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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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.
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 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.
The 34th General Council agrees to 1 request the Moderator or the General Secretary to express our opposition to the arms trade to the Government of Canada through the offices of the Prime Minister of Canada, the Secretary of State for External Affairs, the Minister of Defence; and
The 34th General Council requests the Division of Mission in Canada and the Division of World Outreach a) to gather existing resources and up-to-date information on the UCC’s position on the Middle East; and
The 34th General Council agrees to a) declare its revulsion at the acts of war and atrocities carried out in the former Yugoslavia and particularly at the attacks on minorities in policies aimed at “ethnic cleansing”; b) through the Moderator, communicate with the faith communities (Orthodox, Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Protestant) of the former Yugoslavia and their counterparts in Canada to express our grief and our support for their efforts to relieve human suffering, to withhold moral legitimacy from war-making, and to bring about reconciliation; c) through the Moderator, express to the World Council of Churches and to the Conference of European Churches our willingness to cooperate in efforts for humanitarian relief, protection of refugees, reconciliation, and rebuilding of “civil society” after the war is over;
Therefore be it resolved that British Columbia Conference petition the 33rd General Council of the United Church of Canada to urge the government of Canada to immediately cease ad cancel all further low level military flights over British Columbia.
The 33rd General Council urges the Canadian government to: 1. Protest the construction of an acoustic measurement facility in Behm Canal; 2. Deplore the use of Canadian waters by US submarines; 3. Pursue vigorously Canada’s sovereignty claim to the waters of the Dixon Entrance; 4. Insist on environmental precautions before allowing passage of US ships through Canadian waters; 5. Adopt a policy of military de-escalation and to adopt a posture of opposition to a continuing escalation of the nuclear arms race.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 33rd General Council of the United Church of Canada: 1. express its profound regret that the Canadian government has responded outside the auspices of the UN to the Arabian Gulf Crisis; 2. call on the government to withdraw its commitment of Canadian Forces to the US led military confrontation in the Arabian Gulf; and to urgently press the UN to resolve the Arabian Gulf Crisis; 3. and finally, urge the Government of Canada to ensure that Canadian external affairs policy is aimed at promoting and supporting multinational agreements, recognizing international law, and participating in UN initiatives, to create a just and peaceful world.
