VANCOUVER, BC-Rev. Ray Aldred has been appointed the Director of the Indigenous Studies Program at Vancouver School of Theology. Ray is status Cree from Treaty 8 land in Northern Alberta.  Born in Northern Alberta and raised in the country outside of Grande Prairie, Alberta, Ray's first pastorate was the First Nations Alliance Church of Regina, Saskatchewan. While pastoring there he served as the Director of the First Nations Alliance Church of Canada from 1996-2004. There he and his wife, Elaine, worked to encourage Indigenous churches and communities from Thunder Bay, Ontario to Cranbrook, British Columbia. Ray also helped pastor the First Nations Community Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba where he and Elaine led Marriage Encounters for First Nations.

At the same time he began working with My People International to help build capacity among Indigenous Leadership in North America. Currently Ray and Elaine reside in Calgary, Alberta, where Ray is the Assistant Professor of Theology at Ambrose Seminary. Aldred is ordained with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada.

Ray is the former chair of the Aboriginal Ministries Council of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. He was a member of the board for the South Saskatchewan Independent Living Centre and a board member of Siloam Mission in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is currently the chairperson of Indigenous Pathways, which is made of a family of three ministries: My People, Iemergence and the North American Institute of Indigenous Theological Studies. These ministries all work to continue to come alongside communities to build on their own capacity.

Ray and Elaine have four adult children, Jenny, Raymond, Catherine, and Rueben.