THE CANADIAN SCHOOL could not sustain itself as enrollment and donations kept falling, leaders say.


At age 16, Karen Cooper lost her mother to cancer.

The death devastated Cooper, but she eventually came to view Ivy Kristianson’s passing in a different light.

“I have learned to focus on being grateful for the 16 years and what they meant,” said Cooper, chief operating officer for Western Christian College and High School in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Now, Cooper endeavors to take that same approach as she oversees the closing of financially beleaguered Western Christian — a pillar of Churches of Christ in Canada for 67 years.

“When I talk to people, in their heads they understand,” she said of the circumstances leading to the school’s demise. “That doesn’t mean their hearts aren’t broken.”

The Western Christian Society — a governing body made up of school donors who are members of Churches of Christ — recently voted 61-2 to shut down operations at the end of June.