The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia has received a $1,248,768 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish the Pathways to Prayer and Practice Initiative.
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.
The Pathways to Prayer and Practice project involves the creation of a framework, roadmap, or pathway that guides congregations, and subsequently families, on meaningful engagement of children in corporate worship in churches across the Diocese of Virginia. Likely, these pathways will look less like hard structures of curriculum and more like the soft connective tissue that binds us together in strong yet flexible faith communities. A training laboratory will be established, The Pathways Institute, where dozens of participating congregations will intentionally experiment with systems to invite families to church, recruit leaders, welcome the marginalized, and shift their church culture towards the full embrace of children in worship. Scripture, prayer, Eucharist, music, and sacred spaces are the five primary areas of worship around which new practices will be ideated and employed. Congregations will be incentivized for their participation in institute cohorts with sub-grants to assist in the implementation of their concept in their own church. The collective learnings from these experiments will culminate in the creation of a Pathways Guidebook for congregations, online resources, and visual material that can be shared broadly and reach across the diocese and beyond.
The Rt. Rev’d E. Mark Stevenson is excited for the impact that the Pathways to Prayer and Practice Initiative will have for the Diocese of Virginia. He says, “For far too long, the church has underinvested in building disciples of Jesus Christ, deeming the nursery and age-segregated Sunday School as sufficient formation for our children, resulting in multiple generations (and a declining number) of parishioners loosely practicing the faith. The Diocese of Virginia is serious about faith formation, and I wholeheartedly believe this work must begin with children and their families. Just as Jesus Christ incarnate did many radical things, even turned the world upside down when he came to save the world, we too, need to think creatively, collaboratively, and downright radically about how our diocese is equipping and training our 173 congregations to raise disciples. This grant is an incredible opportunity to help us do this work.”
The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia is one of 91 organizations receiving funding through the latest round of the initiative. They 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.”
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.