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L.A. Grant Helps Solo Flight Expand its Offerings to Single Adults

Episcopal News Service. November 27, 2006 [112706-1-A]

The four bishops in the Diocese of Los Angeles have announced they will give a $50,000 matching grant to support the ministry of Solo Flight and regional conferences for single, divorced and widowed people.

"The bishops of Los Angeles are offering an incredible gift to single adults and to the church," said Kay Collier McLaughlin, founder and national coordinator of Solo Flight Ministries with Single Adults.

The first joint venture will be Solo Flight West Coast, with the Rev. Zelda Kennedy of All Saints, Pasadena, California, and Debbie Decker of Los Angeles' Solo Journeys serving as local coordinators.

McLaughlin will work with each regional team in staffing, training and maintaining the standards in spiritual formation and nurture of single adults for which the ministry is known.

Solo Flight at Kanuga Conferences at Hendersonville, North Carolina, is in its 17th year of serving as the only national gathering for single adults in the Episcopal tradition.

Because few Episcopal congregations offer ministry with single adults, the conference has something of a "promised land" reputation -- a safe and caring environment where single adults of all ages can consider their singularity in the context of their faith and develop skills for living singly in a couple-oriented church and culture, McLaughlin said.

The four bishops in Los Angeles are Diocesan Bishop J. Jon Bruno, Bishop Suffragan Chester L. Talton, and assisting bishops Sergio Carranza and Robert Anderson.

For more information on matching gifts, email: debbiedecker@ladiocese.org.

To organize a regional Solo Flight conference, email: kcollierm@diolex.org.

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