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Minister: Rev Naison Hove.
revnaison@standrewsurcrustington.org.uk 07818678803
Church Secretary: Mrs Christine Slade. 01903 715745
Lettings: Mrs Angela Stratton. 01903 770853
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Holmes Lane,
Rustington,
BN16 2PYRecent Posts
- What does the URC believe? March 1, 2021 12:23 pm
The Revd Dr Robert Pope, Convenor of the United Reformed Church (URC’s) Faith & Order Committee, is Editor of a new series which explain what the denomination believes. The series covers subjects including God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Baptism, Creation, Being Human, Holy Communion, Salvation, the Church and the Future. Dr Pope explains more here: Read More … …
- Prioritise vaccination of all vulnerable people ‘wherever they are in the world’ March 1, 2021 11:33 am
Very Rev Dr Susan Brown, convener of the Faith Impact Forum, asks whether the UK, which has a population of 68.2 million people, should be doing more to ensure that developing countries are able to properly protect vulnerable people and stop the spread of the virus. After a year of upheaval, it is with some amazement and surprise that the rollout of the vaccination programme in the UK has been so fast and so successful. It’s natural to be glad that those who are most vulnerable to hospitalisation or dying now have some protection. But should we be thinking about which country is doing ‘better’ or ‘worse’? After all, the virus doesn’t discriminate based on nationality, and borders do not stop it travelling quickly around the globe. Wealthy countries, including the UK, have ordered many more doses of vaccine than they need. When other countries, especially those in the global south, don’t have enough to vaccinate their citizens in vulnerable groups, surely the question has to be asked, shouldn’t vulnerable people in other countries get vaccinated at the same time as the most vulnerable in this country? It was heartening to read that some positive decisions in this regard were taken at last week’s G7 meeting. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organisation has said that at-risk people in all countries, especially health workers, older people and those with underlying conditions, need access to vaccines first – not all people in some countries. Do we have the courage to say that, now that the people in the UK who are at-risk have been vaccinated, we ought to be prioritising all those who are vulnerable, wherever in the world they are? Not only would this save lives, it would be the morally right thing to do. With the ease of transmission of Covid-19, we can only be safe here when everyone is safe everywhere. We have also a higher calling to humanitarianism and to answer the question: how are we showing love to our global neighbour at this time of crisis? Hogging vaccinations while others continue to die, doesn’t seem terribly loving. The Church of Scotland has partners all over the world, who are telling us about their context and struggles against the virus and it makes for grim reading. The international COVAX programme to deliver vaccines to the global south needs to be an urgent priority. People might shout ‘charity begins at home’, but I’d remind them that this saying does not mean ‘Britain First’. True, charity has repercussions beyond ourselves challenging us to reach out in love and compassion to the world to make a positive difference. Last month, Oxfam published a report which suggested that the combined wealth of the world’s 10 richest men rose by £400 billion during the pandemic. Enough to prevent all the world from falling into poverty because of the virus and pay for vaccines for all. Money is there, vaccine doses are there: there is now a choice about how it can all be shared to protect life and promote dignity. Written by Revd Dr Susan Brown, Convenor of the Faith Impact Forum, Church of Scotland. This blog was originally posted on the Church of Scotland’s website. Read it here <!– –> Source
- URC member becomes Rector of Edinburgh University March 1, 2021 10:49 am
A human rights lawyer who began attending the United Reformed Church as a refugee has been named rector of Edinburgh University. Debora Kayembe fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2005 after a criminal investigation into war crimes led her to being persecuted as a lawyer. When she first moved to the UK, she became a member of Trinity United Church in Darwen Lancashire, but since 2011 has lived in Scotland. Read More … …
- Buxton URC feeds 5,000 through community project February 25, 2021 11:47 am
A church-based community service set up to distribute surplus food during the pandemic has just served up its 5,000th parcel. Since the first lockdown began last March, Waste Not Want Not, based at Buxton United Reformed Church (URC), has given away thousands of pounds worth of food to the local community, some of which would have ended up in landfill. The project is led by church member Cath Sterndale and her son Dan who first came up with the idea four years ago. Read More … …
- URC Youth (re)ASSEMBLED February 18, 2021 3:37 pm
To provide a way to learn, contribute, as well as equip young people and adults involved with the United Reformed Church (URC) in as many ways as possible, URC Youth is launching Youth re-ASSEMBLED. Each month throughout the year, URC Youth will focus on a different theme or topic. Read More … …
- A tale of two spaces February 17, 2021 9:00 am
