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winter2002

New green shoots

Encouraging the growth

The larger picture

New publications

The Committee membership

Staff

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New green shoots

All this talk of the winter of ecumenism makes me look into my garden at the snowdrops.  (a quotation from Oliver Tomkin, pioneer of the ecumenical movement)

*  An Anglican-Methodist Covenant, the report of the formal conversations between the Church of England and the Methodist Church, commits the two churches to a deeper relationship expressed through a greater degree of common life and witness.  (£4.25 plus p&p from the bookshop)

*  Conversations on the way to unity, the report of the informal conversations which included the URC, reveals common ground but also much work to be done on the long ecumenical journey. (£1 from the bookshop and also on the URC web site)

            The URC response to these two reports over the next year or two (presuming the CofE and the Methodists accept them for wider consideration) will reveal much about our current understanding of ourselves and our mission  today.

* Growing  interest in Methodist/United Reformed Church united areas, shared ministry, and other such arrangements is leading to a consultation to explore the issues, good practice and pitfalls to be held in Wiltshire in the late Spring.

* breakthrough in Milton Keynes, where the one meeting serves as Anglican deanery, Methodist circuit and URC district.  It had to go to 14 or 15 drafts before being accepted!  Baptists and Roman Catholics are also involved.

* Two proposed local United Reformed Church/Church of Scotland unions – in Aberdeen and in Glasgow, and a new Methodist/URC union(with Scottish Episcopal possibilities) in Edinburgh.

* The London Inter-faith centre, a revitalised Church of England/United Reformed Church initiative.

*  discrete communities, too many to mention, where the churches (often ranging across the theological and ecclesiological spectrum) are developing structures for shared life and witness

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Encouraging the growth

*  CTE Training consultation for ministry in LEPs, 6/7 February, Leamington Spa.   Information through the synod ecumenical officer.

*  SW synod runs a day on the URC for Methodist ministers serving URC people.

Is any other synod doing that?

* CTE Ecumenical notes, containing model constitutional guidelines and various important ecumenical documents from churches involved in LEPs, is now on disc and each synod ecumenical officer has a copy.  Ask to have it forwarded, or for a print-out.

* the first Scottish Ecumenical Assembly, with the title Breaking New Ground ,produced statements on matters ranging from poverty to work to spirituality:  no narrow view of ecumenism here!    Assembly statements from acts.tom@dial.pipex.com

* CTBI Ecumenical Methodology consultation, in October, where different approaches to Christian unity and mission from the four nations challenged each other.   Full report expected in the Spring:  watch this space.

But where is the ongoing ecumenical education for experienced ecumenical officers?

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The larger picture

* September 11 -  Through CTBI, the church leaders of the four nations wrote to the PM, urging restraint and expressing concern for the suffering of the innocent.  The Scottish Ecumenical Assembly also wrote to the PM along similar lines.  The URC wrote letters of solidarity  to its USA partner churches, to its partner churches in Pakistan, and to our two Urdu-speaking local churches.

*In December  four Reformed churches, the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Presbyterian Church of Wales and the United Reformed Church, met together for the first time to explore their social contexts, their reformed identity and their mission.  An important discovery was the strong sense of family in the midst of difference.  Two observers from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches set the meeting in a global context.

*  The WCC Decade to Overcome Violence, 2001 – 2010.  Through CTBI the churches are pooling their particular perspectives on this:  the Methodists, through Network, are emphasising violence against women:  the URC is emphasising, firstly, violence against children, through its strong support for the Children are Unbeatable campaign, and, secondly,  the work for world peace through its revived Peace Forum.  The Baptist Union is taking the decade as a major theme across the board, with the strap-line Following Jesus in a violent world.

            If locally or regionally you have work which falls under this broad heading and would like to be linked to the decade please contact this office.

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* Threats to ecumenical funding.   The call for budget restraint, even cuts, in most of the churches, including the URC, is affecting contributions to the ecumenical bodies, four-nation, national, and intermediate.  The Church of England's freeze, as largest contributor, affects the whole English scene.

* English intermediate bodies, with their dedicated CEOs, are, in some places, feeling these cold financial winds, but also the new (rival?) growth of the regional Church response to Regional Development Agencies.   The latter with its so-called kingdom-based agenda seems more attractive than the local unity v. denominational disunity agenda of the intermediate bodies.

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New publications

Breaking new ground, the preparatory essays for the Scottish Ecumenical Assembly.  £7.95 plus p&p

Challenging time: Stephen Lynas' book on the Churches' Millennium experience.  £7.95 plus p&p

Religious discrimination:  a Christian response:  from the Churches Commission for Inter-Faith Relations.   £5.95 plus p&p

Called to be Saints:  the 2002 Lent course.  £2.50 plus p&p

       All available through the URC bookshop    

Breaking new ground, the preparatory essays for the Scottish Ecumenical Assembly.  £7.95 plus p&p

Challenging time: Stephen Lynas' book on the Churches' Millennium experience.  £7.95 plus p&p

Religious discrimination:  a Christian response:  from the Churches Commission for Inter-Faith Relations.   £5.95 plus p&p

Called to be Saints:  the 2002 Lent course.  £2.50 plus p&p

       All available through the URC bookshop        

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The committee membership

Bob Andrews (Convener), Mary Buchanan, Darnett Whitby-Reid, Phillip Jones, Jackie Marsh, Richard Mortimer, Elizabeth Nash, John Rees, John Smith (Scotland), Stuart Jackson (Wales).

Representing other committees:

Carole Ellefsen-Jones, Alistair Ellefsen-Jones, Hugh Graham, Suzanne Hamnett, Rosemary Johnston, Raymond Singh, John Crocker (Convener of the International Exchange Sub-Committee).

Representing other churches:

David Campbell (Presbyterian Church in Ireland), Colin Buchanan - alternate, Elizabeth Fisher (Church of England), Peter Sulston (Methodist Church)

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Sheila Maxey, Secretary for Ecumenical Relations [ecumenical@urc.org.uk]

Philip Woods, Secretary for International Relations [international@urc.org.uk]

Revd Dale Rominger, International Relations Programme Officer
[Dale.rominger@urc.org.uk]

Veronica Singh, Personal Assistant to Secretary for Ecumenical Relations
[veronica.singh@urc.org.uk]]

Doris David, Personal Assistant to Secretary for International Relations.

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