As we enter 2018, Moderator-elect of General Assembly, the Revd Nigel Uden encourages people to walk the counter-cultural way of Jesus Christ.

Throughout 2018 we will mark the end of the First World War with thanksgiving that it ended, the commemoration of the ‘lost generation’, and reflect on what its lessons were. 

A century on, many ponder the mysteries of a prosperous continent choosing to risk everything, and of soldiers fighting on, yet piercing the war’s impenetrable shadows with the light of their comradeship, dependability and self-sacrifice.

The Revd Kevin Watson, Moderator of the URC’s General Assembly, shares a story about the greatest Christmas gift of all time.

Imagine the scene one Christmas morning a few years ago in a materially rich house, but emotionally poor home. 

Down the stairs, a child runs excitedly and expectantly along the hallway passing room after room, and into a huge reception room. There in the corner stood a huge artificial tree resplendently adorned with every kind of ornament – except with anything Christian that could be deemed offensive – that was admired by all the business guests at the party the night before. 

Derek Estill, Moderator-elect of General Assembly, reflects on the importance of Jesus’ birth.

In amongst the excitement and final preparations for Christmas Day we often lose sight of what that first Christmas Eve would have been like. 

No tinsel or lights for Mary and Joseph, who were urgently and anxiously trying to find somewhere to stay. Mary was about to give birth and Joseph worried about her and how things were going to work out.