The Just Peace Task Force and Report
The Just Peace Task Group to General Council Executive was appointed in November 2018. In November 2021, they issued their report. This report addressed specific questions and called for a set of principles to enable action by the United Church going forward.
The report then became a set of recommendations from the Executive of the General Council which were presented to the 44th General Council in July 2022. These recommendations were then sent to the Theology and Inter-Church Inter-Faith Committee to develop principles that would apply to any region of the world. Seven principles came from that work and are now (2024) considered to be principles guiding the United Church going forward.
A simple FAQ about the report and recommendations was also presented to General Council in 2022.
2015 Origins of the Just Peace Task Group
An earlier report—Towards Peace in Palestine and Israel: A Call to Costly Solidarity (PMM20)—was adopted by the Executive of the 42nd General Council in 2015. This report called for a process to review the church’s policy on Palestine and Israel in light of the changing context and partner calls for solidarity.
2018 Creation of the Just Peace Task Force
In November 2018, the Executive of the 43rd General Council of The United Church of Canada appointed a reference group of four persons to:
- undertake a review and consider current United Church of Canada policies on Israel and Palestine in light of the current reality and partner requests;
- receive perspectives from members of the United Church, partners and other relevant organizations; and
- provide advice and recommendations to The Executive of the General Council.
Reactions to the Just Peace Report
The United Church received a number of responses to the Just peace Report, including from UNJPPI.
Guiding Principles Resulting from the Just Peace Report
Adopted by the 44th General Council Annual Meeting October 2023 to guide the church’s work and activities:
- Anti-Oppression: Lament and actively oppose the expressions of oppression and colonization, including but not limited to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and discrimination of any kind in our churches, our communities, our nation, the world, and God’s good creation. Encourage the ministries and work of anti-oppression in our churches.
- Truth-telling: Recognize, acknowledge, and repent the ways in which The United Church of Canada has contributed to, or enabled, whether intentionally or unintentionally, suffering and unjust practices, including its participation in colonization. Amplify the voices of the most marginalized as opposed to those who hold power. Encourage critical analysis of power and thoughtful exploration and questioning of biases.
- Holistic Scope: Recognize and name complexities and potential multiple oppressions in situations of injustice and strive to avoid false dichotomies in analysis and in statements. Seek to remain in relationship and in dialogue even when it is difficult and painful, at the same time being aware of systemic power differences at play. Seek to act ecumenically and with interfaith groups when appropriate.
- Respect for Human Dignity: Be in solidarity with those among us experiencing injustice, oppression, the denial of dignity, and violation of human rights. Affirm the right to resist, repudiate, and challenge any expression of injustice.
- Full Participation and Decolonization: Challenge all expressions of colonialism through recognizing and naming colonial mentalities that are automatically replicated in our institutions and relationships with partners. Support community-based self-determination, including the self-determination of Indigenous peoples. Listen attentively to social movements and groups of people who are historically marginalized and who are most affected by injustice. Engage in critical discernment about the best ways forward when called upon to speak and act for justice, to dismantle institutions and practices that are instrumental in replicating colonialism and usher a new mode of thinking and doing that decolonizes.
- Equity, Mutuality, Respect, and Reparations: Pursue equity, mutuality, respect, and reparations as the path towards justice, reconciliation, and right relations. Continue to be prayerful companions in mutual discernment, discipleship, and justice-seeking with United Church partners, ecumenical and interfaith partners, and with other justice-seeking groups.
- Costly and Prophetic Solidarity: Speak and act prophetically against injustice in all forms, knowing that the Holy Spirit calls us to costly solidarity with the least of these, in living our discipleship in the world.
Read the full document outlining these principles.
14 Principles brought to the General Council
We are a church:
- with zero tolerance for all forms of racism, including antisemitism (see note below);
- committed to listening to partners, and resisting the temptation to jump in as a “saviour”;
- learning that listening may demand a response that invites us to costly solidarity;
- seeking to speak truthfully, even when the truth is painful; with courage to name things as they are;
- seeking to decolonize the justice works of the church;
- striving to speak and act with humility;
- open to fresh revelations of historic injustices which compel us to shape and re-shape our understanding of the demands of justice;
- that affirms peoples’ right to engage in non-violent resistance to injustice;
- that promotes respect for and commitment to upholding international law, including political, civil, cultural, economic and social rights–including the right to self-determination;
- that promotes equity, mutuality, and respect as the path to right relations, in the spirit of the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
- that supports processes and systems that lift up those who are marginalized and oppressed;
- that recognizes that in some situations there are multiple oppressions and injustices and seeks to avoid false dichotomies in our analyses and statements;
- that is accountable for how our words and actions can be misused to fuel polarizing controversies, and historical and existing injustices;
- that has a deep desire to stay in dialogue with partners and to stay in relationship even when we are in disagreement.
Note on antisemitism: The United Church of Canada’s Theology, Inter-church and Inter-faith Committee (TICIF) reviewed the definition of antisemitism as defined in the March 2021 Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), and recommended that the Just Peace Task Group might consider it a helpful definition to use. Learn more about antisemitism.