Fonds F1044 - United Church of Canada Ontario Council fonds

The Ontario Council was formed in 1972 to act as a unified voice for Ontario Conferences and Presbyteries on issues of concern and interest to the Church in Ontario. The Ontario Conferences had already been acting cooperatively since 1953 on religious education through the Inter-Conference Consultative Committee on Christian Education, also known as the Committee of Ten. However, by the late 1960s there was a need to have a body which responded in one Ontario-based voice to issues particular to the region. Its functions included: initiating studies on issues and movements in the province pertaining to the life and work of the Church; preparing and presenting briefs at the request of and on behalf of participating Conferences, to the Provincial Government or other agencies (e.g., taxation of churches, medicare and religious education); recommending proposed changes of boundaries between Ontario and neighbouring Conferences; considering the formation and development of regions in the Ontario Conferences and recommending geographic and social outlines; studying the effect on Conferences of the decentralization trend in the Church; and sponsoring joint approaches to problems through related Committees of the Conferences. The Council was funded on a pro rata basis by the participating Conferences, according to resident membership in Ontario. Ontario Presbyteries with overlap in Montreal-Ottawa and Manitoba Conferences were given partial representation through payment of a proportional levy to the Council. In 1981 a reassessment of the Council's work found it too costly to maintain separately and the functions of the Council were transferred to the General Council.