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.
Helpful topics
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: 1 THAT this General Council reaffirm the stated opposition of the United Church to, “…the testing and use of nuclear weapons anywhere in the world as being a miscarriage of man’s stewardship for human life, the earth and the resources of creation as revealed in Christ”;
WHEREAS South Africa continues to exercise stringent apartheid measures and supports racist policies in Rhodesia, Namibia and the Portuguese African Territories: BE IT RESOLVED that this General Council through the appropriate Departments of Divisions:
WHEREAS the United Nations Charter is revised every ten years; and WHEREAS it is the conviction of this Committee that the government of Canada should be lending all possible support to reform of the UN Charter and the more effective working of the United Nations in the pursuit of world peace:
BE IT RESOLVED that this Twenty-fourth General Council of the United Church of Canada commend to our people the observance of June 21st as a “National Indian Day of Prayer,” and request the Board of Home Missions to make this action known to the people of the church.
WHEREAS conditions in the Middle East have continued to deteriorate, the numbers of homeless and their suffering have increased, the threat of major war continues, and the chief hope for settlement and peace still seems to be in the implementation of action of the U.N. Security Council by Resolution 242, unanimously adopted on November 22nd, 1967, which Affirms that the fulfilment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles: Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict; Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats and acts of force; and Affirms further the necessity for guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area; achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem;
WHEREAS the apartheid policy of South Africa deprives a large majority of its people of economic, political and social freedoms solely on the basis of skin colour; and WHEREAS the white racist government of Rhodesia is moving rapidly toward a South African type of apartheid; and WHEREAS Portugal received NATO aid, enabling her forcibly to subjugate indigenous Africans; and WHEREAS the ambivalence of Canadian foreign policy at present allows a small fraction of trade to weigh more heavily than our attention to Christian principles of human justice, thereby lowering our credibility with those independent African nations whom we support verbally in the UN;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT this General Council 1 COMMEND the enabling action of the federal government and the action of provinces making provision for medicare plans in accordance with this legislation; 2 REQUEST all other provinces to seek to bring similar plans into being as soon as is practical.
COMMEND those provinces which have established a comprehensive health services plan and urge those provinces which do not yet have such a plan to provide one as quickly as possible;
WHEREAS The United Church of Canada, through its Commission on Christian Marriage and Divorce, has encouraged frank discussion of such subjects as sex, marriage and relationships between men and women, on a high level of respect for the dignity of these relationships as given of God to mankind, and particularly in order that youth may be properly instructed in such matters; and
Attitude of the Church to the Traffic: The phrase “hostility to the traffic” was used by the 6th General Council, and in the Record of Proceedings of the 8th, 9th, and 13th General Councils there is reference to “the uncompromising hostility” of the United Church to the beverage alcohol business. Similar positions have been taken by other churches in both Canada and the United States.
