General Assembly 2025: Day four round-up 7 July
July 7, 2025 11:37 am
Day four of the 2025 meeting of the United Reformed Church General Assembly, held at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, opened with another Bible study led by Dr Francesca Nuzzolese, Professor of Pastoral Care at the Waldensian Theological School in Rome. Having first turned inward, and then looked at the cost of radical compassion, she then ventured into mystic territory. Which does not mean that it is abstract, she said, but that it is sacred. It is about not just giving care but embodying it; becoming those in whom the love of Christ takes visible form. Her text was the words of Paul in Galatians: “It is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me.” Paul, to use Jungian terms, she said, was the archetype of identity shift, of the wounded healer, of the painful journey. His words here are a description of radical transformation. Something in him has died. This is a challenging idea. We often think we have put something in us to death, only to find it rises up again the next day. Conversion and baptism are about surrendering the ego, said Dr Nuzzolese, our deepest attachment, the self that seeks to please and control and protect. This surrender lets another kind of self-emerge in its place, one that seeks to be known by God. Thomas Merton, a mystic monk, talked of the false self we create in response to fear and wounds and the true self given us by God. We develop a false self-early in life, to survive. We think it is us, but it is not. The false self cannot truly love, only the true self hidden in God. I can only find myself in God. The true self doesn’t begin with work but with simple presence, Dr Nuzzolese said. This concept was very much alive in the early church. The desert fathers and mothers were teachers of perfect love, which is not a destination but a process of consent, day by day, moment by moment. We become more loving not by trying, but by allowing God’s love to meet us, in surrender. Dr Nuzzolese posed questions for members of Assembly. What in me needs to die so that Christ’s love can live fully? How can peace and justice come without radical change in the way we relate to those closest to us? True forgiveness is not a matter of words, but making space in our heart for another, for those who we find as a threat. How does the true self emerge? It is a process that involves a lot of grace. She commended daily spiritual practice: “It tells our brain that it’s worth it.” Dying is a hard sad word, she concluded, but the death of old self is good, brings freedom, liberates inner space for all God has for us. You don’t have to get it right, just be open. God says, “You are loved. Let me live in you.” Session twelve Remaindered Business No papers were remaindered during this session, so the Moderator invited comments about the Church Life Review (CLR) process and other topics. One queried why Ministers of Word and Sacrament had been mentioned twice in the Church Life Review update, but not Church Related Community Workers. The Revd Steve Faber responded that he could not recall where either form of ministry had been mentioned and reminded Assembly of the Theos Report which had commended the CRCW ministry. Steve said that all forms of ministry are loved and valued in the URC. A query was received about how and when local churches would receive information about the CLR so that they can prepare for November’s General Assembly. Steve pointed to channels such as News Update, the URC’s monthly national e-newsletter and Reform magazine as communications channels to help keep local churches and Assembly members prepare for November’s Assembly. A member of the CLR steering group shared that a video is currently in preparation about the Church Life Review which can be used for every local church, not just at Synod meetings. An ecumenical guest asked if she could have a short history of the CLR process to help understand it. It is understood that relevant information will be share with ecumenical colleagues. Those wanting to keep updated about the Church Life Review process can visit the dedicated page on the URC’s national website. Inclusive Church The Revd Chantel Noppen, National Coordinator of Inclusive Church, a network of churches and individuals to support more inclusivity and accessibility in local churches, then addressed Assembly and advised how people can find out more information about it. Learn more about Inclusive Church. Deletion from the RollThe Revd Dr John Bradbury, General Secretary, updated Assembly on the Discipline process. He advised that since Assembly last met, one discipline case had concluded which has resulted in the removal of Mr Naison Hove from the Roll of Ministers. Costs for the case amounted to £40,877. Moderator-ElectThe Revd Neil Thorogood, who has been elected Moderator-Elect 2025-2026, to serve as General Assembly Moderator 2026-2027, was invited to address the Assembly. He described the role as an “awesome honour and daunting responsibility” and said it carried for him “a host of meanings”. [Neil’s father was a General Secretary of the United Reformed Church.] Neil thanked those who are supporting him into the role, including his family, and also his congregations of Trinity-Henleaze and Thornbury in Bristol “who have joined me in this adventure and to live into the consequences together”. Neil recalled some of the classes he taught at Westminster College, Cambridge, where “we spoke of the reality of the life of faith, and the life of ministry, which constantly means we do not know what we are doing.” He said, “we are brought into situations to discover who we are.” New situations beckon us into “an unknown possibility”, in which we improvise, discover, risk, and sometimes stumble. “Sometimes we make a wonderful fool of ourselves.” Acknowledging we are living into times […]
