Diocese of North Carolina Announces $1.25 Million Grant to Help Congregations Cultivate Intergenerational Worship and Formation
October 10, 2024
The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina has received a $1.25 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to equip congregational leaders with the imagination, connections, skills and resources they need to strengthen worship and prayer practices that attend to and respect how children experience God and express their faith.
The program is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative, a national initiative designed to help Christian congregations more fully and intentionally engage children in intergenerational corporate worship and prayer practices.
This grant will enable the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina to reconceive the way it supports congregations around children’s and family formation.
Rather than continue to offer primarily diocesan-wide programming, the diocese will spark congregational imagination around intergenerational worship and its connection to holistic Christian formation; curate connections among congregations; and equip and empower congregational leaders to design and lead inclusive and sensory-rich worship rooted in The Episcopal Church’s rich liturgical traditions.
Over five years, diocesan strategies will include congregational coaching to assess how children are involved in corporate worship and prayer; mini-grants to design and test experiments to engage children more intentionally; regional and diocesan-wide gatherings to build formation communities of practice; learning opportunities to help congregational leaders gain skills to sustain intergenerational worship and formation approaches; and hiring a missioner for children’s and family ministry to direct this grant, facilitate relationships with congregations and build a culture of learning.
The hope is that this project will help each participating congregation strengthen its culture of nurturing discipleship, clarify formational goals and more intentionally connect intergenerational worship design to formational practices.
“We are overjoyed to receive this investment in the future of our children and our church,” said the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Brooke-Davidson, assistant bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and supervisor of the grant’s implementation. “The grant will enable us to accelerate our work in reimagining ways for churches of all sizes to enrich the experience of all age groups in the formative power of worship. We are deeply grateful to Lilly Endowment for entrusting us with the stewardship of these resources.”
The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina is one of 91 organizations funded through the latest round of the Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative. Participating organizations represent and serve congregations in a broad spectrum of Christian traditions, including Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, Orthodox, Anabaptist and Pentecostal faith communities. Several organizations are rooted in Black Church and Hispanic and Asian American Christian traditions.
“Congregational worship and prayer play a critical role in the spiritual growth of children and offer settings for children to acquire the language of faith, learn their faith traditions and experience the love of God as part of a supportive community,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “These programs will help congregations give greater attention to children and how they can more intentionally nurture the faith of children, as well as adults, through worship and prayer.”
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Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. The principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.
