Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois will become part of Trinity Western University in Canada, officials of both schools announced April 8. Both schools are affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America.
Trinity Evangelical once was a powerhouse among U.S. seminaries, with a full-time equivalent enrollment of 1,510 students three decades ago. According to the latest data from the Association of Theological Schools, FTE enrollment now stands at 402.
That’s larger than many other U.S. seminaries, but the problem is this seminary is owned by a university, Trinity International University, that has faced such dire financial circumstances that it shut down all in-person classes in 2023. The university continues to offer limited online classes and operates a law school based in California.
Shortly before taking drastic measures to curb expenses, a former president of the university, Nicholas Perrin, sent out a fundraising letter complaining about cultural acceptance of transgender people and linking this acceptance to the mass shooting that left six people dead in Nashville, Tenn.
Perrin’s predecessor as university president was David Dockery, former president of Union University in Tennessee and current president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas. The university’s current president is Kevin Kompelien, who previously served as president of the Evangelical Free Church of America for nine years.
Trinity Seminary’s current dean is David W. Pao, a New Testament scholar with degrees from Wheaton College and Harvard.
Campus of Trinity Western University
After shedding the seminary, Trinity International University will continue to operate its online programs and its law school but will sell its campus north of Chicago, in Bannockburn, Ill. The university has run multi-million-dollar deficits for the last several years and faces repayment of a $19 million long-term loan in 2026.
Proceeds from sale of the campus are earmarked for paying off the loan, school officials said. Financial details of that anticipated sale were not released.
By 2026, all seminary operations will move to the Trinity Western University campus in Langley, British Columbia — 2,100 miles away.
Trinity Western currently has a seminary among its schools but only offers a master of arts degree. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School offers accredited master of divinity degrees, doctor of ministry degrees and a Ph.D.
Trinity Western dates only to 1962, while Trinity Evangelical Divinity School dates to 1897.
The Evangelical Free Church of America was formed in 1950 from a merger of the Swedish Evangelical Free Church and the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church Association. It encompasses 1,600 congregations with about 180,000 members, making it one of the smallest Protestant denominations in America.