The General Council Executive of the United Church of Canada meets for the first time in Québec

Press Release
For immediate Release    Thursday, November 13, 2008

The General Council Executive of the United Church of Canada meets for the first time in Québec.

For the first time since the foundation of the United Church of Canada in 1925, the General Council Executive will meet this weekend in Québec, at the Campus Notre-Dame-de-Foy at St.-Augustine-des-Demaures.

During this meeting of the Executive, which will take place from the 15th to 17th of November, focus will be on ministries with First Nations and on the development of a common vision in the Church regarding their importance.  The new Grand Chief of the Huron Wendat nation, Konrad Sioui will be present for the meeting.

The members of the Executive will attend a worship service Sunday morning, at 11:00 a.m., at the Chalmers-Wesley/St. Pierre church in Old Québec, the place of worship for two congregations, one anglophone and one francophone, a unique model within the United Church.  The leader for this worship service will be the Moderator of the United Church, the Right Rev. David Giuliano, for whom this will be his second visit to Québec in 2008.

The Executive of the United Church includes some fifty elected members who are joined by around twenty employees and resource people.  It meets twice a year to establish the national budget of the Church and to apply the theological and social action directions of the Church as voted upon by the General Council, the highest decision making body, which meets every three years.  The last General Council met in August 2006 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and the next meeting will be in the city of Kelowna, B.C.

An active member of the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Canadian Council of Churches, the United Church is a Church which is characterized by its ecumenical openness and by its theology which brings together spirituality, social justice and environmental awareness.  It has ordained women to ministry since 1936 and ordained homosexual people since 1987, and it celebrates same-sex marriages.  Finally, on two occasions, it has presented official Apologies to the First Nations peoples.

The United Church, which is the largest Protestant church in Canada, has over 2,500 pastoral charges and more than 4,000 places of worship throughout all regions of the country.

For all information and interviews:
David Fines
Public Communications
Unité de ministères en français   
450-466-7733