Christine is a community organizer and storyteller, raised on Coast Salish territory in Vancouver, BC. She grew up in the United Church of Canada, and has an BSc in Urban Agriculture and First Nations Studies from UBC, and an MA in ‘Religious Leadership for Social Change’ from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She was ordained a Minister in the United Church in 2017.

Christine spent five years leading Strategic Communications at the Columbia Institute and their Centre for Civic Governance, and supporting the work of GreenJobs BC. After finishing her graduate work, she launched Spirited Social Change, an initiative aimed at engaging people across generations to explore the intersections between faith, spirituality, and our work for a better world. Through that work she initiated and coordinates The Self Care Project, and co-created Fossil Free Faith: Canada’s Interfaith Divestment Network. In January 2016 joined the team at Canadian Memorial United Church and Centre for Peace as Minister of Community Life.

Christine was part of leading conversations within the United Church toward their decision to divest from fossil fuels. In 2015 she traveled to the Vatican for events around the release of Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change and the economy, and later that year attended COP21 as a national delegate of the United Church of Canada.

Chris regularly talks about feelings, practices yoga, worships food, contemplates purpose, nurtures plants, and preaches about the need to create social, political and economic systems that reflect our desire to care for one another. She has an 13-year-old and a toddler. She actively believes that people are good.

“Climate change is happening. It’s worsening. Our options for action are running out. Our government isn’t budging. And the call for real action on climate could use additional moral voices. OUR VOICES.”

Find her on Twitter at @christineeboyle.

Articles:

Why the Pope has caught this non-Catholic’s attention (June 19th, 2015 in the National Observer)
Divestment Strategy (April 2014 in the United Church Observer)
Imagining a Moral Economy for BC (Oct 15, 2013 with Seth Klein, in the Tyee)
The United Church Diaspora (March 2013 in the United Church Observer)
Enbridge, the Climate Crisis and Moral Courage (Feb 1, 2013 in Rabble.ca)
Nine Self-Care Reminders for the Over-Committed Activist (Jan 9, 2013 in Rabble.ca)
Reconciliation means more than saying sorry (Sept 24, 2012 with Rhiannon Bennet, in the Vancouver Sun)

Videos: