Victoria Turner calls on the URC to make a noise

I decided to scare our Reform editors and write this ‘Here & now’ the day after attending my first Greenbelt Festival – which was also the final content deadline day! However, I am so glad I took this risk.

The idea floating around my head for this piece was a conversation I recently had with Neil Thorogood. I was interviewing him about his late dad, Bernard Thorogood, for my PhD research but topics kept sliding and slipping and weaving and muddling in a beautiful, typical URC interconnected way. One of the things we discussed was the humility of the URC, which in many ways is fantastic, but in other ways is a hindrance.

Firstly, the fantastic. The URC had an impressive presence at Greenbelt this year. We led the café that partnered with Refuse and Grace Kitchen to serve tasty food destined for the bin; the programme had the theme of Revolting Christians; and we had URC folk volunteering as stewards, with the golf cart buggies, photographing, and managing the radios. The feedback we received included thanks for giving a warm welcome and affordable food in the living crisis, and an appreciation for the craft sessions and bedtime stories aimed at families…

Victoria Turner is a PhD student and Council for World Mission Scholar

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This is an extract from an article published in the October 2022 edition of Reform

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