Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, known as TEDS, is relocating from Illinois to British Columbia in 2026.
Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., will absorb TEDS after the prominent Christian university has been struggling financially as well as with attendance.
As for the U.S. students who are currently enrolled in TEDS, located in Bannockburn, IL, can continue going to classes on campus until the end of the 2025/26 season.
“I believe a school like TEDS will thrive best and accomplish our mission most effectively as part of a larger theologically and missionally aligned evangelical Christian university,” Trinity International President Kevin Kompelien said in a statement.
TEDS will also part ways with Trinity International University, its parent nonprofit based out of California.
Trinity was founded in the 1940s and has been a part of the Evangelical Free Church, a Minneapolis-based denomination with 1,600 churches.
“We are privileged to continue a longstanding legacy of evangelical scholarship and expand the impact of a global Christian education,” TWU President Todd F. Martin said in a statement. “We are driven by the same heartbeat for the gospel, and together, we can do even more to serve the Church and societies worldwide.”
In 2015 TEDS was one of the larger ministry schools, hosting 1,182 students. By 2024 they had 813 students. In 2023, the university showed a $17.3 million deficit and the following year they had a $7.6 million deficit. Trinity Western has stated they will not be taking on the debt of TEDS.
The Canadian school’s president said the merger will lead to a “stronger combined future.”
Former alumni of TEDS include Sojourners founder Jim Wallis, New Testament scholars Scot McKnight and Craig Blomberg, disgraced evangelist Ravi Zacharias, and Christian television host John Ankerberg.