Who we Are
Ryle Seminary is an evangelical, cross-denominational school seeking to equip students for confident gospel ministry. Founded in the Fall of 2012 as Ottawa Theological College, our name was changed in 2015 to Ryle Seminary in honour of John Charles Ryle, the noted Anglican evangelical clergyman, bishop, and biblical commentator of the late 19th century.
We are evangelical and reformed in theological outlook, cherishing the spiritual heritage passed on to us from the Reformation. Our objective is to train future generations of Church ministers, missionaries, and leaders, as well as providing lay Christian education. Our faculty and students come from a variety of evangelical denominations.
Campus
Ryle Seminary has sites for on-campus learning in Ottawa and Burlington, Ontario. Ryle also offers online and hybrid learning for students who choose not to relocate to these locations.
Our Story
Ryle Seminary has been training potential pastors, missionaries, and lay leaders since 2009. It was started by a church in Ottawa, The Church of the Messiah, an Anglican Evangelical church in the tradition of J. I. Packer and John Stott.
From the very beginning, the vision and mission was to be cross-denominational, serving evangelical churches in Ottawa and beyond. We express our mission as, "Equipping unashamed workers, unashamed of the Gospel, and unashamed of the whole counsel of God." We express our vision as, "Building strong local Gospel churches at home and abroad, one leader at a time." We have graduates who have been ordained and serve in churches.
We have developed a strong Masters level curriculum taught by godly profs. With the exception of a couple of the more "hands on courses" like preaching, all of our courses are taught by people with a PhD. Our courses are live, either in person or by Zoom. In person instruction is offered in Ottawa and Burlington. Training is both taught and caught, so we are developing a local and distance mentorship aspect for those training for vocational ministry. We will also be adding a face-to-face week long intensive component to build community.
Please note that we have an articulation agreement with Southern Seminary, and are working on others, but that we are not yet accredited. If that is a bit confusing, give us a call or send us an email, we would love to share with you the benefits of attending Ryle.