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Temple Cowley United Reformed Church

Oxford Road, Cowley, OXFORD, OX4 2ES

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+44 (0)1865 751621

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+44 (0)1865 421891

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Blog

The Revd Dick Wolff launched a blog in February 2008, where he posts comments, short articles, letters &c about current events and often about the relationship between British society, organised religion (and ‘pseudo-religion’) and the life of Christian faith, particularly in the light of the New Testament account.

On it, readers are able to post comments and responses.

The material here does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Reformed Church, either locally at Temple Cowley, or nationally.

Go to Blog

Sunday Calendar

This site last updated October 18th 2011

Recent sermon on ‘Articles & Sermons’ page looks for a connection between the protests against financial institutions across the world and ‘Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar’ (Matthew 22 : 15 - 22)

Recent blogs (see bottom of this page) on the Norwegian atrocity. And tortoises.

Temple Cowley URC is one of eight United Reformed Churches in the Oxford area. During the 1930s it became a spiritual and social home for many who came seeking work at the nearby Morris car plant (now home to the new BMW Mini). Many of them were Welsh, but the Welsh connections are now largely dissolved. Many migrant workers still come to Oxford however, and Cowley is now home for many different nationalities, and has a large number of students, mostly from Oxford Brookes University and the many language schools in the area.

What is the United Reformed Church?
The URC was formed in 1972 from the merger of two churches with roots in the 17th century Reformation : the Congregational and the Presbyterian Churches. Later, the Churches of Christ joined (the church that Barack Obama belongs to), and two of our Oxford churches are currently served by American United Churches of Christ (UCC) ministers. These churches are all founded on the principle that ‘priesthood’ is never vested in an individual but in a committed body of believers trying to live together according to the ‘Word of God’ that they hear in the Bible. A minister is called to help the congregation as a whole ‘be the priest’ and listen for that ‘Word’. As a result, the URC has a ‘bottom-up’ structure, not a ‘top-down’ structure (like episcopal churches do, e.g. The Church of England and Roman Catholic Church). It is driven by the membership, hopefully in response to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit.

The active membership is now around 25 in number; the church also hosts the Oxfordshire Playgroups Association and OCVYS, the Oxfordshire Children & Voluntary Youth Services. On the site of the former church hall next door, Emmaus Oxford have built a new community house for homeless people. It opened in March 2009 and is home for 25 ‘Companions’.

The Jubilee Brass Band rehearse at the church weekly.

Sunday morning worship is 10:30 - 11:45. Communion is celebrated monthly on the third Sunday. For location, see ‘Contact’ page.

“Many who long for immortality don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”