This Library contains documents from all recent United Church governance meetings, including General Council and its Executive. It also includes “Our Beliefs Explained” official policy documents dating back several decades. If you can't find something you think should be included, contact gcbusiness@united-church.ca.
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3) To find Belief/Policy documents, use the “Topic” filter option.
I believe the Holy Spirit is calling the church to overhaul the human resources processes used to address concerns raised by ministry personnel in regard to working conditions and to encourage the church to provide more effective interventions to ensure safe and healthy workplaces.
The 44th General Council directed that a total compensation study for ministry personnel in the pastoral relations system and for ministry personnel and lay employees in General Council and regional councils staff systems be undertaken, reporting back to the 45th General Council. In November 2023, the Executive of the General Council established a Total Compensation Review Task Group to look at compensation practices through lenses of equitableness, adequacy, and sustainability.
While there is a great deal of accountability for ministry personnel within the denomination, there is little accountability for the vocational office overseeing the review and discipline process.
The Pacific Mountain Regional Council is aware that those in ordered ministries have their salaries and benefits continued for 6-months if they die while in ministry. However, this policy does not apply to the General Council staff. Salary and benefits terminate immediately at the time of death.
The Pacific Mountain Regional Council believes that the recent decision of The General Council Executive at its meeting from September 27-28, 2024, undertook an action related to the remuneration of The General Council (General Council Office staff and staff deployed to Regional Councils) that is not congruent with existing employment and equity policies.
In 2021, the Ministry Streams task group submitted a report and proposal, “Ministry Leadership to Meet the Needs of the Church in the 2020s”, which acknowledged and commissioned the church to address the reality that United Church of Canada communities of faith are on the whole smaller, older, and less able to employ paid ministry personnel, making ordered ministry a less viable profession and lay leadership burdened by professional standards of accountability.
Many diaconal ministers have years of experience administering the sacraments in their communities of faith and in other ministry positions. When Diaconal ministers retire, this licence is removed.
We are called to be the church, united and diverse, supporting and holding one another accountable. The combination of structural change and COVID-19 have left many feeling isolated, partly due to the lack of structures that support informal information sharing.
That the bounds of the plenary of the 45th General Council be the MacLeod Hall at the TELUS Convention Centre in Calgary and the online meeting room connected with it, excluding the visitor seating and unnumbered tables.
Time is a precious resource at a General Council. The Consent Docket provides an efficient way to deal with several items in a single proposal.
