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 this 31st General Council: 1 INSTRUCT the Investment Committee through the Division of Finance to divest the church of all investments in corporations and companies having direct equity investment* in South Africa until power is shared democratically among all peoples of South Africa; and
THAT the 31st General Council reaffirm The United Church of Canada position opposing all forms of advertising of beverage alcohol, and that the national Division of Mission in Canada again communicate this position to the federal and appropriate provincial and territorial governments.
WHEREAS the right for all refugee claimants physically in Canada to an oral hearing on the merits of their refugee claims was upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1985; and WHEREAS the recently-proposed Canadian legislation governing refugee determination procedures excluded four groups of refugee claimants from the right to make such a claim after an initial screening by an immigration (not a refugee) officer; and Refugees, Asylum, Rights
WHEREAS we believe in God of love and justice; and WHEREAS our United Church of Canada has a heritage of support for non-violent solutions to political differences; and WHEREAS we believe that the best way to achieve a non-violent solution is through a process of free and honest negotiations;
SUPPORT all efforts to discourage smoking in work places, public buildings and all forms of public transportation, and ask local congregations to encourage and support such efforts in their communities;
WHEREAS the 29th General Council, August 1982, agreed to: 1. Acknowledge its lack of persistence of behalf of Japanese Canadians injured through internment; 2. Urge the government of Canada to make speedy restitution and honourable compensation to Japanese Canadians so injured, that justice may be done and be seen to be done, and that this wound in our Canadian life may be healed; and
WHEREAS the recent rash of killing of police officers has resulted in renewed calls for the return of capital punishment in Canada; and WHEREAS we sympathize deeply with the hurt of families and colleagues of the victims of such crime; and WHEREAS we believe that the taking of another life is not a faithful way to respond to that hurt; and WHEREAS we believe that such taking of human life by the state as punishment has a brutalizing effect on society; and
The termination of the boycott was reported, and the action of the Division in October 1984 communicated. The Executive of General Council agreed to: 1 ENDORSE the International Nestle Boycott Committee (INBC) to terminate the current boycott of Nestle; 2 CELEBRATE the success of this seven-year campaign to change a major multinational company’s aggressive practices in marketing infant formula in the Third World, which contributed to severe malnutrition for many infants;
WHEREAS the right to self-determination of the Central American people is threatened by US policy in the region; and WHEREAS the increasing militarization of the region threatens to plunge Central America into a regional war: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
WHEREAS the more than 200,000 Guatemalan refugees living in camps in southern Mexico suffer from a severe lack of material assistance; and WHEREAS there has been very little publicity on this situation and very little international relief for the Guatemalan refugee camps:
