Foundation Supports Five Church Projects
Diocesan Press Service. February 27, 1975 [75083]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- A school for Indian drop-outs, a church-wide prayer movement, a research study of the office of bishop and an association of Church schools received grants from The Episcopal Church Foundation at the Board of Directors' meeting in January. In addition, the directors authorized an interest-bearing loan to The Seabury Press, official publishing house of the Episcopal Church.
School drop-outs at the Episcopal Neighborhood Center School in Minneapolis, more than half of whom are American Indians, receive official credit for their studies and are motivated either to re-enter public school or continue there until high school graduation. The Center School is administered by the Episcopal Community Services of the Diocese of Minnesota and includes a number of clergy among its teachers. The School works with delinquent and pre-delinquent teen-age drop-outs and achieves a high degree of success with its students. A Foundation grant of $7,500 will enable the School to hire a full-time American Indian staff member to strengthen its model program.
A grant of $5,000 will help the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer to hire an Executive Director for its international program of moral and spiritual renewal through prayer and evangelism. A matching grant of $5,000 has been promised, if the Fellowship raises an additional $10,000 by November 1, 1975. A network of 70 diocesan field representatives, appointed by the bishops, arranges local prayer meetings, and the Fellowship itself sponsors a national annual meeting for its current membership of 20,000 lay people and clergy.
The directors also approved a grant of $7,500 to the Committee on Pastoral Development of the House of Bishops, which is conducting a research study of the office of bishop.
The study will identify the bishop's role today and will seek to determine how it will change in the next few decades, so that each diocese may examine its relationship with its bishop, especially when electing a new one, and the bishop himself may plan his goals and further training more realistically.
The National Association of Episcopal Schools received a grant of $16,650 to strengthen the organization's capabilities for self-support. The Association numbers 1,000 kindergarten, elementary and secondary schools in its membership, 850 of which are run by parishes and the others church-affiliated, and provides them with publications, conferences, research and consultations to deepen their ties with each other and the Church.
The Foundation has negotiated a special revolving loan agreement with The Seabury Press to provide assistance towards reduced interest rates in connection with the Press' current borrowing schedule.