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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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
THAT the 30th General Council: 1. AFFIRM the United Nations’ proposal for a mutual verifiable freeze on the development, testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons and delivery systems of vehicles, urging our government to vote at the United Nations in favour of the freeze;
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.
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)
Notwithstanding many international efforts toward securing peace with justice in the Middle East and creating a better understanding of the issues, there has been no significant progress towards a just settlement of the problems in the Middle East since the General Council last met in 1974. The Geneva Conference has not reconvened at the time of writing. The Arab States and the Palestinians continue to regard the Palestine Liberation Organization as the only legal representative of the Palestinians, and Israel remains adamant in its refusal to sit in a Conference with the PLO.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: 1 THAT this General Council reaffirm the stated opposition of the United Church to, “…the testing and use of nuclear weapons anywhere in the world as being a miscarriage of man’s stewardship for human life, the earth and the resources of creation as revealed in Christ”;
