Reflecting on a Century of Ecumenical Work and Witness in The United Church of Canada

by Gail Allan

  June 10, 2025 marks 100 years since 8,000 people gathered in the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto to formally inaugurate, with declarations and worship, The United Church of Canada. Members of the United Church today will easily acknowledge that its history is an ecumenical history, and they remember and celebrate its important contributions to the ongoing search for Christian unity and interfaith cooperation. Reflecting on this history in today’s world of increasingly violent division, fear, and distrust of difference, celebrations also bring questions: what is the continuing ecumenical call to a church committed to “Deep Spirituality, Bold Discipleship, and Daring Justice?”  I offer here a review of that ecumenical history: the beginnings and subsequent life and witness of the United Church, an overview of the church’s ecumenical witness today, and some questions and challenges arising as the church enters the next phase of its life in the world.   

History

The United Church is recognized as the earliest church union to bring together churches from several different church families. The founding denominations were the Methodist Church, Canada, the Congregational Union of Canada, and the Presbyterian Church of Canada. The church crest includes the symbols of these founding churches and the Latin motto, Ut Omnes Unum Sint, “That All May Be One,” from John 17:21. Also joining was the small General Council of Union Churches; these were local churches that developed while national union negotiations were ongoing. In small communities across Canada, particularly on the prairies, people had already realized that effective ministry required working together and their experience helped to inform the vision of a new denomination. Recently we have been called to recognize the experience of Indigenous congregations in the founding denominations as a distinct contribution in the formation of the church. That experience has shaped our church’s history and character, and is vital to the church’s life. In 2012, the church crest was revised to include the four colours of the Medicine Wheel and the Mohawk words Akwe Nia'Tetewá:neren, “All my relations.” At the same time, the history of the church related in the Church Manual was revised to incorporate an acknowledgement of the role of Indigenous faith communities from the church’s beginnings (see p. 12). (The Manual consists of the Basis of Union and bylaws, setting out the policies and procedures guiding the church in relation to doctrine, polity, ministry, administration, and governance. It is regularly updated, although changes to the Basis of Union require a voting process involving each level or council of the church, known as a remit.) Church union negotiations began in 1899, and in 1908 a Basis of Union was completed. After several years of discussion and debate – lively and sometimes even acrimonious – the Basis of Union was ultimately adopted by the full membership of the Methodist and Congregational churches and 70% of Presbyterian churches (the remaining 30% continue to this day as the Presbyterian Church in Canada). Necessary legislation was enacted by Parliament and provincial legislatures, and on June 10, 1925 the church was inaugurated at a service of worship, followed by the First General Council. The United Church continues to be a "uniting" church, and has been enriched by several additional unions since 1925. In 1930, the Synod of The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Bermuda became part of The United Church of Canada’s Maritime Conference. The Evangelical United Brethren Church became part of The United Church of Canada in 1968. In addition, various individual congregations from other Christian communions have become part of the United Church over the years. The Basis of Union declares that: “It shall be the policy of the United Church to foster the spirit of unity in the hope that this sentiment of unity may in due time, so far as Canada is concerned, take shape in a Church which may fittingly be described as national” (#1.2). This vision of a “fittingly national” church has been infused with a sense of vocation for “building the nation.” As Donald Schweitzer has written:

In the minds of those who laboured to form the United Church it was intended to play a decisive role in shaping the moral ethos of Canadian society by infusing the values of Evangelical British Protestantism into Canadian citizens through evangelism, social service, public activism, and advocacy. This intention was reflected in its chosen name: The United Church of Canada (Schweitzer, “Introduction,” The United Church of Canada: A History, xi).

Sometimes this vision has encouraged the church to act for a more just social and economic order. At other times we have failed to adequately probe the harms of nationhood, as critical theologies today are teaching us. Gradually we have begun to ask questions about how our participation in the national vision has failed those excluded from its view or exploited to bring it forth.   

Ecumenical Vocation – “Whole World Ecumenism” and Mending the World

The framework document for ecumenical work in the United Church is titled Mending the World. Adopted in 1997 by General Council, the decision-making body which sets policy for the denomination, the document was the outcome of a 10 year process of reflection and study of United Church involvement in interchurch and interfaith relations. Its conclusions are reflected in the title: Mending the world means “naming the search for justice for God's creatures and healing for God's creation as the church's first priority, and joining with other persons of good will in the search for justice, wholeness, and love” (1). This priority has led the United Church to see all our work through a lens identified as “whole world ecumenism” (see p. 2). The church is committed to make “common cause with all people of good will, whether they be people of faith or not, for the creation of a world that is just, participatory, and sustainable” (7). The document affirms that “life in the ‘whole inhabited earth’ (oikoumene) is life in relationship. We are bound up with one another and with the world of nature—not just our kinfolk, or our kind” (1).  

