United Church of Canada

The United Church of Canada (French: l'Église Unie du Canada) is the second largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the largest Protestant denomination.

The United Church was founded in 1925 as an amalgamation of four churches: the then largest and second largest Protestant church in Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the Methodist Church of Canada, as well as the Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec, a smaller but still historically quite significant group of Protestantism, and the Association of Local Union Churches. The latter group was a predominantly Prairie-based movement that pushed the older churches toward a larger national union, originating in Melville, Saskatchewan in 1908.

While evangelical Protestantism, both politically and theologically, has drifted further and further to the right, especially in the United States, the United Church has maintained a more liberal stance, especially with regard to the social gospel movement, women's and minority rights (women's ordination/blessing of same-sex couples), and ecumenical relations within Christianity.

About 121,000 people attend Sunday services at the United Church and about 2.0 million Canadians (about 6% of the population) reported the United Church as their church affiliation in the 2011 census. In previous censuses, the percentage of United Church members was higher, as high as 25% of the population. Canada is a country where secularization has already advanced, and also in general a smaller and smaller proportion of the population is interested in religious expressions and lifestyles, but the decline in the United Church's share of the population may have other causes:

1. increasing migration of new Canadians from countries where Christianity is less widespread or takes other forms
2. lower participation of youth in religion, reflected in declining attendance at Sunday schools and youth groups; the proportion of children in United Church households may also be lower than in households with other or no church affiliation
3. Displeasure of conservative churchgoers with the church's increasingly liberal stances on issues such as homosexuality or exegesis
4. Increasing acceptance of a lack of church affiliation

The United Church says of itself that it is present "in all parts of Canada except rural Québec." It is true that even in rural Québec, which is traditionally very strongly Catholic, there are isolated congregations called l'église mitaine, but they are very small. Thus, then, one explanation for the term mitaine (mitten) is that only a handful of parishioners fit inside the church. Another explanation is that mitaine is a corruption of the English term meeting.

History

Foundation

The United Church of Canada was founded at a large service in Toronto on June 10, 1925. It was recognized and legitimized by an Act of the Parliament of Canada, and by regulations of the several provinces having to do with church property. It represented the union - which had been planned and negotiated for over twenty years - of the Presbyterians, the Methodists and the Congregationalists. Also included were some so-called "local union churches" formed on the interdenominational basis of the Basis of Union document in the rapidly developing Canadian West.

The Non-concurring Presbyterians

A substantial minority of Presbyterians were unconvinced of the benefits of merger. The threat to the overall project was met by a plan whereby individual Presbyterian congregations were given the right to choose whether or not to join the United Church. At the time of the merger, about 30% of the Presbyterian congregations in Canada-mostly in southern Ontario-decided to withdraw from the institution of the Presbyterian Church and reorganized as the continuing Presbyterian Church in Canada. Nevertheless, the Presbyterian majority that joined the merger still formed the largest group within the United Church.

Similar church unions outside Canada

Such a union was without precedent in world history; Canada was the first country in which Protestant churches voluntarily decided to pool their resources to form a single, large, non-dogmatic church. The creation of the United Church was a model for similar but later unions in South India, North India, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the United States, England, and elsewhere. The United Church has continued its policy of openness to church unions.

About the United Church

General

The United Church consists of a wide range of congregations, from moderately conservative to very liberal, but overall it is one of the most liberal of the larger Protestant churches in the world. Women's ordination was introduced as early as 1936, and a rigid interpretation of the Bible has long been rejected.

The church order of the United Church is largely Presbyterian, with a hierarchical body structure (presbyteries, conferences, and the General Synod), each staffed equally by clergy and laity. The social policies of the church are most closely aligned with Methodist traditions, while the freedoms enjoyed by individual congregations are most closely aligned with the Congregationalist tradition.

Liturgy

Until the late 1960s, United Church congregations largely followed the historic, Presbyterian Book of Common Order as the agenda for their Sunday services. Then, in the wake of the liturgical reform movement also found among Roman Catholics and Anglicans, the United Church also increased its liturgical diversity.

Doctrine

The weekly recitation of the Apostles' Creed was part of the routines of Sunday services until 1968, when the church distributed an additional, church-owned creed called A New Creed. The United Church considers itself part of the universal, Catholic Church, and therefore the original Christian creeds are not replaced, only supplemented; nevertheless, the United Church Creed, and not the original church creeds, is what occurs most often in Sunday services.

The United Church of Canada is planning an advertising campaign to attract new members. The campaign will highlight the church's tolerant attitude towards same-sex marriage and humorous treatment of theological issues to counter stereotypes and prejudices about churches (humourless and intolerant).

Ecumenism

The church is a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Canadian Council of Churches, the World Council of Methodist Churches and the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

Moderators

The highest decision-making body of the church is the General Council, which corresponds to a synod. The proceedings are led by a moderator, who is also the church's first public representative. Ordained or lay persons may be elected to the office for a three-year term. The most recent of the (as of 2016) 42 officers are:

• David Giuliano from Marathon (Ontario) (2006-2009)
• Mardi Tindal (b. September 17, 1952 in Victoria Square, ON), psychologist (2009-2012).
• Gary Paterson (2012-2015)
• Jordan Cantwell (2015-2018)
• Richard Bott (2018-2021)