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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This is a chart to help you with the naming conventions of proposals.
The Shining Waters Regional Council (SWRC) Meeting theme for this past year was “Sanctuary: Towards a Kindom of Peace, Justice and Reconciliation”. This has been a challenging three years for the regional council, communities of faith and The United Church of Canada. We continue to walk through the post-pandemic reality together. It has taken many months for many communities of faith to recover from the challenges of the pandemic, with many other communities facing a new reality. The pandemic did afford opportunity for many communities of faith to experiment and meet in new and innovative ways, including continuing hybrid worship and meetings.
In 2012, The United Church of Canada created the Comprehensive Review Task Group, later renamed the Comprehensive Renewal (CR) Task Group, which set a course for structural change. In 2015, the Task Group report, including recommendations, was presented to the 42nd General Council. After a number of revisions, incorporating feedback from across the church, the General Council approved the Comprehensive Renewal process and authorized a series of remits to seek the approval of the wider church of the revised recommendations. All remits were approved by wide margins. The recommendations included an evaluation process. The nature of the evaluation was further shaped by the Executive of General Council in March 2018. At that point, the decisions taken in 2015 had been endorsed by the church and were awaiting final enactment.
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.
The United Property Resource Corporation (UPRC) works with communities of faith, regional councils and other United Church of Canada entities to assist them in making informed decisions about their real estate assets and where possible to repurpose underutilized church spaces to serve broader community needs.
Western Ontario Waterways Regional Council (WOWRC) stretches from Grand Bend and Glen Morris in the South to Tobermory and Wyevale in the north and forms part of a Tri-Regional Council sharing staff and resources with Antler River Watershed and Horseshoe Falls Regional Councils in South Western Ontario. Since the last meeting of General Council, we undertook an evaluation of the effectiveness of our Tri-Regional Councils Governance and Staffing Models. Together, as a Regional Council we took time to engage with this evaluation in order to strengthen the work of the Regional Council in our stated purpose of “Supporting, Connecting, and Transforming”.
The first Central Committee meeting following the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th General Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2022 took place from June 21 to 27, 2023, at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition to the 150 Central Committee members and eight presidents elected in Karlsruhe, advisors and youth advisors from the member churches of the World Council of Churches, as well as ecumenical partners and churches that are not members of the WCC, also participated.
For the past 100 years the United Church of Canada has been served by faithful, committed and responsive ministry personnel.
The Standards for Accreditation Committee brought a proposal to the Board of Vocation to offer a way forward after the 43rd General Council (2018) passed proposals regarding additional mandatory training for ministry personnel on topics like mental health, anti-homophobia/antitransphobia, and the Kairos Blanket Exercise.
The GC45 Planning Committee met in-person in Calgary in December 2024 with the goal of drafting a complete version of the GC45 schedule and assessing the needs of each sub-committee to complete its role in the new year. Though holding this in-person meeting ate into our budget, all involved felt the expense was worthwhile as we faced many complications in drafting the schedule.
