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 General Council of The United Church of Canada: 1 REQUEST the government of Canada to place a moratorium on all low level flights of military aircraft in Labrador and North East Quebec and to make no commitment to establish a new Tactical Fighter Weapons Training Centre in this region and to provide economic alternatives for the community (financial subsidy support);
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 31st General Council of The United Church of Canada: 1. REQUEST the government of Canada, in its national budget, to increase socio-economic aid to Third World countries and to increase economic aid to the depressed economic sectors and welfare needs of our own country; and
WHEREAS the United Church of Canada is committed to the stewardship of creation as expressed in Genesis 1:29-31; and WHEREAS The United Church of Canada and the government of Canada recognize the right of native peoples to self-determination as expressed in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights; and
The United Church of Canada has a record of standing alongside aboriginal people in their struggle for human rights, dignity and land entitlement; Key words: Constitution, Justice, Aboriginal, First Nations, Native Indian
WHEREAS the government of Canada in the early 1970s decided to end Canada’s nuclear role in NATO; and WHEREAS the UN Palme Commission on “Common Security” recommended that nations develop systems of common security together on a global basis rather than against one another through regional defence pacts; and WHEREAS the 29th General Council adopted the recommendation of Project Ploughshares that Canada become a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone; and adopted a petition memorial calling for the dissolution of all military alliances:
THAT the 30th General Council: 1. Request the Division of Ministry, Personnel and Education and the Division of Mission in Canada to encourage all theological colleges and training centres to include peace and disarmament study in the regular and the continuing education curricula;
WHEREAS the development of nuclear and other weapons of mass and indiscriminate destruction compromise Christian discipleship by making it impossible for Christians to fulfil their calling to be neighbour to one another and gardener to the creation; and
WHEREAS the threat of nuclear war is global and the prevention of nuclear war calls for global collaboration by people of all faiths and commitments; and WHEREAS the Christian gospel is denied in the false apocalypticism of some religious figures and by the despair and passivity of others; and WHEREAS the world is witnessing a renewal of movements that use religion to buttress militarism and war-making:
Our website proclaims: “United Church faith communities welcome people from all backgrounds and orientations—wherever you are in your faith journey.” But as we scan across the country, as we listen to stories of people, of ministers, of communities of faith, it becomes clear that these words are not universally lived out across the vastness of the denomination. There is a disconnect with who we say we are.
WHEREAS the 1983 Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Vancouver called upon all member churches to “intensify their efforts to develop a common witness in a divided world, confronting with renewed vigour the threats to peace and survival and engaging in struggles for justice and human dignity,” and
