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.
1) Enter your search words.
2) Use the filters to refine your search by GC, Document Type, Originating body, or more. You can stack the filters to further refine your search to help find exactly what you’re looking for. Results will update in real-time as you select filters.
3) To find Belief/Policy documents, use the “Topic” filter option.
That the 41st General Council 2012: 1) receive the report of The Working Group on Israel/Palestine Policy; 2) direct that United Church policies and actions, in relation to Israel and Palestine, reflect the content of the report as these have been affirmed in the motions number 3 through 13 and recommend the report and its policies to its members for study, prayerful discernment and personal action.
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.
We believe the church is about God’s mission in the world, one of healing and justice for all creation, and that this work is surely to be lived out and realized with others. In many varied and rich ways the work of the church, including The United Church of Canada, is accomplished through working with others, including by relationships that we know as partnerships.
The Permanent Committee, Programs for Mission and Ministry proposes that the Executive of General Council: 1) Receive the report “Intercultural Ministries: Living into Transformation”; 2) Forward it and the following proposal to the 41st General Council for decision.
The United Church of Canada has been engaged in global partnership for over 150 years. Significant shifts have happened throughout that history, redirecting both the practice and theology of partnership to allow it to more fully engage the context of its day. Recent articulation of the nature of empire and the call to live faithfully in resistance to its forces, which are so destructive to the world and its peoples, has resulted in this most recent review. Partnership, the review proposes, is grounded in the relational nature of God, who calls us into right relationships with one another, with all of creation, and with God. Partnership leads us to form communities of right relationships, committed to resisting the forces of empire. To speak of partnership in this way requires that the whole church at all levels be invited into lived experiences of global partnership.
Since 1928, The Manual has been a valuable resource for members and organized bodies of The United Church of Canada.
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.
Declare that in matters respecting doctrine, worship, membership and governance, The United Church of Canada is opposed to discrimination against any person on the basis of age, ancestry, colour, disability, ethnic origin, gender identity, language, marital status, place of origin, race, sexual orientation, socio-economic status or any other basis by which a person is devalued
GCE40 Minutes of the Executive for 2009-2012
encourage all congregations of The United Church of Canada to welcome transgender people into membership, ministry, and full participation Keywords: Transgender, human rights, gender identity, sexual orientation
