[1] Her mother being Methodist and her father Roman Catholic, she was raised in the Anglican church, but left it when she was in her twenties.
[1] She also worked as a staff associate – a part-time lay minister – at Augustine United Church in Winnipeg.
[2] In 2006, at the age of 39, Cantwell made the decision to become an ordained minister of the United Church; however, she would need to first earn a Master of Divinity degree.
Upon graduation in 2010, she was ordained and was settled as a "three-quarters time" minister of Delisle-Vanscoy United Church in Delisle, Saskatchewan.
In an interview following her election, Cantwell acknowledged that although the United Church was in a state of change due to falling membership, "We are fundamentally a people of hope.
"[6] Cantwell is the second openly gay person to be elected to the post, and the second to lead a major Christian denomination, the first in both cases being her predecessor, Gary Paterson.