The Vestry of Trinity Parish has allocated $2,407,000 for grant-making activities in 2004. The target allocation for each program objective is given below, as are the program emphases in summary form. Grantseekers also should read carefully the material in each program objective section, including the list of 2003 awards, as proposals outside current objectives will be declined.
2004 Program Objectives:
Strengthening the Church in New York as a Catalyst for Social Transformation
Target allocation: $630,000
In keeping with its program objective of meeting the needs of metropolitan New York, Trinity Grants in 2004 launches a new program strategy to support social transformation —not only helping those in need, but also changing the systems in society that do not meet basic needs. Funding in this area will support Episcopal faith communities, along with the coalitions of which they are part, from the Episcopal Dioceses of New York, Long Island, Newark, and Connecticut.
Program Emphases:
Building systems to sustain the Church ’s catalytic work in the community: Addressing systems that allow Episcopal faith communities to support long-term social transformation projects.
Strengthening lay and clergy leadership: Support for leadership development for the lay and clergy leaders who will lead social transformation efforts.
Creating coalitions and networks of support: Support for participation in community coalitions that address economic, political or social issues, with an emphasis on interfaith collaborations from Abrahamic traditions and other faiths.
Five interconnected initiatives to assist Episcopal faith communities in their social transformation efforts. Applicants interested in these activities should apply for funding through the strategies outlined above.
In 2004, Trinity Grants will:
Limited funds are available for low-interest loans to church-related community development projects in the greater New York metropolitan area. As part of their proposals, applicant organizations should describe the ways in which their community development project will enhance the spiritual growth of i n d ividuals in participating congregations. Applicants should also describe the impact that the spiritual commitment of their congregations will have upon the communities they serve.
Special Opportunity
Target allocation: $5,000
Special Opportunity proposals are received, by invitation only, when Trinity Church learns of special programs and initiatives that merit attention because they will make a major contribution to the life of the Anglican Church.
Strengthening Spiritual Formation and Development
Target allocation: $500,000
In 2004, the Grants Program will continue to fund programs that strengthen spiritual formation and development in the Episcopal Church, investing in projects in which people of vision and imagination have found substantial, specific ways to deepen and enhance the spiritual lives of Episcopalians. Program Emphases:
Coherent Congregational Spirituality: Investments in congregations that are working toward fully appropriating a matrix of formational offerings, so that the contemplative life illuminates and is reflected throughout the life of the parish. 2
Deep Leadership: Investments in innovative initiatives by established spiritual training programs that address the Church’s need to train leaders for spiritual growth-centered congregations.
Evangelism: Initiatives that attract “seekers” (that is, those interested in spiritual formation and development, but who are skeptical of traditional fo rms of Christianity), to the Episcopal Church, including innovative liturgical approaches to seeker formation that incorporate modern technology to interpret the Gospel in dynamic and culturally relevant ways.
Strengthening the Church in the Global South
Target allocation: $720,000
The primary regional focus of the grant category is in Africa with limited responses to other parts of the Global South. The major emphasis within this program area will be to support capacity building of leadership for Anglican Churches, through programs that enable people to provide leadership in their local communities.
Program Emphases:
Theological Education By Extension (TEE): Distance learning and short term contextual theological training that prepares both clergy and laity with the theological knowledge to serve churches in their communities. Particular attention is given to Provincewide or ecumenical programs that address contemporary ministry needs.
Community Development: Training in communities, both urban and rural, to allow participants to take control of factors that impact their lives while improving their management, administrative, and decision-making skills.
Primary and Preventative Health Care: Short-term training that equips community health educators who can work with communities to improve health standards; including: education on the prevention of AIDS and STDs; child development; nutrition; hygiene; clean water access; and waste management.
Peace Building and Democratic Participation: Short-term and contextual training of community leaders to provide leadership in conflict resolution, consensus building, citizenship responsibility and participation in public life.
Leadership and Management Training: Short-term, distance learning, and contextual training programs that prepare diocesan and provincial church leaders, both lay and ordained, to train others and to manage and administer programs of TEE, Community Development, Preventative Health Care, and Peace Building and Democratic Participation.
Strengthening Telecommunications in the Anglican Communion
Target allocation: $552,000
As electronic communications transform the way people relate to each other and conduct business, Trinity Grants seeks to ensure that our partners in the Anglican Communion, particularly our neighbors in the Global South, are not left behind in the technological revolution.
Program Emphases:
Network Development: Support for continuing development of the InterAnglican Information Network through an Anglican Global Telecommunications Network, where it is feasible, as a coordinating mechanism and communications platform throughout the Anglican Communion.
Database Creation: Exploration of new technologies for the creation of databases and the dissemination of resources in such areas of program interest as theological education by extension; leadership management training; community development; preventive health care, and citizen participation in public life.