History

Bishop Ashton Oxenden of Montreal founds Montreal Diocesan Theological College. Bishop Oxenden hires J.A. Lobley of Cambridge University to serve as the first principal and only member of faculty. In 1879, the College was formally incorporated by an act of the Legislature of the Province of Quebec and in 1880, the College formally affiliated with McGill University. Those initial beginnings—a warm, but not formal relationship with the Diocese of Montreal and a formal affiliation with McGill—continue to shape the trajectory of Montreal Dio nearly 150 years later.

In 1879, after being chartered by the Legislature of the Province of Quebec and establishing a board, Dio submitted an application to be affiliated with McGill University. The application was accepted in January of 1880.

A year later, in 1881, Andrew Frederick Gault, a parishioner at St. George’s Anglican Church, purchased Saybrooke Hall (846 Dorchester St.) to be used as the first college building. The college was there from 1881 to 1896.

The College moves into its new building on University Street, with a service of dedication on October 21. The building is paid for and endowed by A. Frederick Gault, a prominent layman in the diocese.

The Protestant theological colleges in Montreal, including Dio, form the Joint Board of Theological Colleges Affiliated with McGill University (now known as the Montreal School of Theology). This is the oldest ecumenical theological education consortium in North America. The consortium has allowed theological education to thrive in Montreal within a small and supportive environment.

Divinity Hall (now known as the Birks Building) is constructed on University Street to provide a common teaching area and library for the affiliated colleges. It continues to serve as the home of what is now known as the School of Religious Studies.

Following many years of negotiations, the McGill Faculty of Divinity is established thanks to the generous gifts of the Joint Board. The Joint Board transfers many of its assets—including the Birks Building and several endowed professorships—to McGill. In return, McGill undertakes to continue to enroll students preparing for ministry and make space in its teaching and governance for college-affiliated faculty.

The Faculty of Religious Studies and the affiliated colleges receive their first visit from the American Association of Theological Schools and is accredited for its degree programs. The Montreal School of Theology received its first separate accreditation for the Master of Divinity degree in 1989.

In 1964, Barbara Simons was the first woman to graduate from the Bachelor of Divinity at Dio. Barbara was a teacher, qualifying herself to teach divinity in schools. It would be another 14 years before another woman graduated from the college, Cynthia Hubbard in 1978, who obtained a Master of Sacred Theology.

From 1966 to 1975, the United Theological College moved into Dio’s building. UTC rented office space from Dio throughout this period and the students shared a residence. The Anglican and United Churches were at the time in talks about unification so the separate identities of the colleges were de-emphasized.

The Joint Board institutes the In Ministry Year, a program of professional training for ministry in which students spend an extended period of time working in a parish while also taking courses on pastoral care, mission, preaching, and other related subjects. The In Ministry Year continues to serve as the capstone of the Master of Divinity and a model of contextual theological education.

In 1981 the college implemented its first round of evening courses for lay people, known initially as “Learners’ Workshops”, similar to what we now call our Open Enrolment Courses.

In February of 1995, In Ministry Year students went to Mexico on the college’s first immersion experience in global Christianity. This trip was the first of what we now call our Intercultural Encounter.

In the summer of 2003, Dio hosted the first Montreal Ministry Challenge, a program designed for young people to explore a vocation to ministry. This program exists today as the Montreal Mission Internship.

McGill University and the colleges of the Montreal School of Theology, including Dio, renew the Memorandum of Understanding for a further 25 years, ensuring the long-term future of ministry training on University St. in Montreal. In the process, the Faculty of Religious Studies becomes a School of Religious Studies.

Montreal Dio and the United Theological College entered into a strategic alliance wherein UTC students and faculty moved into the Dio building. UTC and Dio operated for the academic year as two colleges under one principalship.

In agreement documents approved by the Dio and UTC Boards of Governors at separate meetings on April 21, 2022, Dio agreed to formally launch a United Church Studies Program that will prepare students for ordered ministry in the United Church of Canada.