Gary J. Paterson (born 1949) was the Moderator of the United Church of Canada from 2012 to 2015.

He was the first openly gay person to take the post since the church was formed in 1925 and the first in the world to lead a major Christian denomination.

[1] Paterson was born in Whitehorse, Yukon in 1949, and as an "army brat", lived in Toronto, Ontario and Germany before his family settled in Vancouver, British Columbia.

[2] He earned two degrees in English literature and became a sessional lecturer at University of British Columbia.

[3] Paterson received an honorary doctorate from the Vancouver School of Theology in 2012.