Carmen Lansdowne (born 1975) is a minister of the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (UCC; ) 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 United Chu ...

who is currently the 44th Moderator of that church. Lansdowne is the first Indigenous woman to lead a religious denomination in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Early life and education

Lansdowne was born in

Alert Bay Alert Bay is a village on Cormorant Island, near the town of Port McNeill on northeast Vancouver Island, in the Regional District of Mount Waddington, British Columbia, Canada. Demographics In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statist ...

on the West Coast of Canada as a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation. She earned an M.Div from

Vancouver School of Theology The Vancouver School of Theology is a Christian ecumenical divinity school located on the campus of and affiliated with the University of British Columbia. Faculty * Mari Joerstad, Dean, Professor of Hebrew Bible * Joni Sancken, Professor of H ...

(VST) in 2007, and was subsequently ordained as a minister of the United Church of Canada. She then earned a ThM from VST in 2011, and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

Graduate Theological Union The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is a consortium of eight private independent American Seminary, theological schools and eleven centers and affiliates. Seven of the theological schools are located in Berkeley, California. The GTU was founded ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

in 2016.

Ministry

In 2017, Lansdowne became the Executive Director of First United Church Community Ministry Society in Vancouver. She is a Christ Institute Fellow with the

Westar Institute The Westar Institute, founded by Robert W. Funk in 1985, is a member-supported nonprofit educational institute with a twofold mission: * To foster collaborative, cumulative research in religious studies * To communicate the results of the schola ...

Moderator

Lansdowne was the only nomination to be 44th moderator, and was elected at the 44th General Council of the church in July 2022, the processes of the United Church having no option for acclamation. She was the first Indigenous woman chosen to be moderator, and only the second Indigenous person, the first being

Stan McKay Stanley John McKay (born 1942), known as Stan McKay, is a Canadian Protestant minister from Fisher River Cree Nation, Manitoba. He served as the 34th Moderator of the United Church of Canada and is the first Indigenous person to have led a mainli ...

in 1992. Her election, Lansdowne said, spoke to "the time in which we live, as Canadians become more educated and aware of the calls to action from the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...

, as well as the several hundred recommendations from the final report of the

Royal Commission on Aboriginal People The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) was a Canadian royal commission established in 1991 with the aim of investigating the relationship between Indigenous peoples in Canada, the Government of Canada, and Canadian society as a whole. ...

and the calls to justice from the National Inquiry on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls. These are all catalysts, alongside the confirmation of unmarked graves at residential schools, for the need for deeper dialogue and learning about a relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians." At the start of her term, Lansdowne said she planned "To build new connections and rebuild old ones. To work towards social change that sees a world cared for, and human dignity honoured. To walk together every day in repentance and reconciliation. To march and fight and change unjust systems together. To pray together. To sing together. To discern together."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lansdowne, Carmen Moderators of the United Church of Canada Living people Ministers of the United Church of Canada 1975 births Heiltsuk people