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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THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that this 33rd General Council direct the Division of Mission in Canada to find the means to address bioethical issues to consider immediately the following: 1. All gene transfers in humans that have even a chance of getting into reproductive cells for passage to future generations, should be prohibited
The United Church of Canada believes that there must be a just, sustainable and participatory economy for all people Keywords: Fishing, Conservation, Newfoundland, Aboriginal Fishing Rights, East Coast Fishery, Fishery, Cod Moratorium, Moratorium, Fish quotas, Seals, Sealing, Fishery Policy, Foreign Fishery, Offshore Fishery, Oceans, Seas
WHEREAS in spite of the International Marketing Code of the World Health Organization, and in spite of UNICEF’s repeated statements that death from diarrhea is 25 times higher for infants who are bottle fed than those who are breast fed – and in spite of thousands of scientific studies documenting the life-enhancing and life-saving qualities of breast milk, the infant formula industry continues its immoral promotion of dangerous feeding methods, particularly through the distribution of free supplies to hospitals and maternities;
The 33rd General Council urges the Canadian government to: 1. Protest the construction of an acoustic measurement facility in Behm Canal; 2. Deplore the use of Canadian waters by US submarines; 3. Pursue vigorously Canada’s sovereignty claim to the waters of the Dixon Entrance; 4. Insist on environmental precautions before allowing passage of US ships through Canadian waters; 5. Adopt a policy of military de-escalation and to adopt a posture of opposition to a continuing escalation of the nuclear arms race.
WHEREAS corporate concentration and control in the market place creates disempowerment for government and food producers and, WHEREAS this also creates economic hardship for primary food producers and, WHEREAS government assistance to multi-national corporations is not in the best interests of either primary food producers or consumers. THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 33rd General Council urge the federal and provincial Governments to alter their present economic assistance to multinational corporations involved in food production, processing and distribution in order to more justly meet the needs of primary food producers.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 33rd General Council of the United Church of Canada: 1. express its profound regret that the Canadian government has responded outside the auspices of the UN to the Arabian Gulf Crisis; 2. call on the government to withdraw its commitment of Canadian Forces to the US led military confrontation in the Arabian Gulf; and to urgently press the UN to resolve the Arabian Gulf Crisis; 3. and finally, urge the Government of Canada to ensure that Canadian external affairs policy is aimed at promoting and supporting multinational agreements, recognizing international law, and participating in UN initiatives, to create a just and peaceful world.
The 1984 General Council decided that peace education should become a high priority in the United Church over the next five years. In November 1985, General Council Executive approved a three-point strategy which included that development of a theology of peace-making that would engage the church in a discovery of what it means to be a Christian in a nuclear age, and what it means to be a confessing church in a middle-sized country situated between the major antagonists in the nuclear conflict. The National Working Group on Peace and Justice developed the peace theology project, “An Invitation to the Kitchen Table,” to involve people at the local level in developing a peace theology for the church. Over 227 individuals and/or groups registered to participate in the project. A number of local and neighbourhood groups met to develop peace affirmations. This was followed by regional meetings and it finally culminated in a national meeting where the statement of faith on peace was finalized for presentation to the 1990 General Council…
WHEREAS primary food production policy needs to reflect an understanding of sustainability THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 33rd General Council endorses the following principles of Sustainable Agriculture.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 33rd General Council of The United Church of Canada establish as its policy that: recycled paper to be used for publications, correspondence, reports, documents, and forms used by the General Council, and encouraged throughout the church, within the practical limits and requirements for existing equipment and specific production requirements for certain documents; this policy be implemented to move toward a goal by the end of 1991 of having the majority of the paper used by paper which has been recycled;
WHEREAS to be a Church signifies not only a willingness but a responsibility to be in solidarity with those suffering the effects of war, particularly the poor; and WHEREAS the world recently witnessed the killing of six Jesuit priests and two women of their household in El Salvador who worked for peace and with the poor; and WHEREAS members of the non-governmental Human Rights Commission (CDHES) and other humanitarian and church organizations continue to disappear, be tortured and harassed and/or expelled as in the case of two Canadians; the Reverend Brian Rudd and Karen Ridd; and WHEREAS Canada is now a full member of the OAS and supports the Esquipulas Peace Accords:
