This article was updated for the October 10 and 17 2024 online Regional meeting for Prairie to Pine Regional Council. It covers the basics of how to prepare a proposal for both your Regional Council and the General Council of the United Church. We hope it helps you prepare any proposal that may be on your heart or mind.
The deadline to submit a proposal to the office is Friday October 4.
Click here for a PDF version of the Regional Council proposal template.
What is a proposal?
Proposals are an important avenue for the people of the United Church to consider and act on a wide range of church policies. Proposals are both documents and a process of learning, discerning, and deciding; they call on the Regional Council or General Council to make a decision or set policy on behalf of the church.
Proposals must reflect the different responsibilities of the Regional Council or General Council. For example, if you would like the United Church of Canada to address a social justice or policy matter with the federal government, your proposal would be addressed to General Council. If you would like the Regional Council to adopt inclusive language commitments in its services of worship and business, the proposal would be addressed to the Regional Council. We cover the process for both here.
Who can make a proposal?
Any member of the Regional Council, and any Community of Faith or other recognized ministry. A member of the Regional Council is: someone who is ministry personnel; an elected lay representative for a Community of Faith; or an individual who has been made a member of the Regional Council by an act of the Executive or the Annual Meeting (for example, a lay member of a Commission).
When can we make proposals?
Generally, proposals are submitted to the annual meeting of the Regional Council, although they can go to the Regional Council Executive. Proposals that need to go to General Council must still be submitted to the Regional Council meeting.
It’s strongly preferred that proposals be included in the official documents for the Regional Council meeting, so that delegates have time to reflect on them in advance, and staff have time to add and post the proposal.
Who decides?
The Proposal will be sent to the annual meeting of the Regional Council for discussion, discernment, and voting. The meeting has the right to make amendments to proposals to the Regional Council, and whether or not to submit the proposal to the General Council. In some circumstances, a proposal can be sent to the Regional Council Executive.
More information: The Manual (2021), Section F.1
Proposals to General Council
The General Council is the national body, or “court” of the United Church of Canada, and is responsible for much of the policy that guides our overall polity, governance, decision-making, positions on social justice, and more. As such, it receives proposals related to all of these. Please see this page for dates for the 45th General Council and for more information about proposals.
From the General Council proposal template guide:
“Individuals, communities of faith, networks, and clusters of the United Church may submit a proposal to their respective Regional Council for consideration.
The Regional Councils will then take ownership of the proposal, with full ability to make revisions and changes, and either forward it to General Council with agreement or disagreement (providing rationale why the Regional Council is sending a proposal with which it disagrees) or by taking no action at this time.”
The deadline for General Council to receive proposals is April 1, 2025, but first the proposal needs to go through the Regional Council meeting process, or through the Executive, if it is being submitted through the Regional Council. Our Regional meeting is one of the principal ways for you to submit proposals to General Council.
