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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THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT: The 30th General Council pledge support and encouragement to the Canadian Council of Churches committee, which is seeking to build an inter-faith and ecumenical dialogue on the Middle East, and commend this committee’s efforts to our general membership and to the courts of the church.
WHEREAS the use of illicit drugs continues to be a serious problem of epidemic proportions among our youth; and WHEREAS marijuana and the other cannabis products are the major entry drugs into the drug culture and drug dependence;
The General Council called on the governments of Canada (provincial and federal) to enact immediately legislation banning all alcohol advertising through the media; and, further, to challenge the members of the church to examine their own use of alcoholic beverages. Keywords: Alcohol, Liquor, Advertising
THEREFORE we call on the church to renounce its alliances with security and power; to name with courage the forces that militate for death and against life; to repent and to call for repentance all in the church who have allowed the longing for security to replace the love of freedom; optimism to replace hope, and fear to overcome faith. We call on the governments of the nations for an immediate end to the arms race, and to the production and deployment of nuclear weapons. We call instead for a serious commitment to a just social order with freedom and wholeness for all.
WHEREAS we, as Christians, recognize all peoples of the earth as our brothers and sisters; and WHEREAS the escalating world arms race is now costing hundreds of billions of dollars a year perverting and squandering precious national resources, robbing the human family of food, water, health, education, housing, roads, transportation and peaceful industry
This policy statement on the issue of peace and disarmament has been prepared in response to the specific call of the 28th General Council to “recognize the escalation of the arms race, to study the complex issues involved, including the assumptions, values and life-styles giving rise to this escalation, to consider these issues in the light of scripture, doctrine and personal favour…to speak and act clearly, prophetically and courageously on this subject in a way which is faithful to our understanding of Shalom in which Peace, and Justice are linked…” (1980 ROP, p. 923)
As Amended by the Executive Council of the General Council, November 1989. Preamble As Christians we wish to affirm: The sanctity of human life, born or unborn. That life is much more that physical existence.
WHEREAS we are concerned about the effect of alcohol on unborn babies, specifically: -a complex of growth deficiencies, -physical malformation, -mental retardation known as the fetal alcohol syndrome;
Theological Approach Dependency God through incarnation in Jesus Christ has affirmed that in our humanity we should “have life and have it abundantly”-that we are created in God’s image. Nurtured by Christ’s spirit and strengthened by God’s means of grace, we are given confidence to cope with the complexities of living. In this way we develop a healthy dependency upon our own inner resources and also upon loving and supportive human relationships. When confidence in God, others and ourselves is seriously eroded we tend to become susceptible to pressures and substances that interfere with the development of our wholeness.
THAT the United Church of Canada discourage the use of tobacco products by promoting awareness as to the health risks through creative use of educational materials available from other sources.
