The United Church of Canada is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholic Church in Canada.
The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), also known as the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), is an international LGBT-affirming mainline Protestant Christian denomination. There are 222 member congregations in 37 countries, and the fellowship has a specific outreach to members of the LGBTQ community.
William Livingstone Siksay is a Canadian politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) who represented the British Columbia riding of Burnaby—Douglas for the New Democratic Party from 2004 to 2011.
William Frederick Allen Phipps was a Canadian ordained minister of the United Church of Canada, lawyer and social activist. He served as the 36th Moderator of the United Church of Canada from 1997 to 2000, and engendered controversy for expressing support for gay ordination and not believing in a physical Resurrection of Jesus.
The Presbyterian Church in Canada is a Presbyterian denomination, serving in Canada under this name since 1875. The United Church of Canada claimed the right to the name from 1925 to 1939. According to the Canada 2021 Census 301,400 Canadians identify themselves as Presbyterian, that is, 0.8 percent of the population.
Tim Stevenson is a Canadian politician and United Church minister. He served as councillor on the Vancouver City Council from 2002 to 2018, initially as a member of the Coalition of Progressive Electors and from 2005 as a member of Vision Vancouver. He was a founding member of Vision Vancouver.
Reverend Walter George Brown was a Presbyterian Church in Canada minister who opposed the formation of the United Church of Canada and was a United Reform Movement MP in the House of Commons of Canada.
Peter Elliott is a Canadian priest. He is the former (retired) rector of Christ Church Cathedral and Dean of New Westminster in the Anglican Church of Canada. Elliott grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario. In 1976 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and philosophy from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. Subsequently, he attended and graduated from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1981 he was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Niagara. Prior to coming to Vancouver he was Director of Ministries in Church and Society with the Anglican Church of Canada. In 1994, Elliott was made rector of Christ Church Cathedral and Dean of New Westminster. He retired in October 2019 after 25 years.
Sir Iain Richard Torrance, is a retired Church of Scotland minister, theologian and academic. He is Pro-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen, Honorary Professor of Early Christian Doctrine and Ethics at the University of Edinburgh, President and Professor of Patristics Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, and an Extra Chaplain to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in Scotland. He was formerly Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland, and Dean of the Order of the Thistle. He is married to Morag Ann, whom he met while they were students at the University of St Andrews, and they have two children.
Arthur Bruce Barbour Moore was an ordained minister of the United Church of Canada who served as president and Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University in the University of Toronto, Chancellor of the University of Toronto, and as the 24th Moderator of the United Church of Canada.
The Very Reverend is an honorific style given to higher-ranking members of a clergy. The definite article "the" should always precede "Reverend" when used before a name, because "Reverend" is an honorific adjective, not a title.
The ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) clergy who are open about their sexuality or gender identity; are sexually active if lesbian, gay, or bisexual; or are in committed same-sex relationships is a debated practice within some contemporary Christian denominations.
The Anglican Church of Canada is the third largest church in Canada, after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada. After many years of debate, the first blessing of a same-sex partnership took place in 2003, by the Diocese of New Westminster, in Vancouver. This was not considered a marriage ceremony, but rather a blessing of "permanent and faithful commitments" between persons of the same sex.
Although the United Church of Canada is one of the few mainstream Christian denominations to both ordain LGBTQ clergy and consecrate same-sex marriages, support for these issues have caused deep divisions within the church.
Jordan Cantwell was the Moderator of the United Church of Canada from 2015 to 2018. She was ordained as a minister of the United Church in 2010, and was elected to the position of Moderator at the 42nd General Council of the church in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, in 2015.
Christopher Mackie Ferguson is a Canadian pastor, theologian and social justice advocate from the United Church of Canada. He served as general secretary of the World Communion of Reformed Churches from August 2014 through August 2021.
William Paterson Paterson FRSE DD LLD (1860–1939) was a Scottish minister of the Church of Scotland. He was professor of divinity at the University of Edinburgh from 1904 to 1934. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1919. He was central to the reunification of the United Free Church of Scotland with the Church of Scotland in 1929.
John M. K. Paterson was a Scottish minister. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1984.
Richard Bott is a minister of the United Church of Canada who served as the 43rd Moderator of that church from 2018 to 2022.
Matthew Stewart was a Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1947.
