Seven Projects Receive Foundation Grants
Episcopal News Service. August 21, 1980 [80272]
NEW YORK -- Conferences on ministry in small congregations and the ministry of the laity, as well as the use of drama in parishes, the Church's mission in urban centers and to the elderly, a new departure in securing parish income, and restoring to usefulness a Spanish theological collection will benefit from seven grants totalling $31,000 recently authorized by the board of directors of The Episcopal Church. The Appalachian Peoples' Service Organization, Inc., (APSO) is the Episcopal Church's regional approach to ministry and mission in Appalachia, through the cooperative efforts of 13 dioceses from Albany to Atlanta. Last November APSO sponsored a conference on ministry to address the needs of small, struggling and dependent congregations. Specific models of ministry were examined that can be put into practice at the local level. An extensive follow-up to this meeting is being pursued this year, to evaluate what has happened and to set future goals. A grant of $3,500 will help carry out this effort for the Foundation.
The Appalachian Peoples' Service Organization, Inc., (APSO) is the Episcopal Church's regional approach to ministry and mission in Appalachia, through the cooperative efforts of 13 dioceses from Albany to Atlanta. Last November APSO sponsored a conference on ministry to address the needs of small, struggling and dependent congregations. Specific models of ministry were examined that can be put into practice at the local level. An extensive follow-up to this meeting is being pursued this year, to evaluate what has happened and to set future goals. A grant of $3,500 will help carry out this effort.
As a joint enterprise of the Foundation's Philadelphia Council and the Philadelphia Theological Institute, a three-day conference entitled "Ministry is Everybody's Business" was held in June at the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia with the aid of a $5,500 grant to the Diocese of Pennsylvania. The meeting's purpose was to assist diocesan agencies to reorganize their priorities to reflect a commitment to mutual and total ministry. (Mutual ministry is viewed as the cooperative effort of clergy and laity; total ministry is that of all baptized persons.) Participants explored action-oriented responses to such questions as the function of ordained persons; how a diocese can affirm lay ministries; and how parishes can affirm more adequately the values of total and mutual ministries.
A $4,500 grant to The Episcopal Foundation for Drama will help to launch a 16-month program to bring Christian drama to parishes. The project will be carried out at the Kanuga Conference Center in North Carolina during the summers of 1980 and 1981 and will serve as a model for similar programs in other parts of the country. A resident dramatist will act as a resource for people of all ages at the Center in writing, acting in, directing and producing plays. Regional and local workshops will also be sponsored to educate clergy and laity about the use of church drama. Groups will be formed as well to tour parishes in Province IV with dramatic productions, and the entire venture will be evaluated by an independent consultant.
To create a clear-cut definition of the Church's responsibility in ministering to and acting as advocate for people living in cities, the Diocese of Los Angeles is forming an Urban Studies Commission composed of lay and clerical leadership in the Church. They will employ a coordinator in consulting and involving church and community leaders, city officials and business and labor executives in the study. It is expected that the feasibility study's findings will provide options for a parish-based urban ministry and for the principles on which to found a diocesan Urban Institute. A grant of $5,000 will help finance the study.
The Episcopal Society for Ministry on Aging was launched by the national Church in 1964 as the official vehicle for its ministry to the aging. It has sponsored workshops on problems of the aging, issued a quarterly newsletter and built a network of diocesan and parish representatives. A grant of $5,000 will enable the Society to intensify its fund-raising activities as it pursues research on the theological dimensions of the aging process, trains additional representatives and prepares to present its findings to the 1982 General Convention.
The rector of Emmanuel Church in Franklin, Va., has been given a suitable boat and a vehicle to start an ingenious project that will supplement the parish's annual pledged income. Additional funds, among them a $2,500 grant from the Foundation, will be used to purchase fishing tackle, nets, necessary licensing and insurance, so that parish volunteers may initiate a fishing venture in the Atlantic. The catches will be offered for sale to local businesses or given to the needy. When not in use for this, the boat will be leased on a charter basis for game fishing. The parish expects to earn an annual minimum of $3,000 from this effort.
When the Theological Seminary of the Caribbean in Puerto Rico was closed in 1977, the English and Spanish texts in its library were transferred to The Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Tex., which numbers seminarians from Latin America in its student body. A grant of $5,000 will help to purchase new volumes for the collection and establish a reference book display area in the seminary's library.
In addition to grants, The Episcopal Church Foundation makes loans for parish and mission building programs and awards fellowships to recent seminary graduates for doctoral study. The Foundation is a national, independent organization of lay men and women who support significant projects not included in regular church budgets.
Four new directors were elected at the annual meeting of the board of directors. They will serve five-year terms and are then eligible for re-election.
J. Mabon Childs is president of Parker/Hunter, Inc., in Pittsburgh, Penn., and was chairman for four years of the Foundation's Pittsburgh Council. W. Gibson Harris is senior partner in the Richmond, Va., law firm of McGuire, Woods & Battle. Mrs. W. Ashton Lee became active in local church affairs as the first woman elected to the Standing Committee and president of the Episcopal Churchwomen of the Diocese of Colorado, after moving from Chicago to Denver in 1965. She has served on numerous committees and councils. Gerald E. Stanton is a former chairman of the Foundation's Illinois Council and is vice chairman for administration of Arthur Anderson & Company, in Chicago and Geneva, Switzerland. He is active in many civic and professional organizations.