Overview for Regional Council members
General Council is the decision-making gathering of the national church, and normally meets face to face once every three years; it was due to meet in 2021 and was postponed for one year because of the pandemic. Unbelievable as it may seem, the upcoming General Council 44 is the first since the major church restructuring in January 2019.
There are many changes to how General Council 44 will take place, above and beyond the reality that it will also be only online. All people in the United Church have the right and responsibility to know about the work of General Council, and to attend as visitors if they wish, whether they are formally members of the United Church or not. Please read on for a basic overview, and share this link as needed in your community of faith.
The theme is, “Who Do You Say I Am?”. Click here to see the main GC44 website.
Commissioners
While Commissioners do not “represent” the Regional Council or group they are drawn from, they are an important connecting point for us all, and will carry important ministry on behalf of us all. Please get to know them. Click here for a list and biographies of General Council Commissioners and alternates from within this Regional Council.
Other Commissioners are chosen on the basis of age (youth and young adult representatives) and diversity such as race/ ethnicity, gender identity, and more. The goal is to help the makeup of the Commissioners reflect the diversity within our wider church membership.
Dates
This article covers the dates of the meetings; please note that it is no longer confined to a single, intense stretch in the summer, even if we were meeting in person. Commissioners will continue to meet at “recall” meetings throughout their three-year term.
Documents
General Council will continue to have a publicly available workbook with all relevant documents and processes, including Moderator nominees and proposals received by General Council. This will be posted on the GC44 website.
Proposals and decision-making
General Council uses the same business process as the Regional Councils and General Council 43: Listen/ Discuss/ Decide. The listening sessions will be in February and March, discussion sessions in June, and the decide session in July. An overview of the whole process is posted here (and you can scroll down to the bottom of the page for a PDF document).
Shannon McCarthy,
Executive Minister: Northern Spirit, Living Skies, and Prairie to Pine Regional Councils
