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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That the 41st General Council 2012: 1) receive the report of The Working Group on Israel/Palestine Policy; 2) direct that United Church policies and actions, in relation to Israel and Palestine, reflect the content of the report as these have been affirmed in the motions number 3 through 13 and recommend the report and its policies to its members for study, prayerful discernment and personal action.
That the Executive of the General Council Receive "A Moment of Truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of the Palestinian suffering"—the KAIROS Palestine document—as an authentic voice of Palestinian Christians and offer the document and responses to it to United Church Conferences, presbyteries, congregations, and community ministries to use in their ongoing consultation, dialogue, study, and prayer as adopted by the 40th General Council 2009 in part six (6) of its implementation of Measures Towards Peace in the Middle East.
That the 40th General Council 2009 1. Record its convictions that a just peace in the Middle East will require: · The denunciation of Human Rights abuses committed by Israel and Palestine, as documented by Amnesty International and the United Nations, that will result in Member States of the United Nations taking subsequent, appropriate actions; · That the occupation and siege of Gaza by Israel cease, requiring the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza;
Whereas we have affirmed our desire and commitment to strive for just, peaceful, and sustainable communities in keeping with God s vision for wholeness of life; Whereas we are all inextricably interconnected in the web of creation, and affected by actions that impact on the sustainability and well-being of all of creation; Whereas scripture calls us to be peacemakers; Whereas God would have the whole world turn swords into ploughshares, we know that in many places ploughshares are turned into swords; military, peace, United Nations, humanitarian crisis
Declare our willingness to support and participate in the World Council of Churches' proposed week for International Church Action for Peace in Palestine and Israel focusing on the Holy Land and provide educational material and worship resources.
the Executive of General Council has affirmed its conviction that “a necessary step towards true peace in the region will be through the implementation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions specifically 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (1948) and that these resolutions require … the withdrawal of Israel from the West Bank and Gaza including settlements
AN ALTERNATE LOGISTICS ARRANGEMENT: As an alternate arrangement to that discussed under the previous three headings, an arrangement of production might be worked out with an organization such as Kairos where each interested denomination would give a guarantee of purchasing a certain number of copies of the materials.
Commanded as Christians to “beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning hooks” and that “nations shall not learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:2-4); Further commanded to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us (Luke 6:27); Understanding that the safety and security of persons is the goal of national and international security efforts;
Commanded as Christians to love our neighbours and our enemies and to be good stewards of the Earth; Noting that the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion of July 8, 1996, reviewed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and decided unanimously that there exists an obligation on states to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiation leading to nuclear disarmament; Concerned that the world’s states have failed to begin negotiation for the elimination of the 20,000 nuclear weapons in their possession; Further concerned to note recent decisions by the U.S. Government to develop smaller nuclear weapons which could make nuclear weapons more useable and allow them to be portrayed as being militarily and morally equal to conventional (non-nuclear) weapons;
WHEREAS Canada produces 35% of the world’s uranium, some 27 million pounds in 2001 (CNSC Annual Report, 2001, p.22) and needs to be proportionally accountable for the hazards and by-products of the industry; and WHEREAS Canada has accumulated 37,854 tonnes of high level nuclear waste from reactors (CNSC Annual Report, 2001, p. 21), which is lethal for thousands of years, and which, after 60 years, scientists still do not know how to dispose of safely; and WHEREAS AECL spent $700 million dollars over 15 years to develop a deep rock Disposal Plan, and a Scientific Review Group found various assumptions and procedures of the plan to be problematic, and the Seaborn Panel spent 8 years and $8 million dollars to find the Proposal not socially acceptable, with 99 deficiencies to be further addressed, and then the Government of Canada in December of 2002 legislated the whole issue back to the producers to solve; and WHEREAS the Government of Canada has been financially propping up the industry, spending $58 million dollars each year from parliamentary appropriations to operate CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission), and since 1951 has awarded the industry some $60 billion dollars in subsidies, plus export loans of $600 million dollars to China, and $329 million dollars to Romania; (E-mail of article in Ottawa Citizen, June 21/01, by Dave Martin, researcher for the Sierra Club); and WHEREAS Canada has a Protocol with the IAEA in Vienna (International Atomic Energy Agency) that its uranium will not be used for nuclear weapons, but each year exports 11 million pounds of uranium yellowcake to the USA, which, when processed, is labeled as “US Material”, (Dr. Donald Lee, Report of the Joint federal-Provincial Panel, 1997, Cumulative Observations, p. 25.), (BriarPatch, May 1993, p. 190); and
