Leadership Counts Midterm Report Results Released

Leadership Counts is an ongoing voluntary identity survey for ministry personnel and members of national committees. Designed to inform the United Church’s strategic plan and anti-oppression work, it reveals barriers to full participation, and helps us identify how to meet our commitments more effectively.

The recently released midterm report indicates that by June 2023, more than 1,750 people had participated in the survey. Seventy-five percent of national committee members (including both lay and ministry personnel) completed the survey.

However, just over half of active ministry personnel and candidates have participated; overall, 38.2 percent of all ministry personnel have participated, including active ministers, retired ministers, admission ministers, and those on medical leave.

“Leadership Counts lays important groundwork for encouraging and implementing our church’s commitments to anti-racism, equity, and diversity among leadership,” says Marcie Gibson, Diaconal Minister, chair of the response committee of the Office of Vocation. “We can only know how we’re doing when we can look at the whole picture and how it is changing from our efforts and intentionality. I want to help take the guesswork out of national nominations processes. We know that even having a diversity of people and voices at the table changes conversations for the better.”

More than 40 percent of ministers name one or more of the identities to which the church has made full-participation commitments. These commitments are to individuals who identify as Indigenous; racialized; Francophone or active in French ministries; a person whose primary language is other than French or English; 2SLGBTQIA+; a person with a disability; and young adults aged 30 or younger.

Among active ordained and diaconal ministers who identify as (non-Indigenous) racialized, 61 percent were admitted from other denominations, and 39 percent have been ordained or commissioned in the United Church. The survey data also shows more than 40 languages are spoken by ministry personnel, with Korean, Dutch, Spanish, and Shona being the most cited.

The midterm report shows that while there is considerable diversity among the church’s leadership, there is much work to do on ensuring full participation for everyone in the life and work of the church. It does also, however, provide a starting point that will identify our continued progress.

Background

In November 2021, the United Church launched Leadership Counts, a voluntary identity survey for ministry personnel and members of national committees. The survey focused on seven specific identities that are a part of the church’s commitment to equity and dismantling barriers to full participation.

The identities surveyed were:

• Indigenous identity
• Racialized identity
• Francophone identity or participating in French ministries
• People whose primary language is neither English nor French
• 2SLGBTQIA+
• Young adults aged 30 and younger
• People with disabilities

The survey offered respondents the opportunity to share more information on how they see themselves—how they name their cultures, their languages, their racial identities, their genders, their orientations, and their disabilities.

Read more about Leadership Counts, or download the full midterm report.