Tim Stevenson - Background

Background

Stevenson received a B.A. from the University of British Columbia, a M.A., Spirituality from Holy Names College in Oakland, California and a M.Div from the Vancouver School of Theology. In 1992 he was ordained by the British Columbia conference of the United Church of Canada. Although there were already United Church ministers at the time who had revealed their homosexuality, they had they had only done so some time after their ordinations, when they had already ministered at one or more churches—Stevenson was the first openly gay person to be ordained by the United Church of Canada. In 1993 he was hired as the minister of St. Paul's United Church in Burnaby, after being first promised a job at a church in Winnipeg and then rejected due to controversy about his homosexuality within the congregation. He also served as a board member at the First United Church in the Downtown Eastside for 10 years.

Stevenson has worked in the Philippines and South Africa. In 1991 he was a Canadian representative at the African National Congress conference in Durban when Nelson Mandela was elected ANC party president. In 1994 he was an international observer in South Africa's first election after the fall of apartheid. Also in South Africa he has worked with the Black Liberation Gay and Lesbian Movement and other organizations that focus on social injustices.