The Episcopal Church Executive Council, at its February meeting in Linthicum Heights, MD, approved the recipients of the Constable Fund Grants, totaling $380,000 for seven projects.

The Constable Fund Grant Review Committee was chaired by the Rev. Tanya Wallace, an Executive Council member from the Diocese of Western Massachusetts.

The Constable Fund provides grants to fund mission initiatives that were not provided for within the budget of the Episcopal Church as approved by General Convention. Wallace explained, “The criteria used for the ranking, in conjunction with the expectations of the grant and its benefactor, were a clear focus on religious education, potential impact of the project, cost-effectiveness and clarity of budget, level of collaboration, and consistency with the priorities of General Convention and the Episcopal Church.”

Wallace said the Executive Council Constable Grant Review Committee received 16 applications, which carried combined requests totaling over $1.2 million.

Recipients

The following seven projects receiving 2017 Constable Grants are:

• Building Bridges (Province VII): Support for creative multi-diocese Province VII antiracism project. $29,000.

• Red Shirt Table (Province VI): Support for convocation on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with Presiding Bishop’s presence. $40,000.

• Province IX Youth and Young Adult Event Leadership Development (Province IX and Episcopal Church Office of Formation): Support for project to create Spanish language Episcopal Youth Event in Province IX. $40,000.

• Province II Forming Christians (Province II/Diocese of New Jersey): Support to create web-based interactive Christian formation videos for use in the home with families. $50,000.

• Love God, Love Neighbor (Episcopal Migration Ministries): Support for regional educational trainings designed to empower Episcopalians to be agents of reconciliation in the world as allies, advocates, and ambassadors for their refugee neighbors. $60,000.

• Episcopal Asset Map (Episcopal Church Office of Communications): Support to continue important work of the map through rebuilding the site, in partnership with the Episcopal Church and Episcopal Relief & Development. $60,000.

• Our Stories Speak of God (Episcopal Church Office of Evangelism and Reconciliation): Support for collaborative churchwide project to grow faith and relationship through stories (evangelism and reconciliation). $101,000.

Named for Marie Louise Constable

The Constable Grants were named for Marie Louise Constable, who was a visionary philanthropist.  In 1935, in the midst of economic catastrophe known as the Great Depression, Constable made a monetary gift to the Episcopal Church to establish the Constable Fund.  Her desire and intent to add periodically to the fund during her lifetime was realized and culminated with a very generous final gift at the time of her death in 1951. The language of Constable’s will states that the fund exists “in perpetuity … to apply the net income for the purposes of the Society, preferably for the work in religious education not provided for within the Society’s budget.