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By Lloyd Mackey
SOME 400 Tyndale University College and Seminary supporters received a close-up look last Saturday at the 56-acre campus intended to pave the way for Tyndale's emergence as a 5,000 student Toronto-based Christian university.
The occasion was the public launch of a $58 million 'Uncommon Ground' capital campaign -- $37 million of which is already raised. The campus is best known in the community as St. Joseph's Morrow Park, current home of a prestigious Catholic high school and the Toronto Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
The focal point of the Saturday event was the Holy Family Chapel, the "sacred space" at the spiritual heart of the campus into which many of Tyndale's university and seminary activities will move in 2010.
One of the conditions of purchase, when the 114-year-old evangelical school promised, two years ago, to pay the Catholic order $40 million for the facility, was that the chapel remain a dedicated place of worship. Continued designation of the "sacred space" was a requisite of papal approval of the purchase by an essentially Protestant group.
During the campaign-launch worship service in the chapel, Tyndale president Brian Stiller provided a brief glimpse into the influences and struggles in the Christian community since the school he heads was founded in 1894, as Toronto Bible Training School.
Stiller suggested that Canada's cultural sands shifted in the 1960s as the nation "began to lose its Christian presence in the world of public endeavours." Specifically, his own evangelical community was "trapped in a sectarian mind-set" and "had neither capacity nor understanding of what it meant to engage in public square ideas or to exert influence . . .
"Even so, this very day, we live in a surprising age, where what seems to be counter intuitive, there is a strong and vibrant undercurrent of interest of Christian faith."
Stiller then suggested that "it is time to take this (historic evangelical) Christian faith -- vibrant in its beliefs and transformative in its potential -- from a cul-de-sac to main street."
His reference was the president's way of pointing out that Tyndale would be extending its campus of the past 32 years, located on a seven acre cul-de-sac site and acquired from the Jesuits. That "extension" is across a ravine through which the Don River East runs, to Morrow Park, which, itself, fronts onto busy Bayview Avenue -- one of suburban Toronto's traditional "main street" thoroughfares.
Stiller credits his wife, Lily, for helping him to envision the possibility that Morrow Park would eventually come into Tyndale's possession. Her encouragement occurred shortly after he took over as president in 1995 of what, at that point, was known as Ontario Bible College/Ontario Theological Seminary. The institution was in virtual receivership and Stiller found it difficult to nurture the vision.
Nevertheless, the first of many meetings between Stiller and Sister Margaret Wyatt, St. Joseph's mother superior, was arranged. And that led, in 2006, to Tyndale making its $40 million offer to purchase, and the closing on that offer one year later.
The process leading to the agreement was an interesting challenge for both the Catholics and the evangelicals involved the transition. As Wyatt noted, in a press briefing following the chapel service, "we (the Sisters and Tyndale) came to an understanding that the facilities and property would continue to be used for Christian education, the development of character and faith in the lives of students and providing service to the community."
Asked by Lorna Dueck, host of the evangelical Listen Up television news documentary show, if this "partnering" represented a new level of "unity" between Catholics and Protestants, Wyatt carefully chose the word "collaboration" to describe what had happened.
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Believed to be one of the largest evangelical Christian capital campaigns in the nation's history, the 'Uncommon Ground' drive has drawn a diverse range of high profile corporate and Christian leaders. The campaign cabinet is headed by Tim Hearn, former chair and CEO of Imperial Oil Ltd., who told the gathered supporters that he was prepared to stake his reputation on the idea of "investing in a high quality education system for our (Canadian) young people."
Interviewed by CC.com following the chapel event, Stiller noted that both Trinity Western University in British Columbia and Redeemer University College in Ancaster, near Hamilton, Ontario have been role models for Tyndale, in "embracing the Christian university concept." The president sees the Tyndale University idea as serving "from within the GTA (Greater Toronto Area)" as part of a growing Christian university movement across Canada. Among others in the mix, so far, are the King's University College in Edmonton, Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg and Atlantic Baptist University in Moncton, NB.
Tyndale was granted university status in 2003 by the Government of Ontario. As well it has received notification from the University of Toronto and McMaster University that Tyndale's graduates will be treated as graduates from other universities in applying for graduate studies. Tyndale has also applied for membership with the AUCC (Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada).
While the current 1,500 enrolment in Tyndale's college and seminary components is weighted two to one for the seminary, the president expects that to reverse itself, as the institution moves toward 5,000 enrolment during the next two decades or less.
Programs and schools presently in place, or in various stages of development, are schools of nursing and of business/management, a faculty of education, departments of social work and music and a doctorate of ministry.
For his part, Archie McLean, chair of the Tyndale board of governors, told CC.com that the two largest campaign commitments so far had weighed in at $5 million each. "And, so far, there have been no donors requesting 'naming' opportunities," he said.
Not that such offers would be refused in the last leg of the campaign. But, to McLean, donors, so far, have been captured by the vision of a Christian university, in itself.
In addition to various senior evangelical and corporate leaders present at the launch, there were several present and past political luminaries.
Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity, brought best wishes from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Noted Kenney: "Christian institutions have a particular role to play . . . as the leaven which activates and animates the society from within . . . People of faith contribute disproportionately to what sociologists call social capital -- to the vitality of charitable and voluntary enterprises which are the lifeblood of civil society."
And, speaking as a Catholic himself, Kenney asked permission to "invoke the intercession of St. Joseph the Worker, the patron saint of Canada."
Other politicos involved in the campaign launch are former Mulroney cabinet minister Jake Epp, who is Tyndale's chancellor, and Senator David Smith, a onetime Trudeau cabinet minister, who serves on the Tyndale campaign cabinet.
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Bold and evangelical
Brian Stiller, president of Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto, is talking about a grand vision for his school. It involves a plan that has been described as "bold" and a "gamble" for a religious-based institution -- to increase enrolment to 5,000 students from a mere 1,000 over the next four years. If successful, it would become the largest evangelical Christian university in Canada, eclipsing Trinity Western in British Columbia -- which grew from 17 students in 1962 to 4,000 today -- and compete with elite evangelical schools in the United States.
National Post, May 31
June 5/2008
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