A reflection exploring how we respond when our spaces are disrupted and subverted by people with a different set of values and world views. By Simon Jay. Every time I walk into any space, whether it is a church, restaurant, park etc, I ask the question: Who has constructed this space? Who is it for? How does this space want us to behave? This is important for me because so many of the spaces that I inhabit have little to no Black or ethnic minority people there, and as I look deeper I notice some really interesting things about how the space is constructed and how people are required to perform.When I walk into churches I often find myself looking at the photos that display an all white leadership team or pictures on the walls that represent our Christian story with images of a white, western-looking Jesus. I will be conscious of our Bible readings and songs that we sing where it suggests that to be pure we must be ‘White’ as the driven snow. When I find myself in these spaces it leaves me with a feeling that I am not seen, that I am somehow less. Our values and rituals that we associate with our spaces are often very sacred to us. If someone enters our space and starts to subvert it by ‘acting out of place’ we can find ourselves very challenged and threatened. I want to explore this in more depth by starting with my own journey as a pioneer missional team leader in Birmingham. In 2001 my wife and I moved into the Welsh House Farm community as part of a church plant initiative. The area has around 4000 people living there, and has lots of social and emergency housing that is home to many people from different countries, ethnicities and cultures. In 2003 we set up the Haven Centre, which is a small community project that aims to work alongside and support the local community. It is at the Haven Centre where this story begins. I want to call this ‘white space’. I was doing a piece of research exploring food, hospitality and the Eucharist meal in marginal spaces. On this particular occasion I had invited several members from the Caribbean community to join us. One person, I will call CJ, straight away began to subvert the normal practices around this meal. When I explained about the Christian tradition of breaking bread and drinking wine as a way of remembering and participating in the Easter story he told me “We don’t drink wine, we drink whisky, and what’s this stuff called bread? We will be eating Jerk Chicken.” The day before the meal members from the Caribbean community came to the Haven Centre to season the chicken. It’s important to season it the night before to get all those great flavours soaked into the chicken. I then watched in alarm as they took the raw chicken out of the box, slammed it on the work surface and stated to wash it with lemon and vinegar. “What are you doing” I said, “the food hygiene course has told us that we are not allowed to wash raw meet, you will end up contaminating the place.” They all looked at me and laughed, then carried on washing the chicken. Once again practices and rituals that I had previously believed were wrong and unclean were subverting the space. When I eventually calmed down we started a discussion about the importance of washing the meat. CJ said, “For me we need to wash away the years of oppression and slavery.” Another woman told me that to not wash the meat would invoke a feeling dirt and contamination if she were to eat it. Over the next two hours we talked a lot about systems, values and institutional racism. During these conversations I had come to realise that the Haven Centre’s practices and rules were based on white western values of economics and food hygiene. We had failed to see the deep traditions and practices of the Caribbean community that had been passed down from generation to generation. My response to this was to leave my comfortable space at the Haven Centre and resituate the meal in CJ’s flat. As we drunk whiskey and ate Jerk Chicken we talked about issues that centred around identity, race, spirituality, faith, power and white space. “Christianity is a white man’s religion used to justify slavery and oppression to Black people”, he would say. I asked him a question, “For you to give Jesus any consideration at all what would need to change?” He said, “He would need to be Black”. It was in this new space that we had the freedom to talk about a Black Jesus who stood in solidarity with the suffering and oppression of Black people. At the end of the evening CJ embraced me and gave thanks to the God that he recognised had been with us in that space. As I reflected on how it felt to be in these different spaces I was left with the notion that at the Haven Centre something needed to change. It wasn’t just the way we prepared our chicken that created barriers of exclusion. The way we ran our meetings, appointed our staff and trusties and prioritised our values of time keeping and productivity failed to make room for people from different cultures and ethnicities. If we were to take seriously the issue of diversity and inclusion within the Haven we would need to allow our space to be disrupted and subverted by people with a different set of values and world views. This is an important question for our churches. For many of us we have no idea that our spaces are places that exclude. It is often not until someone from a different culture enters that this sense of disruption begins to emerge. Unfortunately my experience has taught me that when this happens our temptation is to assimilate them into our way of thinking and behaving.In her book Making Room, Christine […]
- Church leaders urge government to stop housing asylum seekers in barracks February 16, 2021 12:00 pm
Church leaders from across denominations, including the Revd Claire Downing, Moderator of the United Reformed Church General Assembly, have written an open-letter to the Home Secretary about housing for people seeking asylum. Read More … …
- New Moderator of URC’s Mersey Synod nominated February 15, 2021 10:37 am
The Revd Geoffrey Felton, Minister of Plume Avenue Church in Colchester, has been nominated as the next Moderator of the United Reformed Church (URC) Mersey Synod. Geoff was born and raised in Higher Bebington on the Wirral where he spent his teenage years before moving away to study. He became a Christian in 1984 at Anfield during Mission England, a gathering led by late American evangelist Dr Billy Graham. Read More … …
