Day one – Monday 19 March 2018 session one

Opening Worship
The March meeting of Mission Council opened at the High Leigh Conference Centre with prayers and a sermon led by the Revd Mark Robinson, Chaplain to the Revd Kevin Watson, Moderator of the General Assembly.

Alan Yates, Moderator of the United Reformed Church General Assembly, and many other senior URC staff, joined the Most Revd John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, on what has been described as ‘the largest-ever ecumenical regional-mission’ to Cumbria.

Thirty-three teams – made up of Anglicans, Methodists, the Salvation and the URC – reached an estimated 25,000 people, who attended more than 500 events across the county, during the four-day ‘Moving Mountains’ mission which took place from 8 to 12 March.

As the lonely single mother of an only son I thought a lot about Mary in the early days of my motherhood. Christ's last words from the cross, according to John 19:26, consign Mary to the care of the disciple whom he loved. In the midst of appalling pain, he is human and humane, ordinary and extraordinary. He is putting things in order in his family – and in the world.