The United Reformed Church (URC) was set up with the specific objective of working towards the visible unity of the whole Christian church. It was a voluntary union between the majority of churches of the Congregational Church of England and Wales, the Presbyterian Church of England, and, more recently, Churches of Christ and the Congregational Union of Scotland .
We are a conciliar church! That means that the ultimate decision-making body in the local church is the ‘Church Meeting’ - a gathering of all church members.
We are not a democracy. Whilst we make decisions by taking votes, we do our best to come to a decision which everyone feels is right and we trust that in our unanimity we have discerned what God would wish us to do.
Practically this means that decision making can take a long time but it does mean that once a decision has been made, we work together because we have all agreed the way forward.
We also have a council of Elders, members of the church who are elected and ordained to provide leadership and care in partnership with the Minister.
We keep in touch with other United Reformed Churches in the East Midlands through Synod meetings, roughly every 6 months. Locally, we welcome opportunities to work together with other denominations to the glory of God in Ilkeston.