Five Themes Set to Guide the Church

On its last day of meeting, the United Church’s 40th General Council affirmed five themes to guide the church during the next three years.

Representatives from the Council’s Listening Team led commissioners in a process of setting directions.

The purpose of setting directions “is to identify directions for the church to guide the work of the General Council Executive and General Council staff during the next triennium,” said Larissa Kanhai, a member of the Listening Team.

The five themes the Council affirmed were:

• emerging church (radical transformation, hope in the struggle)
• authentic relations with youth and young adults (camps, campus)
• outreach, social justice, and the care of creation (honouring relationships, peace initiatives, refugees, resisting empire)
• faith formation (empowering congregations)
• becoming a whole people (intercultural engagement, language, anti-discrimination work)

Kanhai reminded commissioners that the five themes should direct the whole church, not just the General Council Executive and staff. “These are also for us,” she said. “We are the church.”

She asked commissioners to consider how they would “live these out” in the context of their own congregations and community.

“How do you want to be the church in the world?” Kanhai asked.

Commissioners were given time in their table groups to discuss the ways they would share and live out the themes when they returned home.