Episcopal Church Foundation Approves Grants
Diocesan Press Service. November 15, 1974 [74319]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Theological education for laity and clergy, a project to increase clerical salaries in the Diocese of Quincy (Illinois) and a national information service on non-stipendiary clergy will benefit from five grants authorized in October by the Board of Directors of The Episcopal Church Foundation. The grants total $54,600, with promise of an additional $7,500 to one project on a matching fund basis.
The Center for Christian Learning in New Orleans, Louisiana, will receive a $10,000 seed-money grant to expand its facilities for the theological education of laymen and women. Sponsored by Grace Episcopal Church and staffed largely by local clergy of several faiths, the Center offers nine-week courses in general adult education and continuing education for lay professionals. Intensive training is also given to volunteers in various areas of church activity. The Rev. Joe M. Doss, rector of Grace Church and director of the Center, said, "The Center is intended to serve as a model for other such undertakings, and we hope it will become the nucleus of a network of similar educational facilities throughout the South. "
A feasibility study of training persons for the ministry by extension courses, rather than during three years' study at seminary, will be supported by a $15,000 grant to the School of Theology of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Charles L. Winters, of the Sewanee faculty, the project will test the feasibility of theological education through a series of carefully programmed readings and audio cassettes covering the biblical, historical, theological and ethical traditions of Christianity. In addition, on-site personnel will conduct regular seminars to relate the independent academic studies to the life of the ministry. The project's effectiveness will be evaluated regularly by professional consultants. The program seeks to develop a prototype for the use of other seminaries in training growing numbers of non-stipendiary clergy, as well as those who enter the ministry late in life, few of whom can devote three years to seminary study.
With the help of a $20,000 Foundation grant and a promise of $7,500 more on a matching basis, the Appalachian People's Service Organization (APSO) will employ a ministries coordinator to work with dioceses in Appalachia, the Dakotas and member dioceses of Coalition 14 -- former Missionary Districts mostly in the far west -- in developing creative approaches to the ministries of laymen and clergymen in small towns and rural communities. The coordinator will seek to stimulate new diocesan programs of theological education for laymen and of training them for specific functions of the ordained ministry. He will also encourage linkages between regions, dioceses, parishes and missions. APSO ministers to the people of the Appalachian mountain region on behalf of nine Episcopal dioceses and is administering this project jointly with the Dakota Training Program, sponsored by the two Episcopal Dakotan dioceses.
The directors also approved a $5, 100 grant for a clergy compensation study in the Diocese of Quincy, Illinois. The program will assist lay leaders in the diocese to determine a fair level of compensation for their clergy by basing clerical salaries on the median family income in each community. This grant will be drawn from the $75, 000 already authorized by the Foundation for the use of its Ad Hoc Committee on Clergy Compensation and Performance Evaluation in sponsoring pilot programs in test dioceses to increase clergy salaries and introduce effective means for clergy performance evaluation.
At the request of NASSAM (the National Association for Self-Supporting Active Ministry), a grant of $4,500 was authorized to provide a national information service on all non-stipendiary clergy, identifying them by name, ecclesiastical employ, secular position and address. The information will be compiled and kept current by Enablement, Inc., of Boston, Massachusetts. Self-supporting, or non-stipendiary, clergy derive their principal income from secular work and serve the Church in parishes on Sundays or as hospital chaplains, etc.
The Episcopal Church Foundation is an independent, national organization of laymen and women who support programs of significance to the Church that would otherwise be left undone. The grants above bring to $159, 600 the amount authorized by Foundation directors this year for projects they consider important to the Church's growth.