Anti-Racism

Select actions of the church

2025: General Assembly adopted a recommendation that presbyteries commit to supporting local congregations, along with their leaders and members, by providing financial assistance for participation in intercultural learning opportunities, programs and resources offered by the Office of Intercultural Liaison (now called the Intercultural Office); additionally, presbyteries are encouraged to invite leaders and members of local churches to take full advantage of these opportunities. (A&P 2025, pp. 71, 31)

General Assembly appointed a Special Committee to address several hopes and concerns of Hungarian-speaking Presbyterians within the PCC, raised in several overtures. (ASC-019-021).

2024: General Assembly approved that the Rev. Dr. Hyung Jin (Pablo) Kim Sun, be appointed as Intercultural Liaison for a five-year term. (A&P 2024, pp. 45, 14) See 2023, below, for details about this position.

2023: General Assembly adopted a Confession acknowledging 1) that racist values which assume the superiority of the dominant culture [white Europeans] has shaped the church, 2) the church’s failure to recognize the spiritual gifts of all persons, and 3) restating the church’s commitment to turn from the sin of racism. The Confession will be presented in a service of repentance coordinated by the General Assembly Office, with members of the multi-racial community of the church present. It was recommended that presbyteries hold similar services of repentance. General Assembly also approved a recommendation that the Life and Mission Agency provide resources to accompany the Confession to deepen our understanding of the concept of race and the role we share in the important work of anti-racism. (A&P 2023, pp. 33, 240-4)

The General Assembly adopted recommendations encouraging that geographically defined presbyteries (that is, not Han-Ca Presbyteries) reach out to the congregations of Han-Ca Presbyteries and other ethnic communities within their bounds to build connections, listen, and find contexts to express understanding and compassion and that congregations and ministers that are not part of the Han-Ca Presbyteries develop friendships with neighbouring congregations that are part of Han-Ca Presbyteries and other ethnic communities through a variety of activities, including but not limited to meals shared, joint mission trips and shared worship services; and that congregations be creative in telling the stories of the connections made. (A&P 2023, pp. 33, 240-4)

A five-year position of Intercultural Liaison was established as part of the church’s responses to the work of the Special Committee re Petition Nos. 1 and 2, 2021 (see 2022, below, for more information). A search will be conducted for the newly created position and a candidate will be recommended to the 2024 General Assembly (A&P 2023, pp. 49-51. General Assembly noted that the national church is developing inter-cultural workshops and commended PCC theological colleges for proactively offering courses and programs in inter-cultural studies (in response to Special Committee recommendations). (A&P 2023, p.24)

General Assembly agreed that translation to all languages used in the presbyteries of the church be made available as needed, subject to funding being made available by the Assembly Council. (A&P 2023, pp. 35, 240-4)

The General Assembly received a report on environmental racism, which refers to the influences of systemic racism and colonization that make racialized and Indigenous communities disproportionately impacted by climate change, environmental degradation and environmental toxins from human activities. General Assembly approved that the Moderator write to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change expressing support for the development of a strategy to examine the links between race, socio-economic status and environmental risk and address environmental racism in Canada. Presbyteries, congregations and individuals were invited to write their local member of parliament for the same purpose.

2022: A Special Committee was convened to address petitions regarding the need to address racism in the church. General Assembly adopted several recommendations from the Commission’s report that:

• the Special Committee continue to listen to people who have been affected by racism and marginalization and to prepare an apology.
• Set up funds:
  • To provide counselling for those harmed by the church’s racism and marginalization; and
  • To provide for mentoring of non-Euro Canadian clergy and lifting up leadership from non-Euro Canadian clergy
  • To approve the creation of the Office of Cross-Cultural Liaison.
• Within the next three years, steps will be taken so that the Committee to Nominate Standing Committees is more? Representative of the ethnic and cultural mix of the PCC, and the Assembly set an aspirational goal that all General Assembly standing committees be representative of the ethnic and cultural mix of the denomination.
• A course in Inter-cultural Studies will be developed and offered at the theological colleges, and workshops in cross-cultural awareness will be delivered to all the presbyteries of the church. (A&P 2022, pp. 286-302).

