GC45 ECO05 Change to Churchhub Access For Ministry Personnel for Summer 2025

Origin: East Central Ontario

1. What is the issue? Why is it important?

We believe that God is calling us to address an injustice concerning ministry personnel access to ‘ChurchHub’ information for communities of faith that are in the search process.

2. What is happening now?

Prior to the inauguration of ChurchHub, vacant ministry positions were posted in a variety of entirely public places, such as newspapers, magazines, regional websites etc. You could also request a list from the General Council office. Communities of Faith benefited from a wide and open distribution network.

Examination recent editions of Broadview, one would note few congregations continue to engage in paid advertising, but instead rely on the ChurchHub posting. Members of the Order of Ministry can only see a small portion of the listing for each community of faith (see image in background), unless they have gone through the process of declaring themselves in search of a new ministry.

Once a clergy person has made that declaration, any church that is searching can see their profile. However, some clergy feel this action makes them vulnerable in their current pastoral relationship, because their search is so broadly known. At any given time there are about 200 active search teams across the denomination with access to the ChurchHub list of clergy who may be looking for a new call or appointment. The result is likely over 1,000 people at any given time may know who is searching. Through all members of search teams are to be bound by confidentiality, the church is a small place and mistakes get made.

Because some clergy fear being “outed” to their current community of faith, and fear negative consequences if they are, they ask other clergy to list themselves as seeking a new call so they can see the entire ChurchHub listing. From this, informal conversations with prospective communities of faith can begin, prior to making themselves vulnerable through ChurchHub.   From the perspective of communities of faith, fewer ministry personnel examining their full ChurchHub description means fewer potential matches and fewer potential good fits.

Our full communion partner, the United Church of Christ provides the equivalent full information for communities of faith in search on a publicly accessible website. The site provides the basic information and a link to download the profile document (see background).

3. What is the recommendation?

ECORC proposes that the General Council could direct the Office of Vocation to:

1. Modify ChurchHub to allow all ministry personnel to search the full “Find a New Ministry” section of “ChurchHub” prior to being formally requesting to be made available for call by the Office of Vocation.
2. Continue to require ministry personnel to be made available for appointment or call, prior to formally applying for a vacancy through ChurchHub.

4. Background information: 

Current view available on ChurchHub is one has not already been “Made Available for Call or Appointment”.

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United Church of Christ ministry opportunities page. Notice how much more information is available to the general public, as compared to what is available internally on ChurchHub.

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5. How does this proposal help us to live into our church's commitments on equity?

Clergy from equity seeking groups are often the most at risk of being “outed” when they begin a search for a new call or appointment. Providing them longer to search informally and anonymously will hopefully increase their sense of safety and provide for better matches in the future.


For the body transmitting this proposal to the General Council: 
Please select the appropriate option and provide the key discussion points for items being forwarded to the General Council: 
☑ Agree
☐ Disagree without forwarding to the General Council
☐ Disagree and forwarding to the General Council

If you have questions regarding this proposal, please send them to: GCinfo@united-church.ca