October 2025
Many of our churches have been in existence for a great number of years and originally applied for their charitable status at a time when it was simply assumed by all parties, that Christian churches by their very nature, would be engaging in charitable activities, both in obedience to scriptural instruction and also directly as a result of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ, which brings blessing in every society.
It’s encouraging for our churches to receive this update from The EFC (see below), that Charitable Status is not under review in Canada. But, this is an opportune time for churches to review their founding documents to see exactly what they specify in regards to their charitable activities.
While the charitable objectives and outcomes of our churches have not changed and are no different today than they were before, it’s clear that many local city and provincial authorities seem woefully ignorant of the scope of these kinds of activities being carried out by our churches each day and their tangible benefit to society in general.
Recently, in looking through the constitution of one of our local churches, the word charity was not mentioned anywhere in its ‘Purposes’ clause. This church has always held its charitable activities and external giving as a very high priority and budget item.
This church would certainly not qualify for charitable status in terms of current CRA requirements, should it be applying today.
While our churches could always hope to rely on ‘grandfathering’ provisions should any major changes be considered in the future by any level of government, it should be obvious to all discerning leaders that this is not a certain thing at all in our rapidly changing world, notwithstanding the temporary reprieve and accommodation which now seems to be in place.
In order to pass possible future scrutiny by government, it may therefore be a prudent time for our churches to take a thoughtful look at the current CRA requirements for a new society wishing to apply for charitable status, and then consider modifying its own constitution document as may be needed, to line up with these basic requirements, yet without compromising our main objectives in any way.
Canada Revenue Agency—Charitable Status #
We continue to hear from many churches concerned about possible changes to charitable status. We haven’t seen any direct communications from the Finance Minister on the government’s plans, but there are MPs going on the record to indicate there are no plans to change charitable status for religious organizations.