The United Church

Fort Garry United Church is a Congregation within the Prairie to Pine Regional Council, and the General Council courts of the United Church of Canada.  The following links are provided as ways to follow United Church activities and resources beyond the Fort Garry United Church congregation.

Prairie to Pine Regional Council

General Council, United Church of Canada

History

The United Church of Canada is the largest Protestant denomination in Canada. We minister to over 2 million people in about 2,800 congregations. The history of the United Church is closely entwined with the history of Canada itself. 

The United Church was inaugurated on June 10, 1925 in Toronto, Ontario, when the Methodist Church, Canada, the Congregational Union of Canada, and 70 percent of The Presbyterian Church in Canada entered into a union. Also joining was the small General Council of Union Churches, centred largely in Western Canada. It was the first union of churches in the world to cross historical denominational lines and received international acclaim. Each of the founding churches had a long history in Canada prior to 1925. The movement for church union began with the desire to coordinate ministry in the vast Canadian northwest and for collaboration in overseas missions. Congregations in Indigenous communities from each of the original denominations were an important factor in the effort toward church union. 

For further information  follow this link.

Statement of Faith

A New Creed

We are not alone,
we live in God’s world.

We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.

Thanks be to God.

Organizational Structure

Congregations, Ministries, and Communities of Faith

Over 1 million people worship in about 2,600 congregations(opens in a new tab) across Canada (plus three in Bermuda). Pastoral care is provided to about 271,000 known households. The United Church also supports community and social justice ministries, camps, campus ministries, chaplaincies (armed forces, hospitals, correctional), seniors homes, theological schools, education centres, and new expressions of ministry.

A community of faith is any community of people within the United Church that

• gathers to explore faith, worship, and serve

• is recognized as a community of faith within the United Church by the regional council through a covenantal relationship between the community of faith and the regional council

Many kinds of communities of people may be recognized as communities of faith: congregations, pastoral charges, outreach ministries, chaplaincies, faith-based communal living, house churches, online communities, and others.

Communities of faith may be time-limited, transitional, or ongoing.

Pastoral Charge

A pastoral charge consists of one or more communities of faith under the spiritual leadership of a minister. There are approximately 2,000 pastoral charges, each of which has a governing body.

Regional Council

A regional council is an administrative grouping of communities of faith in a local area. Laypeople and ministers meet to oversee the work of the church within each region. There are 16 regional councils in The United Church of Canada.

General Council

The General Council is the decision-making body for the United Church as both a denomination and a legal corporation. Ministry personnel and lay commissioners are elected by the regional councils and meet every three years to set church policy. A General Council Executive (GCE) and Sub-Executive (GCSE) govern between meetings of the council. Proposals, reports, minutes, and other documents related to meetings of these groups can be found on the United Church Commons(opens in a new tab), under Governance, where you will also find the Records of Proceedings of the most recent General Councils. 

Policy is implemented through the committees and task groups of the General Council and a staff group organized into eight working units.

General Council Executive

The Executive of the General Council is the decision-making body for the United Church between meetings of the General Council, living into covenantal relationship and mutually accountable with the General Council, regional councils, and communities of faith.

There are 18 voting members on the Executive. These include the Moderator, Immediate Past Moderator, General Secretary, and one member chosen by the National Indigenous Council. More information about the Executive, including members and meeting material, can be found on the General Council 44 website(opens in a new tab)

Office of Vocation

The Office of Vocation is the body in the United Church’s structure that supports the accreditation of ministry personnel. Through the Office, these functions previously performed by presbyteries and Conferences have become a permanent part of the General Council.

The Office of Vocation also relates to candidates for ministry through the Candidacy Boards.

The Office of Vocation's purpose is to support the processes for the discernment and training of ministry personnel, the determination of their fitness/readiness for accreditation, the fulfillment of continuing education standards, and the formal processes for oversight and discipline of ministry personnel.

In August of 2012, at the 41st General Council, The United Church of Canada acknowledged the presence and spirituality of Aboriginal peoples in the United Church by revising the church’s crest. The crest changes include incorporating the four colours of the Aboriginal medicine wheel (yellow as a symbol of life and Asian people, black as a symbol of the south and dark-skinned people of the world, red as a symbol of the west and Aboriginal peoples, and white as the colour of the north and white-skinned people) and adding the Mohawk phrase “Akwe Nia’Tetewá:neren” [aw gway–  nyah day day waw– nay renh], which means “All my relations.”

You can find a fuller description of the Crest and its symbols here. (at the United Church of Canada website)