Senior leaders from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) visited their counterparts and staff at United Reformed Church (URC) House on June 5 to share insights about CTBI's ecumenical work across the four nations.
Visitors included Bob Fyffe, CTBI General Secretary; the Revd Peter Colwell, a URC minister and Deputy General Secretary of CTBI; Christine Elliott, Director of International Programmes, and Richard Reddie, the new Director of Justice and Inclusion.
They met with staff from the URC's children’s and youth, safeguarding, church and society, communications, global and intercultural ministries, education and learning, retired ministers' housing, and finance departments.
A wide-ranging discussion took place on topics including dementia, youth services, knife crime, Brexit, theology, racial justice, inclusion, the government’s ‘hostile environment’ policies and refugees, and explored that work all of CTBI's member churches, including the URC, can do to address these issues.
On behalf of the URC, the Revd John Proctor, General Secretary, expressed his gratitude to CTBI colleagues, saying: ‘Thank you for the work that you do, things that you do on our behalf that we cannot do a fraction of ourselves. You have skills and connections which are exercised in our name and on our behalf and we are grateful … we want to encourage you.’
Mr Fyffe added: ‘We appreciate the opportunity [to meet] and appreciate the support.’
