In office 1974-1977 Profession Minister Ordination 1941 | Successor George M. Tuttle Predecessor Bruce McLeod | |
Church United Church of Canada Born February 29, 1912
Toronto, Ontario ( 1912-02-29 ) Died 17 April 2001, Toronto, Canada Alma maters Victoria University, Toronto, Emmanuel College, Toronto, Union Theological Seminary, University of Winnipeg | ||
Wilbur Kenneth Howard (February 29, 1912 - April 17, 2001) was the first black person to be ordained in the United Church of Canada and, in 1974, became the denomination's first black moderator. He was elected Moderator after the fifth ballot during the meeting of the 26th General Council in Guelph, Ontario. To date, he is the only black person to hold this position within the United Church of Canada.
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Early life
Howard was born on February 29, 1912, in the Davenport neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. He received his education at Brock Public School and Bloor Collegiate Institute. Little is known about Howard's family, except that both his father and brother were railway porters. Despite the cultural expectations of the time that, as a black person, he would work in the labour industry, Howard continued with his education and eventually earned a B.A. from Victoria College in 1938. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Divinity from Emmanuel College, becoming the first black person to graduate from that theological school in 1941. Rather than following in his family's footsteps, he was called to the ministry and later that year was ordained by the Toronto Conference of the United Church of Canada, making history once again as the first black person to be ordained in the United Church.
Ministry
Howard's first experience of the United Church came when he was invited by a neighbouring white family to attend with them. This became a regular part of Howard's early life and eventually led to his calling to the ministry. "The result", writes Adam Kilner in one of his biographies of Howard, "was his calling into the ministry of a segregated church at a segregated time, even in polite Canada."