United Church of Canada

Officially formed in 1925, the United Church of Canada is the largest Protestant church in Canada. It came into being with the Basis of Union, a founding document that formalized a merger between numerous Canadian branches of the Congregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian denominations.

The United Church of Canada is an evangelical faith community. Evangelism (or evangelicalism) is a Christian movement that historically has been described as comprising four key pillars: faith in the spiritual truth of the Bible, a strong belief in salvation from sin through Jesus Christ, a commitment to activism in the world outside the church, and a belief in the active conversion of nonbelievers to Christianity. In 2019, the United Church of Canada claimed to have a faith community estimated to include over two million people (based on the 2011 census) and three thousand formal places of worship across the country. However, by that time, national media was reporting that attendance numbers had been declining for several years.

For most of its history, the United Church of Canada was structured under a system composed of four "courts," or governing bodies, headed by the General Council and an elected Moderator, who serves as the church’s public leader. In 2015, the General Council voted to approve organizational changes to the church’s hierarchy, reconfiguring the United Church of Canada into three administrative units rather than four.

History

Three key events preceded the founding of the United Church of Canada: the 1875 merger of four branches of Presbyterianism to form the original Presbyterian Church of Canada; the 1884 amalgamation of four Methodist sects into the unified Methodist Church of Canada; and the 1906 founding of the Congregational Union of Canada, which integrated various Congregational faith communities into a single church. Given their shared alignments with evangelism, representatives of these three denominations began negotiating a formal union in 1902, prior to the actual formation of the Congregational Union of Canada. However, the coalescence of the Congregationalists invigorated the negotiation process, which was interrupted in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I.

The ecumenical movement of the early twentieth century informed these denominational unification negotiations to a significant degree. Ecumenism, as it became known, arose in response to the increasing diversification of the Christian faith, which had resulted in the founding and proliferation of many new denominations during the nineteenth century. Believing that Christianity would be stronger if these divergent branches formed a unified front, ecumenists sought to establish an inclusive coalition of Christian faith communities. The Edinburgh World Missionary Conference of 1910 is often cited as the formal birthplace of the ecumenical movement, but the idea had already gained momentum in many Protestant circles. It was a driving force behind the mergers and unions that amalgamated the Canadian Congregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian communities.

On June 10, 1925, the United Church of Canada was founded when the Basis of Union, a constitutional charter, was ratified by Congregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian representatives. Their meeting took place at the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto, Ontario, and resulted in the unification of the Congregational and Methodist denominations with 70 percent of Canada’s Presbyterian churches. The first General Council convened later that year, electing the Right Reverend George C. Pidgeon as the church’s first Moderator.

Beliefs

Like all branches of Christianity, members of the United Church of Canada accept the divinity of Jesus Christ and believe that Christ’s life and teachings map out a course for salvation from sin and entry into Heaven after death. Its specific interpretations of Christian beliefs, practices, and principles is contained in "A Statement of Faith," a formal document issued by the church in 1940. In addition, the United Church of Canada exhibits numerous unique beliefs and conventions, including the celebration of two sacraments and a relatively liberal policy of inclusiveness and acceptance. In 2012, Gary Paterson became the first openly gay man elected as moderator, further reflecting the church's inclusion of the LGBTQ community; in 2015, a lesbian minister was elected to the position. In 2018, after years of dispute, it was decided, controversially, that a minister in the church who was a publicly self-proclaimed atheist would not face a heresy trial and would be allowed to keep her position.

Unlike older forms of Christianity, such as Catholicism and Orthodoxy, the United Church of Canada recognizes two sacraments instead of the traditional seven. Baptism, which marks the formal entry of a person into the faith community, and communion, a symbolic reenactment of the Last Supper, are the only two sacraments in the United Church. The United Church also recognizes baptisms performed in churches belonging to other Christian denominations and does not consider it a prerequisite for spiritual salvation.

Furthermore, marriage in the United Church of Canada is available to same-sex couples, divorcees, and couples with different religious affiliations. This diverges from many other branches of Christianity, which demand that marriage be confined to one man and one woman, neither of whom have been married before and both of whom identify as members of the church in which the ceremony is to be performed.

Organization

The traditional organization of the United Church of Canada divided its hierarchy into four governing units known as "courts," which included Pastoral Charges, Presbyteries, Conferences, and the General Council. Under this structure, a Pastoral Charge was a basic unit consisting of a single congregation, led by a minister. The thousands of Pastoral Charges were grouped into eighty-five Presbyteries, which roughly corresponded to the bishop-led dioceses seen in Catholicism. The Presbyteries, in turn, were collected into thirteen Conferences, which were high-ranking administrative bodies responsible for training ministerial candidates and planning and executing church policies, charities, and social efforts. Representatives of the Conferences were responsible for the election of the General Council, the highest of the church’s courts, which in turn voted on a new Moderator every three years.

In 2015, the General Council voted to adopt a new three-part organizational structure consisting of Communities of Faith, which correspond to the old Pastoral Charges; Regional Councils, which essentially amalgamate the former Presbyteries and Conferences into a single administrative unit; and the Denominational Council, which replaces the General Council. The position of the Moderator was retained and managed by the Denominational Council. This reorganization was ratified in the summer of 2018 and officially went into effect at the beginning of 2019. This change reduced the church's financial burden, allowing the church to engage in a variety of new endeavors. In 2020, the church took steps to combat systemic racism by creating an Anti-Racism and Equity Officer position in the General Council Office. In 2022, the Faithful Footprints program was launched to make the church buildings more energy efficient and reduce their overall greenhouse gas emissions. The church also focused on building churches and providing aid to marginalized and migrant communities, and they created the National Indigenous Organization to support church members of First Nation heritage.

Bibliography

"Historical Timeline." The United Church of Canada, www.united-church.ca/community-faith/welcome-united-church-canada/history-united-church-canada. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

"History of the United Church of Canada." The United Church of Canada, united-church.ca/community-and-faith/welcome-united-church-canada/history-united-church-canada. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

Jala, David. "United Church of Canada Set for Organizational Restructuring in 2019." Cape Breton Post, 19 Nov. 2018, www.saltwire.com/cape-breton/news/united-church-of-canada-set-for-organizational-restructuring-in-2019-260898. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

"The 1910 World Missionary Conference." Virtual Museum of Protestantism, museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-1910-world-missionary-conference-in-edinburgh. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

"United Church of Canada Adopts a Bold New Emissions Reduction Target." United Church of Canada, 25 July 2022, united-church.ca/news/united-church-canada-adopts-bold-new-emissions-reduction-target. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

"United Church of Canada." World Council of Churches, www.oikoumene.org/member-churches/united-church-of-canada. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

"What We Believe." The United Church of Canada, united-church.ca/community-and-faith/welcome-united-church-canada/what-we-believe. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.