Ecumenical/Interchurch Relations

While Mending the World brought a particular focus to deepening interfaith work, the report also noted that “from its beginnings, The United Church of Canada has demonstrated a sizeable and sustained commitment...to overcome the fragmentation within Christ's Church” (2). The document affirmed that we continue our efforts to strengthen and deepen our ties to other churches, endeavouring to make visible the vision of Christian unity in one Spirit and in common action.  The denomination has been active from its beginnings in the ecumenical movement at local, national, and global levels. We contribute to, are nurtured, and informed by the work of the World Council of Churches, of which we are a founding member, as well as the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the World Methodist Council. We also work in partnership with a number of regional ecumenical organizations, both councils of churches and other justice-seeking groups. We have developed a set of principles for global partnership which emphasize “right relationship” – relationships of mutuality and respect where resources are shared for the sake of social transformation. Many of our global partnerships are indeed ecumenical relationships. In the case of the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea and the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, these have been deepened recently through mutual recognition of ministry agreements, through which the denominations accept the credentials of each other’s ordered ministers and authorize ministers to be employed in the other denomination’s congregations.  The church has also entered into Full Communion agreements with the United Church of Christ in the U.S., and with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Canada and the U.S. Full Communion partners recognize each other’s baptism and ministries, and open paths for the exchange of clergy between churches. Partners also seek intentional ways to cooperate in mission together.  One dimension of national ecumenical engagement has involved the building of bilateral relationships aimed at fostering a wider scope of ministry together in contexts where Christian unity will be known in work and witness rather than church union. After talks towards a merger between the Anglican and United Churches failed in 1975, the churches continued in relationship in a variety of other ways, until a formal national dialogue was again initiated in  2003. The mandate of the dialogue was to discuss areas of cooperation, similarities, and differences, with a focus on ecumenical shared ministries, including theological questions in relation to doctrine, ministries, and sacraments. A formal Roman Catholic-United Church Dialogue began in Canada in 1974. The purpose of the dialogue was to increase understanding and appreciation between the churches, exploring pastoral, theological, and ethical issues. The dialogue has issued reports on a range of issues, including Baptism, Eucharist, and ministry; authority; evangelism/evangelization; marriage; and Creation, Ecology, and the Environment. The most recent statement is Common Baptism, Common Mission, dated 2021. The General Council has been asked to approve a further stage of dialogue beginning in the fall of this year. These dialogues and reports have been a witness of the possibilities for Christians to find spaces of common witness and action even in the context of deep differences. The dialogues also attest to the importance of relationship-building as a basis for ecumenism.   The United Church is also part of a long history of national ecumenical cooperation that began even prior to church union. From 1907 to 1939 the church, preceded by its founding denominations, participated in the Social Service Council of Canada. This was composed of 6 denominations and a number of faith-based and civil society organizations. They joined together to give life to their social gospel vision of justice, peace, and compassion, in programs that included education, advocacy, and service.  When the Canadian Council of Churches was formed in 1944, the United Church was a founding member and continues to be active in its Governing Board, commissions, and reference groups. Beginning in the 1970’s the church was also part of the development of ecumenical coalitions that focused research, education, and advocacy work on a range of global and national justice issues, including peacemaking, human rights, economic justice, and Indigenous justice and reconciliation. When most of these coalitions merged in 2001 to become KAIROS, United Church members continued to find in this ecumenical partnership creative and effective ways to fulfill the call of mending the world.  

