For followers of Jesus, Good Friday is always present says the Revd Richard Church, Deputy General Secretary (Discipleship) for the United Reformed Church.

Today in public spaces all over the United Kingdom groups of people will gather around temporary wooden crosses, to the bemusement of onlookers. Often such a gathering will have been preceded by a walk through the streets behind the cross. In many places, Christians will set aside their denominational identities to walk together. We experience sorrow in solidarity.

The Revd Nigel Uden, Moderator-elect of the General Assembly, takes a fresh look at Maundy Thursday and Jesus’ new commandment to love – asking us what our response should be.

This is an ironic day. Just as Jesus experiences his followers’ denial, betrayal and abandonment, he gives his new commandment, ‘As I have loved you, you also should love one another.’

New? Was anything new about loving one another? What about Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathan? Hannah and Samuel, Hosea and Gomer?      

More than 250 people braved the snow in Manchester, on 17 March, to attend the Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT) conference ‘Brave New World? Faithful living in a time of change.’ Simeon Mitchell, the United Reformed Church’s new Secretary for Church and Society, shares insights on the day.

The conference, held at Methodist Central Hall, was organised by the JPIT team, which is made up of four church denominations – the URC, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Church of Scotland.