As a United church in the Reformed tradition, Avenue St Andrew’s URC is a mixed congregation engaged in working out our Christian faith in society. Chief activities that strengthen us are worship, prayer, enquiring Biblical reflection and fellowship. You might say we try to take Jesus at his word when he commanded his followers to ‘love your neighbour as you love yourself’.
A particular strength of the United Reformed Church, formed in 1972 from the official joining of the Congregational and Presbyterian churches in the UK, is its commitment to unity in diversity. Our members include not only former Congregationalists and Presbyterians, but also people from Methodist, Baptist, Anglican, Salvationist, and Catholic churches, besides some from independent faiths. We welcome people from all backgrounds, all nations and orientations, aiming to learn from each one and to walk humbly in love and obedience as we seek ‘the mind of Christ’ through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Our church governance, too, draws on a blend of models. Senior leadership rests with a council of elected church Elders – trustees – who oversee the church’s spiritual and practical direction, as in the Presbyterian tradition. They in turn interact with the full membership through the Church Meeting. All major decisions are made after open, church-wide discussion at regular Church Meetings, drawing on Congregational tradition. This balanced structure tends to produce responsible actions because both approaches rely on independent thought but corporate agreement, using checks and balances. By choice, we stress ethical social application. We care especially for our local neighbourhood, offer a welcome to strangers, and see our distinguished building as a shared asset within Southampton.
Although URC churches are subject to a further level of governance through one of 13 regional synods and a yearly national General Assembly, our churches retain a high degree of congregational freedom. Since the URC’s ministerial resource has in fact been declining for many years, local freedom is useful, encouraging congregations to be resourceful and creative in stimulating their members’ gifts of worship and pastoral care.
Avenue St Andrew’s has recently developed some exciting work along these lines, including improved forms of outreach and new approaches to Sunday worship. Still, with a large number of aging buildings and decreasing member numbers across the national denomination, many URC churches have had to close or become part of merged clusters that share a minister. Avenue St Andrew’s is no exception. As one of six churches now in the ‘Southern Fellowship’ of the Wessex Synod, we share two ministers among the six congregations. Collegiality is growing.
In matters of faith, we broadly mirror other Reformed Christians in our emphasis on the following ideas:
- the priesthood of all believers: neither the church nor any minister stands between any believer and God
- the centrality and authority of the Bible in language we can understand, although we don’t interpret every word literally as if all biblical text were ‘inerrant’, for only God is perfect
- the theological framework of God’s covenant or partnership with humanity, including the symbolic sacraments of Baptism and Communion reflecting the life of Jesus
- our understanding of salvation as by faith alone, not by our own efforts or works, through God’s grace which is available to all
- a worship style, whether using organ, piano or choir, that emphasises simplicity and directness, focusing on elements prescribed in scripture – Bible reading, prayer, preaching and singing