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 authority of the Executive of the General Council is as set out in The Manual.
Authority of the Executive of the General Council That the authority of the Executive of the General Council is as set out in The Manual.
The current formulation of the Cost-of-Living Group Assignments (COL) are creating inequities between pastoral charges located in the same city. Final decisions on appeals of COL assignments are made at the General Council Office using third party data, however using the hard data alone has created unhelpful disparities between churches in the same community. There is currently no mechanism for those with local knowledge of their own communities to correct these irregularities.
The 44th General Council asked that a principles-based approach to the United Church’s justice work be developed. A set of principles would govern the church’s responses to historic, current, and emerging social justice issues and enable timely and contextual responses.
The 45th General Council Executive (GCE) met online on November 14 and 15, 2025. The two days focused on setting the triennium up for transformative change, with dialogue around the triennium operating budget, the strategic direction and objectives, and affirming the commitment to anti-racism.
“We sing of a church of inspired, resilient and diverse contextual communities of disciples seeking to continue the story of Jesus by embodying Christ’s presence in the world. A church that is present and deeply connected coast to coast - to coast- to coast in rural and urban settings, and in ecumenical and global relationships. A church guided by hope-filled, adaptive and effective ministry leaders, in a denomination that is increasingly multigenerational, multiracial and intercultural.”
1. Humanitarian intervention and civil war Three years after the formal end of the Cold War, the major nuclear powers have agreed that they will not use nuclear weapons against each other. Still, roughly 50,000 nuclear weapons remain. In addition, 82 armed conflicts are underway in 60 locations. Thirty-five are full-blown civil wars, clustered in 5 major hot spots in the world: (i) Southern and south-central Africa; (ii) the Horn of Africa; (iii) the Middle East, south-eastern Europe and the central Asian republics of the former USSR; (iv) south-east Asia; and (v) the Andes. People who have escaped these wars have become our neighbours in many of the major cities of Canada.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 36th General Council: a) urge the Government of Canada to support "the initiation and conclusion by the year 2000 of an international convention that will set out a binding timetable for the abolition of all nuclear weapons" (from the Abolition 2000 petition); b) urge the Government of Canada to cease all activities determined to be of questionable legality by the July 8, 1996 ruling of the International Court of Justice, including, but not limited to:
In 2012, The United Church of Canada created the Comprehensive Review Task Group, later renamed the Comprehensive Renewal (CR) Task Group, which set a course for structural change. In 2015, the Task Group report, including recommendations, was presented to the 42nd General Council. After a number of revisions, incorporating feedback from across the church, the General Council approved the Comprehensive Renewal process and authorized a series of remits to seek the approval of the wider church of the revised recommendations. All remits were approved by wide margins. The recommendations included an evaluation process. The nature of the evaluation was further shaped by the Executive of General Council in March 2018. At that point, the decisions taken in 2015 had been endorsed by the church and were awaiting final enactment.
