Richard Roberts (theologian)

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Richard Roberts (May 31, 1874 – April 10, 1945) was a Canadian Christian theologian and writer who emphasized the social responsibilities of the Christian conscience. He became one of Canada's most influential pacifists during the interwar years.

Born in Blaenau Ffestiniog, North Wales, Roberts studied at the Liverpool Institute, the University College of Wales, and Bala Theological College. He worked as an evangelist and minister in Wales, England, and later in Canada. With the outbreak of World War I, he helped launch the Fellowship of Reconciliation and served as its first secretary, promoting pacifism.

To help spread the movement, he moved to the United States in 1917. In New York City he served on the editorial board of The World Tomorrow with Reinhold Niebuhr and Kirby Page, acting as a liaison between British and American pacifists during the war. In 1922 he moved to Montreal, where in 1926 he wrote The Christian and War, a key Canadian pacifist statement. He soon relocated to Toronto and helped establish a Fellowship of Reconciliation chapter at Sherbourne Street United Church.

In the early 1930s, Roberts helped draft the United Church of Canada’s endorsement of the World Disarmament Conference. His other roles included editor of The Venturer (1915–1917) and The World Tomorrow (1917–1920); he was moderator of the United Church of Canada (1934–1936) and later lectured at Pine Hill Divinity College in Halifax (1939). He died in New York City in 1945 at age 70.