General Assembly 2025: day three round-up 6 July
July 6, 2025 8:39 pm
Day three of the 2025 meeting of the United Reformed Church General Assembly at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick opened with a Bible study led by Dr Francesca Nuzzolese, Professor of Pastoral Care at the Waldensian Theological School in Rome. She invited members of Assembly to recreate holy silence they experienced yesterday: centre themselves, meet Jesus and reconnect with holy rest. She explained that the care for oneself, which she described yesterday, is the first step of journey, not to be mistaken for destination. Our destination is care for our neighbour out of radical compassion. But not all of us manage this, including those in and training for pastoral ministry. Why? Dr Nuzzolese suggested that the Old Testament directs us to compassion for the other quite narrowly defined: widows, orphans. Jesus, in contrast, stretches the definition to breaking point. Jesus calls us to move in compassion towards the other who threatens us. We are wired to protect and to run away, not to move kindly towards danger. A few are able: Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Jesus. And the Samaritan in Jesus’ story. What enables him to cross boundary and move toward suffering? In Christ we are seen, loved and healed. But, said Dr Nuzzolese, we see the limits of this in most people’s behaviour. Belief and practice are in tension. Biblical seeing is not a glance, it is giving attention to someone, becoming attuned to them, comprehending them. This is what a parent does to a baby, and it can stop the baby crying. Something similar happens in therapy: being attuned to someone gives us power to communicate compassion, which leads to healing. She quoted the Christian mystic Simone Weil: ‘Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.’ Jesus asks same of us, said Dr Nuzzolese. The Greek word that is translated ‘compassion’ in the story of the Good Samaritan describes a response at the level of the gut, the bowels. Empathy is not enough. The movement towards suffering reflects the image of God in us. It is what God does in Christ. Jesus moved with compassion moves towards the enemy. This movement, she said, requires inner resilience and spiritual maturity. It is not offered out of sense of duty but out of groundedness. So why not normative, even for those being trained in pastoral care? Dr Nuzzolese suggested that some are not capable of it at a core human level. Woundedness can prevent us being attuned and stop us offering spiritual care without leaving the room sterile. Personal trauma can leave people too wounded to be healers. Anxiety and fear of attack can create unsafe spaces, maybe cause us to shut down. Spiritual fatigue, she said, can also leave a film over the eyes prevents the kind of seeing that leads to compassion. For these reasons we need to cultivate spiritual practices, contemplation and safe relationships. So, Dr Nuzzolese again concluded by leading Assembly in receptive centred prayer. Session seven Paper N1 Church Life Review – Progress and local church perspectiveAt General Assembly 2025, the Revd Steve Faber, Convenor of the Church Life Review Steering Group, delivered a key presentation updating members on the progress of the Church Life Review (CLR), now in Phase Two (design). Phase Two of the CLR, was tasked by General Assembly in 2023 to focus on four workstreams. These consist of financial resource sharing (finance), provision of shared support services (services), employment of lay workers (lay workers), and new URC communities of worship and discipleship (new communities). The report does not present any final proposals or resolutions but sets the stage for the extraordinary session in November 2025, where decisions will be made. The presentation showed the need for change within the wider challenges facing many Christian denominations across Europe, including declining membership, increased regulatory demands, and the lasting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was acknowledged that many URC structures have remained largely unchanged since 1972, and that continuing “as is” is no longer viable. The work is guided by a collaborative process involving consultations and shaped by biblical inspiration, particularly Jeremiah 29’s encouragement to “get on with life.” The Steering Group has not heard from every member of the denomination but has heard from many across the Church in a way that has never happened before. Steve highlighted key gatherings that have taken place, with a variety of members of the URC serving in various roles, such as in June 2024 (finance), November 2024 (shared services) and January 2025 (new communities), and May 2025 (shared fund proposal) for examples. Key proposals discussed include a central resources portal, shared administrative services (like payroll, HR, and IT), and the idea of employing lay workers more strategically, either at the local or Synod level. A major factor is the proposed Church Life Fund, which will finance these developments and provide support to churches and communities in need, whether urban congregations burdened by maintenance costs or rural areas struggling with isolation and decline. The overall hope is of a flourishing URC that is less burdened and better enabled, with renewed energy for mission, evangelism, and discipleship. Elizbeth Hall, a member of the CLR steering group gave a couple of examples of how the CLR can help local churches. She told a story of an urban church that had seen better days, was facing increased unfunded costs for maintenance. Which was burdened with thoughts around health and safety and safeguarding bureaucracy for groups renting its premises. The church has little energy left and its focus on mission and vision is crowded out by all the process and protocols. The CLR, Elizabeth explained, could help the church, not by providing the perfect solution, but by providing, for example, a central place for for agreed documents, where Health and Safety and risk assessment forms can be easily found. Advice can be provided around filling said form, along with the provision of “back room”. This can result […]
