What is the
United Reformed Church?
Called to be God’s people, transformed by the Gospel, making a
difference in today’s world. This is the United Reformed Church.
Although one of the smaller mainstream denominations, the United
Reformed Church plays a dynamic and challenging part in the British
Christian community. It has brought together English Presbyterians,
English, Welsh and Scottish Congregationalists, and members of the
Churches of Christ, through unions in 1972, 1981 and 2000. Sixty-eight
thousand people make up 1500 congregations, with nearly 700 ministers,
paid and unpaid.
The United Reformed Church combines its commitment to the Reformed
tradition with a passionate belief that all God’s people should be one.
It seeks to work with Christians of all traditions, and rejoices in
being part of more than 400 Local Ecumenical Partnerships, with the
Methodist Church and others. It is also committed to theological and
cultural diversity. It has declared itself a multi-cultural church,
rejoicing in the gifts of members from across the world and seeks to
hold together a wide variety of theological understandings; the valuing
of different insights helps the church understand the wonder of God.
Worldwide, more than 70 million Christians are members of the
Reformed family of churches. They uphold the historic Trinitarian creeds
of the church universal and find the supreme authority for their lives
in the Word of God in the Bible, discerned under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit. They order their lives through councils of the church,
where ministers and lay people together seek the mind of Christ
For more information on the URC please go to the website
www.urc.org.uk