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The current Moderator of the United Church, elected for a three-year term, is the Rt. Rev. Peter Short.
The United Church of Canada was inaugurated at a massive worship service at Toronto's Mutual Street Arena on June 10, 1925, and recognized and legitimated by Act of Parliament as well as provincial laws dealing with church property. It was the merger—negotiated and planned over more than twenty years—of three prominent Protestant denominations, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, and the Congregationalists. Also participating were a number of "local union churches" that had already been established in small towns in the rapidly developing Canadian west.
At the time of the original merger in 1925 approximately 30% of the Presbyterian congregations in Canada chose not to merge and they continue today as the Presbyterian Church of Canada.
Such a merger was unprecedented in world history; Canada was the first country where the Protestant churches elected to pool their resources and become one large nondogmatic church, and creation of the United Church was a model for similar unions that followed in Australia, South India and elsewhere. The United Church has continued a policy of openness to church union.
In 1968 the Evangelical United Brethren Church of Canada (EUB or "Unionists"), having been orphaned when the parent body in the United States joined what became the United Methodist Church, joined the United Church of Canada. Union talks between the United Church and the Anglican Church of CanadaThe Anglican Church of Canada is the Canadian branch of the Anglican Communion. It is made up of 800,000 members worshipping in 30 dioceses; over 2 million Canadians, or 6. 9% of the population, declared themselves as Anglican in the 2001 Census. The Prim in the 1970s were unsuccessful. There have also been conversations about union with the Disciples of ChristThe Disciples of Christ also known as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ or simply as the Christian Church is a denomination of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of Thomas Campbell and Alexander Campbell of Pennsylvania and Barton W.. The United Church is active in the Canadian Council of Churches and the World Council of ChurchesThe World Council of Churches (or WCC is the principal international Christian ecumenical organization. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, it has a membership of 342 churches. After the initial successes of the Ecumenical Movement in the late 19th and early 20.
The United Church is a broad church with a range of congregations from moderately conservative to very liberal. But in general, and especially at the national level, it is one of the most socially liberal of the world's large Protestant denominations. It began ordaining female ministers in 1936 and has long shied away from a rigid interpretation of the BibleThe Bible (From Greek βιβλια biblia meaning "books", which in turn is derived from βυβλος byblos meaning "papyrus", from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported papyrus). United Church of Canada members moving to the United States often find themselves most at home in the United Church of ChristThe United Church of Christ (UCC) is a Protestant American church body, formed in 1957 by the merger of two denominations, the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches. The Congregational churches trace their origins to th.
The United Church is generally very open to homosexuals. Corporately, the church formally states that homosexuality "is not in itself a barrier" to becoming a minister. Some congregations celebrate gay unions, and United Church spokesmen advocate for gay rights in the greater community. Church delegates presented evidence in favour of same-sex marriage to the House of Commons Justice Committee during its cross-country hearings in 2003 and welcomed court decisions that legalized same-sex marriage in certain provinces. However, the process of coming to a church-wide decision of gay issues has been difficult, with some congregations electing to leave the church entirely during a 1988 controversy. See Christian views on homosexuality.
In 1997 the limits of the Church's openness were tested when the Church's Moderator, the Very Rev. Bill Phipps commented that he was not sure the resurrection of Jesus was a scientific fact. This sparked great debate in the church, and some congregations passed motions asserting their faith in Jesus' literal resurrection.[1]
The polity of the United Church is largely Presbyterian, with a hierarchy of governing bodies (Presbyteries, Conferences, and the General Council) each having equal membership from ministers and lay people. Its social policies owe the most to the Methodist strain in its heritage. The freedom available to individual congregations owes much to the Congregationalist part of its roots.
The United Church issued a Hymnary in 1930, the Hymn Book (jointly with the Anglican Church of Canada) in 1972, and a new hymnbook under the title Voices United in 1996.