United Church of Canada

The United Church of Canada (French: l' Église Unie du Canada ) is the second largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the largest Protestant denomination.

The United Church was established in 1925 as a merger of four churches: the time the largest and second largest Protestant church in Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the Methodist Church of Canada, and the Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec, a numerous less but historically still very important group of Protestantism, and the Association of Local Union Churches. The latter group was a predominantly domiciled on the Prairie movement, which urged toward a larger national merger, the older churches and their origin in Melville ( Saskatchewan ) in 1908.

While the evangelical Protestantism, is both politically and theologically, increasingly drifted to the right, particularly in the United States, the United Church has a liberal attitude maintained, in particular with regard to the social gospel movement, women's and minority rights ( women's ordination / blessing of same-sex couples ), as well as ecumenical relations within Christianity.

About 250,000 people attend Sunday worship in the United Church, and about 2.8 million Canadians (about 9 % of the population ) reported at the 2001 census, the United Church as their church affiliation. In previous censuses, the proportion of United Church members in the population was higher, with up to 25%. Canada is a country where secularism is already advanced, and generally always interested in smaller percentages of the population for religious expressions and lifestyles, but the decrease in the proportion of United Church of the population may also have other causes:

The United Church says of himself that she was " in all parts of Canada except in rural Quebec " available. Although there may be in rural Quebec, which has traditionally been very strongly influenced Catholic, isolated communities that are referred to as l' église mitaine, but they are very small. So then is an explanation for the term mitaine ( mitten ) that fit into only a handful of church members in the church. Another explanation is that mitaine is a corruption of the English term meeting.

The Right Reverend David Giuliano of Marathon ( Ontario ) was elected to a three- year term as Moderator of the United Church at the 39th General Council in Thunder Bay.

From 14 August 2009 to August 13, 2012 Mardi Tindal was in Kelowna / BC the 40th moderator of the General Council. Mardi Tindal has held the position as a layman, she was born on September 17, 1952 in Victoria Square, ON, and studied educational psychology and psychology in Toronto and York. Since August 14, 2012 Gary Paterson is the 41th moderator of the United Church of Canada.

• 2.1 General
• 2.2 liturgy
• 2.3 doctrine

History

Foundation

The United Church of Canada was established at a large church in Toronto on June 10, 1925. She was recognized and legitimized by an Act of the Canadian Parliament, and by regulations of the individual provinces that had to do with the church property. It was the merger - which was planned and negotiated for over twenty years - the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational dar. Also present were some so-called "local union churches ", which in on the non-denominational basis of the document " Basis of Union " rapidly evolving Canadian West had been formed.

The non- concurring Presbyterians

A significant minority of Presbyterians was not convinced of the benefits of a merger. The threat to the overall project has been met by a plan under which the individual Presbyterian congregations got the right to choose whether to join the United Church or not. At the time of the merger, about 30 % of the Presbyterian congregations decided in Canada - mostly in southern Ontario - from the institution of the Presbyterian Church retire and have been reorganized as a "continuing " Presbyterian Church in Canada. Nevertheless, formed the Presbyterian majority that joined the union, still the largest group within the United Church.

Similar church union outside Canada

Such a merger was without precedent in world history; Canada was the first country in which decided the Protestant churches voluntarily pool their resources to form a single, large, non - dogmatic church. The creation of the United Church was a model for similar, but later unions in South India, North India, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the USA, England and elsewhere. The United Church has continued its policy of openness towards the Church Union.

About the United Church

General

The United Church consists of a wide range of communities, from moderate conservative to very liberal, but overall it is one of the most liberal of the larger Protestant churches in the world. Already in 1936 the ordination of women was introduced, and a rigid interpretation of the Bible has been rejected for some time.

The church order of the United Church is mostly Presbyterian, with a hierarchical structure bodies ( presbyteries, Conferences, and the General Synod ), which are filled in equal parts from the ranks of the clergy and the laity. The social policy of the Church is obliged most likely the Methodist traditions of their heritage, while the freedoms which enjoy the individual parishes, Congregational inheritance corresponds most closely.

Liturgy

Until the late 1960s, followed by United Church congregations in large part to the historical, Presbyterian Book of Common Order as a liturgy for their Sunday services. Then, in the course of the liturgical reform movement, which was also to be found among the Roman Catholics and Anglicans, also the United Church increased its liturgical diversity.

Doctrine

The weekly recitation of the Apostles' Creed pilot was one of the routines of Sunday services until 1968. Then the Church spread an additional, church own creed with the name A New Creed. The United Church sees itself as part of the universal Catholic Church, and therefore the early Christian creeds are not replaced, but will complement; yet the United Church Creed and not the early Church creeds is what is most prevalent in the Sunday services.

The United Church of Canada is planning an advertising campaign to attract new members. The campaign aims to highlight the tolerant attitude of the Church regarding same-sex marriage as well as the humorous treatment of theological questions, to counteract stereotypes and prejudices about churches ( humorless and intolerant ).