Refreshed and Equipped: My Week at the Christian Legal Institute

A Report by Promise Adedijo

When I first received the word from the Christian Legal Fellowship that I had been accepted to attend the Christian Legal Institute (“CLI”), I was in the thick of a law school semester – readings stacked high, deadlines pressing in, and the familiar exhaustion that so many law students know well.

At that time, I had yet to become personally immersed in the CLF family. I was a general member, and would attend a few events in Toronto, but never really took it any further. I said yes, not yet knowing all that was in store for me.

Looking back, I can only describe that “yes” the way the psalmist describes the steps of the faithful: ordered by the Lord (Psalm 37:23).

I arrived in London, Ontario on April 26th feeling tired and somewhat uncertain. However, I left with a clearer sense of who I am, and Whose I am, in the profession I am entering.

Setting the Scene

There is a particular kind of stillness that comes when you step away from the city and onto grounds set apart for an institute like this one. After months of exams, lecture halls, recruitment periods, and the persistent hum of anxiety that seems to follow a law student everywhere, the quiet of the grounds at the Spencer Hotel & Conference Centre was almost startling.

There were trees in early bloom, abundant green lawns, and bountiful unhurried meals shared around tables with people I had only just met but would soon come to deeply appreciate. We had been promised both rigorous learning and spiritual rest. I confess I was skeptical that one week could deliver both. It did.

From the first morning, the rhythm of the days felt unlike anything in my legal education. We began each day in worship and devotion before turning to the hard intellectual work. In that rhythm, every lecture and discussion was framed not merely as an argument to win, but as a question to bring before God.

A Vibrant Community of Fellow Believers

I will be honest: I arrived at the CLI a little guarded. As someone who has spent years moving between worlds – community advocacy, political offices, and now law school – I have learned to read a room before I let it read me.

*CLF’s Development Advisor, André Schutten, presenting at the 2026 CLI.*

But there is a particular relief in being among people who share both your faith and your calling to the law. Within hours, that guardedness began to fall away and, in its place, settled a quiet sense of peace and belonging.

This year’s 30 CLI delegates came from different law schools, different provinces, different denominations, and very different aspirations within the profession. Yet, we were bound by a shared desire to seek God’s will in our legal vocations. That fellowship gave flesh to the scripture “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24, NIV).

“There was something deeply healing about being reminded that I do not have to separate my faith from my future in the law. In fact, CLI challenged me to understand that my faith must shape the kind of lawyer I am becoming.”

We fellowshipped over meals, in late-night conversations, and in prayer for one another’s futures. We spoke honestly about ambition, fear, courage, calling, and what it means to follow Christ in a profession that often rewards self-reliance, sharpness, and certainty. There was something deeply healing about being reminded that I do not have to separate my faith from my future in the law. In fact, CLI challenged me to understand that my faith must shape the kind of lawyer I am becoming.

Wrestling With the Hard Questions

The intellectual substance of the week was demanding, and I would not have wanted it any other way. CLI does not flinch at some of the most contested questions in Canadian law and public life, while fostering a culture of humility and openness among organizers and delegates.

*Professor Frankie Young (University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law), presenting at the 2026 CLI.*

We heard from physicians and professors on medical assistance in dying (“MAiD”), and the conversation refused easy answers. We were asked to consider what it means to live in a society that increasingly frames death as a solution to suffering, and what the law owes to the vulnerable, the disabled, the elderly, the lonely, and the despairing.

As future lawyers, we were challenged to hold fast to the conviction that every human life carries inherent and immeasurable worth on an equal basis with others – not because of what a person can produce, achieve, or contribute, but because each person is “fearfully and wonderfully made” in the image of God.

These were not abstractions. They are live questions before Parliament, courts, and legislatures, and within families and communities. Everyone in that room will spend their careers encountering these matters in different forms. CLI reminded us that Christian lawyers cannot afford to be intellectually lazy, emotionally detached, or afraid of complexity. We are called to think deeply, speak carefully, and advocate faithfully.

*Ruth Ross (CLF Special Advisor and Director of Operations) and Vivian Clemence (CLF Bilingual Counsel and Student Ministries Coordinator), co-presenting at the 2026 CLI.*

We also turned to the question of the secular state, including Québec’s legislative project to secularize public life and the limits it places on the free expression of religion. This session forced me to ask what role faith may legitimately play in the public square of a pluralistic democracy, and how a Christian lawyer can advocate for religious freedom in a way that protects everyone’s conscience and faith – not only her own.

