I am Jean-Daniel Ó Donncada (zawhn-danyell oh dunn chha y-uhh). I am an educator, photographer, and pastor in Montréal. I have twenty years of experience in working primarily with young people, teaching art, history, and religion outside of the classroom in museums and churches.

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I hold undergraduate degrees from Harvard University and a master's degree from Yale University. God willing, I will complete a Ph.D. I started at Université de Montréal. 

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I make YouTube and TikTok videos, write essays, preach at churches, lead workshops, and lecture at universities. It's cheesy, but mostly I am trying to help people make sense of the world, feel loved, and understand one another better.

 

I'm openly, and sometimes unashamedly, Christian, Québécois, Canadian, queer, autistic, and awkward. I get particularly passionate about making sure church and society do better at welcoming those who speak minority languages and those who think in marginalised, neurodiverse ways.

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I have a service dog named Rilla Blythe, a beautiful border collie, who helps me stay alive; two amazing teens who make my life worth every challenge, and two ungrateful cats who keep me humble. I now serve professionally as the national pastor of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Canada, as honorary associate at St. George's Anglican Church in Montréal.

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Outside of work, I love to hike, obsess over Broadway musicals, re-read the Anne of Green Gables series each year, collect antique books, photograph hundreds of things a day, and weep at the cuteness of animals.

 

Disclaimer:

The church I lead professionally is a diverse religious tradition in which each member follows Jesus as they discern God is calling them, so I do not speak for anybody else in my church community on this website! Or frankly even, in our tradition, at church.