At the May 28, 2018 meeting of the Official Board of Glen Morris United Church, a new working committee was struck to review the local governance model, policies and committee mandates of Glen Morris United Church. The Governance Committee completed a preliminary document which was presented to the Official Board on November 29, 2018. The final Governance Document was subsequently ratified at the Congregational Annual General Meeting on February 10, 2019, and came into effect immediately, replacing all previous policies and committee mandates of the church.

This updated revision is the result of extensive work by the Governance Committee in 2020. It will be presented to the Official Board on November 19, 2020.

The Governance Committee wishes to express our sincere thanks to the Reverend Roy Holton whose guidance and assistance in preparing the original document was invaluable. The committee also wishes to thank the Reverend Michiko Bown-Kai for their assistance in preparing this 2020 revision.

In future, this Governance Document shall be reviewed for revisions by the Executive Committee of the Official Board every three years, then presented to the Official Board for approval and forwarded to the congregation at the next Annual General Meeting for adoption.

It should be noted that the Ordered Minister is a voting ex-officio member of all church committees, except for the Ministry & Personnel Committee; the Nominating Committee; and the Search Committee. Since the Ordered Minister is not a member of the congregation, they cannot vote at congregational meetings.

Appendix #3 of the United Church Manual (2019) is a guide to “rules of order” for church committees. Chairs of all committees should familiarize themselves with this resource and have it available at meetings.

Respectfully submitted

Liz DeGroote, Bill Labron, Robert Williams

ALL GOVERNANCE, POLICIES AND AGREEMENTS, AS WELL AS OUR WEDDING BROCHURE, ARE AVAILABLE HERE