About Us

The William Black Pastoral Charge of The United Church of Canada Our mission Is to love God, to foster Christian faithfulness, spirituality, commitment and devotion and to promote love and respect by living generously, and giving joyfully to all God's people and to affirm and strengthen ourselves creatively.

Our Services are lead by Reverend Don MacPherson. The Bridgetown United Church, William Black Pastoral Charge are active and vibrant members of the Bridgetown Community

The United Church of Canada has made a commitment to becoming an anti-racist denomination(opens in a new tab). A short document, “Working Towards Becoming an Anti-Racist Denomination,(opens in a new tab)” explains more about what this commitment might mean. People in the church are working on frameworks and strategic directions—including ways to involve of the whole church—to continue to deepen the church’s anti-racism work.

This anti-racist commitment is part of the church’s ongoing work toward racial justice.

The United Church of Canada has a long history of condemning racism: For decades, the United Church has condemned all forms of racism, named racism as sin, and worked to eliminate systemic racial discrimination. People in the United Church have developed anti-racism policies(opens in a new tab) and education programs, worked toward reconciliation and Indigenous justice, adopted the Calls to the Church, and created intercultural policies(opens in a new tab) and initiatives. In spite of this steadfast and faithful work by committed people over generations, the reality of racism in the church is ever-present.
―Working Towards Becoming an Anti-Racist Denomination

The United Church of Canada’s anti-racism policy, That All May Be One(opens in a new tab), names four key areas of work:

Organize for the full participation of all peoples.
Organize for diversity by supporting anti-racism work and promoting positive relationships among diverse peoples.
Act justly within the church’s structures, courts, policies, and practice.
Speak to the world by supporting anti-racism work within broader society.

Our commitment to racial justice includes building right relationships with our neighbours, particularly reconciliation between non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples. It means engaging in interfaith dialogue and speaking out against violence and discrimination rooted in racial and religious bigotry, including Islamophobia and antisemitism. It finds expression in our intercultural vision. It means having the courage to talk about racism and White privilege in our church and in our society.

As Moderator Jordan Cantwell put it in 2017, “We need to name and examine our fears, prejudices, and assumptions. The privilege that many of us are born with may desensitize us to the injustice, exclusion, and hate that some in our community experience on a daily basis.” Only in that way can we build, as “That All May Be One” envisioned, a church and society “where all are welcome, where all feel welcome, and where diversity is as natural as breathing.”

Anti-Racism Common Table

To help coordinate and offer strategic directions for the United Church’s anti-racism work, the Executive of General Council has created an Anti-Racism Common Table(opens in a new tab). This is a newly established diverse national committee with people from across the church who are working to name tangible ways that the United Church can continue to live into its commitment on anti-racism.

The Anti-Racism Common Table includes membership from the Indigenous church, and it will report to both the Executive of General Council and the National Indigenous Council(opens in a new tab). This is reflective of the church’s commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Calls to the Church(opens in a new tab), both of which address racism.

One key area of focus is to develop a national anti-racism action plan for the United Church as a whole. This is a plan for the church that is being developed by people in the church. It is still in an early draft at this point. As soon as the action plan is ready to be share, there will be opportunities for consultation across the church. Every regional council, and many groups across the church, will be invited to offer feedback on the plan. Please stay tuned for more about the action plan and its development!

For More Information or to Share Feedback

Adele Halliday
Anti-Racism and Equity Lead
ahalliday@united-church.ca
416-231-7680 x2756
1-800-268-3781 x2756

A Message to People of The United Church of Canada

Grace and Peace to you.

Since the announcement of the discovery of the undocumented and unmarked remains of 215 children on the grounds of Kamloops Residential School, we have received many messages of sorrow, concern, and outrage from members of the church.

We share these feelings.

We have also been asked many questions about the United Church’s intentions regarding burial sites and missing children, about the sharing of our residential schools records, and about our response to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Many biblical passages remind us of the importance of working together for peace and justice. We would like to take this opportunity to answer your questions so that together we can honour all those affected by the residential schools system, and live up to our obligations as a participant in it.

The United Church of Canada operated 15 of the residential schools covered by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), accounting for approximately 10 percent of Indigenous children who were forced to attend them. A history of our involvement is available at the website The Children Remembered(opens in a new tab), created by the United Church Archives.

Since 1998, our response to the role we played in this system has been guided by the wisdom of residential school and intergenerational survivors. In 2003, the Residential Schools Steering Committee (later the Committee on Indigenous Justice and Residential Schools) established six principles of reconciliation, which continue to guide this work.

Among them is the principle of whole community involvement, the “acknowledgement that [the impacts of residential schools] are communal as well as individual and that they are intergenerational.” The committee also acknowledged that “the children and grandchildren of survivors are also living people who carry with them the burdens of the residential schools system.” The discovery at Kamloops, and the pain and trauma that it has reignited, make it clear that residential schools are not simply part of a historic event; it is also why we have been doing the difficult work of reconciliation, and must continue to do so.

United Church Response to the Kamloops Discovery

The principle of community involvement guides how we are responding. Indigenous Ministries Executive Minister Murray Pruden and the Moderator issued pastoral responses, along with a call to mourn and remember. This time of respect is required in order for any other actions we take to go forward in a good way.

As The United Church of Canada, we stated our commitment to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission when they were issued in June 2015. This includes Calls to Action 73‒76, which deal with burial sites and missing children. We have already worked with communities in commemorating known gravesites in Brandon, Edmonton, File Hills, Red Deer, and Regina.

These Calls to Action state very clearly that the Indigenous communities most affected must lead in the development of such strategies, and that their protocols must be followed. We are aware that unmarked graves may be found on United Church properties, and we are committed to working on them, and on known burial sites, following the principles laid out in the Calls to Action.

The General Secretary is convening a table of current and former staff to develop our response, and the ecumenical parties to the Settlement Agreement will also be meeting to discuss how to respond together to an issue that affects us all. The National Indigenous Council and Elders Council also continue to meet to discern the needs and response of the Indigenous church. These meetings are taking place in the next few weeks, and we will share more information with you as it comes forward.

We are grateful for the actions you are taking in your own contexts, whether they are vigils, times of prayer, support for Indigenous agencies, or donations to The Healing Fund. Please know that any donations made to The Healing Fund in this time will be held until the Indigenous church, which oversees The Healing Fund, decides how best to share them given the needs that emerge in Indigenous communities.

Sharing of Documentation

It has been widely reported that many institutions have not fully shared their residential school records. This has understandably raised questions about what the United Church has shared.

During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, United Church General Council and Conference Archives staff went through all records that were related to residential schools and created a substantial Guide to Holdings Related to Residential Schools(opens in a new tab). These materials are available to researchers.

The materials were also turned over to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for its research. They have since been transferred to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, where they are available for research and have contributed to projects such as the National Residential Schools Memorial Register(opens in a new tab).

We are currently undertaking a similar discovery process regarding our role in Day Schools, and will continue to turn over relevant material if and as it emerges.

United Church Response to the Calls to Action

We track United Church work on those TRC Calls to Action(opens in a new tab) directed to the churches and the Parties to the Settlement Agreement in this document(opens in a new tab), which is updated annually. We also support and participate in advocacy initiatives identified in other Calls to Action, such as those concerning child welfare and missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

As we do this work, we often find ourselves reflecting on this passage from 2 Corinthians 5:18–19: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself…and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”

With this trust comes the onus to first seek and speak the truth. At this time, we recommit to truth-telling, to education, and to taking action for those things for which we hold responsibility. May God be our helper.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Richard Bott
Moderator

The Rev. Murray Pruden
Executive Minister, Indigenous Ministries and Justice