Deerfield | Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) announced it is leaving the suburbs of Chicago to move to Canada where it will merge with that country’s largest Christian university, Trinity Western University (TWU).
A statement posted to the school’s website on April 8 reads, “TEDS has entered into a formal commitment to take steps moving under the auspices of TWU, a union that brings together two institutions with a common statement of faith and story of origin, as well as a shared commitment to training Christian leaders for the church and the world.”
The seminary will remain at its present location through the end of the 2025-2026 academic year. The transition to TWU, based in Langley, British Columbia, will begin during the fall 2026 semester according to its website.
The statement continued, “As this moves forward, TEDS will become TWU’s seminary, all the while remaining steadfast in its mission ‘to train men and women to testify to the transformative power of the inerrant Word throughout the world while providing a critique of the competing ideologies that threaten the life of the church.’”
TEDS, which is affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA), was founded in 1897 in a church basement and moved to Deerfield in 1963. TWU was established as a junior college in 1962. Discussions to establish a partnership between the two educational institutions began as far back as the 1980s but never came to fruition until now.
The school will maintain its relationship with the EFCA while continuing to develop its connection to the Evangelical Free Church of Canada.
TEDS is currently part of Trinity International University (TIU) in Deerfield.