Series 17 - Photographs

The Division, established in 1972, was one of the five divisions of the General Council of The United Church of Canada. It was the primary arm through which the national church developed programs to support the ministry and mission of the people within Canada. It was administered by a Secretary and made up of two departments, Christian Development and Church in Society.

The work of each Department was supervised by a Deputy Secretary. Associate Secretaries and Special Assistants, relating to one of the above departments, looked after the programmed of the Division. As early as 1973, a Committee on Style of Operations reported the dissatisfaction with the separation of the Division into two departments. An Organizational Design Task Force was established in 1974 to recommend structural changes. It reported in 1974 and its work was continued by two other related Task Groups up to the first major reorganization of the Division in 1977. By 1977, the departments were replaced by offices with operation run by more autonomous Working Units. The overall planning and screening of the work would be done by Functional Units.

In 1989, the Division restructured some 47 working units, sub-units, and committees into five new program units: Program Unit 1 (Children, Youth, Adults and Family Ministries); Unit 2 (Worship, Mission and Evangelism); Unit 3 (Human Rights, Participation and Lay Organizations); Unit 4 (Economic Justice and Social Well-Being); Unit 5 (Environment, Peace and Rural Life). Small functional groups, clusters, were created within each unit. Each program unit and committee was represented in the Executive.

In 2001, following the re-design and re-organization of General Council offices, the work of the Division was re-apportioned to the following working units: Support to Local Ministries Unit, Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations Unit and Faith Formation and Education Unit.