On 14 June, the URC’s National Synod of Scotland celebrates 25 years since the formation of the United Reformed Church as we now experience it – when the URC in the UK and the Congregational Union of Scotland united. Lindsey Sanderson reflects on how the union transformed the way in which the URC sees itself

Our silver jubilee celebration of the union between the United Reformed Church in the UK and the Congregational Union of Scotland (CUS) will take for its theme ‘Living the Hope Within’. The day will be as much about looking forward as about remembering our past. Indeed, a series of workshops will equip people to ‘give an account of the hope that is within them’, including through creativity, social justice, communications, and learning about the URC’s Church Life Review. Nevertheless, it is also true that understanding our journey over the past 25 years may offer vision and hope for what comes next, and this will be an important part of the celebration too.

On 1 April, 2000, the Unifying Assembly was held in the Barony Centre in Glasgow, establishing a National Synod of Scotland. Together with the creation of the National Synod of Wales, the event would underscore the URC’s sense of itself as a Church across three nations…

Lindsey Sanderson is Moderator of the National Synod of Scotland. This article is adapted by Laurence Wareing from her talk given to the URC History Society in 2022

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This is an extract from an article published in the Issue 4 – 2025 edition of Reform

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