The United Church of Canada--100 Years of Justice

1960 - 1964

UCC acknowledges racism as a sin in response to the removal of members of the Black community and destruction of Africville in N.S.

1970

The Association of Chinese United Church Congregations is first convened in Vancouver: this group later focuses on developing culturally specific prayers and liturgical resources.

1974

The 26^th Gen. Council elects the Very Rev. Dr. Wilbur K. Howard as Moderator, the first and to date, the only Black person to serve in this role.

1992

GC acknowledges the need for anti-racist initiatives, calls for anti-racist resource materials for education.

1993

The first Sounding the Bamboo conference is held for self-identified women who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Colour.  It focused on sexism and racism and continued ever few years until the mid-2000s

1996

The Ethnic Ministries Council is inaugurated; focuses on supporting ethno-cultural congregations and diverse racialized and language minority communities of faith.

1998

The Ethnic Ministries Council identifies areas of racial bias in images and words and suggests solutions.

2002

The position of General Council Minister, Racial Justice, is created to assist the church to live out its commitment to becoming an anti-racist church and walking a new path toward reconciliation with Aboriginal peoples

2002

The Canadian Ecumenical Anti-Racism Network is created by the Canadian Council of Churches: many UC members involved.

2006

39^th GC mandates racial justice training for all ministry personnel.

Document “Ending Racial Harassment: Creating a Healthy Workplace” is produced. 

2007

First gathering of Journeys of Black Peoples in the United Church is held; later becomes the Black Clergy Network

2008

The document “Ending Racial Harassment: Creating Healthy Congregations” is produced.

UCC holds “Behold! An Intercultural Conference” gathering diverse participants from around the world, focus on racial justice, diversity, equity.  First of several gatherings.

2009

BC Conference apologizes to the Vancouver Japanese United Church for its misappropriation of its buildings during the Japanese internment.

The church’s work on “Empire” begins; some focused on racial power.

2011

Mandatory racial justice training for all ministry personnel begins.

2017

The Executive of GC establishes the White Privilege Working Group, a related Reference Group for Indigenous Peoples, as well as a Reference Group for Racialized Peoples.

2018

BC Conference makes reparations to the Vancouver Japanese United Church

The 43^rd GC hears the painful stories from many Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour of racial exclusion within the church.

2019

The Executive of the GC establishes its GCE Anti-Racism working group.

Two briefs on anti-racism and online hate crime are submitted to the Canadian Parliament and to the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

2020

The UCC makes a joint commitment with the Anglican Church of Can. And the Evangelical Lutheran Church on anti-Black racism.

The Executive of GC issues a statement on Black Lives Matter to the UC.

A newly updated and expanded curriculum on racial justice education is approved for training. 

1932

The UCC creates the Commission on Christianizing the Social Order, headed by retired university president Sir Robert Falconer to determine whether the church needs to call for radical social and economic changes to bring about justice

1934

Fellowship for a Christian Social Order (FCSO) is founded in Kingston, Ontario, as “an association of Christians whose religious convictions led them to the belief that the capitalist economic system is fundamentally at variance with Christian principles; and who regard the creation of a new social order to be essential to the realization of the Kingdom of God.”

Women’s Missionary Society: WMS in Victoria at a time when Chinese women were often abused in brothels. The WMS would snatch the women from brothels and take them to their mission house to shelter and train them in other kinds of work.

1952 – 54

General Council supports Medicare

1972

UCC articulates support for a Guaranteed Livable Income.

1970s

In the 1970s the UCC joined with other denominations engaged in prophetic activities consistent with Liberation Theologies and a growing commitment to the poor and the oppressed.  The following projects resulted:

- “Ten Days for World Development”, working on social justice nationally and globally (1973)

- The Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility is founded.(1975)

- Ecumenical Coalition for Economic Justice – GATT-fly

The church continued to “listen to the voices on the margin”.  “The church began to understand love not as charity but as standing in solidarity with the oppressed and their struggle for justice.”  (Schweitzer p. 289)

1984

The UCC affirms that “the poor must have priority … over the wants of the rich” (The Church and the Economic Crisis, Ted Reeves, author)

1997-2000

Moderator Bill Phipps speaks of the ‘moral economy’, reflecting the long-standing UCC concerns that unfettered capitalism has a significant impact on many groups of people and the environment.

