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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THAT the 31st General Council reaffirm The United Church of Canada position opposing all forms of advertising of beverage alcohol, and that the national Division of Mission in Canada again communicate this position to the federal and appropriate provincial and territorial governments.
Across Canada, hundreds of farm families find themselves face-to-face with ruin, caught up in the nation’s worst agricultural economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Increasingly, Canadian farmers are trapped in a vicious squeeze exerted by high costs of production, high interest rates, declining land values accompanied by low prices for their produce. As of June 1985, some 34 per cent of all farmers were suffering moderate or severe financial stress accompanied by an even more serious level of emotional stress.
Since the early 1980s the world has witnessed a rapid rise in arms spending and in military activity in many countries of the world. Because of trading links and foreign investment, countries like Canada have been inadvertently drawn into the current boom in the arms race, led in the west by the United States.
That the 31st General Council endorse the work presently being done by the (church) in urging all levels of government to redirect cutbacks so that programs designed to help the poor and underprivileged both in Canada and abroad are not subject to funding cuts or closure and encourage the (church) to continue this work on our behalf.
WHEREAS the development and build-up of conventional and nuclear armaments continues unabated, threatening our hope for a future, and placing the fate of the earth in serious jeopardy; and
THAT this 31st General Council: 1 INSTRUCT the Investment Committee through the Division of Finance to divest the church of all investments in corporations and companies having direct equity investment* in South Africa until power is shared democratically among all peoples of South Africa; and
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 31st General Council requests the General Secretary of the General Council to inform the government of Canada that The United Church of Canada is opposed to a general free trade agreement with the United States, preferring a sector-by-sector approach for agriculture and fisheries. This would preserve existing trade arrangements and at the same time provide opportunities for expanded markets.
The United Church supports public research and development in the area of agriculture and food production, and the adequate funding of same, provided such research is socially beneficial and in particular does not have destabilizing effects on the farming and fishing communities Keywords: Farming, Genetic Modification, Animal Experimentation, Animal Rights, Animal Husbandry, Biotechnology, Genetics
Urge the Canadian government to restore 1990 as the latest date by which it commits itself to reach the target of 0.7% of Gross National Product for its international development assistance expenditures; Monitor such expenditures to insure that projects are technically appropriate to the culture situation and have basic local acceptance;
WHEREAS the United Church of Canada has historically understood the Christian gospel to affirm the social nature of prosperity to be such that those who prosper have a responsibility to ensure that no human being goes without the necessities of life
