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 that the 36th General Council: Call upon the Government of Canada to renew its commitment and support for a national medicare program based on the five fundamental principles of the Canadian Health Act: universality, accessibility, portability, comprehensiveness, and public administration.
Having given careful consideration to the comment expressed that a ban on the production of land mines would remove a significant defensive weapon from members of the Canadian Armed Forces in any future war;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 36th General Council: a) urge the Government of Canada to support "the initiation and conclusion by the year 2000 of an international convention that will set out a binding timetable for the abolition of all nuclear weapons" (from the Abolition 2000 petition); b) urge the Government of Canada to cease all activities determined to be of questionable legality by the July 8, 1996 ruling of the International Court of Justice, including, but not limited to:
1. Humanitarian intervention and civil war Three years after the formal end of the Cold War, the major nuclear powers have agreed that they will not use nuclear weapons against each other. Still, roughly 50,000 nuclear weapons remain. In addition, 82 armed conflicts are underway in 60 locations. Thirty-five are full-blown civil wars, clustered in 5 major hot spots in the world: (i) Southern and south-central Africa; (ii) the Horn of Africa; (iii) the Middle East, south-eastern Europe and the central Asian republics of the former USSR; (iv) south-east Asia; and (v) the Andes. People who have escaped these wars have become our neighbours in many of the major cities of Canada.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the 35th General Council 1. express its support for a negotiated peace settlement between Israel and the peoples in the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; 2. express this support to the government of Israel and to those negotiating on behalf of the Palestinian peoples, encouraging them to use all peaceful methods possible.
The Canadian health care system is under severe pressure (for example, reductions in federal transfer payments to support provincial health care programmes, cutbacks in hospital budgets and in community services, layoffs to hospital and other health care system personnel, the threat of user fees, and the potential of a two-tiered system). In response to this pressure and sparked by a sense of urgency, Unit IV of the Division of Mission in Canada established a Health Task Group in 1991 to engage the church in a process of education, animation and policy formation.
WHEREAS health reform is taking place in many provinces in Canada; and WHEREAS this process is having major impacts on the church’s service to senior citizens and especially on nursing homes and homes for the aged;
WHEREAS Christ calls the church to be concerned for this world; and WHEREAS the ways of peace and reconciliation are preferred to acts of violence and the perpetration of hatred; and WHEREAS negotiation and mutual recognition of issues can lead to justice;
The 34th General Council agrees to 1. request the Division of Mission in Canada to educate congregations, presbyteries, and conferences that it is every child’s right to have the best nutrition and nurture available, and that it is the right of every woman who is involved in a nursing relationship to continue as a full participant in religious, economic, political, and social life; and
The 34th General Council strongly protests the establishment of arms trade exhibition facilities anywhere in Canada; and encourages United Church members to express opposition to arms trade exhibitions throughout Canada.