General Assembly reviewed a report on church statements and actions that reject and oppose racism while acknowledging the presence of systemic racism in the church and that the church has “not lived up fully to the calls for love, justice and discipleship.” An anti-racism covenant and accompanying strategies will be prepared. The covenant will:

• Develop a theological framework for understanding racism;
• provide educational resources to inspire commitment to anti-racism endeavours;
• provide a basis for decisions about resource allocation among anti-racism initiatives;
• and guide the church regarding its anti-racism efforts. (A&P 2022, pp. 183-191, 24)

2021: General Assembly adopted a report on violent encounters between police services and Black and Indigenous people, discussing systemic racism and its impacts on targeted violence toward Black and Indigenous people, and the disproportionate numbers of Black and Indigenous people in the justice system. The moderator will write to the Government of Canada encouraging the creation of a centralized, national data collection system to record race-based data with policing, including use of force. The moderator will also write to provinces and territories advocating that responsibility and funding for wellness checks is reallocated from police to community and healthcare-based crisis intervention workers, including pathways for people to access healthcare-led interventions through 911 services that do not necessitate the involvement of police as first responders in mental health crises. (A&P 2021, pp. 430-432, 38)

Congregations and Presbyteries were encouraged by General Assembly to study racism and xenophobia in Canada and the ways that churches can contribute to ending racism, including the use of church resource “Racism and Hate in Canada”. (A&P 2021, pp. 427-429, 38)

2020: The church wrote to the Prime Minister expressing support that August 1 be recognized as Emancipation Day marking the 1834 end of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in British colonies.

2016: General Assembly wrote to the Reformed Church of sub-Carpathian Ukraine and the Reformed Church in Hungary expressing the church’s concern at the ongoing discrimination against the Roma and encouraging those churches in their mission and ministry with the Roma. (A&P 2016, pp. 310-1, 23)

2011: General Assembly commended a number of initiatives to the church identifying ways the church can become more racially and ethnically inclusive, including increasing diversity in all church structures, programs and in leadership positions, and reporting on steps taken. The Committee to Nominate Standing Committees will maintain data on the racial and ethnic diversity of standing committees of General Assembly and make this data available to the church as appropriate. (A&P 2011, pp. 373-6, 32)

2008: General Assembly approved a policy to deal with allegations of racial harassment titled “Growing in Christ: Seeing the Image of God in Our Neighbour” and “A Statement of Commitment Toward Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Leadership at the National Level of The Presbyterian Church in Canada.” (A&P 2008, pp. 220-9)

2004: General Assembly adopted recommendations which accepted working definitions of racism and racial harassment and requesting that the Assembly Council and Justice Ministries develop policies that would address allegations of racial harassment. Additional recommendations were adopted that Assembly Council develop diversity policies in the hiring of national staff and for appointments of volunteers to standing committees of General Assembly. (A&P 2004, pp. 388, 17)

1993: The Presbyterian Church in Canada submitted a brief called “Reweaving the Relationships with Aboriginal Peoples” to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People (RCAP). The brief made 13 recommendations that included themes addressing cross-cultural educational and awareness programs, including building awareness of native spirituality and justice issues for church training institutes, just settlement and implementation processes for land claims and self-government, adequate land and economic base arising from Aboriginal title, rights and treaty rights, and processes associated with resource development, including impact assessments and that resource development not take place on land under dispute until either a claims agreement is in place, or terms governing development are agreed to by all parties. The brief includes information and two recommendations addressing listening and learning about the harms of residential schools.
(Context Note: The brief, submitted to RCAP in 1993, is part of the church’s historical witness but reflects the time in which it was written and is not consistent with the church’s current commitments towards truth, healing and reconciliation that have been informed by the church’s learning journey toward reconciliation since then. For more information on the church’s commitments, see the Social Action Hub’s Indigenous Justice page, or the Church’s Apology for its complicity in colonization and residential school system.)

1991: The Presbyterian Church in Canada joined the Aboriginal Rights Coalition (ARC, formerly Project North, now part of KAIROS). General Assembly requested that church courts set up information sessions to listen to Native leaders in their region. Following the OKA Crisis, federal and provincial governments were requested to place a high priority on developing a comprehensive process for a just settlement of outstanding Native land claims and governance issues, and establish an Aboriginal Rights Commission. General Assembly urged that resource development should not take place on unsurrendered land without settling land claims or negotiating acceptable terms. The Government of Canada was requested to resume constitutional talks including representatives of First Nations as full participants and to include on the agenda of the next First Ministers’ Conference a commitment to entrench Aboriginal rights—specifically: 1) the enforceable right of Aboriginal peoples to self-government, 2) an adequate land and economic base arising from Aboriginal title, Aboriginal rights and treaty rights; and 3) the requirement of consultation with Aboriginal peoples on all future constitutional amendments affecting such rights—in the Canadian constitution. (A&P 1991, pp. 289-292, 50-1).
(Background: The Kanehsatake Resistance (Oka Crisis) resulted in a 78-day armed standoff in 1990 revealing deep-seeded systemic anti-Indigenous racism in Canada when Mohawk land defenders opposed plans to expand a golf course onto sacred Mohawk burial land in Kanehsatake (near Oka, QC). The Royal Commission on Aboriginal People was established following the crisis).

