from the URC archives, Church Related Community Workers offering activities around Café Church, community work and engagement, many staff teams offering conversations and discussion activities, Fresh Expressions plant-based activities and reflections, badge-making and craft activities, a puppet show, an exhibition of Reform magazine’s 50 years, the URC Bookshop and more.
Later that day at Methodist Central Hall Westminster, London, from 2.30pm, a Service of Thanksgiving and Celebration with an Act of Holy Communion will take place to give thanks and to celebrate the five decades of the United Reformed Church.
Tickets for all of these events are free and more than 2,000 have already been reserved.
- Visit the jubilee pages on our website, urc.org.uk/50