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Executive Council awards 2024 Constable Fund, Roanridge Trust grants

May 7, 2024
Office of Public Affairs

The Episcopal Church Executive Council approved the awarding of 10 Constable Fund grants and 11 Roanridge Trust grants—together totaling $490,500—at its April meeting. The Joint Standing Committee on Mission Within The Episcopal Church and two grant review committees made the recommendations.

Constable Fund grants focus on mission initiatives that fall outside the church’s budget, with an emphasis on religious education. Roanridge Trust grants support leadership development in small towns and rural communities.

Application cycles for the two grants open annually, typically in the fall.

Recipients of the 2024 Constable Fund grants, totaling $242,000:

  • From the Wilderness to the Promised Land: Following in Joshua’s Steps, Episcopal Diocese of Arizona, $9,000: Funds more in-depth Christian education and learning about the global Anglican Communion at the adult camp held annually at Chapel Rock in the Diocese of Arizona.
  • Spiritual Care Visitor Training (SCVT), Spanish-language Version Implementation, Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, $20,000: Funds the full launch of an accessible, specialized, culturally relevant Spanish-language version of SCVT in a hybrid curriculum, designed to empower laity, congregants, and individuals to provide faith-based guidance to those facing hardship in their communities.
  • Contemplative Practices for Trauma-Informed Spiritual Care: A Retreat for Episcopal Chaplains, Office of Ecumenical & Interreligious Relations, $15,000: Funds a three-day specialized retreat focused on trauma-informed spiritual care for chaplains, fostering resilience and wellness, while providing evidence-based spiritual tools to address stressors of modem society, including racial injustice, eco-anxiety, post-pandemic stress disorder, and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments.
  • Building Ethnic Leadership for the Future of The Episcopal Church: Seminarians of Color, Department of Ethnic Ministries, $40,000: Funds the bringing together of seminarians of color from around the country to hear from experienced clergy of color; share common visions and dreams, concerns and issues experienced in seminary settings; and to build cross-cultural friendships through networking in a safe environment.
  • Anglicanism in European Perspective, Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, $13,000: Funds the one-week, college-level introductory course to Anglican history, theology, and contemporary issues that was developed by the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe.
  • Caminemos con Maria, Episcopal Diocese of lndianapolis, $40,000: Funds a faith formation and storytelling experience that celebrates Latinas, gifts and stories of struggle, liberation, and Resurrection, as captured in the traditional genre of Canci6n Latinoamericana (Latin American song), resulting in a recording, along with an accompanying educational website and reflection questions, that will become a spiritual formation resource for people throughout The Episcopal Church and beyond.
  • Embodied Beloved Community: A Pilgrimage along the Civil Rights Trail for Truth-Telling, Training and Transformation, Episcopal Dioceses of Long Island and Atlanta, $50,000: Funds an intentionally intergenerational, theologically grounded pilgrimage to select sites along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. This pilgrimage is a joint venture hosted by an Anglo-Episcopal church in Brooklyn, New York, and a historically Black Episcopal church in Atlanta, Georgia; scheduled for June 30-July 7, 2024, it is open to anyone committed to truth-telling and transformation.
  • Creating an Arabic Christian Hymnal with English Phonetics and Worship Music, Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, $10,000: Funds the creation of an Arabic-Christian hymnal with English phonetics; PowerPoint presentations that include lyrics with English phonetics and accompanying visuals; and recorded music—all designed to help address the shortage of Arabic church musicians and allow high­quality accompaniment during worship services at Mother of the Savior Church, Dearborn, Michigan—the first Arabic worshiping community in The Episcopal Church.
  • Expanding Good News Garden Access and Program Development, Episcopal Diocese of Northern California, $15,000: Funds the relocation of a previously established Good News Garden onto the church campus to create more community visibility and access while also integrating it more closely into the worship community; it includes an education and service opportunity for church members as well as a “leave and take” food pantry for all who pass by the church campus.
  • Curriculum in Response to D-030: Embracing Gender Diversity, Province V, $30,000: Funds a two-course digital curriculum to inform, form, and transform individuals and communities concerning gender diversity and catalyze personal and communal efforts in line with General Convention’s Resolution D 030 “to welcome and support people and communities of diverse genders, including trans gender and non-binary.”

Recipients of the 2024 Roanridge Trust grants, totaling $248,500:

  • Leadership Retreat and Exchange—from one Wilderness to Another, Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii, $15,000: Funds a leadership training/exchange retreat from St. John the Baptist in Waianae, Oahu, to St. James in Waimea, Hawaii, to observe the community meal and thrift shop.
  • Vocational Discernment for Rural Youth, Episcopal Church in Minnesota, $25,000: Funds an opportunity for Native youth from four small towns to visit college campuses and cultural sites in Minneapolis, while exploring questions of vocation in community. It provides coaching to rural faith leaders before, during, and after the trip on how best to support youth and promote the trip as a sustainable ministry.
  • Requiem or Renaissance, Phase 2, Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, $27,000: Funds an 18-month discernment and skills-building program for small congregations in need of revitalization. Congregations enter a discernment process that helps them determine God’s call: to a Requiem, a holy ending of this congregation’s ministry in this location at this time, or a Renaissance, a church re-plant with a new vision.
  • Theological Education for Rural Churches to Build Spanish-speaking Leaders and Congregations in Nevada, Episcopal Diocese of Nevada, $15,000: Supports bringing a bilingual consultant and Spanish language resources to rural Nevada to help ordained and lay leaders in rural churches that serve growing populations of native Spanish speakers.
  • A New Day Draws Near: Conference on Collaborative Leadership & Shared Ministry, Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan, $18,500: Funds a conference that will focus on reimagining sustainable congregations that form ministry collaboratives with their members, both lay and ordained, as well as the wider local community.
  • Developing New Models of Sustainable Rural Ministry, Episcopal Dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York, $41,000: Supports cohort-based coaching that helps clergy lead change and activate lay leadership, and a new preaching formation program for lay leaders, new clergy, aspirants, and postulants in three key rural regions: the Oil Region of Western Pennsylvania, the Genesee Region of Western New York, and the towns of DuBois and Brookville, also in Western Pennsylvania.
  • Youth Choir School on San Juan Island, Washington, Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, $10,000: Funds a youth choir school that will serve as a key means of spiritual formation for elementary through secondary school-age children at St. David’s. No other area church offers a program like this, and public schools on the island no longer offer education and training in choral music.
  • Network of Rural Episcopal Leaders, para-church, $37,000: Supports the Gathering of Leaders in recruitment efforts and funding scholarships for rural leaders to attend in-person gatherings and be reimbursed for travel expenses; funds also help efforts to reinstate virtual gatherings to better serve the needs of bivocational and lay leaders in their unique ministry settings.
  • Connecting Rural Communities in Province VI to our Global Human Family, Province VI, $25,000: Provides funds to bring the art theology method to the entirety of Province VI, including training the trainers; introducing ministry leaders and church educators to the method; and allowing participants to uncover their unique gifts and experience a sense of community.
  • Youth and Young Adult Leadership and Empowerment, Episcopal Diocese of Utah, $15,000: Provides funds for 12 leadership and empowerment workshops recruiting Native leaders and high school youth leaders in a program called Art Empowers, based on verbal and artistic self-expression, mentoring and healthy living practices.
  • The Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia College for Clergy, $20,000: Supports peer-learning cohorts and individual, ongoing leadership coaching to clergy throughout the diocese through the College for Clergy, focusing on skills for both full-time and bivocational rural contexts.

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