Lay Ministry Grant Information

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Lay Ministry Grant
General Information

Purpose: The purpose of the Lay Ministry Grants is to encourage individual lay members of the Diocese to fulfill their baptismal covenants by providing funds to carry out specific ministries in their congregations, the Diocese, or the church at large. The grants may be used to pay for attendance at short courses or conferences related to the applicant's current ministry or to prepare the applicant to take on new ministries; to provide seed money for activities or programs the applicant will undertake as part of his/her ministry; or to cover the costs of mission work done as part of one's ministry to the world. The grants may cover the costs of the applicant's project in whole or in part, and applicants are encouraged to partner with their congregations in living out their ministry.

Background: Originally called Baptismal Ministry Enhancement Grants, these grants began in 2002 as the result of the leadership and vision of Bishops Haines and Dixon and of Ms. Lisa Dressler, who at the time was Administrative Assistant to the Bishop Dixon. They were established to emphasize the importance of individual ministry in the life of the church. The grants are administered by the Commission on Ministry.

Eligibility: All confirmed lay communicants of the Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Washington -- except for current members of the Commission on Ministry -- are eligible to apply for grants under this program. However grants may not be awarded to paid staff members of any congregation or the Diocese unless the grant is for purposes unrelated to their employment by the church. (Clergy are not eligible.)

Size of Grant: Individual grants may not exceed $500. No one may receive more than one grant per calendar year, and priority will be given to first time applicants.

Criteria for Award: The Commission on Ministry will review grant applications against the following criteria.

a) the extent to which the application is responsive to the applicant's view of his/her baptismal ministry AND

b) the extent to which the funds are targeted to enhance the specific ministry of the applicant within his/her congregation (e.g., as a Sunday School teacher, treasurer, lay Eucharistic minister, member of the outreach committee) or the Diocese OR

c) enable the applicant to take on a future ministry on behalf of the congregation or the Diocese (e.g., Education for Ministry mentor training so an EFM program could be started in the congregation, an immersion course in Spanish to start up a Spanish-language outreach effort, seed money for a summertime teen coffeehouse to meet the needs of youth in the community) OR

d) enable the applicant to volunteer in mission (e.g., participate in a medical mission to Honduras , join a crew building housing for the poor in Appalachia ).

Note: Lay Ministry Grants are intended to help strengthen specific ministries rather than to fund a general course of study. Applications to use the grant to defer part of the costs of a degree or certificate program will generally not be approved.

Reports: Successful applicants are required to submit a written report to the Commission on Ministry within thirty (30) days of the completion of their program/project or within one year of the grant award, whichever comes first. This report should summarize the applicant's experiences and briefly evaluate those experiences in light of his/her baptismal ministry. On occasion the Commission on Ministry may ask a grantee to attend a Commission meeting to provide a first-hand account of activities funded by the grant. Grantees who fail to submit their reports will not be eligible to apply for additional grants.

Application: An application form is available here. Specificity, brevity and clarity are important. Please limit your application to no more than 3 pages.

Each application must be completed and (except in the case of immediate family members of the Rector or Vicar) co-signed by the Rector/Vicar and Senior Warden/Vice Chair of the applicant's congregation. Grant applications from the Rector/Vicar's immediate family are to be co-signed by the Senior Warden/Vice Chair and the Treasurer of the congregation. By co-signing the application, the Rector/Vicar, Senior Warden/Vice Chair and Treasurer (if applicable) are indicating support for the application and, if parish support (financial, agreement to new programs or outreach, etc.) is needed to fulfill the purposes of the grant, certifying that such support is forthcoming.

Signed, completed applications may be submitted at any time. They should be sent or delivered to the attention of George McConnell, Episcopal Church House, Mount St. Alban, Washington, DC 20016-5094. Decisions on applications will typically be made within six weeks of their receipt.

Rev. 05/09/2005