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1964-1991 (Creation)
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- United Church of Canada. Division of Mission in Canada
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Administrative history
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.
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The work of the Special Commission on French/English Relations reporting to the 25th General Council in 1972 included a recommendation to establish, through the Department of Church in Society, a Task Force on French/English Relations. The Division Executive approved this in 1973 and the Task Force met for the first time in 1974. The Task Force reported to General Council on ways in which the United Church of Canada could respond to the growing conflict in Canada between the two linguistic groups, and recommended that the Church appoint a full-time bilingual staff officer at United Church House who was sensitive to Quebec. It further recommended that Church members become aware of the cultural and sociological differences that exist between French and English in Canada, and that, in areas where there are significant French communities, Presbyteries create committees which would attempt to uncover the cause of tension and find some resolution to it. By 1979, the Task Force reported through the Working Unit on Social Issues and Justice (WUSIJ). In 1983 it became the National Sub-Unit on French/English Relations. When the Division reorganized in 1989, the work of the Sub-Unit became part of the mandate of Program Unit 3.
A General Council Working Unit on Ministries in French was established by the 28th General Council in 1980 to report on a long-range policy for ministry in French and presented its report to the 29th General Council in 1982, The Church Whole. It continued in order to monitor the report's implementation and was renewed in 1984 and 1986.
The General Council Executive commissioned in November 1985 a “Projet de Coordination des Services en Francais/Comite des Services en Francais”. The recommendations were adopted by the General Council Executive in November 1986 and as a result the Division established a “Group de Travail Pour le Ministere National en Francais” (GTMNF) in 1987. The GTMNF had responsibility for work support of francophone congregations, French services, translation services, and the publication of Aujourd'hui Credo.
The General Council established a Task Group on French Ministries to examine the relation of GTMNF to the United Church Structures and it reported in 1992. As a result a “Comite Permanent des Ministeres en Francais” (COPERMIF) was established to be accountable to the General Council, facilitated by Montreal and Ottawa Conference. (See 95.030C 28-6 for an overview of this work)
Series contains five subseries: 1) Minutes and Staff Correspondence, 1977-1991, 2) Aujourd’hui/Credo, 1972-1989, 3) Annual Reports, 1980-1991, 4) Translation Services, 1986-1989, 5) Resource Development, 1964-1989.
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For additional records re Task Force on French/English relations, see also: Series 14: Records of Standing Committees, Task Forces and those relating to Inter-Divisional Work.