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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Ours is a broad vision of The United Church of Canada as a Church called to live out a renewed understanding of the Gospel in our contemporary context.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel used to tell the story that when God, the Holy One, gets up in the morning, God gathers the angels of heaven around and asks this simple question: "Where does my creation need mending today?" And then Rabbi Heschel would continue, "Theology consists of worrying about what God worries about when God gets up in the morning."
In winter 2003, twelve persons named by The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and The United Church of Canada (UCC) met in Vancouver to consider their new mandate to explore the relationship between our two churches. It was clear to us from the outset that we were not commissioned to prepare plans for a new “church union,” a successor to the failed project of the 1970s. What we should make our task was initially less obvious.
St. Brigid Report, so named because it was completed on St. Brigid’s Day, February 1, 2009. The metaphor “drawing from the same well” captures the Dialogue’s recognition that it is the same grace of God that we see active in and through our two churches in the power of the Holy Spirit, nourishing us with the living water that is the Christ. The Report is set up in such a way as to make it possible to dip into it rather than read it all the way through. You can draw a cupful or a bucketful according to your circumstances. Recommendations for future discussion and action are made at the end of each section. A complete list of these recommendations is included in the Report and is provided in this summary.
Using United Church of Canada policies and work at General Council and Conference levels as guidance and support, to introduce the theological and ethical reflection and history of involvement in nuclear issues that has lead the United Church to view nuclear fuel waste within · the complex of problems in nuclear fuel production and use · the international problems of nuclear wastes, particularly with respect to Canadian exports · the risks of proliferation of military applications of radioactive materials · the question of the future of nuclear power
The 37th General Council 2000 of The United Church of Canada approved the report To Seek Justice and Resist Evil: Towards a Global Economy for All God’s People. The report described, analyzed, and denounced “the global reality of systemic economic injustice” (neo-liberal economic globalization) and called the church “to seek justice and resist evil so that together in mission we can build a global economy for all God’s people.” It was both critical of the global economic status quo and its exclusionary tendencies, and filled with hope for the fulfillment of God’s promise of justice for all people and creation.
That the General Secretary, General Council, create resources for people of all ages for the purpose of: • recognizing homophobia • changing our behaviour and establishing just relationships and that attention be given to strategies for intervention and support on behalf of those who are caught in situations of homophobic abuse, In co-operation and consultation with Affirm United/S’affirmer Ensemble. sexuality, gay, lesbian, bisexual
That the 39th General Council 2006: Through the General Secretary, General Council 1. That The United Church of Canada Water Mission Study be extended for an additional two years; 2. That The United Church of Canada continue, with KAIROS, to pressure the Federal Government to ensure equal access to clean water for all;
That the 39th General Council 2006: 1) Receive for information the report "Water: Life before Profit". 2) Direct that the report inform the purpose statement(s) to be developed by this General Council. 3) Affirm its conviction that water is a sacred gift that connects all life. Its value to the common good must take priority over commercial interests. Privatization turns a common good into a commodity, depriving those who cannot pay and further threatening local ecosystems.
That the 39th General Council 2006: Through the General Secretary, General Council, firmly call upon our federal government to declare water as a human right, support municipalities in keeping water in public control, and resist any attempts by the United States to increase exports of Canadian fresh water under the energy proportional sharing provisions of NAFTA.
