About the Hilliker Lectureship
This Lectureship was established by the Chalmers congregation to honour the engaging preaching ministry of the Rev. Dr. C. Wayne Hilliker. His tenure as Minister at Chalmers United Church began in 1983 and continued until his retirement in 2005 when he was named Minister Emeritus. When Queen’s University awarded him a Doctor of Divinity degree in 2006, the citation read in part:
“Wayne Hilliker’s ministry has been unfaltering…particularly in lifting up the significance of preaching and by keeping matters of theology, faith, and life in the public eye. His voice became one of the most clear and most provocative in Canada’s liberal Christian community.”
In keeping with this preaching tradition, the Lectureship strives to obtain annually for the Chalmers congregation and the larger Church community, a widely respected guest preacher/speaker who demonstrates a similar openness to changing perspectives in theological and biblical studies.
Upcoming Hilliker Lectureship
2020
Due to Covid – 19 there will not be a Lectureship this year.
Past Hilliker Lectureships
2019
Rev. Dr. Bill Morrow
Rev. Dr. Bill Morrow, Professor of Hebrew and Hebrew Scriptures, Queen’s University School of Religion. He also has taught Old Testament studies at Queen’s Theological College from 1987-2015. Author of many pieces on biblical and ancient Near Eastern literature, much of his scholarship has dealt with images of trauma and violence in the Bible.
2018
Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers
Pastor of Mayflower United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. Author of 7 books including one with the provocative title “Saving Jesus from the Church”. It has as its subtitle: ‘How to stop worshipping Christ and Start Following Jesus’.
2017
Dr. Andrew Donaldson
Dr. Andrew Donaldson is a teacher and animateur of congregational song, a composer and lyricist. Co-‐editor of The Book of Praise for the Presbyterian Church in Canada.
2016
Rev. Jason Byassee and Mary Jo Leddy
Jason Byassee
Inaugural Butler Chair in Homiletics and Biblical Hermeneutics at Vancouver School of Theology. Author of many books including Trinity: The God We Don’t Know (Abingdon, 2015) and The Gifts of the Small Church (Abingdon, 2010).
Mary Jo Leddy
is a Canadian writer, speaker, theologian and social activist, widely recognized for her work with refugees at Toronto’s Romero House where she has been the director since 1991. Author of many books including Say to the Darkness We Beg to Differ (Lester and Orpen Denys), At the Border Called Hope: Where Refugees are Neighbours (HarperCollins, 1997) and Radical Gratitude (Orbis Books, 2002).
2015
Rev. Bruce Sanguin
Bruce Sanguin Writer and Minister at Canadian Memorial United Church in Vancouver. Author of several acclaimed books including Darwin, Divinity and the Dance of the Cosmos; If Darwin Prayed; and The Emerging Church, as well as the host of an online learning site Home for Evolving Mystics.
2014
Rev. Christopher White
Chris White has been the Senior Minister and Team Leader at Fairlawn United Church since 2010. Writer for the United Church Observer.
2013
Rev. Dr. Kate Crawford
Kate Crawford Minister at Huron Shores United Church, Grand Bend, Ontario. Her doctoral work focused on Medieval England and much of her ministry has been in Atlantic Canada.
2012
Michael Webster
Michael Webster is a United Church minister, serving at St. Martin’s United Church in Saskatoon. His background in journalism includes membership on the writing team for Growing Together, the online publication of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism.
2011
Rabbi Margaret Wenig (invited but had to cancel)
2010
Catherine Faith MacLean and Lillian Daniel
Catherine Faith MacLean
Minister at St. Paul’s United Church in Edmonton. An author of A Song of Faith, the newest statement of faith of the United Church of Canada.
Lillian Daniel
Minister at First Congregational Church of Dubuque in 2016. Publications include Tell It Like It Is: Reclaiming the Practice of Testimony – the story of one church’s attempt to get people to talk to each other about God, and When Being Spiritual but Not Religious Is Not Enough.
2009
Dr. Richard Ward
Ordained in the United Church of Christ and member of the US Academy of Homiletics. Author of a number of books including Speaking from the Heart: Preaching with Passion, and Speaking of the Holy: The Art of Communication Preaching.
2008
Rev. Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor
Barbara Brown Taylor is an American Episcopal priest, professor, author and theologian and is one of the United States’ best known preachers.
2007
Dr. Christine Smith and Rev. Dr. G. Malcolm Sinclair
Christine Smith
Professor of Preaching and Worship at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, New Brighton, Minnesota, and author of Preaching as Weeping, Confession and Resistance: Radical Responses to Radical Evil.
Malcolm Sinclair
Minister at the Metropolitan United Church in Toronto since 1988.
2006
Rev. Dr. Thomas G. Long
Thomas Long is the Bandy Professor of Preaching at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1996, Dr. Long was named one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English speaking world by Baylor University, along with the likes of Fred Craddock, Billy Graham, James Forbes, Barbara Brown Taylor and William Willimon.