Foundation Reports Further Grants
Episcopal News Service. December 15, 1988 [88275G]
NEW YORK (DPS, Dec. 15) -- Leadership training programs ranked high in the latest round of grants made by the Episcopal Church Foundation.
One large grant went to the Diocese of Maryland for its "Apostolic Ministry" project, part of an entire diocesan thrust known as "Crossroads." Funds from the grant will be used to build a new model for clergy deployment and for strengthening working relationships between clergy and laity. "It involves an intentional look at the ordained ministry, as well as being very deliberate about congregational development," said Bishop Theodore Eastman of Maryland about his diocese's programs.
According to the Foundation's executive vice-president Jeffry Kittross, creative approaches to ministry are a key element considered by the Foundation in making recent grants. "Our new national venture, 'Excellence in Ministry,"' Kittross said, "stresses ways in which clergy and laity can approach ministry together in new and exciting ways. We're looking for pilot programs such as the Maryland project that will benefit the entire Church."
Another funded project that stressed a new model of leadership was "Interweave" of Summit, New Jersey. Housed at Calvary Church, the program will establish groups of clergy and laity in a minimum of five parishes. The groups, supported by a variety of training experience, will help participants to share in the joys and burdens of ministry. "Our goal," said the Rev. Robert C.W. Morris, director of Interweave, "is to set up a model that will help laity and clergy to explore a range of personal experiences and convictions."
The Foundation also funded a major research project that will explore ways in which seminarians and their newly ordained can better learn pastoral care skills in a medical setting. Sponsored by the Hospital Chaplaincy Program in New York Hospital and Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center, the project stresses "contextual education" -- i.e., learning that involves doing and reflecting concurrently. The program will involve students and staff from virtually all major Christian denominations, and from the Jewish faith.
Other organizations that received grants are: The Center for Hispanic Studies at the Seminary of the Southwest; Kanuga Conference Center; the Diocese of Jerusalem; the Diocese of Connecticut; the Diocese of West Tennessee; the Grubb Institute; and the Episcopal Family Network.