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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Many United Church people are concerned about what is happening under Israel’s military occupation of Palestine. Yet they take no action over fear that they will be or be accused of being antisemitic.
The 44th General Council asked that a principles-based approach to the United Church’s justice work be developed. A set of principles would govern the church’s responses to historic, current, and emerging social justice issues and enable timely and contextual responses.
Our society is in the midst of overlapping crises, the impacts of the housing crisis cannot be separated from the increasing anti-immigrant and racist discourses and behaviours prevalent in Canada. As young people, we notice in our communities especially the impacts of lack of affordable housing and racist housing policies and practices especially on Racialized international students. As a Church we are called to notice and respond to injustice, as young people we are tasked with fighting now for a better world for us and for future generations to inherit. This proposal is important because it contributes to United Church’s goals and commitments to being and creating a diverse and just society. Housing inequality is a social justice issue and as such, the church should continue to respond in creative and meaningful ways.
Like many other faith groups in Canada, congregations of The United Church of Canada have always accepted responsibility for ensuring that their paid accountable leaders are housed for the duration of their ministries. While for many decades this housing was a manse held in trust by the congregation, the past fifty years have seen a significant shift away from the provision of manses toward the provision of a housing allowance.
The current formulation of the Cost-of-Living Group Assignments (COL) are creating inequities between pastoral charges located in the same city. Final decisions on appeals of COL assignments are made at the General Council Office using third party data, however using the hard data alone has created unhelpful disparities between churches in the same community. There is currently no mechanism for those with local knowledge of their own communities to correct these irregularities.
Sabbaticals are a key way to help our ministry personnel to be re-energized and strengthened for their ministries into the future. Healthy ministry personnel and healthy congregations make the wider church healthier too.
The M&P committee has developed organically over the life of the United Church of Canada, permitting both flexibility and confusion. Simultaneously, requirements for employers have evolved separate at both the federal and provincial levels, and vary by province.
It is becoming increasingly important for ministry personnel and lay leaders to be well versed in handling conflict as it arises in our communities of faith, and to be equipped to help lead people through change.
We believe that God is calling us to address an injustice concerning ministry personnel access to ‘ChurchHub’ information for communities of faith that are in the search process.
I believe the Holy Spirit is calling the church to overhaul the human resources processes used to address concerns raised by ministry personnel in regard to working conditions and to encourage the church to provide more effective interventions to ensure safe and healthy workplaces.
