He has told you, O mortal, what is good,
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
    and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

In the Bible, justice is to “make right”. It is a relational term of living in right relationships with God, with one another and with Creation. Biblical justice is not separate from social justice. Throughout the Bible, God’s people are called to care for who is seen as the least in society. We are called to love our neighbour as ourself. We are called to see people as God sees them - created in God’s image.

As a Church who prays weekly “Thy will be done on earth as in heaven”, we have a responsibility to care for others and seek justice. We recognize that at times it is the structures within society and government policy that have resulted in unfairness or difficult circumstances for people. We undertake activities that seek to redress that injustice.

Affirming - 2SLGBTQIA+

Grace is an affirming church, part of the Affirming Ministries Program seeking to welcome all into our life and work as a church. One of the calls as an affirming church is to be Public Intentional and Explicit in our welcome and support of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, particularly around PIE Day, March 14.

We are concerned about wedge politics that we see creeping into our political discourse, polarizing people by creating the “other”. We are particularly concerned that the transgender community is being used as a wedge issue whether framed as parental rights, women’s safety in washrooms, or fairness in sports. This has been happening internationally, in some Canadian provinces and now nationally. Transgender Canadians are a vulnerable group and categorizing them as the “other” is not only irresponsible but also places them as greater risk. They already face higher rates of violence and inappropriate behaviours and discriminatory behaviour. Background/statistics on this can be found here and here.

Calls for the delay or cessation of gender-affirming treatments for trans youth are particularly irresponsible, given their vulnerability.  A study in the June 6, 2022 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal highlighted that transgender adolescents have 5 times the risk of suicidal ideation and 7.6 times the risk of ever having attempted suicide compared to cisgendered, heterosexual adolescents.  However, the study noted that gender-affirming care has been shown to improve mental health among transgendered youth so much so that their rates of suicidal ideation were similar to their cisgendered peers. Click here to link to the study.

Join Our Campaign

Grace has prepared letters for the leaders of the federal parties in Parliament and provincial parties in the Nova Scotia Legislature calling for the rejection of wedge politics and supporting the rights of the transgender community. to see the letter we sent, you can click on the name of the person: The Right Honourable Justice Trudeau; The Honourable Pierre Poilievre; Mr. Jagmeet Singh; Mr. Yves-François Blanchet; The Honorable Tim Houston; The Honourable Zach Churchill; and Ms Claudia Chender.

We invite you to to send a letter to these party leaders. Postal address can be found by clicking here. Letters can be sent to the federal leaders to their House of Commons address without postage. Postage is required for letters to Nova Scotia leaders. To aid you in writing, you can download a letter template here.

We received some responses: from the Prime Minister’s Office; and the Leader of the federal NDP with an accompanying white paper.

Basic or Livable Annual Income

We, along with our national Church support basic or guaranteed annual income. Progress is happening as Bill S-233 “An Act to develop a national framework for a guaranteed livable basic income” is at the Committee stage at the Senate of Canada. This review is at a critical stage that will determine what or even if it will go forward to the Senate for Third Reading. The private members bill that started in the House of Common that would have mirrored this Bill C-223 was defeated in its motion to go to the parliamentary study stage.

There is a federal-provincial working group that has been looking at doing a 5-7 year Guaranteed Basic Income Demonstration Project in PEI. It would be beneficial to move this project forward to demonstrate what such a project can do. It would be helpful to indicate your support to your Member of Parliament asking them to raise a question about the status of the working group in the House of Commons. As well a letter to The Honourable Jenna Sudds, Minister of Family, Children and Social Development asking her to send a request to the Minister of Finance to include the Federal/PEI Working Group in the 2025 Budget.

Join Our Letter Writing Campaign

Grace has sent an e-mail of support for this bill and invites others to send an e-mail or letter of support. For more information and to link to the page which has draft letters and e-mails for you to use, click here.

Israel and Palestine

Click here to go to the United Church webpage that has links to prayers, suggestions how to donate and information about why writing to your MP is important.  It has a template of a letter that can be customized on this page as well as an ability to send the letter from that page.

