The Rev. Ayooluwa Samuel Adisa was recently writing a paper in one of his Wycliffe classes when he realized that birth and death had shaped his calling and given him purpose. At 15, he had watched his mother anoint his dying father, offering him end-of-life care as he passed away at their family home in Nigeria. Almost 20 years later, and a Wycliffe student by then, he had welcomed his premature son, born at 26 weeks old at Mount Sinai Hospital, only minutes away from the College.
In a real sense though, large events have shaped Adisa’s journey to, and experience of, Wycliffe.
Trained at Immanuel College of Theology and Christian Education, Samonda, Ibadan, in Nigeria, he was told to go home when COVID hit. During that time of home-based studying, “The LORD told me that I wasn’t going to be doing ministry in Nigeria, but rather outside the shore of the continent,” he remembers. He also knew that would only be possible through going to school abroad. Adisa trusted God for the next thing and applied to colleges, including Wycliffe. Wycliffe’s blend of evangelical Anglicanism, coupled with its relationship to the Toronto School of Theology (an ecumenical consortium), offered a good fit for him, an ordained priest in the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).
Changing federal immigration laws for international students also played a role. Concordia University in Montreal had accepted Adisa, and on paper, studying there made sense—its program aligned with immigration timelines. Despite that fit, Adisa and his wife couldn’t shake a prayerful conviction that God wanted them at Wycliffe—a risky move considering the MA was only a one-year program.
“The Word of God, and God’s speaking to me at every point on this journey have been lifesavers,” he says. “And my wife has been exceptional. She left a lucrative job in Nigeria, left everything, to come over with me.”
Adisa works full time at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) as one of the hospital’s spiritual care providers, a job he’d applied for shortly before his son was born. In this role, he provides care and support to patients, parents, and staff members in the hospital. He plans to plant a church in the Durham region in 2026.
