Royal Wootton Bassett

United Reformed Church @ 200

Who are we? What do we believe?

We are a Church which, like all Churches, believes that Christ matters for all humanity to be able to live a good life and share well-being and the earth’s resources.

• We seek to learn how to be neighbourly and show mercy to all who are in need - even our enemies.

We are a Reformed Church, part of the worldwide family of Reformed churches (including Presbyterian and Congregational Churches). 

• We believe we should be always open to reform following any new insights that flow from the gospel and save us from destructive ways of behaving. 

• Our denomination has had women ministers for over a century, 

• has been open to remarry divorces for decades, and

• seeks to hold itself together across differences of opinion. There are, for example, people within the United Reformed Church who do not believe that homosexuality is God’s will but alongside them are many members and ministers who are gay and part of an LGBTQ+ community. 

• We do not believe that hierarchy is always conducive to community life and our ministers are all paid the same stipend whatever the level of experience or authority that they carry.

We are United.

• The church was founded with the coming together of Presbyterian and Congregationalists in England and Wales in 1972 and has been joined by Churches of Christ (known as Disciples of Christ in the United States) and Congregationalists in Scotland. 

• We try to make decisions by building consensus, which in a world addicted to empire building and the noise of strident views we believe is vital.

Prayer for the 200th Anniversary

We offer thanksgiving for the people who have been this Church during its 200 years,for the ways that the church and its life has helped peopleto find faith, hope and love.

We offer thanksgiving for the baptisms that have eased people into life, the marriages that have sealed unions for life’s journey and the funerals that have allowed bereavement to be held, and hope sustained. 

We give thanks for the way in which the church has sought to be a light to its local community and for ministers and members over all those years. 

And we pray most fervently that we will continue to find ways as a church that values unity,to reform ourselves so that we can continue to be a light to our community - not least in these days which are full of turbulence, uncertainty and the rumours of many wars. Amen. 

Written by the Revd. Roy Lowes

MORE INFORMATION AND EVENTS WILL APPEAR HERE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.