Our TST Award recipient from the United Church was Lois Wilson.

An ordained minister of the United Church of Canada (’65) and its first female Moderator (’80 – ’82). President of both the Canadian (’76 – ’79) and  World (’83 – ’91) Council of Churches. Chancellor of Lakehead University (’91 – ’00). An Independent Senator (’98 – ’02), she worked with Sudan and North Korea and founded the Senate’s Standing Committee on Human Rights. Fifteen honorary degrees and awards include the Canadian U.N. Pearson Peace Prize (’84) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Award for Public Engagement (2014). Married to Rev. Dr. Roy Wilson, she has four children, twelve grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Quotes from Award Presenter, Nancy Hardy:

“As Moderator of the United Church and as a member of the World Council of Churches, Lois travelled all over the world and she reminded us that we are both givers and receivers…in this particular issue [of Mission Magazine] she reflects on a trip to Quanzhou, South Korea in 1981. South Korea was under martial law. A number of university students – 20,000 – had been massacred in Quanzhou when they were peacefully demonstrating… And later on she went to Argentina which she called a society in convulsion and she talked to the mothers of May Square, the mothers of children who had disappeared in Argentina and she talked to them about the career women of Quanzhou and she brought back a letter from Argentina to the mothers of South Korea who said “we are united by injustice, by a grief that had no frontiers. And throughout her long and illustrious life, Lois has continued to connect us to other parts of the world reminding us of the gifts we receive, calling us to live in justice and right relations.”

Nancy Hardy

“You wouldn’t believe this but a few years ago, Lois celebrated her 85th birthday. Now most of us would have a birthday cake and a great dinner to which we’d invite hundreds of people. But this is not Lois’ style. So she organized a symposium on religious and public policy and invited friends from Cuba, Germany and the United States to be part of it. When the crowds came, and I do mean crowds – it was supposed to be at Emmanuel but that was too small – so it was moved to the Old Vic Chapel. She looked around and she saw people of many ages and thought, you know, those young people don’t know the stories. They don’t know the stories and how could they? They weren’t born when much of this took place. So after some thought, conversation and a discovery that when a loved and admired friend died she would note in her Bible the name, date and scripture text used at the funeral. So she decided to put this book together. It is an amazing combination of personal reflection, biblical exegesis, historical context and contemporary relevance.”

Nancy Hardy on Lois Wilson’s latest book I Want to be in That Number