The United Church of Canada had used a policy-based approach in its justice and advocacy ministry. Given the rapid evolution of some situations, the Church was not as responsive as it would like to be because its government processes slowed policy changes. The church is in the midst of shifting to a principles based approach for its justice and advocacy work. On October 19, 2024 the 44th General Council affirmed the application of justice principles to the conflict in Israel and Palestine. In doing so, it enabled the national office and local congregations to adopt Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) strategies as well as joining other international human rights communities in recognizing and rejecting Isreal’s apartheid system. For greater details on this including the Moderator’s Letter, a frequently asked questions section, and the information on the principles - click here.

On October 4, the United Church of Canada published a statement that reiterate calls for action based on our justice principles. These calls are:

• an immediate and sustained ceasefire in:

• the war on Gaza;

• the escalation of bombardments of Lebanon;

• missiles into Israel, and

• other armed attacks within Occupied Palestinian Territory;

• the immediate and unconditional release of all captives held by Hamas and by Israel;

• all countries to hold the region accountable under International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law and a comprehensive two-way arms embargo on Canada’s trade with Israel;

• immediate, unhindered humanitarian access to all Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Gaza, and to Lebanon;

• suspension of Canada’s diplomatic relationship with Israel until Israel abides by all relevant rulings of the International Court of Justice, including an immediate end to Israel’s illegal occupation, so a just peace can begin.

In January 2024, the General Secretary of the United Church wrote to the Prime Minister regarding Canada should support South Africa’s application to the ICJ regarding Israel’s breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention, and ban arm sales to Israel.  This letter can be found here.

On November 18, 2023, the members of the Executive of the General Council and the National Indigenous Council of The United Church of Canada, wrote a letter (click here to see) to the Prime Minister to address the urgent and immediate need to stop genocide; calling for the Prime Minister’s Office to:

• recognize the genocide;

• uphold international human rights and humanitarian law without exception;

• call for an immediate ceasefire;

• advocate for the release of hostages;

• demand the opening of humanitarian corridors;

• and engage meaningfully in the pursuit of a just and lasting peace in the region.

On October 13, 2023, KAIROS Canada and its member churches (includes the United Church of Canada) and agencies issued An Ecumenical Statement in Violence between Hamas and Israel.  Click here for more information. On October 7, 2023, the United Church called for immediate ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. Click here for more information

Currently the United Church participates on the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel.  The program was launched in response to a request from local church leaders to create an international presence in the area.  It offers a protective presence and witnesses what is happening.  The accompaniers practice what they call principled impartiality - no sides are taken in the conflict but it does not remain neutral in terms of human rights or respect for international humanitarian law.

The United Church of Canada has been working towards a just and lasting peace in Israel/Palestine for many years.  The issue is complex and generations of actions on the many sides involved in the conflict make solutions challenging.  The Church has spent time discerning what is the way forward to achieving a just peace respecting the right to self determination for both Israelis and Palestinians.  A process that has often led to criticism from groups that have interest in the outcomes. In November 2021, the Just Peace Group presented their report In Support of Just Peace in Palestine and Israel: A Call to Costly Solidarity to General Council Executive. This report was received by General Council 44 but its recommendations were postponed “definitely”, which means that it should come back to General Council after the completion of work on the GCE 03 Principle Based Approach to Justice Work in the United Church of Canada.

Housing and Income Assistance

We are all too aware of the situation of inadequate incomes and housing that sees people coming to our doors for help as well as going to the programs we support with our partners. This erodes basic human dignities and limits the ability of people to reach their God-given potential.

In September 2023, we wrote to political representatives about our concerns regarding emergency housing and deeply affordable housing. For more information about housing click here. We invited people to join us in expressing concern.

One area that income is inadequate to meet basic needs is if a person or family is in receipt of the provincial government’s income assistance. Basic social assistance rates had not changed since the 2021-22 budget despite increasing inflation. In the fall of 2023, Grace wrote to the Premier and government ministers to increase these rates and urged its members to do so. Click here for more information. The 2024-25 budget did not increase basic rates but in March 2024, the Premier indicated that social assistance rates employment support and income assistance recipients, including people receiving the Income Assistance Disability Supplement, would receive a 2.5 per cent increase to the standard household rate and dependent allowance starting July 1, 2024 with a retroactive payment to April 1, 2024. Starting January 1, 2025, all income assistance streams will be indexed annually based on the consumer price index (CPI). However, the announced increase did not come close to covering inflation experienced between the 2021-22 budget and 2024.