What the URC believes:
The beliefs of the denomination are perhaps best summed up in our Statement concerning the Nature, Faith and Order (PDF) of the United Reformed Church.
We say these words together on some of our big public occasions and they provides a vivid snapshot of what we are about.
God loves you. And as Christians, we do too.
Regardless of who you are, your background, your family, your past, your present or future, we are in this church because we believe that God is alive and listening to us through prayer, guiding and speaking to us through the Bible, forgiving us for what we have done wrong, and waiting for us in Heaven after we pass away.
We believe that each and every one of us can find contentment through loving and serving Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
A lack of hierarchy, and a respect for individual principles, means that the URC is not rigid in the expression of its beliefs, and embraces a wide variety of opinions.
At the same time, in the words of the URC’s Statement of Nature, Faith and Order, together we are committed to ‘God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit – the living God, the only God, ever to be praised.’
Our roots
Being reformed sets us in a stream of tradition that goes back 500 years. In 1517 Martin Luther launched a movement of challenge in the Church that we call the Protestant Reformation.
Changes came quickly. Bibles were translated and printed in languages everybody used (not just in Latin). There was a new emphasis on the importance of the whole church and everybody in it – members and ministers together.
Being reformed is part of our DNA. It reflects our continual aim of reforming ourselves to be a Church for the present day.
Being reformed means that we delight in exploring the Bible, we do not fear change, and we try to run our churches in ways that take everyone’s insight and contribution seriously.
The Logo of The United Reformed Church
The Cross is a reminder
- of the way in which Jesus died the Roman death penalty
- of the sacrifice of Jesus' life as an offering for the wrong-doings of all humanity
- of the resurrection from death to life at Easter - the cross is empty!
The fish is an early symbol used by Christians
- the Greek word for fish is ichthus - the 'ichthus' letters in the Greek language spell out the first letters of the words: Jesus Christ God's Son Saviour.