People wanting to explore and enrich their personal faith can take part in an exciting new discipleship programme created by the United Reformed Church.

Today (26 September) marks the launch of ‘Faith-filled life’, the first of five broad subject streams that make up Stepwise. It is suitable for all ages and up to 15 local groups are being invited to join a phased pilot scheme between now and Christmas.

In line with the URC’s focus on lifelong Christian discipleship and mission, Walking the Way: Living the life of Jesus today, Stepwise aims to help discern where God’s call may be leading, and can also help participants take up specific roles within local communities or the Church.

The United Reformed Church has joined 250 organisations from across the globe to launch an International Fair Trade Charter that sets out the fundamental values of Fair Trade and defines a common vision towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a collection of 17 global goals set in 2015, the anniversary of which is being marked around the world today (25 September). 

The global Fair Trade movement is urging policy-makers, business leaders, citizens and consumers to embrace the vision of the International Fair Trade Charter – initiated by Fairtrade International and the World Fair Trade Organisation – to create a global trading system populated by supply chains and models of business that leave no one behind and that their work people can maintain a decent and dignified livelihood to develop their full human potential. 

A former United Reformed Church General Secretary is to retire from a prominent role within the national instrument of the Christian Church in England. 

The Revd David Cornick, who became General Secretary of Churches Together in England (CTE) in 2008 and retires from the role at the end of September, reflects on his time in the position.

‘It has been a fascinating, privileged ten years. No other job in English church life offers such a panoptic view of what is going on in English Christianity. Fourteen denominations/networks of churches have joined CTE in that decade: that’s 30% of our total membership of 47.