2020

Moderator Richard Bott writes to elected officials encouraging them to roll out a universal basic income.

2021

UCC members participate in more than 50 vigils at MP offices across Canada, and hundreds light candles in support of a Guaranteed Livable Income.

2024

The moderator urges the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance to pass Bill S-233, to develop a national framework for a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income.

1992

UCC publishes its “One Earth Community” Statement (re our relationship with the earth, and climate change): “The Earth is a sacred trust. We recognize God’s call … to draw on the Earth’s sustenance responsibly, and to care for it that all may benefit equitably now and in the future.”

1995

“to live with respect in Creation” is added to the New Creed.

2009

Moderator Mardi Tindal attends COP17, the conference on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa. She follows up in 2010 with an open letter to Canadians calling on them to consider climate change a crisis of conscience.

2014

UCC joins 348 global institutional investors in signing an investor statement on climate change ahead of the UN Climate Summit.

2015

The 42^nd General Council votes to sell its investment holdings in the 200 largest fossil fuel companies.

2021

The UCC signs on to a new Canadian Investor Statement on Climate Change, pledging to manage its assets in promoting a transition to a low-carbon economy

2023

UCC initiates the Youth Climate Motivators program, hiring students and coordinators to work with local congregations on climate justice and environmental necessities. This program continues.

2024

UCC shares its special COP29 accreditation with global partners from the National council of Churches in the Philippines and the Organization of African Instituted Churches, so that they can speak to the human costs of climate disasters.

2025

USS releases its 2023 and 2024 Sustainability Report: “Deep Roots, Bold Action, Daring Decisions.” The church remains committed to reducing its carbon footprint by 80% by 2030.  The Faithful Footprints program has provided grants to communities of faith to reduce carbon emissions.  Over 500 camps, churches and buildings have received grants.

During International Development Week, UCC urges all members to advocate for climate justice locally, nationally and globally.

1926

UCC GC created a Committee on Employed Women Workers in the Church. In 1929 there were 950 women employed on boards, departments, colleges and large congregations. 

1930s

1932 GC edited the wording of the Basis for Union to make women eligible to serve on congregational sessions.

UCC ordained first woman, Lydia Gruchy (1936)

Approved the use of contraceptives

Spoke out against anti-Semitism

UCC refused to divorce Evangelism from Social Service (Schweitzer, p. 41

The Women’s Missionary Society works to support hospitals, schools and missionaries, to “build a better Canada and better world.”. (Ibid. p. 41)

1947

UCC reaches out to immigrants who had left Europe.  UC also assigned ministers to lumber and mining camps in northern Ontario.  Many men, ‘displaced persons’ initially worked in these camps. By the 1950s the focus was on helping new immigrants. The WMS contributed significantly to this effort.

The WMS had 100,000 members and played a key role in home missions.  Between 1946 – 1954 the WMS worked in Canada in education, pastoral ministry and outreach.

1962

Women were finally represented on sessions, boards and committees at all levels of the church’s governance.

1963

Church approves Married Women Working recommendations, including pushing government for day care, day nurseries and equal pay for equal work.

1965

Rev. Lois Wilson became the first married woman to be ordained.  Up to this time, married women were not allowed to be ordained.

1968

Robert McLure becomes the first lay moderator.

1970s

Women diaconal ministers are finally allowed to be married and retain their status in the order.

1971

UCC declares that abortion is an issue to be decided between a woman and her doctor.

1974

Executive of the GC appoints a taskforce on Women and Partnership between Men and Women in Church and Society. Inclusive language was identified as a key issue to women’s identities and to changing attitudes in the church. The task force urged Divisions of the Church to “keep in mind the women’s movement as a matter of social and theological concern.”

1977

GC declares “all persons, male and female, are created in God’s image”. 

1980

Church approves the Contraception and Abortion policy, supporting a woman’s right to choose.

1980

Rev. Lois Wilson elected the first woman moderator.

The Division of Mission stated: ”sexist language, sexist practices and sexual stereotyping in the Church are issues that are problematically seen as women’s concerns, not the concerns of the whole church.” (Schweitzer, p. 132)

The Division took stock of the under-representation of women in leadership positions, the lack of inclusive language in printed resources, and the need for justice on issues named by the Royal Commission on the Status of Women (day care, birth control, Indian Status for Indian Women married to white men.)

