Discussion

Welcome to the Discussion Area

This is the place to have your say about the issues being discussed at this year's Assembly. Leave your comments below for inclusion in our discussion forum. The most recent comments appear at the top.

Clare Short

I am astounded at the comments of Revd. Birgitta Johnson. I suggest that she (we?) look at Isaiah 45: 1 - 6 and God's calling of Cyrus as his 'anointed'.

Whilst God does indeed speak through the Church he is not confined to any one group of people. There is no evidence that Cyrus actually acknowledged the God of the Jews but he was used by him.

God still has his prophets outside the religious establishment as well as within. From my listening to Clare Short at Assembly, she is one of them.

Thank God for her and act upon what God has to say through her.

Rev. Ken Summers
Southport

General Assembly

I had never attended General Assembly before I went this year and felt that it was like going to the Church that I belong to for the first time. The broad concept, the national church. In May we ran a District Day jointly with St Albans which had the title "Beyond the Threshold" which was aimed at getting our members to look beyond the doors of their individual churches and beyond the precincts of their own districts. At Portsmouth I belonged for four days to a congregation which represented this vision of the greater church, reflected so well by the Chaplain's first prayer on Monday Morning (and I urge you to read it now, elsewhere on the Hotline, and apply it to your local situation). It was a stimulating and memorable experience.

David Eldridge
Chiltern District

Yardley Hastings

The decision to close YH to both the NYRC and the local congregation seemed at total variance not just with the diligent work of Assembly's own Task Group, but with much else that happened at Assembly.

'Why is the Church so slow and lacks the will to venture out' we sang, and then voted to close YH. The Synod Moderators urged us to open up discussion on spirituality in our local churches. Where will the YH community and congregation do this? We had some excellent Bible Study sessions on 'Exile', but made exiles of a community of young people, and of a congregation within the URC. Young people need a place of their own. This is particularly important for those churches where there are only a very few young people. The URC is losing YH and we need to think pretty quickly what alternative we will provide with the money that has now been released.

Jenny Morgan
Harrold

Joel Edwards

If, as the site says about Joel Edward's address...

"There has not been speech like that in the last three days’ the Moderator confessed at the end of a speech which was as much a sermon and which inspired Assembly to an enthusiastic ovation." ...then how is it that we can download the full text of Claire Short's speech, but only gain a measly (though enthusiastic) one-paragraph summary of Joel's address?

Surely THIS is the one that (judging by its response) needs to be heard?

Please, please, please... can those of us who were not at Assembly have the privilege of reading this address too?

Paul Stokes
Plymouth
 

Its a fair point. Though full reports are normally reserved for the September edition of Reform, on this occasion we have added a fuller report of the address to Hotline. A verbatim transcript is not really practical since the address was delivered impromptu and much of its impact depended upon timing and delivery.

Millennium Development Goals

I find it hard to believe that we are truly committed to eradicating world poverty and supporting the Millennium Development Goals (which this Assembly pledged to do) but do not serve Fair Trade tea, coffee and snacks at General Assembly. I know that the teas during the business sessions were provided by the University, but when we are providing them with the income from  around 1000 participants on a major conference which they are making a profit from, surely we are more than able to negotiate serving our own refreshments. I was shocked and disgusted to see that we did not do this as a matter of course.

We are never going to make a difference on a big scale, if we cannot do something small, like have an even just partly Fair Trade Assembly. I hope this is something General Assembly Planning will think about for next year.

Isobel J Simmons
Birmingham

Yardley Hastings

I have just read through all comments made about Yardley and the closure of the centre. I was at Assembly and took part in the debate, favouring the task group's proposals. My support of the centre won’t stop just because of Assembly’s decision. The staff and team at Yardley have 6 months left to deliver the excellent hospitality that they have been doing for the last 11 yrs. If you as individuals, or with members of your local fellowship, can don’t lose this last opportunity to visit the NYRC at Yardley. It truly is a special place.

I urge you also to support the ‘Ginger Groups’ and the future of youth work within our denomination.

Liz Boyes
Yardley Hastings
Past Team Member

Doctrine and Worship

I have neither bought nor looked at the new service book yet. From brief descriptions I wonder if it contains worship material appropriate for those wishing to serve overseas? I know it is rare for us to send missionaries overseas but I hope there are similar occasions when such material might be used. I am aware that in some of our congregations there are families from overseas partner churches who regularly worship with us and transfer their membership. A service of recognition about belonging to the world church would be helpful.

Sheila Rudofsky

London

Ginger Group

I have just read on the net your summary of the Yardley Hastings debate. I hope that Ginger groups or whatever group name is given will be located in the Synods. If we are serious about restructuring then we need to bring the various levels closer together. Many synods have development officers or the equivalent. Isn't is an opportunity to bring some imaginative help to congregations who are prepared to rethink their mission? Some Synods have historical experience but I believe it was one of the many new initiatives that we passed over too quickly.