The call is not to dominate the culture, but to be, as Jesus put it, “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” – present, distinct, and faithful even where we may be unwelcome. That language stayed with me. Salt preserves. Light reveals. Neither has to be loud to be effective, but both must be present.

*The Hon. Justice David Brown, formerly of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, presenting at the 2026 CLI.*

Perhaps the most sobering session of the week addressed the persecution of Christians around the globe. We sat with accounts of believers imprisoned, displaced, and killed for their faith, and I was reminded how comfortable my own discipleship has often been.

Scripture does not promise us ease: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, NIV). I left that session with a renewed sense of solidarity with the persecuted church and a conviction that those of us with the privilege of legal training have a particular duty to use it on behalf of those whose voices are silenced.

“CLI reframed advocacy for me not merely as professional ambition, but as ministry – a way of living out the command to: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed” (Isaiah 1:17, NIV).”

Bold and Faithful Advocacy

Woven through every session was a singular, insistent charge: to be bold. We were reminded again and again that timidity is not a Christian virtue, and that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7, ESV).

That charge landed deeply for me as a Black woman entering the law. I have spent much of my life advocating for communities that are too easily overlooked, and I have learned that boldness is not always loud. More often, it is the quiet refusal to disappear. It is the steady insistence on truth spoken in love.

CLI reframed advocacy for me not merely as professional ambition, but as ministry – a way of living out the command to: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed” (Isaiah 1:17, NIV).

*Professor Dwight Newman, KC (University of Saskatchewan College of Law), presenting at the 2026 CLI.*

At the same time, we were reminded that boldness without humility curdles into self-righteousness. The model held up to us was Christ Himself, who came full of both grace and truth. That pairing matters. Grace without truth can become compromise, and truth without grace can become cruelty. But Christ gives us a better way.

The aim is not to win arguments for the sake of winning them, but to serve people faithfully. A lawyer who forgets that has mistaken the profession for a platform.

“I came to CLI thinking of my faith and my legal career as parallel tracks, both important to me, but running alongside one another rather than fully intersecting. I left understanding them as not only intersecting, but part of one singular path.”

Walking the Path of a Christian in Law

By the end of the week, something in me had shifted. I came to CLI thinking of my faith and my legal career as parallel tracks, both important to me, but running alongside one another rather than fully intersecting. I left understanding them as not only intersecting, but part of one singular path.

That was the real impact of CLI for me. Not only did it enrich my understanding of law, policy, and culture, it gave me a renewed vision for what faithfulness can look like in the legal profession when we commit to embodying the love of Jesus in our daily work. The CLI reminded me that Christian lawyers are called into some of the hardest challenges – not retreating from these difficult places, but entering them with conviction, humility, excellence, and above all love.

“Not only did [the CLI] enrich my understanding of law, policy, and culture, it gave me a renewed vision for what faithfulness can look like in the legal profession when we commit to embodying the love of Jesus in our daily work.”

*CLF Staff and Support Team at the 2026 CLI.*

The question that has remained with me is Micah’s – the one I keep returning to as I think about the kind of lawyer I want to become: “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, NIV).

That verse, I believe, is the core job description for all Christian lawyers. Whether my work eventually takes me into venture, intellectual property, securities, or somewhere I cannot yet foresee, that charge is constant, calling on me to walk humbly with the Lord, acting justly and loving mercy.

Equipped and Sent

The week closed with a commissioning, and I will not soon forget standing among my fellow delegates as a room filled with lawyers prayed over us and sent us out. It was a reminder that our entry into the legal profession is not merely another step in our career paths, but a calling – and that we do not go in our own strength.

I did not leave CLI with every answer. I left with better questions, deeper friendships, and a settled peace about the road ahead.

I am deeply grateful to CLF and to the CLI faculty and supporters for equipping us, challenging us, and commissioning us. I move forward confident that the One who calls is also the One who sustains.

The 2026 CLI delegates pledged over $11,000,000 in pro bono services to Christian ministry (based on an hourly rate of $225/hour over 35 years, not accounting for inflation or pay increases!). That’s a 4,300% return on investment (cost of program vs. pro bono hours pledged).

Learn more about the Christian Legal Institute here.

Promise Adedijo is a third-year law student at Osgoode Hall Law School and a summer student at Dentons Canada LLP. She is particularly interested in corporate law and has also enjoyed exploring charity and conservation law through her secondment with the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Outside of her legal work, Promise is passionate about mentorship, community-building, and creating opportunities for students from underrepresented backgrounds. She is also actively involved in her church and enjoys photography.