This past year, it’s been a joy to share with the United Church community stories of faith, hope, and progress from throughout our century-long history, in celebration of the 100-year anniversary of church union on June 10, 1925.   

But did you know that the story of union began even earlier than that? The history of local union churches, which were established prior to 1925, shows how the spirit of unity, of reaching out to your neighbours of a common faith, has always been integral to the United Church’s identity.  
An article from the Regina Leader-Post, April 4, 1913.
An article from the Regina Leader-Post, April 4, 1913.
An article available online from The Ecumenical Review by Rev. Dr. Hyuk Cho, a United Church minister and professor at the Vancouver School of Theology, explores that story in detail.  Following the national unions of the Presbyterian Church in Canada and Methodist Church of Canada in 1875 and 1885 respectively, “the notion of a more inclusive Protestant union had gained momentum,” Cho writes, an idea that had been a “long-cherished hope” of church leaders who longed to be able to meet the spiritual needs of Canadians in every community. In 1908, a Joint Committee on Church Union, established to explore the feasibility of union, produced the “Basis of Union,” a document that declared the “common convictions and deep spiritual affinities among the uniting churches,” and rejected the idea of denominational competition