Interfaith Relations

In the years after Mending the World was adopted, the United Church also continued on a journey of intensifying interfaith commitments that it began as early as 1966. It continues to see these commitments as a key dimension of “whole world ecumenism.” There was a growing awareness that particular interfaith relationships call for deeper analysis and theological reflection, including confession of the harms we have done and commitment to reconciliation and renewal. This led first to a study on United Church of Canada relations to the Jewish faith, resulting in a statement titled Bearing Faithful Witness. The statement encourages all in the church to seek opportunities to meet with Jews to study issues of significance within the Jewish–Christian relationship, and to be vigilant in resisting antisemitism and anti-Judaism in church and society.  The second interfaith  study was That We May Know Each Other: United Church-Muslim Relations Today. It resulted in a report, approved in 2006, that recognizes Islam as in essence a religion of peace, mercy, justice, and compassion, and acknowledges the particular gifts of Islam to a global tapestry of insight into God’s work in the world.  The most recent study and statement (2018), Honouring the Divine in Each Other: United Church-Hindu Relations Today, recognizes the variety of expressions of divinity in Hinduism as not inconsistent with the church’s understanding of the nature of God, and that God’s saving and liberating grace is at work in the religious life of Hinduism. Along with these studies, the church has engaged in national and international interfaith dialogue and action, while continuing to encourage people across the church to join with their neighbours in conversation and cooperation among faith communities.   

Celebrating Local Ecumenism

A dimension of ecumenism I would hold up and celebrate is at the local level. A particular vitality is to be found where congregations join, across denominational lines, to minister and witness in their context. Across Canada, congregations are working together in response to poverty, environmental destruction, refugees, and other concerns. There are also a growing number of ecumenical shared ministries, where people from several denominations join in a worshiping community without losing ties to their home church.  A unique example of local cooperation is the long-standing (over 25 years) ecumenical covenant between Holy Spirit Catholic Church and McClure United Church in Saskatoon. In 2020, at a service celebrating the 20th anniversary of the covenant, prominent ecumenist and the former priest of Holy Spirit Parish, the late Fr. Bernard de Margerie, named it as a “pioneering and intentional statement advancing Christian reconciliation and unity.” He recalled “the numerous trust building, worship, educational, [and] social initiatives that stemmed from the Covenant,” bringing “much joy and hope.” In such a relationship, he affirmed, is revealed the “grace to become the Body of Christ.”  The challenge for all who are committed to ecumenism is to find effective ways to encourage and support this local ministry and witness, to tell the stories, and to enable others to see how ecumenical work can be a source of empowerment and hope. This seems particularly important in the post-pandemic context of congregations still struggling for renewal of ministry and mission. When the temptation has been to turn inwards in a search for vitality, what possibilities are offered by reinvigorating the lively ecumenical vision that gave birth to the United Church? In the midst of the crises that seem to be tearing our world apart, how does the church, and faith communities more widely, say “no,” say that we can “reach out beyond divides,” say that peace and justice is imperative and demands our cooperation, collaboration, imagination, memory, and hope?  

Conclusion

Honouring the Divine in Each Other outlines a transformational theology of religions, and asks: “In our pluralistic society, how can we build relationships based in a theology of acceptance, respect, and mutual transformation?” The study suggests that “acceptance…defines both a constitutional right available to all citizens, and a joyful recognition of the rich diversity that makes up the religious life of our society.” Respect,“in a conversation between two religious traditions,” the document suggests, “is the awareness of one that God is at work in the life of the other.” Finally, the study concludes that “by recognizing that inter-religious [and ecumenical] conversation has led to a sense of mutual transformation, we affirm that God is at work in these conversations and that the openness we experience is a longing for God’s further leading in this context” (46-47).  I believe this transformational vision has relevance for both ecumenical and interfaith relations: we live in a pluralistic world increasingly polarized and marked by distrust, conflict, and injustice. The messages of our world - which are amplified in the current political climate - are telling us that competitiveness is a fundamental value that extends to the religious differences among people and communities.  Such messages insist that our differences must be the source of barriers, of alienation and struggles for domination.  Building relationships across lines of faith – whether among different churches or different religious communities –  is an act of resistance to these divisive messages., I am convinced that local ecumenical and interfaith interactions are the foundation of global movements for harmony and collaboration. It is from the relationships we build together that the energy, the courage, and the strength to build a different world are created. Carrying forward this history of dialogue and cooperation can enable us to stand together to name injustice and abuse of power in present contexts, and to bring all the resources of our multiple traditions to the creation of paths towards justice and hope, in a world that needs the care of all God’s people for creation’s mending.

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Gail Allan is a member of the United Church of Canada, who has worked in ecumenical and interfaith relations, as well as issues of global and social justice, including as Coordinator for Ecumenical, Interchurch, and Interfaith Relations in the General Council Office of the United Church, from 2004-2020. She has a doctorate in ethics from Emmanuel College; her dissertation focused on the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women as it was lived out in Canada. At present she lives in Edmonton, Alberta, where she is active in her local congregation, Garneau United Church, and is an associate faculty member at St. Stephen’s College, Edmonton.