Faith and Life Sciences Essay Contest – The Canadian Council of Churches

Introduction

The Canadian Council of Churches (the Council) is a broad and inclusive ecumenical body, now representing 25 member churches including Anglican; Eastern and Roman Catholic; Evangelical; Free Church; Eastern and Oriental Orthodox; and Historic Protestant traditions. Through its member churches, the Council represents approximately 85% of Canadian Christians. Our mission is to respond to Christ’s call for unity and peace, seek Christ’s truth with affection for diversity, and act in love through prayer, dialogue, and witness to the gospel.

The Faith and Life Sciences Reference Group (FLSRG) is an active group of life scientists, ethicists and Church leaders, working under the aegis of the Canadian Council of Churches, tasked to capture, evaluate and provide recommendations for faith-based perspectives in the rapidly-emerging area of the life sciences and related technologies. The FLSRG has created this essay contest to engage students in robust reflection on pressing issues that have a bearing on the Canadian church today.

Each year winning essays are eligible for cash awards. This essay contest is fully bilingual; submissions written in French or English are invited.

2026-27 Themes

Two current major topics under discussion within the Reference Group include ‘Medical Assistance in Dying’ or ‘Applications of Artificial Intelligence.’ We are looking for essays that approach these themes with attention to faith and life sciences. A variety of lenses are welcome: ethics, biomedical ethics, theology, pastoral care, religious studies, justice. We are especially interested in writing that connects these themes to the life of the churches and Christian community in Canada.

Eligibility

Entries from persons who meet the following criteria are welcomed:

Authors must be either:
- Canadian citizens;
- Permanent residents living in Canada; or
- International students studying in Canada.
Authors must be either enrolled as full- or part-time undergraduate or graduate students at the time of submission or less than one year post-graduation in such a program.
Each author may submit one essay per year for consideration. Each author is eligible for one cash award per a three-year period.

Essay Requirements

Essays submitted for this contest must meet the following criteria:

*Note: This contest will be judged through a ‘blind review’ process. The information provided on the title page of the essay and in the short bio submitted with the essay will not be available to the jury. Any identifying metadata will be removed from the documents.

Must address one of this year’s themes of ‘Medical Aid in Dying’ or ‘Artificial Intelligence.’
The essay’s content and argument may arise from outside the Canadian context, but the essay should address issues pertinent to Canadian life.
The essay may be written in either English or French.
The essay must be an original piece of work, written within the last three years.
Any text generated by a Large Language Model (e.g. ChatGPT, Co-pilot, Claude, Gemini, Le Chat) must be explained and used sparingly, placed in quotation marks, and with the AI model appropriately cited.
All citations must be in Chicago/Turabian style (Notes/Bibliography form).
The essay must not have received recognition in another contest or have been submitted for publication elsewhere.
The essay must not use offensive, defamatory, or obscene language, or any other material that may be deemed unsuitable.
The essay length must be a minimum of 3,000 and a maximum of 5,000 words (including footnotes, bibliography, etc.).
The essay must be submitted in a DOCX format.
The submission email or a separate PDF document must include the author’s full name and contact information, including postal mailing address, phone number, and email address; and the name of the author’s educational institution, program, and year in program.
The first page of the essay must include an abstract (up to 150 words).
The essay’s body text must be in black 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced.
The essay must not include your name in a heading or the text.*
Each page, except the title page, must have page numbers in Roman numerals.
By making a submission, the author agrees to permit their name, school affiliation, and essay to be published, in full or in part, in any digital or print publication of The Canadian Council of Churches. The author also agrees, if selected for an award, to promptly provide The Canadian Council of Churches with their high-resolution photograph.

Submission Deadline

Submissions must be received by email to buttrey@councilofchurches.ca no later than 11:59 pm ET on November 15, 2026. The body of the email should contain the author’s full contact information. All entries will be acknowledged by email.

Awards

First place will receive a cash award of $1,000 CAD, with other awards based on the number of contributions. All prizes are awarded at the sole discretion of the judges.

Essay submissions will be judged by a panel of Canadian experts invited by the Faith and Science Reference Group. Authors of winning submissions will be contacted by January 15 of the following year.

The first, second, and third-prize winners will be invited to attend a spring 2027 meeting of the Faith and Life Sciences Reference Group, and may be asked to consider other opportunities.