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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At its November, 2013, meeting, the General Council Executive directed the Theology and Inter-Church Inter-Faith Committee “to research and devise a position paper regarding adoption and create a United Church of Canada statement on adoption.”
That the 42nd General Council (2015): Direct the Executive of the General Council to promote existing resources for congregations and other ministries to understand alternatives to the “first past the post” electoral system in Canada.
The 42nd General Council (2015) direct the General Secretary, General Council to: a) contact the Prime Minister, the party leaders and appropriate ministers calling on them to eliminate solitary confinement; b) contact the Prime Minister, the party leaders and appropriate ministers calling on them to: • Provide better training of staff regarding mental health issues of offenders; • Schedule mental health assessments and development of treatment strategies; • Ensure transfer of inmates prone to injuring themselves to treatment centres; • Ensure that there is adequate oversight of prison conditions. • Work more closely with the John Howard Society, the Elizabeth Fry Society, and the Canadian Mental Health Association in developing better strategies for treatment and training. • Work more closely with the interfaith chaplaincies.
The Permanent Committee, Programs for Mission and Ministry proposes: That the Executive of the General Council receive the report of the United Church’s consultation on disabilities (entitled Gathering Together: Toward a Culture of Mutuality and Full Participation for Persons with Disabilities and Their Allies), and approve the following recommendations
In July 2013, about 55 self-identified people with disabilities, and their allies, gathered for a twoday consultation to share stories, ideas, dreams, and hopes about what would enable The United Church of Canada to better live into its recent commitment to becoming an “open, accessible, and barrier-free church, where there is full participation of persons with disabilities in the church’s ministry and mission.”
Individually and in community, we do everything through the lenses of our cultures: there is no such thing as a culture-free perspective. Our experiences and understandings are shaped by our cultures. Since we cannot capture the complexity of God through our limited cultural understandings, our understanding of God is limited when we see this God through only one dominant cultural perspective. Instead, our understandings of God and our scriptures can be deepened when we come together, as disciples of Jesus Christ, in all of our differences and diversities to acknowledge intercultural reality and richness.
Our commitment to becoming an intercultural church is grounded in commitments that the United Church has already made; it is another step in the continuing journey to be a transformative, justice-seeking, equitable church where there is the full participation of all. Our intercultural commitment is also rooted theologically and biblically in what it means to be the church – to be the church is to be an intercultural community that honours difference.
Ministries with persons with disabilities are not a new phenomenon in The United Church of Canada. For example, since the inception of the Ecumenical Disabilities Advocates Network in 1998—a program of the World Council of Churches—the United Church has offered financial and logistical support for this member of our global partner community. More locally in Canada, the Executive of General Council of The United Church of Canada recently formed a Task Group on Disability Policies and Procedures to review the current provisions of The Manual concerning disability for ministry personnel. The review will clarify the obligations of ministry personnel and, where applicable, their pastoral charges when ministry personnel are eligible for the restorative care plan or long term disability.
The Permanent Committee, Programs for Mission and Ministry proposes that the Executive of General Council: 1) Receive the report “Intercultural Ministries: Living into Transformation”; 2) Forward it and the following proposal to the 41st General Council for decision.
Declare that in matters respecting doctrine, worship, membership and governance, The United Church of Canada is opposed to discrimination against any person on the basis of age, ancestry, colour, disability, ethnic origin, gender identity, language, marital status, place of origin, race, sexual orientation, socio-economic status or any other basis by which a person is devalued
