A recent report demonstrates that membership of the Anglican Church of Canada declined by 50% in the 40 years between 1961 and 2001. It declined by another 44% in the 16 years between 2001 and 2017. Such trends have encouraged the Diocese of Toronto to prioritize the development of “transformational” and “missional” leaders who can innovate and “adopt new models of formation and diversity.” Moreover, in 2011, 55% of Canadians reported either having no religion (25%) or having disaffiliated from any form of religion. These figures have risen dramatically for the last decade.[Brian Clarke & Stuart Macdonald, Leaving Christianity: Changing Allegiances in Canada since 1945 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017), 198-206.]

Increasingly, ordination committees in the Diocese of Toronto (on which a member of Faculty serves) are signaling that candidates who do not display the capacity to respond to these challenges will not be accepted for leadership positions.

The same challenges face Orthodox churches, both Eastern and Oriental, though the demographic trends are often masked by ongoing immigration for the time being.

Watch for information on this site as the mentors and mission sites are chosen.

The plan is to coordinate the scholarship so that a student may be recruited to begin PhD studies in September 2023.