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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The 34th General Council agrees to 1 reaffirm the Refugee Policy of the 32nd General council, providing guidelines for work with refugees, and commend the Division of Mission in Canada for the work presently being done to implement it; and 2 ask the Government of Canada to change proposed amendments to the Immigration Act, introduced in Bill C-86 currently before the House of Commons to reflect the following principles: Refugees, Asylum, Justice
The 34th General Council agrees to adopt the following statement on environment and development. Keywords: Ecology, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Consumerism, environmentalism, greenhouse gases, greenhouse effect, global warming
That the 34th General Council of the United Church of Canada continue to pressure the federal government to respond to the legacy of the residential schools. Residential Schools, Aboriginal, First Nations, Native Indian
That the 34th General Council write to the Secretary of State for External Affairs, expressing its concern that Overseas Development Aid to the Third World has been reduced at this time of even greater need.
The 34th General Council of The United Church of Canada a) recognizes the world-wide significance of the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED), which met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1-12 June 1992; and b) urges presbyteries and congregations of The United Church of Canada to raise and maintain awareness of UNCED agreements (The Rio Declaration, The Climate Change Convention, The Biodiversity Convention) for environmental protection and development;
The 34th General Council agrees to a) declare its revulsion at the acts of war and atrocities carried out in the former Yugoslavia and particularly at the attacks on minorities in policies aimed at “ethnic cleansing”; b) through the Moderator, communicate with the faith communities (Orthodox, Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Protestant) of the former Yugoslavia and their counterparts in Canada to express our grief and our support for their efforts to relieve human suffering, to withhold moral legitimacy from war-making, and to bring about reconciliation; c) through the Moderator, express to the World Council of Churches and to the Conference of European Churches our willingness to cooperate in efforts for humanitarian relief, protection of refugees, reconciliation, and rebuilding of “civil society” after the war is over;
From October 1989 to the end of 1990, the United Church was involved in the study of the document The Authority and Interpretation of Scripture (referred to as the Study Document in this report). As the statistics show, in terms of the sheer numbers of persons involved and responses received, it has been one of the most extensive church studies. People came to the study with different levels of energy and spiritual expressions and with a variety of expectations and assumptions. A participant in one Conference event spoke for many involved in the study when she said, “People came…looking for a garden ready to harvest but were given dirt and tools.” It is a good metaphorical description; what we offer as a report reflects the labour of many Christian people, at home and abroad, who were not afraid to plough in with hope of a good harvest.
Having heard Petition 39 [re: placing abortion in the Criminal Code], it is moved that 1 The Frankford/Batawa Pastoral Charge be encouraged to continue studying the issues and to forward the results of their study to Belleville Presbytery;
The 33rd General Council, through the appropriate division or body, encourages dialogue with other denominations in Canada, the United States and other world communities about the mutual concerns of primary food producers.
WHEREAS as Christians we affirm the sanctity of human life, born or unborn and that life is much more than physical existence; and
