The Rev'd Dr. Gerry Mueller

Gerry is a retired priest, and has been associated with St. Andrew’s since early 2007. Educated as a chemical engineer in his first life (B.A.Sc., RMC & Waterloo, 1966; M.Sc. & Ph.D., Manchester, 1967 & 1969), he was an engineering educator, researcher, and academic administrator for 19 years (mostly at University of Waterloo). During those years he was also very much involved with the registration processes of Professional Engineers Ontario, including a revamp of how foreign-trained engineers are licensed in Ontario, for which he was made an Officer of the Order of Honour. He continues to be licensed as a (non-practicing) Professional Engineer, (P.Eng.) In 1984 he began part-time (and later full-time) theological studies at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary and the Faculty of Divinity, Trinity College, in the Toronto School of Theology, graduating with a Master of Divinity in 1988. He was ordained Deacon in May 1988, and Priest in November 1988.

Gerry served parishes in Cambridge (St. Luke’s, 1988 – 1991), Mississauga (St. Francis of Assisi-Meadowvale – a campus church with Lutheran and Presbyterian partners, 1991 – 1996), and Scarborough (Christ Church-Scarborough Village, 1997 – 2001). He served as Chaplain to the Layreaders of the Diocese of Huron, and in the Diocese of Toronto as a member of the York-Scarborough Bishop’s Council, and on the Diocesan Planning and Development Board. In September 2001 he returned to the academy as Chaplain of Renison University College and Incumbent of St. Bede’s Chapel, Anglican Chaplain to the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, and Lecturer in Religious Studies, teaching Anglican History and Thought, thus neatly combining his two vocational loves – teaching and the Church. He retired from Renison University College in August 2006.

Since retiring, Gerry has continued involvement with the governance of Trinity College (Corporation, Senate, and Divinity Faculty Council) and the work of the Trinity College Divinity Associates, mainly in their annual conference planning. He has served on the Development Committee of Renison University College, of which he is a Senior Fellow. and served for six years on the Board of the Canadian Churches Forum for Global Ministries, a missions think-tank and resource that is ecumenically funded. He and spouse June Longworth enjoy travel, and aside from destinations in Europe, North America. and the Caribbean, have been to Australia and New Zealand a few times, and to less visited destinations like Amazonia, Patagonia, and Antarctica. Sadly, as time passes, ages progress, and pandemic restricts, international travel will likely become less frequent, but there’s lots to see within Canada when that becomes possible.

Musically and visually (since the Rector tells of his media taste) Gerry is very different from Matt, and yet probably as much from the mainstream as the Rector. Musical tastes range from plainchant through much of “classical” music into the modern era, bypassing atonal and 12-tone “stuff”. Combining music and theatre is opera, and Gerry enjoys opera of all kind, and in any medium – live, live HD broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera, or disk – of which he has an extensive collection. And in a weird way much of opera falls into the culty B-movie category; let’s face it, the bloody mad scene in Lucia di Lammermoor is worthy of any slasher movie, or in the more recent genre The Exterminating Angel opera is based on a Louis Bunuel B-movie. There is Othello (racism and spousal murder), Madama Butterly (abuse of white privilege), or the beautiful Der Rosenkavalier (but have you really looked at the the relative ages of the lovers involved?). Informative about Gerry’s musical tastes is his favourites list on Sirius XM Radio (for in-car and computer listening) which besides the Metropolitan Opera Channel also includes Jimmy Buffett”s Margaritaville, The Grateful Dead Channel, and the BB King Blues channel. If none of those ring a bell, the main takeaway is that Gerry’s tastes are”different”, to put it lightly.

Since early in 2014, Gerry is the Webmaster of this site; please direct comments and suggestions to him.

And, Gerry and June think that St. Andrew’s is a great parish community, with great people, and consider themselves lucky to be a part of it.