ChristianWeek

CALGARY, AB—Two denominational schools, Alliance and Nazarene University Colleges (AUC-NUC) in Calgary have joined efforts under a new name.

Ambrose University College will open its doors in September and will serve as the official Canadian school of both the Christian and Missionary Alliance and the Church of the Nazarene.

The school will be named after Ambrose of Milan, a fourth-century Roman governor turned bishop who left his mark as a hymn writer, preacher, pastor and an educator and is best known for leading Augustine to faith and his strong defense of orthodox Christology.

"We are part of a larger tradition of historic faith that reaches all the way back to the early church fathers," says college president George Durance, a Church history scholar. "We wanted to make a statement that we have deep traditions and a long-standing theology. We are not a part of the rootlessness of modern society."

The name change was also intended to enhance the school's marketing ability.

"The name Ambrose gives us some very practical advantages—it's short, easy to spell and," Durance chuckles, "it keeps us in the front of the phone book." Although the new name has strong ties with history, the school will not be preoccupied with the past, says Durance.

"We're really hoping that this strategic move on our part will contribute to what we hope will become a movement within Canadian evangelicalism to think historically, that is, to use the past to think about the present and about the future.

"I personally believe that a better grasp of how our spiritual forefathers responded to and interacted with the changes they were confronted with is essential and the very kind of thing we need to learn from in the 21st century to make the church more effective in interfacing with both the popular culture of our day and society in general."

Since relocating to Calgary, both AUC-NUC's "campus" has consisted of several floors of an office building in the downtown core.

In early April, a low-key sod-turning ceremony was held to begin construction on a 130,000-square-foot facility for Ambrose on a large piece of property in west Calgary. The new building—to be occupied August '08—will contain administrative offices, classrooms, library, gymnasium, cafeteria and residences.

In addition to obtaining approval this past year from the provincial Department of Education to expand Ambrose's bachelor of arts degrees in history and psychology from three-year to four-year programs, the school has recently applied for approval to begin offering bachelor of science and bachelor of education degrees.

Formerly known as Canadian Bible College and Theological Seminary during its time in Regina, AUC moved to Calgary in 2003. Canadian Nazarene College was originally based in Red Deer, Alberta, and after some time in Winnipeg moved to Calgary in the mid-1990s.