and that "all members of the United Church are eligible to be considered for ordered ministry." Taken together, these two statements opened the door for openly gay men and women to join the ministry. Many members opposed this, and over the next four years, membership fell by 78,184. In some cases, entire congregations split, with a sizeable faction—sometimes led by the minister—leaving to form an independent church. Some of those opposed to the gay ordination issue chose to stay in the church, and formed the Community of Concern, a voice of conservatism within the church. 1990s In the 1990s, the United Church faced the legacy of cultural assimilation and child abuse in the residential schools that it had once helped to operate. On May 24, 1992, Tim Stevenson was the first openly gay minister ordained by the United Church of Canada. On August 17, 1992, the first Native Canadian (First Nations) Moderator, the Reverend Stan McKay, a Cree man, was elected at the 34th General Council. Two years later, the church established a "Healing Fund". This was followed in 1998 by an apology made by the church to former students of United Church Indian Residential Schools. At the 35th General Council in 1994, commissioners voted to have General Councils every three years rather than every two years. This also increased the length of term of Moderators from two to three years. The original General Council office of the church built in 1925 resided on increasingly valuable land on St. Clair Avenue in downtown Toronto, Ontario. In 1995, facing increasing financial pressure from falling donations, the church sold the building and moved out to the suburb of Etobicoke. In 1996, a new hymnary, Voices United, replaced the joint United-Anglican The Hymn Book. Response from congregations was enthusiastic, and by 2010, over 300,000 copies had been printed. In 1996, the Committee on Archives and History compiled the "Guide to family history research in the archival repositories of the United Church of Canada". In 1997, the Reverend Bill Phipps was elected Moderator at the 36th General Council. Controversy again descended on the church when later the same year, Phipps stated in an interview that 'I don't believe Jesus was God' and that he did not believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead. 2000s In the new century, membership and givings both continued to drop, and in 2001 the General Council offices were