The United Reformed Church was created by three church unions in 1972, 1981 and 2000. That simple statement does not mention the earlier unions that had created the churches that eventually united to become the URC. This is a living demonstration of the way as members of the URC we do believe in “the holy catholic church”.
Why are we part of “the holy catholic church”? Paul explains that the important thing is how we have been changed by being baptized into Christ. He tells how for the Christians at that time the major divisions in society were removed. Jewish and Greek Christians were all together in Christ. Slave and free were no longer divided but were united in Christ.
The divisions that society made between male and female were removed by belonging to Jesus. As members of the URC we celebrated the centenary of the ordination of Constance Coltman in September last year. We are part of the first mainstream church to ordain a woman and in doing so we demonstrated that being in Christ removes barriers between male and female.
We in the URC are part of the wider church that is together in Christ. We live in a world where people are divided by their wealth, their colour, their gender and/or the country they were born in. There are many stories of United Reformed Churches working hard to help immigrants and others to claim what is their right despite opposition from some parts of society. We should not reinforce these divisions, but must see every person in Christ as our brother or sister and our equal in Jesus. Let us praise God that in Christ there should be no divisions in His Church.