This Library contains documents from all recent United Church governance meetings, including General Council and its Executive. It will also soon include “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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In The United Church of Canada, we see ourselves as a church rooted in justice and equality with a vision of Deep Spirituality, Bold Discipleship, and Daring Justice. Our roots flow from the social gospel tradition of bringing Christian responsibility to public influence. In many ways, we have been a model of equality. We were the first denomination to grant ordination to women and commissioning and ordination to people who are openly 2SLGBTQIA+. United Church ministry personnel come from different walks of life and many cultural backgrounds. And while our history includes the running of Indian Residential Schools, we have apologized, made reparation, and continue to work toward reconciliation.
The Permanent Committee, Programs for Mission and Ministry proposes: That the Executive of the General Council receive the report of the United Church’s consultation on disabilities (entitled Gathering Together: Toward a Culture of Mutuality and Full Participation for Persons with Disabilities and Their Allies), and approve the following recommendations
In July 2013, about 55 self-identified people with disabilities, and their allies, gathered for a twoday consultation to share stories, ideas, dreams, and hopes about what would enable The United Church of Canada to better live into its recent commitment to becoming an “open, accessible, and barrier-free church, where there is full participation of persons with disabilities in the church’s ministry and mission.”
These words from A Song of Faith represent the most recent articulation of the ecclesiology of The United Church of Canada. Ecclesiology can be defined as theological reflection on the nature and mission of the church – “a statement about where Christians are in the world, who 41st General Council 2012 Ottawa, Ontario For Information they sit with, and what they affirm and challenge.”
Ministries with persons with disabilities are not a new phenomenon in The United Church of Canada. For example, since the inception of the Ecumenical Disabilities Advocates Network in 1998—a program of the World Council of Churches—the United Church has offered financial and logistical support for this member of our global partner community. More locally in Canada, the Executive of General Council of The United Church of Canada recently formed a Task Group on Disability Policies and Procedures to review the current provisions of The Manual concerning disability for ministry personnel. The review will clarify the obligations of ministry personnel and, where applicable, their pastoral charges when ministry personnel are eligible for the restorative care plan or long term disability.
The Permanent committee, Programs for Mission and Ministry, in reviewing its work through the 2009-2012 triennium discerned a common thread that linked each aspect of its work. Given its mandate to ensure that work comes before the Executive in an integrated manner it undertook and offers this report as one means of fulfilling that direction. The report will continue to serve as a working document for the PCPMM. It also believes that it can assist the General Council and its Executive l in their deliberations on the identity of the church.
The 40th General Council that met in Kelowna, British Columbia, in August 2009 approved a motion to add to the Doctrine section currently in the Basis of Union three other doctrinal statements that General Councils of the United Church have approved since 1925. Those three statements are the Statement of Faith (1940), A New Creed (adopted in 1968; revised in 1980 and again in 1994), and A Song of Faith (2006). For this proposed action to take place, the General Council authorized remits, which are votes by presbyteries and, in this case, also by pastoral charges, on whether to add some or all of these three statements to the Doctrine section of the Basis of Union. This background document is intended to help your pastoral charge’s session, church board, or church council as you prepare to vote on whether to include these other doctrinal statements in the Basis of Union.
The 37th General Council 2000 of The United Church of Canada approved the report To Seek Justice and Resist Evil: Towards a Global Economy for All God’s People. The report described, analyzed, and denounced “the global reality of systemic economic injustice” (neo-liberal economic globalization) and called the church “to seek justice and resist evil so that together in mission we can build a global economy for all God’s people.” It was both critical of the global economic status quo and its exclusionary tendencies, and filled with hope for the fulfillment of God’s promise of justice for all people and creation.
To Seek Justice & Resist Evil invites us to SEE global economic injustice, to discern or JUDGE what this means for our Christian faith, and to ACT in common mission for justice. This document provides a snapshot of stories that illustrate the devastating reality for the majority of people living under the present economic system in the world today. It does not intend to suggest blanket opposition to all aspects of the global economic system or to oppose all international trade or profit-seeking activity. Nor does this document attempt to present a blueprint for an alternative society. Rather, through this document the global partners of The United Church of Canada have issued both a Cry and a Call to seek justice and resist evil so that together in mission we can build a global economy for all God's people.
Today is a time of spiritual dislocation for many Christians. A secular and consumerist spirit pervades public life. The shopping mall can be as much a Sunday morning destination as is church. Many people identify themselves as “spiritual” but not “religious”. They choose not to identify themselves with any of the traditional churches of Canada. Greater knowledge of the richness of the world’s religions, together with the arrival of immigrants and refugees from all corners of the earth, has brought Canada greater cultural and religious diversity than earlier generations might ever have imagined. This is true not only in Toronto and Vancouver, but in Lac la Biche, Alberta and Shediac, New Brunswick. The proximity of people of other faiths has served to break down stereotypes about other faith communities. We may even feel challenged by the spiritual and moral integrity of some of our newer neighbours. These developments have raised the question of how to relate the historic teachings of the church about Jesus Christ to the present pluralistic moment. As Christian people we want to witness faithfully to the salvation, wholeness and challenge we have experienced through the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the same time, and precisely because we know Jesus as God’s Word made flesh, we want to treat all our neighbours ethically. We want to acknowledge the value we see in them and in their own expressions of faith.
