THE REV. DR. ALYSON HUNTLY

For Alyson Huntly, theological education is about participating in a ministry of transformation. As a young person, she developed a passion for theological education after being introduced to Christian grassroots leaders in Managua, Nicaragua, who understood learning as personal and social transformation, tied up in the Christ’s activity of transforming the world through love. 

Alyson first came to the United Theological College in 1989 where she worked for three years as Director of Lay Education. Since 2011, she has served as Director of Pastoral Studies at UTC and is now moving into the role of Director of United Church Studies at Dio. Across her experience at UTC, she has valued the diversity and inclusion that is present there. In the early to late 1980s, UTC was one of the rare places in the church where LGBTQ people were welcomed and somewhat safe. She finds that the college has always felt like a welcoming place and that it continues to be a place where diversity is valued. Highlights of her time include shared meals and worship, all the crazy wonderful community nights that students led, retreats, and most of all, the students. “It is such a privilege to be part of someone’s journey of formation for ministry”, she says. Alyson values working ecumenically and looks forward to this new strategic alliance. She believes that diversity pulls us out of whatever ruts we are in, broadens our outlook, and deepens our sense of who we are and what we are about. “New ways of being church can emerge from that.” As such, she views the strategic alliance as “an incredible gift both for faculty and for students.  Alyson is a diaconal minister in the United Church of Canada and prior to arriving at UTC worked in congregational ministry in Ottawa.

THE REV. ANGELIKA PICHÉ

Angelika grew up and studied theology in Germany. She has lived in Montreal for over 20 years with her Québécois partner and family, where she has served in different ministry settings. She is ordained in the United Church of Canada and is a member of the General Council Ministry in French Team as well as a faculty member at UTC since 2010. Angelika is responsible for theological formation in French. Her teaching is influenced by her longstanding intercultural and ecumenical experience and her passion for the development of innovative ministries in the current secular, pluralistic, francophone context. She enters into the new strategic alliance with much hope to have new opportunities to bridge the anglophone and francophone cultures and to help build French and bilingual ministries.