1984

Church declares and confesses its complicity in sexism and commits to addressing this.

1988

GC declares “all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, who profess their faith in Jesus Christ are welcome to be or become members of The United Church of Canada” and “all members of the United Church are eligible to be considered for ordered ministry”.

1988- 1998

Church supports the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women and Society, focusing on economic justice, violence, racism and participation.

1992

Church calls on federal government to guarantee access to basic social, health care, and economic services regardless of gender, ability, race, age, sexual orientation or place of residency.

Tim Stevenson becomes the first openly gay minister ordained by the UCC. Later, Tim’s partner, Gary Paterson, becomes the first openly gay moderator. The United Church is believed to be the first major denomination in the world to ordain gay and lesbian persons, and later a transgender person.

2000

Church affirms its support for work on gender justice in relation to global economic justice.

2005

The UCC urges the Canadian parliament to vote in favour of same-sex marriage legislation.

2009

Church approves its Commitment to Inclusion which states that, in matters respecting worship, doctrine, membership and governance, the UC is opposed to discrimination against any person on any basis (race, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical ability, socioeconomic status, age, language, or any other basis on which a person is devalued).  The church further commits to becoming an anti-discriminatory and welcoming denomination.

The Church approves the participation and ministry of transgender people and encourages all congregations to welcome transgender people into membership, ministry and full participation. 

2010

Rev. Cindy Bourgeois is the first transgender person to be ordained.

The Trans/Gender Diversity Task Group is established.

2012

The work of the Trans/Gender Diversity Task Group is received, having created online resources and laid a foundation for ongoing work.

2015

General Council 42 approves the Living Apology to members of the LGBTTQ communities.( A traveling interactive art installation project)

First edition of Celebrating Gender Diversity: A toolkit on Gender Identity and Trans Experiences for Communities of Faith is published. (Updated in 2019)

2016

UC members are encouraged to take action to support Bill C-16 which would add gender identity and gender expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code.  The bill becomes law in 2017.

2023 – 2025 Strategic Plan

We will seek to go deep on three core commitments—Indigenous justice, racial equity, and Two Spirit or LGBTQIA+ rights—while discerning and working with intersections/ overlapping issues, particularly climate justice.

1942

The UCC resists pressure to support conscription – this is part of the pacifist views held by many in the UCC.

1954

General Council strongly endorses the right of return for the Palestinian people exiled in 1949.

1968

Rev. Ray Hord, secretary of Evangelism & Social Service, offers emergency aid to American Vietnam draft dodgers.

UCC General Council continues support for the right of return for Palestinians, and also supports ending occupation of Palestine.

1976

Founding of Project Ploughshares Canada, a peace research institute focused on disarmament and international security.  One of the church’s Mission and Service Partners.

1977

General Council approves a UN resolution that Zionism is racism, and recommends that the church insist that Canadian external affairs support the Palestinian people in being represented by the PLO.

2003

The UCC participates in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel; it sends volunteers to the West Bank to witness life under occupation. This programme continues today.

2007

The UCC launches its United for Peace Campaign.  The two-year campaign focused on education, advocacy and fund-raising… Half the money raised will be designated to peace building initiatives in Israel and Palestine.  The remainder to support peace projects sponsored by UC partners around the world.

2012

The release of the reports of the Working Group of Israel / Palestine Policy is greeted with unprecedented response – positive and negative.

2013

UCC launches the Unsettling Goods: Choose Peace in Palestine and Israel campaigns. Congregations across Canada buy Zatoun olive oil products.

2023

Leaders of Canada’s mainstream Protestant churches, including the UCC, meet with government officials in Ottawa to urge Canada to advocate for a just and lasting peace in Palestine and Israel. The UCC condemns the mounting death tolls in Gaza.

2024

UCC congregations across Canada organize walks for a just peace in Palestine/Israel by walking 41 km, the length of the Gaza strip. The pilgrimages culminate in Ottawa in May, when church leaders hold a prayer vigil and meet with MPs.

Rev. Michael Blair, General Secretary of the UCC states “the risks of Canadian military exports to Israel are detailed in the report, ‘Fanning the Flames: the Grave Risk of Canada’s Arms Exports to Israel’, produced by Project Ploughshares. The UCC urges the Canadian Government to stop transferring weapons to Israel.