1990: General Assembly greeted the World Alliance of Reformed Churches President Rev. Allan and endorsed a call by the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa for continuing support of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa as it pressed for full democratization. General Assembly called on the Government of Canada to implement full economic sanctions and exercise appropriate diplomatic sanctions for the full democratization of South Africa. (A&P 1990, pp. 391, 62, 556, 38)

1988: General Assembly adopted a report by the International Affairs Committee that included a section on apartheid in South Africa, and adopted a recommendation urging that congregations find ways to “give tangible evidence of solidarity with those within the Republic of South Africa and within neighbouring Frontline States who suffer because of injustice, racism and oppression.” (A&P 1988, pp. 367, 51) See also the South Africa section in the Hub’s Human Rights among Peoples and Nations page. (Context note: Frontline States refers to a coalition of Southern African nations that opposed apartheid in South Africa.)

The same report also included a section considering resistance in Canada to welcoming immigrants and refugees and General Assembly adopted a recommendation “that congregations and sessions be asked to explore the connection between racism and resistance to refugees in Canada, particularly as it applies to their own congregations and communities.” (A&P 1988 pp. 368, 51)

1985: General Assembly mandated the Administrative Council to provide guidance to local congregations in complying with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and provincial human rights codes in their capacity as employers. (A&P 1985, p. 44, 55)

1984: General Assembly urged presbyteries and synods sending nominations for committees to use their utmost efforts to see that at least 15% of their submitted nominations be from groups not usually represented, i.e. youth, minorities, the people who are disabled. (A&P 1984, pp. 49)

1981: General Assembly affirmed the value and importance of distinct linguistic, ethnic and cultural ministries in the church, and directed presbyteries to receive pastors from different racial backgrounds qualified for ordination in the Presbyterian/Reformed church of their homeland on the understanding that they would upgrade those qualifications to meet the standards of The PCC after acceptance, in their own language, if necessary. (A&P 1981, pp. 423-5, 92) In light of a recruitment drive by the Ku Klux Klan in Canada, it also endorsed renewed opposition to racism in all its forms. (A&P 1981, pp. 309-310)

1979: General Assembly urged presbyteries to “take measures to see that ethnic congregations are encouraged and enabled to participate fully in the main life of the presbytery and the church and to guard against the isolation of these congregations.” (A&P 1979, p. 414, 85)

1972: General Assembly noted that the Government of Canada ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and asked the government to sign and ratify: The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and the Optional Protocol on Civil and Political Rights. (A&P 1972, pp. 302-303, 70)

General Assembly also approved support for the Program to Combat Racism, established by the World Council of Churches in 1969, through which anti-racism grants were made “to the victims of oppressive regimes…for social, medical, educational and general relief activity” and mandated that a financial contribution be made to the program through the Committee on Inter-Church Aid and Refugee Relief. General Assembly also requested that the Committee on Church Doctrine do a study on the theology of revolution. (This was produced in 1974, see above). (A&P 1972, pp. 269-270, 59, 62)

General Assembly adopted several statements on racism previously adopted by the WCC (in 1954, 1966 & 1968) and the 1971 General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church, USA. (A&P 1972, pp. 269-270, 59)

1964: General Assembly approved a statement calling on the church to study racial and ethnic discrimination in the church and commended the Government of Canada for passing the Bill of Rights and provinces which had enacted Human Rights Codes. (A&P 1964, pp. 353-354, 357, 95-96)

1960: General Assembly called on provincial governments to disallow discrimination in rental units based on race, colour, creed, religion, national origin or place of birth and asked the Government of Canada to include “no discrimination” provisions in National Housing Act transactions and Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation loan agreements. (A&P 1960, pp. 304, 50)

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