This summer, Kristen Deede Johnson became the first non-ordained principal of the University of Toronto’s Wycliffe College, a fact which she says points to the school’s willingness to try new approaches to the traditional work of theological education. She has some ideas of her own about how Christian institutions can adapt as the role of faith in Canadian society continues to change. In an August interview with the Anglican Journal, Deede Johnson explained her thoughts on how the school can handle changes to the format of education students are seeking, how theological schools can aid the Anglican Church of Canada as it works on the six pathways for transformation identified by the primate’s commission and approved by General Synod this summer, and what qualities she hopes Wycliffe can send students out into the world to embody.
Johnson succeeds Bishop Stephen Andrews, who had served as the college’s principal since 2016 after seven years as bishop of the diocese of Algoma. She comes to Wycliffe after having served as dean and vice president of academic affairs at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. She tells the Journal she came to faith while she was in high school as a member of a family who considered faith part of its heritage but did not treat it as a living reality. Growing up in the Washington, D.C. area and London, England, she says, she often had to grapple with what it meant to be a Christian in a place where most people around her did not consider themselves followers of Jesus.
The question which informed much of her early academic work as a result, she says, was what that difference in background meant for the shaping of political and cultural life in those communities
Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in political and social thought from the University of Virginia and a PhD in theology from Saint Andrew’s University. She has written books on theology and social issues, including Theology, Political Theory, and Pluralism: Beyond Tolerance and Difference and The Justice Calling: Where Passion Meets Perseverance.
The changing face of theological education
Schools like Wycliffe are seeing a change in the type of education and school experience students are seeking, Johnson says. Historically, it has been normal for students to move to Toronto, attend Wycliffe full-time and work towards a degree in theology and often ordination, she says. Now, more students are studying part-time and many are commuting from their home communities, she says. Not as many are seeking ordination, but more are looking to deepen their theological understanding and share the results with their home church and communities through their regular faith lives, not necessarily in professional roles, she says. Statistics suggest this is happening in seminaries across North America, she adds—so colleges that still want close-knit communities will need to think about how to form bonds between students with different goals who are often living father apart than they would have in the past.
At the same time, she believes their connection to their home communities can be a great asset. Johnson uses the imagery of growing trees to describe the way Christians relate to each other and the way they relate to their broader communities. There is a large, complex system of roots from which everyone grows, she says—the varying traditions from which they draw their beliefs, perspectives and ways of thinking. Traditions can be diverse even within a largely Anglican community like Wycliffe, she adds, which is welcoming a growing minority of students from other denominations, but also deals with the multiple interpretations within Anglicanism. One myth people sometimes believe about pluralistic societies is that distinctions like these must be softened or homogenized in order to prevent them from clashing, she says. But Johnson believes in embracing and learning from the complex system of roots to try and weave a more harmonious understanding of how they might fit together. From this, she says, grow the ways Christians can then reach out into the world to project the love of Christ and change the world for the better.
“[With] the right circumstances, we can be interwoven rather than knotted up,” she says.
One opportunity to harmoniously interweave traditions in the school’s life could present itself in Wycliffe’s chapel services, where, she says, she may encourage more international styles of worship and opportunities to hear from other denominations.
Theological Schools and the changing church
Johnson visited General Synod at the end of June and has been following the Anglican Journal’s coverage as the new primate, Archbishop Shane Parker, signals his intent to proceed rapidly to update and streamline the church. Of particular interest, she says, was an Anglican Journal interview with Parker in which he said he was interested in involving theological schools to weigh in on the issues that face the church.
Theological schools exist to serve the church, she says, and she believes they need to do so visibly so regular Anglicans can see their value. As the church reckons with its limitations and strips back areas of work it formerly invested in, there may be a role for schools like Wycliffe to take up that work so it isn’t lost, she says.
“If the denomination needs to—and it seems like they’re affirming that they do—rethink some of their national structures, are there things they won’t have the space and resources for that a place like Wycliffe could invest more in?” she asks.
Examples might include ongoing formation and lifelong learning for clergy, she says. Schools have traditionally focussed on offering degrees, but they could also support local clergy by offering retreats, compressed courses or formation groups to bring them together.
What kind of formation does the church need now?
Asked what qualities she believes Wycliffe graduates need in order to meet the needs of the church today, Johnson returns to the metaphor of trees. She hopes graduates can embody the fruits of the spirit in whatever ways are needed by the communities they find themselves serving, she says. That, she says, will require the ability to identify gaps and find ways to fill them so that the value of the church—”the aroma of Christ”—is detected by Christians and their neighbours. And that, in turn, will demand a spirit of service and the ability to improvise.
“There are a lot of things that trees do, and they don’t only do it for their kind, right?” she says. “It’s not like the oak tree says, ‘I’m only giving oxygen to other oak trees.’ The whole area is better because of the presence of that tree.”
Updated with new information Oct. 6
