News & Media

Read about CIECR's successful December research gathering, submit your Hilchey nominations, prepare to enjoy the winter 2024 digital edition of Insight magazine, and mark the date for January's Theology Pub Night. Learn more in your December 2024 Word @ Wycliffe.

On Thursday December 12, over 70 church researchers and denominational leaders gathered at Wycliffe College to discuss church research, current Canadian church trends, and the future of the Canadian Church. The occasion was the second annual gathering hosted by Wycliffe College's Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research (CIECR). Keynote speakers Dr Gina Zurlo and Dr Sam Reimer did not disappoint. Dr Gina Zurlo Dr Zurlo opened the day with a quote that gathered resonance as the day unfolded: “Christianity exists between the universal claim of its message and the particular way of

TORONTO—The Board of Trustees of Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto is pleased to announce they have signed an agreement with Kristen Deede Johnson, PhD, to become Wycliffe’s eleventh principal. Currently Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Western Theological Seminary (an evangelical and ecumenical seminary in Holland, Michigan), as well as G.W. and Edna Haworth Professor of Educational Ministries and Leadership, Dr Johnson will take up her role in Toronto on or around July 1, 2025. In a letter to the search committee, Dr Johnson wrote of coming to faith in Christ in

On Saturday November 9, eighty women along with two host churches gathered online to hear Dr Marion Taylor unpack the legacy of Elizabeth Rundle Charles (1828 -1896). A prolific author, Rundle Charles is one of the hundreds of long-forgotten women who authored a wide variety of devotional and educational books for adults and children, including commentaries on the Bible. Dr Taylor discovered Rundle Charles and other lost foremothers of the faith when one of her students asked her whether she could do a paper on an early woman interpreter of the Bible. Dr Taylor didn’t know whether women had

Pittsburgh In mid-October researchers from Wycliffe’s Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research (CIECR) made the six-hour drive to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to participate in the prestigious annual joint conference hosted by the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) and Religious Research Association (RRA). Our four-day visit began with a lively conversation, hosted by The Association of Theological Schools (ATS), about how research can contribute to theological post-secondary education. We were heartened to hear about the growing partnerships between theologians and

It is with great sadness that we received the news of the resignation of Justin Welby as the Archbishop of Canterbury. We are chiefly sad because of the consequences of the Archbishop’s inaction over reports of horrific and appalling abuse of children under the care of the Church. It is a scandal that undermines, even contradicts, the gospel that in Christ we can discover our true dignity and freedom from the power of sin. And the damage it has brought to individuals and families, not least in the retraumatizing investigation and disclosures, is truly heartbreaking. But we are sadder still

From September 22 through 24, Wycliffe College was pleased to host the Rev. Dr Michael F. Bird for a series of speaking engagements. From a rousing public lecture on Sunday night and an equally engaging address at the Principal’s Dinner on Monday, to a seminar with Advanced Degree Students, and the sharing of his testimony at a pastors’ breakfast Tuesday morning, Dr Bird challenged and encouraged his 200+ listeners to reconsider the call to discipleship and mission at the heart of the Gospel. Bird is one of today’s most celebrated contemporary Christian authors. An Anglican priest, biblical

Principal Stephen Andrews was pleased to receive unanimous support from a Wycliffe College Evaluation Committee considering Dr Stephen Chester’s application for promotion from Associate Professor to Full Professor. T he Committee, composed of eight members drawn from the Wycliffe College Faculty, Board, and student body, and including a representative of Toronto School of Theology, examined Dr. Chester’s written work, read evaluations by specialists from outside the College, and reviewed submissions from students and colleagues. Reflecting on the criteria of scholarship, teaching, performance

In an in-depth interview with Canadian Bible Society Ambassador, Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling, Principal Stephen Andrews shares how his views on the Bible were shaped by study, reflection, and the combined influences and knowledge of those God had placed in his path. In the Scripture Untangled podcast, Principal Andrews said that while in his formative teen years the spark for Scripture was lit by his experiences in a Minnesota youth group, while on work camps in the Southern United States, it wasn’t until he had a foothold in ordained ministry that it was fanned. A teenager through the Civil

On behalf of the Wycliffe College Board of Trustees, Principal Stephen Andrews is pleased to announce the appointment of Victor I. Ezigbo as the College’s first Professor of Global Christianity and Intercultural Ministry, a post he will take up on January 1, 2025. Dr. Ezigbo comes to Wycliffe from Bethel University in St Paul, Minnesota, where he has been Professor of Theology since 2008. After receiving his BA from ECWA Theological Seminary in Igbaja, Nigeria, he studied at Wheaton College and received his MA in 2002. In 2005, he obtained an MTh at the University of Edinburgh, and was awarded