The General Assembly of the United Reformed Church, which met in Scarborough from 6 to 9 July, has asked general secretary, the Revd Roberta Rominger, to enable the church to consider the findings of a review of the role of Synod moderators - which proposed six principles on which a redrafting of the role of synod moderator could be based.

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Two resolutions were passed at the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church (6 to 9 July) to regulate major changes to the constitution of the church.

Up to now, changes to the Basis of Union or the Structure of the URC, have always involved three steps: a first presentation to the Assembly; a referral to the Synods for consideration and a second presentation to the Assembly, at which time any objections by one or more synods has to be reported.

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General Assembly has had the opportunity to air views about Mission Council’s decision to end the Zero Intolerance (ZI) campaign. Roberta Rominger, speaking in her capacity as co-convener of the ZI steering group, took a variety of questions on the end of the campaign, including the future plans for radical welcome within the denomination, the availability of the adverts to the churches, funding and the use of the “Askit” website.

Mrs Rominger told Assembly that the future of radical welcome lay between three Assembly committees – Mission, Education and Learning and Communications and Editorial, later confirming that Mission Committee would be taking the lead on taking forward the URC’s work on radical welcome.

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Jane Leighton, co moderator of the Fellowship of United Reformed Youth (FURY), presented the second part of the Youth and Children’s business on the afternoon of 8 July. Citing a research paper that was presented to the 2011 Methodist Conference confirming the need for further local church engagement with adults in local churches aged between 20 and 40, she challenged the United Reformed Church to address this “missing generation” of young adults in its churches.

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