- A collection of Lent resources February 11, 2021 10:00 am
Lent is fast approaching. Ash Wednesday is 16th February, after which we head towards Easter on 4th April. In this season, Christians remind themselves of Christ’s journey through the wilderness. It’s often used as a period to grow our personal discipleship through self-discipline: giving something up, be it chocolate, binge-watching TV, or something else entirely, is all about travelling to that wilderness alongside Christ to clear the clutter and open our eyes to renewal. It can also be a time of focus on social and environmental renewal: how can we be part of building God’s kingdom through our discipleship? We’ve compiled a list of some of our favourite resources for Lent this year. It’s the perfect time to pick up a 40-day resource to help you get spiritually ready for Holy Week and Easter. Small group resources, preaching material, and reflections for individuals can be great tools for guiding us through the wilderness time. We’ve particularly focused on climate justice and environment. Why not have a look through and see if there’s something perfect here to guide you through Lent? Living Lent From 2019-2020, the Joint Public Issues Team ran Living Lent. Living Lent challenged individuals to sign up to one of six different commitments for creation. These include giving up single-use plastics, shopping locally, and reducing electricity consumption by 10%. It invited participants to recognise that changing our climate is not just an activity, but a lifestyle, by offering theological reflections and community. We’re not offering new content for Living Lent this year, but all of the resources from previous years are still live for you to explore here: Living Lent 40 Acts – Stewardship 40 Acts is a community of over 100,000 people around the world who have decided to do Lent differently. They ask the question, “What if Lent was about more the just giving things up?” Over 40 days, there are 40 challenges, which all encourage you to make a difference to the world and your community. Tearfund Devotional Lent Devotional – Tearfund We all tell ourselves stories about who we are: as individuals, as communities and as the church. But there’s a bigger story – one that changes everything. It’s the story of God, and we’re invited to be a part of it. Join Tearfund to explore it with their Lent resources. Suitable for daily reflection for individuals, or you can encourage your small group or family to get together and look through them together. 40 Acts Change Begins – All We Can Change Begins is a daily resource which invites you to be a part of change that is happening all around the world. It’s for everyone – families and communities all around the globe, and it can also help your own personal reflections and journey with God. You can download a copy of the daily devotional for free, and it can be used at home, in small groups, or with your whole church. (Spot JPIT’s contribution!) All We Can 40 Days with God’s Creatures – SARX Available via a free app, this guide offers the chance to reflect theologically and creatively about animals and animal issues. This interactive, daily guide aims to take users on an explorative journey, including the use of biblical and theological readings, art, videos, music, photography and poetry. 40 Days with God’s Creatures The Poet’s Gospel – CTBI Churches Together in Britain and Ireland bring you The Poet’s Gospel, ‘a Lent study for these unorthodox and strange times.’ This resource, suitable for personal reflection or small group study, takes readers through a verse version of the gospel written by John Alan Davis. There are sound files, written versions, and notes alongside. The Poet’s Gospel Caring for Creation – York Courses This is a new resource from York Courses for small groups, and is suitable for online and in-person meetings. This resource focuses on environment and creation care, showing groups over six sessions a hope for future which is rooted in faith in God. The world faces a great threat from climate change. Faith in God should allow us to see what is actually happening, and what we can do about it. Caring for Creation Walking Towards Easter Together – URC This resource seeks to develop a meaningful sense of community through reflections, activities, and challenges. There are justice challenges for each week designed with lockdown in mind, which could make a positive difference in your neighbourhood. These resource aim to reduce feelings of isolation in communities, and offer hope to congregations and individuals during this season of Lent. Walking Towards Easter Together How Does Change Happen? How Does Change Happen? is a new small group resource launched by the Joint Public Issues Team. If you’ve ever found yourself wanting to make a change, but feel like you don’t know enough to try, this is the small group resource for you. Over six sessions, equally effective online and in-person, you’ll be taken through the how, the when, the where and the what of making change. How Does Change Happen? Connect Groups – Sanctuary Sanctuary have produced a new resource designed to be flexible, with a mix of prompts, questions and meditations which can be used individually or in a small group. The February booklet covers the theme of ‘The Parable of Social Distancing’, and March covers ‘Man of Sorrows, People of Hope.’ These booklets have material to help you prepare for Lent and then travel through the season, culminating in Holy Saturday. Connect Groups <!– –> Source
- A Fair Deal February 10, 2021 9:00 am
