John Cordner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Cordner (3 July 1816 – 22 June 1894) was Boston First Unitarian minister in Canada.

Cordner was born in Ireland, where his family in Newry, belonged to a politically radical sect of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Cordner studied at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, then worked in commerce. He was ordained in 1843 as a Unitarian minister. That year he emigrated to Montreal to become minister to the first Unitarian congregation in Canada.

Cordner's ministry was successful, and popular especially among the upper-middle classes and the business elite. He wrote and edited several magazines. And in sermons and speeches championed progressive issues; world peace, woman's rights, anti-slavery in the USA, among others.

He retired to Boston for the warmer climate where he died in 1894; still writing on issues important to the Unitarian movement.

[edit] External links

• UUA Biographical Dictionary
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography