Eight grants, totaling $69,400, have been awarded in the first round of grantmaking managed by the Advisory Council for the Stewardship of Creation and approved by the Episcopal Church Executive Council at its February meeting.

Grants were awarded to:

• Episcopal Earthkeepers Circle, Diocese of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN to develop an online repository of sermon starters, sample sermons and ideas for creation care themed preaching: $5,000.

• Charis Community at Grace Church, Charlottesville VA to support a young adult intentional community’s permaculture best practices initiative which invites community and nearby churches into sacred appreciation of the land: $7400.

• St. Mark’s Church, San Marcos, TX to develop a pilot Water-Spirit-Wisdom program around the estuary to the San Antonio Bay for local congregations. The pilot program will be tested and revised for broad based sharing around the church: $10,000.

• Honore Farm and Mill, Larkspur, CA, expand the Farm to Altar program to a new location for the growing of and stone milling of organic heirloom wheat for environmental education through communion bread baking: $10,000

• The Abundant Table, Ventura, CA, to expand the Eco-Spanish Language Bible and Book study for farmworkers, develop the Eco-farm church for young families and youth groups: $10,000.

• Iowa Creation Stewards, Diocese of Iowa, to develop four regional working groups organized around watersheds to cultivate land, develop worship materials and lead forums on faith and the land: $10,000.

• Episcopal Church in New Hampshire, to support for a 40 day spiritual journeys of renewal and restoration via canoes and kayaks along the Connecticut River involving all the New England dioceses. Worship materials, rituals and prayers will be shared broadly around the church for others to replicate: $7000

• Diocese of Haiti, Centre Agriculture, to develop a drip-irrigation use system as a practical need for orchards and field crops. Use as a model of water conversation for other communities and congregations who will learn about the system: $10,000

The Advisory Council was created by General Convention 2015, enabled by Resolution A030,  and charged with the responsibility to develop a grant process to support local ecologically responsible stewardship of church-related properties and buildings.

Twenty applications were received in the first round. Applicants whose requests were not funded are eligible to revise and re-submit their requests in the second round of funding, which is open now.

Further information regarding this grant process and how to submit an application is available here.

Members of the Advisory Council for the Stewardship of Creation are: Bishop Marc Andrus, Co-Chair, Diocese of California; the Rev. Stephanie Johnson, Co-Chair, Diocese of Connecticut; Paul Anton, Diocese of Minnesota; the Rev. Jerry Cappel, Diocese of Kentucky; the Rev. Patrick Funston, Diocese of Kansas; the Rev. Esther Georges, Diocese of the Virgin Islands; Perry Hodgkins Jones, Diocese of Atlanta; the Rev. Martha Kirkpatrick, Diocese of Delaware; the Rev. Nurya Love Parish, Diocese of Western Michigan; Kelly Phelan, Diocese of Los Angeles; Peter Sergienko, Diocese of Oregon; Dr. Andrew Thompson, Diocese of  East Tennessee; Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Ex Officio; President of the House of Deputies the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, Ex Officio; Jayce Hafner, staff liaison.