David Jonathan shares his success in taking action to challenge the exploitation of trade by business giants. A few years ago, I had the privilege of travelling to India. The cultural and culinary differences between the UK and India are plain to see, but I was struck by the sight of large shopping malls full of familiar, Western brands. The Indian people were buying their own products, made in India, but labelled as Western goods. And it was foreign companies who were making the profit. It’s a sign of how Western Empire and colonial legacies continue to exert their influence. Modern globalization has initiated a new era of economic slavery and oppression. I thought such horrors would have been consigned to history in these enlightened times, but history sadly has a habit of repeating itself. Trade and exploitation Some businesses have exploited people and entire regions over hundreds of years, and India is a prime example. Paving the way for the British Empire’s dominance in India, the East India Company, a London-based business that traded from 1600 to 1870s, at one time accounted for half of the world’s trade. Colonialism has become a hot topic in these days, and rightly so, and I still hear people try to defend the process with statements like “at least Britain gave India the trains.” It’s true that infrastructure has been a benefit to Indians, but it’s also a fact that during British rule, Britain squeezed up to $45 trillion out of India. Taking advantage of developing markets In 1991, India sought support from the World Bank and IMF (the International Monetary Fund) to get through a financial crisis. Unlike other countries, where the presence of gold in their own banks was enough of a guarantee for loans, the government instead had to deposit India’s gold reserves in other countries’ vaults.One of the loan conditions stipulated the liberalisation of the Indian economy. This required India to open itself up to foreign entities seeking to control its industries, including state-owned enterprises. The plans acknowledged that the most vulnerable in society would suffer as a result. Despite the risks and its vast resources, India was in no position to refuse this deal. Western companies saw the opportunities which unfolded, and under the guise of creating jobs, benefited firstly from India’s cheap labour, then exploited India’s consumer market. It was heralded that they would boost the Indian economy, but even with a fast-growing economy and levels of poverty reducing[, it is outrageous how much of the wealth created benefits individuals and organisations based in more developed countries. It has been deeply unfair, and you could even say that the UK’s current foreign trade policies[ are doubly unfair when people who migrate to the UK, after having been exposed to such economic systems, are accused of ‘taking over British people’s jobs’ and abusing the system! What can I do about it? I felt challenged to make a change in the system, but in the face of such mighty powers defending the status quo, I often found myself too small. Then I remembered my Sunday School teacher explaining David’s victory over Goliath, and teaching us, “Don’t run away from the giant; instead run to the giant.” Faith and hope ought to be steeped in the conviction that, regardless of how bad things may be, a new story is waiting to be created and God is expecting us, individuals, congregations, communities and civil society, to champion that hope of a fairer future. To tell that new story, my first initiative in 2003 involved a tug-of-war game played in Luton town centre! Many passers-by and shoppers joined in and discovered how poor nations can never win when trading with wealthy and powerful nations. Next, we organised culture-specific workshops, highlighting economic injustices in parts of the world reflected by the immigrant population of Luton. Hearing about the impact of Fairtrade in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, the continent of Africa and the nations of the Caribbean got people interested in launching and supporting the Making Luton a Fairtrade Town campaign. Restoring humanity The Fairtrade Foundation enables farmers to sell their good quality, sustainably sourced and ethically produced products for a fair price[. It helps them to support their local communities and produce their products in a way that respects and nurtures the environment. We invited a Caribbean banana farmer called Tokkie Bowman to Luton to share his story, and his message was clear: “When you buy Fairtrade, you buy a little bit of humanity too.” In 2007, a multi-faith Fairtrade Steering Group was launched. We organised countless school assemblies, community workshops and public events. Through lots of hard work, Luton could eventually boast having the UK’s first Fairtrade Hindu temple, the UK’s second and third Fairtrade mosques, a Fairtrade synagogue, and most churches and other faith and community groups supporting Fairtrade. We even saw two Fairtrade cafés become established. Justice for producers People in Luton were beginning to realise that fair trade wasn’t charity: it was justice. It was seeking to give people what they deserve and to take an active role in reducing worldwide exploitation[. Luton was finally launched as the first super multi-faith and multi-cultural Fairtrade town in November 2011. Harriet Lamb, at that time the Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation (UK) said: “Congratulations to Luton! Your tireless campaigning has won the hearts and minds of consumers and businesses. With your help, we can tip the balance in favour of some of the poorest producers in the world and we hope that we will see similar successes across the UK and beyond.” The Fairtrade Foundation awarded us a national Outstanding Achievement Award in 2012.Zafar Khan, Chair of Luton Council of Faiths, observed: “The GRASSROOTS programme has helped create and sustain a platform for people to act together on issues of concern, and share from our respective faith traditions a passion for justice.” This is my story. I did what I could do. I and many others look forward to hearing […]