The UCC also urges the Canadian government to support South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice regarding Israel’s breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention. (See the letter below)

2025

The UCC issues a statement in January of hope and prayer for a permanent ceasefire in the Middle East

The UCC condemns the bombing of Iran.

1925

UCC takes over the “missions to the Indians” from the Methodist Missionary Society. Of roughly 105,000 “Indians” in Canada, the UC bore responsibility for about 18,000, in 60 evangelistic missions from Montreal to the Pacific Coast.  It operated 13 residential schools, 45 day schools, with nearly 2500 students. (Broadview, Jun. 2025)

1931

Women’s Missionary Society (WMS) expressed concern.  They recognized that UCCs missionary efforts would fail unless leadership came from the Indigenous communities.

By the mid-1930s it was clear that the approach to missions wasn’t working.

1947

UCC prepared a brief to Parliament on reforming the Indian Act, recommending closures of residential schools and denominational day schools on reserves.  The Home Missions board understood that the residential school system had failed.

1940s – 1950s

UCC quietly begins to divest itself of its interests in residential schools

1968

Rev. John Snow first Stoney Nakoda minister ordained in the UC. 

1969

UCC withdrew from its last residential school. BUT the church was silent on the harm caused by participating in these institutions.

1970s and 1980s

UCC provides financial support for gatherings of the Indian Ecumenical Conferences.  Leading organizer: Rev. Joan Snow.

1975

Project North (an ecumenical justice initiative) helped Indigenous communities under threat of development. Elders in northern Manitoba were instrumental in bridging language and cultural divides. The UCC response and involvement of Indigenous leadershp was the result of the issues raised in 1973 by Rev. Stan McKay of Fisher River Cree Nation.

1980

UCC began consultations with Indigenous leaders that would continue for 25 years. Some elders saw these consultations as a turning point in their experience with the UCC.

1982

Rev. Stan McKay is appointed national Native ministries coordinator.

1984

Dr. Jessie Saulteaux Resource Centre in Manitoba established as a community based education centre, run by Indigenous people for Indigenous people.  An program in Indigenous Ministry began at VST, and the Francis Sandy Theological Centre in Paris, Ont. (This would amalgamate with the Saulteaux centre in 2011 to become the Sandy-Saulteaux Spiritual Centre.)

1986 – 88

General Council apologizes to Native congregations of the UCC for past denial of Native spirituality.

1988- 90

All Native Circle Conference is inaugurated.

1992

Rev. Stan McKay becomes the first Indigenous person to be elected Moderator

1994 – 97

UC establishes The Healing Fund to help First Nations communities respond to the painful legacy of residential schools

1998

UCC offers an apology to former students of the UCC Indian Residential Schools. This is the first apology for residential schools by an institution in Canada.

2006

UCC signs the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, acknowledging responsibility and committing to financial compensation and actions to promote healing and reconciliation.

2008

To recognize and affirm the work of Aboriginal Ministries, the Executive of General Council forms the Aboriginal Ministries Circle, as a separate working unit of General Council.

Moderator joins Aboriginal and church leaders in a multi-city tour focused on the legacy of residential schools and the work of the TRC

2009

40^th GC acknowledges the presence and spirituality of Indigenous peoples as a significant component of the Basis of Union.  Indigenous people become signatories.  UCC agrees to change church crest to include the presence and spirituality of Indigenous people in the UC.

2012

UCC repudiates the Doctrine of Discovery

2012

General Council approves changes to the UCC crest, adding the four “traditional colours” and the phrase “All My Relations” in Mohawk.

2013

Restructuring of the UCC begins. The proposed changes would negatively impact Indigenous structures such as the All Native Circle Conference.  Indigenous people voiced their concerns about the new structure and boundaries.  Their concerns were not addressed.

2015

In response to the TRC the UCC issues a statement acknowledging and affirming Indigenous spiritualities.

UCC accepts the final report and Calls to Action of the TRC.

2016

UCC commits to adopt the principles, norms, and standards of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

2019

Indigenous UCC people across Canada meet to elect a National Indigenous Council, having the same status as the regional councils. This is the first step forward in establishing an independent Indigenous Church within the UCC structure.

2023

Establishment of an independent Indigenous Church within the United Church structure.