James Christie

Office: 2MS07   
Fax: 204.772.2584
Email: j.christie@uwinnipeg.ca

The Reverend Professor Doctor James Taylor Christie, B.Th., M.Div., M.A., D.Min.
Dr. James Christie is Professor of Whole World Ecumenism and Dialogue Theology; former
Dean of the Faculty of Theology of The University of Winnipeg; a life-long ecumenist; and a
pioneer in dialogue theology. In July of 2010, he was appointed Director of the Ridd Institute
for Religion and Global Policy in the Global College of The University of Winnipeg.

A bilingual native of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec, Dr. Christie studied at Bishop's
University, McGill (Birk’s Award; University Scholar), United Theological College in Montreal
(Nordberg Prize for Contextual Theology) and the Toronto School of Theology. His M.A. thesis
in social ethics, Love and Fine Thinking: H.G. Wells and the World State, broke new ground in
examining issues of religion and world order. His doctoral thesis, Beyond Tolerance: Christians
and Jews in Dialogue, which explored historical, biblical and theological issues in interfaith
relations, proposed a 'grass-roots' model for interfaith dialogue.

Dr. Christie has practiced congregational ministry in Montreal, New York State, Toronto and
Ottawa, prior to which he worked in teaching, academic administration and the investment
industry, in which latter category he holds the Qualified Financial Planner designation. He
served on the Emmanuel College Council in Toronto; developed and taught short courses for
Queen's Theological College (now Queen’s School of Religion) and the United Church of
Canada in Faith, Culture and Politics; and designed and taught the first Queen’s course on
Science, Religion and Society: An Emerging Dialogue. From 2002 to 2005, Dr. Christie served
on the Board of the Montreal School of Theology. In 2003, he was Theologian to the Justice
Department of Canada Forum on Genetic Futures, and participated in the first Canadian Church
Leaders’ Study Mission on HIV/AIDS to East Africa. Most recently, Dr. Christie accepted a
visiting Fellowship at the International Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In an extraordinary accolade, Dr. Christie was initiated in July of 2012 as an honorary Chieftain
of the Igbo people of Nigeria, receiving the title of Nwanne Dinamba from the Umunna Igbo
Association of Manitoba, one of the first non-Nigerians to be so recognized.

In the wider church, Dr. Christie has held several senior positions, including Chairperson of
the Presbytery of York, President of Toronto Conference and Interim General Secretary for
Ecumenism and Interfaith Dialogue for the United Church of Canada. He has represented the
United Church on the Faith and Witness Commission of the Canadian Council of Churches,
was a long-time director of both the Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Toronto and the Christian-
Jewish Dialogue of the National Capital Region, and represented the Protestant world at the 49th
World Eucharistic Congress of the Roman Catholic Church. In 2009, both York and Winnipeg
Presbyteries nominated him as a candidate for Moderator of the United Church of Canada.

Dr. Christie is Past President of the Canadian Council of Churches, and served as Secretary
General of the 2010 Religious Leaders’ Summit, a parallel and complementary gathering of
world religious leaders coinciding with the G8 political leaders’ summits. In 2009, he was
appointed to the steering committee of the Interreligious Roundtable of Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation
In April of 2013 in Doha, Qatar, Dr. Christie co-presented, with Dr. Karen Hamilton, General
Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, a history and outcome of the Canadian National
Interfaith Partnership, the forty-seven member coalition of church, multifaith, parachurch and
NGO communities which enabled the Summit and a new and vibrant interfaith conversation in
Canada. In consequence, the Partnership received a 10th
from the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID).

In Manitoba, he serves as the founding convener of The Advisory Committee for the Lt.
Governor’s Award for the Advancement of Interreligious Understanding. In 2012, Dr. Christie
was named to the board of the Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha Foundation, dedicated to the ongoing
work of one of the world’s foremost Sikh and Punjabi scholars.

In 2012, Dr. Christie joined the Board of the Manitoba Multifaith Council, and served as a
Delegated Representative to the 10th meeting in Busan in the Republic of Korea, and as a Delegate to the 9th
Religions for Peace, meeting in Vienna.

An internationalist, Dr. Christie is a leader in the NGO movement for global democracy, UN
reform and human rights, chairing the Council of the World Federalist Movement/Institute for
Global Policy (In 2002, WFM/IGP was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for its leadership in the
coordination of civil society engagement in the International Criminal Court Treaty process
in Rome). He is a regular contributor to the Spinelli Institute’s annual Ventotene Seminars on
European Federalism convened in Italy. In 2012, Dr. Christie was honoured by the World
Federalist Movement – Canada, receiving the Hannah Newcombe Lifetime Achievement Award.
On a more personal note, Dr. Christie serves as Voluntary Associate Minister of Westminster
United Church in Winnipeg; is a Past Master of the Masonic Fraternity; a member of the Scottish
Rite of Freemasonry; and a member of the Robert Burns Club of Winnipeg and a Board member
of the St. Andrew’s Society of Winnipeg.

An author in multiple genres, Dr. Christie is the recipient of the 2013 Associated Church Press
Award of Excellence for: Theological Reflection, Short Format, All Media. His articles, essays
and reviews may be found in The United Church Observer, the Practice of Ministry in Canada,
the Canadian World Federalist, Mondial, the Federalist Debate, Dialogue, Emmaus, Context,
Pilgrimage (the Journal of the C.S. Lewis Society), The Winnipeg Free Press, Christian Week,
Touchstone and The Ottawa Citizen.