URC on the EU Referendum: the morning after…

United Reformed Church General Secretary John Proctor asks, what do churches say and do in immediate response to the decision to leave the EU?

Most of us managed to vote. We knew that about half the country would vote the other way. None of us knew which way the result would fall. Now we know – 52:48 for leaving the EU.

What do churches say and do at a time like this?

Amid divided opinions, we continue to build community, offer friendship and share the love of Jesus.

Amid neighbours of many races and cultures, we believe in fellowship that crosses every boundary of frontier and nation. So we value especially the friends whose roots are different from our own.

We support our MPs, who now have new tasks to tackle, and surely feel fragile after the death of Jo Cox. They deserve our prayers, and perhaps a word of encouragement, in the work they do for us.

We keep up our personal and church contacts in other lands. Britain still needs good relationships with the countries around us, and personal connections are part of that.

And we continue to keep our eye open to the needs of the weak, in our own land and in the many poor and troubled countries around God’s world.

All of this we do, for Jesus’ sake, in the world he lived in. In difficult times, Jesus spoke, acted and loved with the grace and goodness of God. So may we, the morning after.

-John Proctor, URC General Secretary