Roland de Corneille (May 19, 1927 – December 30, 2014) was a

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Anglican priest,

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

activist and politician. He represented the riding of Eglinton-Lawrence in the House of Commons of Canada as a member of the

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from 1979 to 1988.

Background

Born in Switzerland, de Corneille spent his childhood in France and moved to the United States where he worked and received much of his formal education. He received his BA cum laude from Amherst College, where he was elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

honorary society. He worked for Time Inc. as a statistician, and with Procter and Gamble. He studied at General Theological Seminary in New York and then transferred to Canada and graduated from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

in 1953 as an ordained Anglican priest. He served as a curate and as a rector of a number of Anglican parish churches, while earning his degrees of Licentiate of Theology, Bachelor of Sacred Theology and Master of Theology in studies at McGill, Yale and Trinity College, Toronto. He died on December 30, 2014, aged 87.

Views on Judaism

In 1960, de Corneille was the secretary of the Nathaneal Institute, an Anglican missionary institute dedicated to converting

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

s to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. De Corneille initiated an

interfaith dialogue Interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions (i.e. "faiths") and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels. It is ...

between the Christian and Jewish communities that led to the institute transforming itself into "the Christian-Jewish Dialogue of the Anglican Church of Canada" with de Corneille as director. The Dialogue sought better understanding between the two faith groups rather than religious conversion. In 1966, his book, ''Christians and Jews: The Tragic Past and the Hopeful Future'' was published by

Harper and Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

. De Corneille is credited as the first Canadian clergyman to urge the Christian community to re-evaluate its attitude towards Jews. As a result of de Corneille's efforts, the Anglican Church re-evaluated its attitude towards the Jewish community and renounced

proselytization Proselytism () is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Proselytism is illegal in some countries. Some draw distinctions between '' evangelism'' or '' Da‘wah'' and proselytism regarding proselytism as invo ...

in favour of understanding, dialogue and reconciliation. The process was continued by de Corneille by introducing the programme into other Canadian denominations, the Episcopal Church U.S.A., and through his membership in the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

in Geneva. He worked with the National Conference of Christians and Jews U.S.A.. and the Canadian Conference of Christians and Jews as organizer of a major International Conference on Christian-Jewish relations. The Christian-Jewish dialogue program initiated by de Corneille ultimately spread to the

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and

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and helped lead to a change of attitude within mainstream Christian churches, particularly towards

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

De Corneille's activity earned him the respect of the Jewish community. In 1971 he was appointed national director of the League for Human Rights of

B'nai Brith Canada B'nai Brith Canada ( ; BBC; from he, בני ברית, b'né brit, Children of the Covenant) is a Canadian Jewish service organization and advocacy group. It is the Canadian chapter of B'nai B'rith International. Mission The organization prese ...

where he worked until 1979. In the 1979 federal election he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada as the

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Member of Parliament for

Eglinton—Lawrence Eglinton—Lawrence is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1979. It covers a portion of Toronto northwest of downtown. It stretches from Yonge Street in the east ...

, serving in the House until 1988.

Political career

In parliament, he was the founding chairman of the Canada-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group, and a chairman of the Canada-Italy Parliamentary Friendship Group. From 1980 to 1981 he was national chairman of the National Committee for a Human Rights Charter which lobbied parliament for the creation of the

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part ...

. He served for three terms in the House of Commons until he was challenged for the Liberal nomination by

Joe Volpe Giuseppe "Joe" Volpe (born September 21, 1947) is a Canadian politician. He represented the Ontario riding of Eglinton-Lawrence as a member of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 until 2011, when he lost his seat t ...

and defeated in a bitter nomination meeting prior to the 1988 federal election.

Electoral record

Works

*De Corneille, Roland. ''Christians and Jews: The Tragic Past and the Hopeful Future''. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.

References

Rev. Roland de Corneille Papers, Library and Archives Canada

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:De Corneille, Roland 1927 births 2014 deaths Amherst College alumni Canadian Anglican priests Christian and Jewish interfaith dialogue Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Swiss emigrants to Canada Trinity College (Canada) alumni University of Toronto alumni