“The Answer” Not darkness but twilightIn which even the bestof minds must make its waynow. And slowly the questionsoccur, vague but formidablefor all that. We pass our handsover their surface like blindmen feeling for the mechanismthat will swing them aside. Theyyield, but only to reformas new problems; and onedoes not even do thatbut towers immovablebefore […]
URC Daily Devotions 29 August 2025
The Moon in Lleyn The last quarter of the moonof Jesus gives wayto the dark; the serpentdigests the egg. Hereon my knees in this stonechurch, that is full onlyof the silent congregationof shadows and the sea’ssound, it is easy to believeYeats was right. Just as thoughchoirs had not sung, shellshave swallowed them; the tide lapsat […]
URC Daily Devotions 28 August 2025
You have no name.We have wrestled with you allday, and now night approaches,the darkness from which we emergedseeking; and anonymousyou withdraw, leaving us nursingour bruises, our dislocations. For the failure of languagethere is no redress. The physiciststell us your size, the chemiststhe ingredients of yourthinking. But who you aredoes not appear, nor whyon the innocent […]
Worship Notes over the next two months
Worship Notes for September and October Dear Friends, As you know we provide notes to help those lead worship prepare. September’s material has been on the website for some time and October’s has been up for a week or so; we’re nearly ready with November’s. You can find the material by going to urc.org.uk then […]
URC Daily Devotion 26 August 2025
Marged Was she planned?Or is this one of life’sthrow-offs? Small, taken from schoolyoung: put to ministerto a widowed mother, who keepsher simple, she feeds the hens,speaks their language, is oneof them, quick, easilyfrightened, with sharpeyes, ears. When I havebeen there, she keeps her perchon my mind. I wouldstroke her feathers, quietenher, say: ‘Life islike this.’ […]
URC Daily Devotion Monday 25th August 2025
The Bright FieldI have seen the sun break through to illuminate a small field for a while, and gone my way and forgotten it. But that was the pearl of great price, the one field that had treasure in it. I realize now that I must give all that I have to possess it. Life is not hurrying on to a receding future, […]
RS Thomas
R S Thomas Dear Friends, I hope you found last week’s Devotions exploring themes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer interesting and useful for your own discipleship journeys. This week we turn to 6 poems from the Welsh priest and poet R S Thomas. Ronald Stuart Thomas (1913-2000) was a priest of the Church in Wales and a […]
Could you record podcasts?
Could You Record Podcasts? Dear Friends, I am seeking another 30 or so volunteers to record the Daily Devotions we send out each day and material for the services we send out each week. We already have around 30 volunteers who record for us and I’d like to have a few more – might you […]
URC Daily Devotion for Friday 22nd August 2025
inspiration in your inbox Friday 22nd August 2025 Bonhoeffer 5 Jeremiah 32:8-15 Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the LORD, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of […]
URC Daily Devotion for Thursday 21st August 2025
inspiration in your inbox Thursday 21st August 2025 Bonhoeffer 4 Colossians 2:6-8 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes […]