Congratulations: Faculty of Divinity Class of 2025

The Royal Charter and the Statutes of Trinity College provide that the Charter Members of Convocation have the powers and duties to grant Degrees. The Statutes require that “the supplicat of a candidate who has qualified for a degree in course must have passed the Caput”, a committee selected by the Charter Members of Convocation. Charter Members of Convocation are defined as “the Chancellor, Provost, and professors of Trinity College, and all persons admitted in Trinity College to the degree of Master of Arts, or to any degree in Divinity, Law or Medicine, and who from the time of their admission to such degree shall pay the annual sum of twenty shillings of sterling money for and towards the support and maintenance of the College.”

Immediately preceding Convocation, the Chancellor Brian Lawson, Provost Nicholas Terpstra and members of Caput convened with the candidates. The Registrar, Nelson De Melo read the following supplicat for candidates:

• Placetne reverentiis vestris ut admittantur in hos gradus?
• Placet.
• Is it your decision that they be admitted to these degrees?
• It is.

Thomas M. Abraham

Bachelor of Commerce, McMaster University

Thomas M. Abraham is a member of St. Thomas Indian Orthodox Syrian Church, Toronto. He has completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McMaster University in Hamilton with a minor in religious studies. He has also completed an online diploma in orthodox studies from St. Thomas Orthodox Theological Seminary in Nagpur, India. He continues to be an active member within his church community. He currently works full time at Caterpillar Financial Services Ltd. and hopes to pursue chaplaincy to further serve the retirement community in Hamilton where he completed his internship.

Garfield Adams

Bachelor of Science/Technology, Bachelor of Literature, Bachelor of Law, Master of Theological Studies

Garfield Adams serves as the Rector of St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Oakville, Ontario, and a regional Missioner, supporting Anglican communities in the area. He holds multiple academic degrees, including a Bachelor of Science/Technology, a Bachelor of Literature, a Bachelor of Law, and a Master of Theological Studies. Most recently, he completed his Master of Divinity at Trinity College. Garfield’s ministry is deeply shaped by his passion for multicultural evangelism, church planting, and mixed-ecology development. He is dedicated to fostering faith formation, mission engagement, and leadership development, particularly within diverse and immigrant communities across Canada and beyond.

Denise Byard

Bachelor of Arts, Trinity Western University

The Rev. Denise Byard comes from a large extended family that has resided in Atlantic Canada since the 18th Century. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities at Trinity Western University in British Columbia. Denise loves to read a variety of books and has travelled to over 50 countries. She was recently ordained a deacon in the Anglican Diocese of Toronto and will begin ministry in Peterborough. She looks forward to following God’s direction as she empathetically journeys with, guides and leads people into deeper communion with the Divine through the sacraments by demonstrating capacity to be a witness and agent of the eternal, impactful and dynamic Good News as an intersectional child of God. She dreams of experiencing deeper relationships within the local and global community; enhanced worship Practices; as well as management and leadership support to build a fully vibrant, diverse, multicultural and multi-generational self-sustaining Church.

Joel David Houston

Bachelor of Arts, Ambrose University; Master of Arts, Regent College; Doctor of Philosophy, University of Manchester

Joel Houston is a member of Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He has completed a BA in English Literature, an MA in Theology from Regent College, and a PhD in Historical Theology from the University of Manchester. Joel is Associate Professor of Theology at Briercrest College and Seminary in Caronport, SK, where he resides with his wife and four children.

• Master of Divinity (MDiv) Honours Thesis Title: “Ecclesiology and Ecumenism: A Critique of Georges Florovsky’s Use of St Augustine on the Baptism of Those Outside the Church”

Brent Krysa

Bachelor of Music, McGill University

Brent Krysa is a member of St. Andrews Memorial Anglican Church in Kitchener, Ontario. He is currently a postulant of the Diocese of Huron. He is originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Brent is a graduate at the University of Toronto Opera Program at the Faculty of Music and is a dropout of the prestigious, orchestral music program at McGill University; after which, he held a 20-year career as a stage director for the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto and in various opera companies at home and abroad.

Jingyuan Tang

Master of Business Administration, City University

Jingyuan Tang has been a dedicated member of the St. Cuthbert’s Parish congregation in Oakville, Ontario for many years, where he was baptized. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Safety Engineering from the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, China, and a Master of Business Administration from City University in Bellevue, WA, USA. Jingyuan and his wife Julie are proud parents of three wonderful children: Dragon, Mickey and Canly. While serving as a lay missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Niagara, Jingyuan is also on the path to ordination within the Anglican Church of Canada.

Yuhong (Rose) Wang

Pharmacy diploma, Niagara College

Rose Wang is a dedicated member of the Anglican Church in the Diocese of Niagara. Originally from Beijing, China, Rose moved to Canada seven years ago and has a science background with a focus on Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Studies. Since beginning her studies at Trinity College, she has been deeply engaged in various ministries, including hospital chaplaincy, Bible study leadership, and parish ministry. She is a Postulant in the Diocese of Niagara and anticipates her ordination to the priesthood, with a commitment to serving diverse communities and integrating faith with pastoral care. Rose lives in Oakville with her husband, Leo, and their son, John. She is passionate about spiritual care, cross-cultural ministry, and fostering deep theological reflection in faith communities.

Peter DePass

Bachelor of Laws, University of the West Indies; Master of Laws, University College London

Peter DePass has been a member of St. Luke’s Church, Cross Roads, St. Andrew, Jamaica since birth. He has been an altar server, chorister and member of the Church Committee. Peter now leads the Prayer Walk Ministry at St. Luke’s Church Cross Roads. He is an Attorney-at-Law by profession, and is the Registrar of the Diocese of Jamaica and the Provincial Registrar of the Church in the Province of the West Indies. Peter holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the West Indies and a Master of Laws degree in Corporate & Commercial Law from University College London. Peter expects that he will be ordained as a deacon. Peter has a keen interest in the environmental matters and serves as the Deputy Chairman of Nature Preservation Foundation, which manages and operates the Royal Hope Botanical Gardens in Kingston, Jamaica.

Augustine C. Ejiogu

Bachelor in Theology, Trinity Theological College

Augustine C. Ejiogu (Austyn) has been a member of St. Paul’s Bloor Street Toronto for about four years as he relocated to Canada from Nigeria. He has been serving part-time as Assistant Priest of the Church since March 2023. He has completed a Bachelor degree in Religion at University of Nigeria (Nsukka) and Bachelor in Theology at Trinity Theological College, Umuahia, Nigeria. He is happily married to Rejoice, and they are blessed with a daughter and twin boys. After his graduation, Austyn is hoping to serve full time as Priest in the Anglican Diocese of Toronto.

Yasha Fard

Bachelor of General Studies, Athabasca University

Yasha Fard is a subdeacon at Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church in London, Ontario. He completed a Bachelor of General Studies (Arts & Science) degree from Athabasca University and has done theological studies with Westminster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. Together with his wife and children, Yasha is embracing the challenges and joys of homesteading in the country. He plans to begin graduate studies at the University of Toronto (TST), Trinity College, in their Master of Theology (ThM) program starting in September, concentrating on Orthodox and Patristic theology.

Kirollos Kilada

Bachelor of Design, OCAD University

Kirollos Kilada is an iconographer in the Coptic Orthodox Church. He has created iconography for Churches in Canada, the United States and Australia, as well as private collections around the world. While his work mostly appears in Coptic Orthodox parishes and private collections, he has also created icons for Anglican, Catholic, Oriental and Eastern Orthodox patrons. He hopes to continue painting icons, in addition to conducting research, writing and teaching on Iconography, Sacred Space, and Beauty, both within the Coptic Church and the wider Christian community

Chris Kotsirilos

Jeffrey Scott Metcalfe

Master of Divinity, Trinity College

Jeffrey Metcalfe serves as Canon Theologian for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec and as a priest in the St. Lawrence Valley Anglican Ministry. He holds a BA (Honours) from Canadian Mennonite University and an MDiv (Honours) from Trinity College, University of Toronto. Jeffrey has ministered in diverse communities throughout his career, including the remote Parish of the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and St. Michael’s Church in Sillery, Quebec City. He lives in Quebec City with his wife, Julie Boisvert, and their two children, who keep life joyfully busy.

• Thesis: Learning Our Place in the Land: A Critical Theological Reappraisal of Belonging in the Quebec Work of Gregory Baum through the Lens of Willie James Jennings’ Theological Anthropology
• Supervisor: Professor John Berkman

Thesis abstract: This dissertation explores how Gregory Baum’s critical theological methodology, when joined with Willie James Jennings’ theological anthropology and race theory, better navigates Quebec’s crisis of belonging through a solidarity in creatureliness rooted in the land. The study focuses on the potential of a reformulated research procedure to reveal and correct the racial imagination embedded within Baum’s theological reflection, and to begin crafting a radical retelling of belonging in the context of Quebec City. Through a detailed analysis bridging Baum’s and Jennings’ early and later works, this dissertation both constructs and deploys this research procedure. Committed to a solidarity in creatureliness rooted in the land, it takes up the storytelling of the Wendat scholar Georges Sioui, exemplifying what its application might look like Where the River Narrows.

This work demonstrates that Jennings’ hermeneutic of creatureliness, and the grounded normativity it puts forward, provides critical interpretative norms for addressing the limitations in Baum’s methodology’s previous application in Quebec. In so doing, it preserves the essential insights of Baum’s work, while pushing it beyond the racial imagination to which it has been bound.

This research makes four principal contributions to Christian ethics. It addresses a significant gap in the scholarship on the social ethicist Gregory Baum, whose Quebec work has remained largely unexamined due to the province’s marginal status within the North American theological academy. It develops a novel theological methodology, by joining Baum’s critical theological methodology with Jennings theological anthropology and race theory, one that allows for a more nuanced engagement with the racial imagination in the Quebec context. It develops a reformulated structured critical research procedure, which takes up local Indigenous knowledge to begin retelling the story of belonging within a place. Finally, by applying this procedure in the writing of the dissertation itself, this work demonstrates both the critical and therapeutic potential of this methodology to bridge cultural and linguistic divides within North American theological scholarship.

Jessie Martha Alice Cunningham

Graduated with the Doctor of Philosophy in Theology (PhD) from the University of St. Michael’s College at their convocation on November 9, 2024.

• Dissertation: Paul de Lagarde, Theologian. The Beginning and End of a Contribution to the Scientific Study of Religion
• Supervisor: Dr. Donald Wiebe

• Sha Beatrix Cheng: The Margaret L. Muckle Prize in Philosophy of Religion
• Dimitra Chronopoulos: The Margaret L. Muckle Prize in Church History
• Sara Fornoff: The Sidney Childs Prize in Dogmatics (Systematic Theology)
• Adam MacNeil: The Doolittle Prize in Reading for most improved preaching skills; The David Neelands Divinity Associates’ Prize for College involvement
• Richard Mason: The Dean Feilding Scholarship for highest standing; The Rupert Fenwick Williams Prize in New Testament

• Thomas Chaput: The Canon Charles Frederick Pashler Prize in Moral Theology
• Yasha Fard: The Archbishop Kingston Memorial Scholarship for highest standing; The Fourth Bishop of Toronto’s Prize for General Proficiency
• Kirollos Kilada: The Kent Testimonial Prize for best Master Of Theological Studies thesis
• Yinan Lu: The Canon P.M. Lamb Prize in New Testament Greek; The McDonald Prize for General Knowledge of the English Bible
• Grace Rockett: The Spencer Prize in Mission Study; The Alexander Burnside Chafee Prize for best preaching skills

• Denise Byard: The Dorothy Shuter Prize in Liturgics
• Helen Hyo Kyung Choi: The Canadian Bible Society Prize for Excellence in Scripture Reading
• Brent Krysa: The McDonald Prize for General Knowledge of the English Bible; The J. Nicholson Prize in Liturgics; The Margaret L. Muckle Prize in Christian Education
• Yuhong Rose Wang: The Gordon Kent Stephen Memorial Prize for highest standing

• Marina Ghebrial

Awarded for academic excellence, with an emphasis on work exploring sexual orientation in Theology and contemporary church practice.

>> More about the John Gartshore Integrity Award

• Brent Krysa

The Governor General’s Academic Medal was first awarded in 1873 by the Earl of Dufferin, and has since become one of the most prestigious awards that a student in a Canadian educational institution can receive. The Governor General of Canada continues this tradition of encouraging scholarship across the nation and recognizing outstanding students.