Seminary sells three campus buildings

The College of Emmanuel and St. Chad in Saskatoon announced it has sold three buildings on the University of Saskatchewan campus to the university for $1.1 million.

“We believe that we have reached a good arrangement with the university,” said Dr. Walter Deller, principal of Emmanuel and St. Chad. “Our relationship goes back nearly a century to the earliest period of the founding of the university and the establishment of the Saskatoon campus. The negotiations honoured that history but also recognized the fact that our buildings were aging and pose some challenges for any future user,” he added.

Last summer, the Anglican seminary moved into leased space within Lutheran Theological Seminary, also on the university campus. The two seminaries, along with the United Church’s St. Andrew’s College, have formed a grouping called the Saskatoon Theological Union and eventually hope to share a single space.

In 2004, Emmanuel and St. Chad faced a financial crisis; the sale of the buildings is part of a business plan adopted last year that aims to achieve long-term financial stability. The college council struggled with the decision to sell, said Mr. Deller, but Bishop David Ashdown, vice president of the council, said, “are we in the business of maintaining old buildings or are we in the business of training future leaders for the Anglican Church? We opted for the mission our founders created for us.”