Five dioceses, a New York City parish, and Virginia Theological Seminary are among 91 organizations to receive $1.25 million each through the Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative. Grant recipients included the Episcopal dioceses of Indianapolis, Los Angeles, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia; the Parish of Calvary-St. George’s in New York City; and VTS.

The Lilly grants are intended to foster the spiritual growth of children by helping Christian congregations “more fully and intentionally engage children in intergenerational corporate worship and prayer practices.”

For the Episcopal Church, which has the highest average member age among religious traditions in the United States and largely struggles to retain the children of its members after they leave home, the stakes are high.

“I believe there’s a future for our church,” said Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows of Indianapolis. “And if we are not framing all that we do with that in mind by trying to cultivate the spiritual lives of our youngest members, and to continue to draw on the wisdom of our elders, then we’re not doing, I think, what God would call us to do.”

The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Brooke-Davidson, Assistant Bishop of North Carolina and supervisor of the diocese’s grant implementation, said this work gets to the core of the church’s mission.

“During the last few meetings of the House of Bishops, it’s really emerged that the bishops as a whole feel like many of the struggles that we have today can really only be ameliorated by deeper formation at all levels,” said Brooke-Davidson. “Everything ultimately comes back to that. And finding a way to do that in small churches and rural churches and churches that can’t support age-graded Sunday school is key to our mission of bringing the good news of Christ to the world, now and in the future.”

The reality for many churches is there are fewer and fewer children in the pews. A mere 14 percent of Episcopalians reported to be the parents or guardians of children younger than 18, according to the 2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Study. That presents a challenge when offering meaningful formation opportunities, Brooke-Davidson said.

“The majority of Episcopal congregations desperately want to do more with kids, but you can’t have an age-graded Sunday school when you have six kids,” she said.

Still, there are opportunities for parishes to “work with what they have” by more intentionally bringing children into the worship service, she said. For some, that could mean inviting children to be acolytes. For others, it could mean equipping parents and other adults in the congregation to have conversations with children about what’s happening in the liturgy and the fundamentals of the faith.

“A lot of studies have shown that this is one of the key pieces of faith formation and retention for young people,” Brooke-Davidson said. “Churches are concerned because they’re not always retaining young people once they’ve left home or even when they’re teenagers, … but [studies show] that when children have relationships with other adults in the congregation, that include conversations about faith, their engagement in the later years of their lives goes way, way up.”

With the grant funding, the Diocese of North Carolina will hire a missioner for children’s and family ministry, offer mini-grants to support innovative ideas among parishes, deploy coaches to assess how children are involved in worship, and host learning opportunities for congregational leaders related to intergenerational worship and formation. The goal is to support congregational initiatives rather than diocesan-wide programming, Brooke-Davidson said.

The Diocese of Indianapolis will establish a new program, “Centering All Children In Worship,” to help youth engage in a diversity of music expressions, including Anglican choral, African-American spiritual, and Latin American traditions. Baskerville-Burrows envisions the diocese offering workshops with area music instructors to teach children “how to sing other forms of music effectively, without the sense of appropriation.”

“This is something I’m hoping to grow a bit, no matter what size our congregations are and how many children they might have, to learn the fuller, broader expression of our current Anglican traditions, which are really broad in this global church of ours,” Baskerville-Burrows said.

The diocese also plans to help congregations cater to different learning styles and abilities by offering individual educational plans — accommodations typically offered in public schools for students who receive special education services — to help neurodiverse children engage in worship and create calming spaces within their churches.

“Like many other dioceses, I’m sure have noticed, in our congregations there is a broader sort of neurodiversity than was diagnosed in the past,” Baskerville-Burrows said. “So, there are different needs, and we want to pay attention to those.”

The Diocese of Virginia will establish a training laboratory that will invite experimentation among dozens of participating congregations and ultimately produce a guidebook for other congregations.

“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,” Bishop E. Mark Stevenson said.

“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.”

Virginia Theological Seminary will use its $1.25 million grant for a research project that will draw on Anglican theological anthropology, liturgical theology, science, and the arts to enhance the experience of worship and prayer for children, according to the seminary. The five-year project, called “Roots & Wings — Intergenerational Formative Collaborative,” will “challenge the status quo” of adult-centric worship practices and explore how to make worship and prayer more inclusive of children, including those with disabilities.

VTS said it was approached by small congregations and diocesan leaders to do this work.

“The project is designed to transform the culture of worship and faith formation in Episcopal congregations by recognizing the inherent worth and giftedness of all children,” said Sarah Allred, project director of Roots & Wings, in a press release. “Roots & Wings will call our denomination to account for the gap between what we claim to believe about children and how we too often live as church.”

The Episcopal entities were among 91 organizations to receive grants through the Lilly Endowment funding round, which totaled $104 million. Recipients represent a broad spectrum of Christian traditions, including Catholic, mainline and evangelical Protestant, Orthodox, Anabaptist, and Pentecostal organizations.

The Lilly Endowment is based in Indianapolis and was founded by the Lilly family in 1937 with gifts of stock from Eli Lilly and Company. It had $62.2 billion in assets at the end of 2023. The foundation supports initiatives related to religion, community development, and education.

Last year, the endowment made grants to 33 organizations in an invitational round of the Nurturing Children initiative.

“When I became your pastor, I wrote to you about the work we have to do, the trust we have to build, and the wounds we need to entrust to Christ’s healing power,” said his successor, the Rt. Rev. Austin Rios, in a pastoral letter to the diocese.

“I did not anticipate that this kind of painful situation would be among our first challenges together. But I believe that by loving God and one another and following the wisdom of Jesus, we will emerge from this difficulty more connected and more committed to the mission of God in our context.”

