The United Reformed Church welcomed a special visitor for a meeting with staff and tour of Church House on 12 March.

Dr Deidre Palmer, President-elect of the Uniting Church in Australia, visited the URC’s London office while on a short holiday with her family.

Dr Palmer met with the Revd John Proctor, URC General Secretary, and Mr Alan Yates, Moderator of General Assembly, along with other staff members, to explore how the Church has addressed issues surrounding the marriages of same-sex couples.

The United Reformed Church Mission Council is next meeting at High Leigh Conference Centre, in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire from 19 to 21 March. 

Mission Council is the executive body of the General Assembly, and meets twice a year to reflect on and make decisions about the day-to-day life of the Church. Items on the agenda for this meeting include the URC’s lay development strategy, the budget plan for 2019, arrangements for General Assembly 2020 to 2030, and a discussion how the Church can do things more simply. All Mission Council papers are now available online.

The URC communications team will be reporting on Mission Council. The news pages and Facebook page will include updates on the main decisions made throughout the meeting, with a daily report being posted after the close of business each day, and a full report planned for inclusion in the May issue of Digest in Reform magazine.

The call for International Women’s Day 2018 is for women around the world to #PressforProgress. The Revd Dr Kirsty Thorpe, former Moderator of the United Reformed Church’s General Assembly and Minister of Wilmslow United Reformed Church, explores why International Women’s Day is worth marking.

Why does International Women’s Day matter? Because the headlines about sexual violence and harassment of women at work spawned by the Harvey Weinstein scandal in Hollywood last year are one small part of a worldwide phenomenon that won’t go away until we face up to it and challenge it.