Rev. Smith delivered the first official Apology from the church to Indigenous Peoples at the 1986 General Council
The United Church of Canada grieves the death of The Very Rev. Robert Frederick Smith, the denomination’s 30th Moderator, who faithfully served in this role from 1984 to 1986. Rev. Smith died in Sechelt, British Columbia on Monday, December 8, 2025, after a few years of hospital and family care.
Rev. Smith served as Moderator of the United Church from 1984–1986, and is perhaps best known for delivering the first official Apology from the church to Indigenous Peoples at the 1986 General Council. In the years after delivering the Apology, he often mused how the church’s course had been forever changed and how he had tried to “make an honest man” of himself by living up to the words of the Apology.
During his Moderatorship, The Very Rev. Smith guided the church as it wrestled with fundamental questions around authority and interpretation of scripture. This was evidenced by the conversations and dialogue around homosexuality that led to a declaration by the 32nd General Council that all people—regardless of sexual orientation—are welcome as full members of the United Church, and all members are eligible to be considered for ordered ministry.
“The word of God is a lively word. It is not something that is static; it is not something that is preserved in amber. Though the word of God may be unchanging, our understanding of it is constantly changing, and our context must be brought into the picture when we are attempting to understand what the word of God says for us today,” he told Rev. Ken Wotherspoon on Pressure Point in 1984. “I think that the central issue which is facing the church today is the issue of the interpretation of scripture and that bears on the question that we've been talking about; what we are really struggling with is for an understanding of the authority of the church.”
Robert Smith was born in Montreal, Quebec, in 1934. After receiving his B.A. from the University of Alberta in 1956, he went on to obtain a diploma in Theology at St. Stephen’s College in 1958, a B.D. from the University of Alberta in 1964, and a Th.D. at Boston University School of Theology in 1973. He was ordained by the Alberta Conference of the United Church in 1958. He married Margaret Ellen Maguire the same year.
After his ordination, he held pastorates across Canada and the U.S. in the following areas: St. Luke’s, Fort St. John, British Columbia (1958–1961), Trinity, Edmonton, Alberta (1961–1965), Memorial Congregational Church of Atlantic, Quincy, Massachusetts (1965–1968), Richmond Hill United Church (1968–1974) and Eglinton United Church, Toronto (1974–1982), and Shaughnessy Heights United Church, Vancouver, British Columbia (1982–1984).
Throughout his time as a minister, he held a variety of posts on many different committees: the Doctrinal Commission, General Commission on Church Union, Committee on Union and Joint Mission, and the Committee on Theology and Faith; he was also co-chair of the Roman Catholic-United Church Dialogue Committee. He was chair of York Presbytery from 1972–1974 and Toronto Area Presbytery from 1977–1979, and president of Toronto Conference from 1981–1982.
He was also founding president of the Richmond Hill and Thornhill Area Family Services.
The church across the country offers our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and the community of St. John's United Church in Sechelt, B.C. where he was a member.