The Revd John Reardon, a former United Reformed Church (URC) Deputy General Secretary, has completed a sponsored walk of 88 miles in one month in his 88th year, raising more than £2,700 in the process.

John, who is a member of Newport Pagnell URC (NPURC), Buckinghamshire, is part of a fundraising team for the Mead Centre – a community building project aimed at creating space for people who would normally find themselves on the margins of society. The vision is for those people to come together, build relationships and find a sense of community.

The new Moderators of General Assembly, Claire Downing and Peter Pay, have joined 75 other faith leaders to call for a ‘debt jubilee’ for the 77 poorest nations as they deal with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Revd Richard Church has retired, after 39 years of ministry in the United Reformed Church (URC).

Richard has served the URC as Deputy General Secretary (Discipleship) since May 2015. His last working day was on 17 July. As staff were unable to celebrate the occasion in person, a leaving party was held online, using Zoom.

United Reformed Church (URC) Youth are celebrating that the wider denomination has officially recognised the climate emergency.

URC Youth presented a resolution, which subsequently passed, at Mission Council, the executive body of General Assembly, held digitally on 10 July.

Not only did the resolution ask Mission Council to officially recognise the climate emergency, it also asked that local churches across the denomination be challenged to “make conscious changes to their practices in order to reflect this.”