United Church elects Carmen Lansdowne as 1st Indigenous woman to lead a religious denomination in Canada

A minister in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside has become the first Indigenous woman to lead a religious denomination in Canada.

On Saturday, the United Church of Canada elected Rev. Carmen Lansdowne as its new moderator. The position makes her the institution's spiritual leader and public representative, while policies and doctrine are overseen by a general council.

The Heiltsuk (Haíɫzaqv) Nation member, also known as Kwisa'lakw, helms First United in the Downtown Eastside. It offers food, housing and showers to low-income residents.

"Our safety nets are not adequately responding to their needs," Lansdowne said in an interview.

Churches should be "speaking truth to power" on issues like poverty, housing, Indigenous rights, and climate change, crises that "play out" tragically in the Downtown Eastside, she said.

"But they're issues that affect all Canadians. I think the church should have something to say."

Her election comes 36 years after the denomination became the first to apologize for abuses against Indigenous children in its residential schools.

"There are divisions or mixed feelings, and rightly so, within the Indigenous community about Christianity," Lansdowne said. "And at the same time ... the Christian story has been one that has been hopeful for some Indigenous people."

Lansdowne said she "stands on the shoulders" of Alberta Billy, a We Wei Kai First Nation elder who died June 13. Billy was among a group of Indigenous elders who demanded the institution make amends in the 1980s. 

That historic apology came in 1986, but the elders did not accept it, instead acknowledging it was received.

"That was a huge gift and challenge to the church," Lansdowne said.

In 1992, Cree Rev. Stan McKay became the church's first Indigenous moderator. Thirty years later, Lansdowne was the only nominee.

Lansdowne's leadership of what was once one of the country's most powerful denominations is a sign of change, said Rev. Ray Aldred, director of the Vancouver School of Theology's Indigenous studies program.