This Library contains documents from all recent United Church governance meetings, including General Council and its Executive. It also includes “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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The Permanent committee, Programs for Mission and Ministry, in reviewing its work through the 2009-2012 triennium discerned a common thread that linked each aspect of its work. Given its mandate to ensure that work comes before the Executive in an integrated manner it undertook and offers this report as one means of fulfilling that direction. The report will continue to serve as a working document for the PCPMM. It also believes that it can assist the General Council and its Executive l in their deliberations on the identity of the church.
WHEREAS the prophets called God’s people to care for the refugees and sojourners in their midst: “Do not mistreat foreigners who are living in your land. Treat them as you would a fellow Israelite, and love them as you love yourselves. Remember that you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:33-34); and WHEREAS we name ourselves after the One who said “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25:35); and Refugees, Asylum
March 2012 Motion passed by the Executive of the General Council: Policies Related to Gender Identity The Executive of the General Council affirmed that: a. The United Church of Canada acknowledges the difference (distinction) between gender identity referring to a person’s innate, deeply felt sense of being male, female, both or neither; and sexual orientation – having to do with the gender to which one is emotionally and physically attracted, and b. “Gender identity” is not a barrier to membership and ministry of The United Church of Canada.
WE AFFIRM that our sexuality is a gift of God. In its life-enhancing, non-exploitive forms it is a primary way of relating to ourselves and to one another, and is the way God has chosen to continue the human race. We acknowledge that human sexuality, like all other aspects of human nature is affected and distorted by human sinfulness. We recognize the ambiguity of human nature and therefore of human sexuality. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
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:
Individually and in community, we do everything through the lenses of our cultures: there is no such thing as a culture-free perspective. Our experiences and understandings are shaped by our cultures. Since we cannot capture the complexity of God through our limited cultural understandings, our understanding of God is limited when we see this God through only one dominant cultural perspective. Instead, our understandings of God and our scriptures can be deepened when we come together, as disciples of Jesus Christ, in all of our differences and diversities to acknowledge intercultural reality and richness.
Food insecurity remains one of the most pressing global challenges, deeply affecting health, education, and economic development. In 2024, 304 million people faced acute food insecurity according to the UN World Food Programme, with the number of people experiencing severe hunger globally rising to 783 million-an increase of 122 million since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The main drivers include conflict, climate-related disasters (such as El Niño and La Niña), and economic shocks like sanctions and hyperinflation. These factors have intensified, particularly in countries already vulnerable due to prolonged wars and successive natural disasters.
In a societal context that prides itself culturally as a secular one, the Conseil régional Nakonha:ka Regional Council is working to push boundaries, speak to a society that has all but forgotten about faith, navigate a hostile government, live out our prophetic call as a justice-seeking people, research and innovate in every possible way, while supporting our communities of faith that face enormous challenges, in both of Canada’s official languages. We’re constantly looking for ways to ignite creativity and imagine the church of the future. In many respects, our secular context has a 10-year head start on the future in comparison with most of the rest of Canada. We need to be bold and daring. What have we got to lose?
Implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Follow-up to the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, June 1992. WHERAS the 33rd General Council (1990) adopted a policy resolution on the problem of climate change (global warming) recognizing it as one of the most serious threats to the well-being of God’s Creation and urging international negotiations to limit the emission of greenhouse gases, and WHEREAS the United Church has provided leadership in educating people about what they can do to reduce the threat of climate change, in pressing governments to limit their emissions of greenhouse gases, in encouraging churches in other countries to become involved, and in participating in World Council of Churches’ Monitoring Teams during the negotiations for a treaty on climate change, and
The United Church of Canada has been engaged in global partnership for over 150 years. Significant shifts have happened throughout that history, redirecting both the practice and theology of partnership to allow it to more fully engage the context of its day. Recent articulation of the nature of empire and the call to live faithfully in resistance to its forces, which are so destructive to the world and its peoples, has resulted in this most recent review. Partnership, the review proposes, is grounded in the relational nature of God, who calls us into right relationships with one another, with all of creation, and with God. Partnership leads us to form communities of right relationships, committed to resisting the forces of empire. To speak of partnership in this way requires that the whole church at all levels be invited into lived experiences of global partnership.
