Canadian Interfaith Conversation nominating body who secured awards for 75 Canadian faith leaders, at the request of the Governor General
Seven individuals within the United Church were awarded King Charles III Coronation Medals for their outstanding service in fostering respect and understanding of religious traditions in Canada, interfaith cooperation, and the positive contribution of faith communities to Canadian civil society.
These individuals were nominated because of their work through the United Church by the Canadian Interfaith Conversation nominating body who secured awards for 75 Canadian faith leaders, at the request of the Governor General. The Very Rev. Dr. Marion Pardy, one of the seven, was awarded her medal earlier this year.
“The awarding of coronation medals is an old practice, recognizing that when honouring a new head of state, we also want to take an opportunity to recognize the thousands of others also serving society,” says Richard Chambers, interim administrator, Canadian Interfaith Conversation. “There are, no doubt, many other United Church members who may have been honoured this past year with a King Charles III Medal, but we want to share those we knew about who are specifically being honoured because of their work with the United Church.”
1. Gail Allan
Dr. Gail Allan participates in the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) and chaired the planning committee that brought the annual NAIN Connect conference to Toronto in 2013. From 2014–2020 she was co-chair of the National Muslim Christian Liaison Committee, and helped establish the Christian Interfaith Reference Group of the Canadian Council of Churches, serving as its chair for several years.
From 2004–2020, she was coordinator for interfaith relations in The United Church of Canada, representing the church in national and international interfaith groups, and supporting dialogue and action in local communities. Now living in Edmonton, she currently serves as president of the board for Edmonton Interfaith Centre for Education and Action.
2. Diane Dwarka
Diane Dwarka has been president of many local, provincial and national organizations, including the Community Legal Education Association (the first non-lawyer president), Canadian Council for Multicultural and Intercultural Education, Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada, Red River College Alumni, and the Council of Caribbean Organizations of Manitoba. She is a board member of Marshall McLuhan Initiative, and chair, St. Andrews Theological College Board of Regents, as well as active in many governance bodies of The United Church of Canada.
She has received many awards, including a YM-YWCA Women of Distinction Award, Red River College Distinguished Alumnus Award, Premier’s Award for Volunteerism, Public Legal Education Award, B'nai Brith Human Rights Award, Canadian Race Relations Community Champion Award, and the ANSAR award from ISSA Inc. She was 2014 Folklorama Ambassador General, and received an eagle feather for involvement in Indigenous education.
3. Adele Halliday
Adele Halliday is currently The United Church of Canada’s Anti-Racism and Equity Lead, and she brings a sense of call, personal passion, and a deep dedication to her work. She is an experienced faith-based anti-racism educator who has been involved in anti-oppression with faith communities for more than 15 years, and who is committed to working towards systemic change. An award-winning writer, her most recent writing is a chapter in the upcoming book: Decolonizing Church, Theology, and Ethics in Canada.
A sought-after speaker, Adele leads anti-racism keynotes and workshops for diverse faith communities across Canada and around the world, including most recently the “Berlin 1884–1885 and Anti-Black Racism: In Search of a Shared Anti-Racist Ecumenical Vision” conference in Berlin, Germany, in May 2025. Adele is currently the co-moderator of the World Council of Churches' Reference Group on Overcoming Racism and Xenophobia. She is completing her doctorate in education in Social Justice Education, with a particular focus on policies and practices related to anti-racism education and advocacy. Adele has also been approved to be ordained by the United Church in the fall of 2025.
4. Karen Hamilton
Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton is a leader in international, national, regional, and local interfaith and ecumenical creative initiatives. She served as Canada's second-longest-serving General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, which represents more than 85 percent of the Christians in this country, from 2002 to 2017.
Together with Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and Indigenous leaders, she brought a faith-based response to a World Religions Summit, to advocate for economic and environmental justice and peace when the Canadian government hosted the G8 in 2010. This event catalyzed the interfaith cooperation that led to the creation of the Canadian Interfaith Conversation, an ongoing forum to discern and advance the role of religious communities as contributors to the common good.
In 2018, Dr. Hamilton co-chaired the Parliament of the World's Religions, which brought together 8,000 participants for the Parliament's first time in Canada and was awarded a global prize for Best Practices in Interfaith Dialogue by the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue, based in Qatar. She has chaired the Canadian Christian Jewish Consultation, and co-created and co-teaches an interfaith course for Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Israel and Palestine. She is the author of Faith as Protest: Answering the Call to Mend the World, published in 2023. She has helped sponsor Syrian and Afghan Muslim refugee families and organized and spoken at ecumenical and interfaith panels, workshops, and presentations, including preaching in Rome.
5. Rob Hankinson
Rev. Rob Hankinson offers support for inter-church and interfaith programs and activities seeking social justice. In 1985, Rob was a member of the first Canada-USSR ecumenical study tour. He served as chair of the Ecumenical Chaplaincy Board, University of Alberta, from 1980 to 1983. He was a founding member of the Edmonton Interfaith Centre for Education and Action in 1995.
In 2008, Rob was appointed Secretary of the North American Interfaith Network and in 2012 was elected chair. Since relocating to Nova Scotia in 2019, Rob was elected Secretary of the Wolfville Area Inter-Church Council in 2022, and is currently heading up the committee to host the North American Interfaith Network in Wolfville in August 2025. In the summer of 2024, Rob was appointed co-chair of the Acadia University Chaplaincy Committee.
6. Marion Pardy
The Very Rev. Dr. Marion Pardy is a multi-faith social activist and former Moderator. Through education, advocacy, and leadership, Dr. Pardy confronts anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and religious prejudice, highlights the joyous benefits of all faiths, and works persistently with multiple faith communities for the common good. Dr. Pardy has often provided leadership for religious literacy events, particularly in understanding Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism, including using specific resources within these various faith communities and on-site visits.
Since 2004, her leadership has been through the Religious Social Action Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador, as a director and as chair (since 2020). Within the coalition, she attends significant religious ceremonies and celebrations of each faith community, educating the public through social media and other avenues.
7. Kim Uyede-Kai
Kim Uyede-Kai is Communities of Faith Support and Pastoral Relations Minister, Intercultural Diversity, Anti-Racism, and Right Relations for Shining Waters Regional Council. Her personal background grounds her professional interfaith work in Canada. Her Buddhist/Shinto maternal ancestors left Japan in 1900 and settled on K’omoks land (Cumberland), British Columbia. Her paternal ancestors settled in Victoria, British Columbia and became Christian, a colonial religion. Her Japanese Canadian family and community lived through World War II internment, dispossession, and displacement, which led her to walk in solidarity with Indigenous justice, truth, and reconciliation, and to her work supporting Indigenous United Churches nationally and regionally (in Ontario).
She served as staff support to form the National Indigenous unit of The United Church of Canada, honouring traditional Indigenous spirituality and Christianity within a framework of racial justice and decolonization. Kim has been a tireless advocate, supporting individuals and communities to find their voice at the intersection of racialized and religious identities. Kim has written numerous articles and resources advancing racial justice from a faith perspective, and continues to do the personal and professional work of interfaith decolonization.