Sheila Rudofsky

London

Clare Short & Yardley Hastings

I have just returned from General Assembly. On Saturday evening, after Closing Worship, we walked from the Guildhall to our lodgings, passing on our way large numbers of young people, queuing up to get into various nightclubs and pubs to partake of excessive alcohol, possibly the odd pill, and possibly also a spot of casual sex at the end of the night. Clare Short was the only person to mention these people, lost, unhappy and desperately seeking something but they know not what. The young people I saw outside those clubs would never set foot in a place such as Yardley Hastings unless they went through a very radical process of change first. I found it odd that Clare Short mentioned them in a talk about the global possibilities of changing the lot of the world’s poor, but that during the Yardley Hastings debate, only the youth already in contact with the Church were mentioned. Are we really that insular?

Penelope Davies-Brown

Cambridge

Clare Short

I find it remarkably sad that Birgitta Johnson would have wished to have somehow barred Clare Short from speaking at General Assembly. From what I have read of Clare Short's address to General Assembly it is packed with the kind of passion and commitment that truly speaks of love of neighbour. Having met Clare very briefly some years ago I would say that typifies the kind of person that she is. I wish I had been at Assembly to hear what she had to say for myself.

The Revd Douglas Burnett

Redland Park Church

Bristol

Yardley Hastings

Picking up on other comments made about the YH decision, and having watched the gradual demise of the Centre over the last 5 years, I just wonder when we are going to learn how to run something that must be seen as both a mission and a business at the same time? Yes, the review team's imaginative proposals had some detail in them, especially when compared to what looks like little more than a face saving proposal that was carried, but where was the business plan (with figures that made sense), the marketing strategy, a feasibility study to see whether a reduced size centre was a viable prospect, and a job description of a Director which doesn't equate to Superperson with management and youth experience?

Yes, we need to give things time to work; yes, we need to take risks; yes, we need to respect the views of task groups. But don't be surprised, if when you set up a project and ask people with little or no experience of that sort of work to run it, it goes horribly wrong! I believe YH could have been run at half the cost to the URC that it is running at (just look at accounts of 5 or 6 years ago), if it was run properly, and I have a horrible feeling that just might have made all the difference to delegates.

I now look forward to the Youth and Children work committee's proposals as to how they are going to spend the £100K annual cost of YH more effectively.

David Lee
Wellingborough

Yardley Hastings

It is sad to hear of the decision re Yardley Hastings, but even sadder to hear that the Assembly has passed an half baked resolution on the resurrection of a 'Ginger Group' Model. YH was moving forward from the Ginger Group, the Task Group proposals was even more moving forward. Now it appears yet again we are moving backwards. A Church that cannot take risks. I was not always in agreement with YH, but 10 years of a project so big, is not long enough to say NO. The Task Group were proposing a detailed way forward that should have been given stronger consideration than it appears it has. Re Ginger Group ideas, there are numerous ecumenical opportunities for such ideas, why do we need to run our own, YH was unique to the URC and could be used also in an ecumenical context. Well done Assembly, wrong again!!

Paul Franklin

Yardley Hastings

So Assembly has opted to reject a detailed and optimistic proposal from its own Task Group in favour of an uncosted, vague proposal for a pale imitation. Why do we bother asking talented people to give up their time for Task Groups (or indeed Assembly committees, since the Youth & Children's Work committee supported the Task Group) if we are simply going to ignore their recommendations?

Ed Bennet
Wessex

Clare Short

I would like to respond to Birgitta Johnson. In my ministry so far, I have found that a good deal of my time is spent engaging with people outside the Church, in a wide variety of situations and settings. I have always found such contact and mutual dialogue to be stimulating, refreshing and challenging.

Clare Short hasn't been asked to talk on "safeguarding doctrine", but I suspect that what she will have to say will probably have a good deal to say to us and challenge us about "proclaiming the gospel". I'm not terribly interested in whether or not she can "affirm the Creeds" (was Jesus interested in that?), but rather whether the interaction between a senior political figure and a rather small Church can do something to help each other glorify God a little bit more and bring God's reign for all people a little bit closer.

Revd Michael Hopkins
Twyford, Berkshire

Clare Short

Please, can someone explain why Clare Short has been invited as a key note speaker at General Assembly this year.

Surely General Assembly is the opportunity for God's people within the United Reformed Church to discuss issues relating to safeguarding doctrine and how best to proclaim the Gospel in our generation and society.

I would suggest that a person who cannot affirm the Creeds (ref. interview with Clare Short - Reform July/August 2003) has no place in such a discussion.

Revd Birgitta Johnson
Member of Bethany United Reformed Church
Ystrad Mynach, South Wales

 

Post a Comment

Name
Subject
Email
Location
Comment
 
 

Highlights

Search Hotline

Clare Short

Read a summary of Clare Short's keynote speech, given on Monday evening.

Moderator's Address

Read Alasdair Pratt's address to Assembly, 'Exile or Exodus?'

A summary is available here

Have Your Say

Join in the discussion about this year's General Assembly