The moderator of the URC’s Eastern Synod, which has enjoyed a ten-year partnership with the Presbytery of Zimbabwe, has lent his support to the country’s Christian leaders who recently called for ‘peace and calm’. 

The Revd Paul Whittle was speaking after Zimbabwe’s army took control of the country, put veteran President Robert Mugabe under house arrest and announced it was targeting ‘criminals’ around him. 

His own party, Zanu-PF, has now stripped him of the party leadership, yet he remains determined to cling onto power.

An initiative calling for improved rights and better support for ‘stateless’ people has been backed by members of the United Reformed Church.

Francis Brienen, Deputy General Secretary (Mission), John Collings, lay preacher for Rutherglen URC, South Lanarkshire, the Revd Fleur Houston, member of Macclesfield and Bollington URC who works on the advocacy wing of the Churches Refugee, the Revd David Pickering, Moderator of the National Synod of Scotland, and the Revd Dr Noel Irwin, Tutor in public theology and church related community work at Northern College, have joined more than 100 religious and faith leaders in signing a statement urging the UK government to do more to welcome those who no longer have a country to call their home. 

To celebrate Inter Faith Week from 12 to 19 November, the Revd Lindsey Sanderson of the Hamilton and East Kilbride Joint Pastorate, reflects on an evening of faith and fellowship held at Rutherglen URC, South Lanarkshire, Glasgow.

Jointly organised by the National Synod of Scotland and their Muslim friends at the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society (SABS), around 60 members of both groups enjoyed the gathering.