The restriction on ministry, Rios said, forbids Andrus from engaging in any ministerial activity while his Title IV case is pending. He is also forbidden from communication with anyone within the diocese.

Before becoming Bishop of California, Andrus served as a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Alabama for four years. He had previously been a rector and school chaplain in the Diocese of Virginia. He has been married to his wife, Sheila, for 45 years, and they have two daughters.

A procedural timeline posted on the Church Center Office of Pastoral Development’s webpage for disciplinary cases involving bishops shows that his case has moved unusually quickly.

Information about the complaint was provided to the Rev. Barbara Kempf, intake officer for bishops, on October 2. One week later, Andrus’s ministry was restricted, and advisers were provided for him and the complainant. Advisers in Title IV cases “support, assist, consult with, advise” and in some circumstances speak on behalf of a complainant or respondent in formal proceedings.

The formal announcement of the restriction on Andrus’s ministry said that those responsible for the process “have been working to solidify a network of pastoral care and mental health support” for both parties involved in the complaint.

An intake report about the case was forwarded to a reference panel just two days later, on October 11. The panel will consist of Kempf, the presiding bishop or his designate, and the Rt. Rev. Nick Knisely, Bishop of Rhode of Island, the chair of the Disciplinary Board for Bishops. The disciplinary board, after canonical reforms passed at last summer’s General Convention, now includes lay and clergy members as well as bishops.

The reference panel will examine the complaint and decide either to dismiss the matter or to refer it for further action. Possible results could include a pastoral response or a formal investigation. The reference panel could also refer the case for conciliation, in which a third-party mediator would attempt to reach an agreement between the parties; or to a conference panel, an informal and confidential discussion of differences aimed at reaching an agreement or an accord.

The most serious and public result would be a referral to a hearing panel, an event akin to a trial. The full details of the complaint would only be made public if a hearing panel is convened.

There are nine Title IV cases involving seven bishops listed on the Office of Pastoral Development’s webpage. Four of the nine cases were referred to a hearing panel last June— two involving allegations of discrimination and financial mishandling by former Florida Bishop John Howard and two of allegations of abusive and improper behavior against former Rochester bishop Prince Singh.

The hearing panels for these three cases have not yet been convened and no documentation about the complaints has been released to the public.

The last hearing panel to try a bishop was convened in October 2020, and ruled that the Rt. Rev. William Love of Albany was guilty of failing to conform to “the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church” because he would not allow same-sex marriages in his diocese. Love subsequently resigned and was released from ministry in the Episcopal Church. He now serves as a bishop in the Anglican Church in North America.

“I’ve lived in Florida most of my life, and I have not seen two storms that have affected a good portion of this part of Florida back-to-back like this,” Southwest Florida Bishop Douglas Scharf told Episcopal News Service.

The second Category 5 hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Milton had decreased in strength to a Category 3 storm when it made landfall near Siesta Key about 35 miles south of Parrish on Oct. 9. At peak intensity, Milton became the fifth-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a pressure of 897 millibars. At least 16 people in the United States are known to have died from the storm. As of Oct. 11, more than 3 million people throughout western Florida are without power.

Lindsey Nickel, the Diocese of Southwest Florida’s director of communications, told ENS that diocesan staff have been unable to survey some of the churches on the state’s barrier islands, including St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Boca Grande, a small community that’s sustained considerable damage from Milton and remains inaccessible. Four of the seven churches significantly damaged by Helene have also been affected by Milton. Most churches, including the diocese’s Dayspring Camp & Conference Center in Parrish, have no power, cell phone, or internet service. Right now, many diocesan staff, including Scharf, are cleaning up the hundreds of felled trees at Dayspring.

Read the rest on Episcopal News Service

The Rt. Rev. Matthew Gunter was installed as bishop on October 5 during the inaugural convention of the new Diocese of Wisconsin, now a single entity comprising the former dioceses of Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, and Eau Claire. The merger of those three dioceses was approved by the 81st General Convention in June, after three years of discussion and deliberation among clergy and laypersons.

Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe taught and preached at Wisconsin’s convention, held October 4-5 at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Convention Center in Stevens Point, a small city in the state’s central region.

In his homily during the investiture, Rowe reflected on John 15 (“I am the vine, you are the branches”) and the imperative of Christians to abide in the vine, bear fruit, and embrace pruning.

“About the time I think that I’ve come into spiritual maturity, and I think I can abide in the vine … that I can abide in Jesus, I decide I want to graduate from being just a branch to being a ‘vine adviser,’” Rowe said. “This is when you advise the vine grower, who may not really understand exactly what’s happening. It never works out well.”

He said the dioceses’ reunion is an example of yielding to God’s pruning.

“Allowing the Father, … who is the vine grower, to do the pruning in an expert way, to allow ourselves to be pruned, is the work of the spiritual life,” Rowe said. “It’s what you’ve done here as three dioceses (coming) together. It’s what you’re doing today as we recognize this new reunion … of an old diocese, as we recognize Bishop Matt.”

Rowe commended Gunter, saying he is “looked to in our House of Bishops as one who abides, as one of deep spiritual wisdom.”

“I’m thrilled that he is leading your people here today,” Rowe said.

Gunter had served as bishop of the former Diocese of Fond du Lac since 2014, and in recent years was Bishop Provisional of Eau Claire and Assisting Bishop in the Diocese of Milwaukee.

The Diocese of Wisconsin was originally formed in 1847. In 1875, the Diocese of Fond du Lac was created to serve the northeastern portion of the state, and the Diocese of Wisconsin was renamed the Diocese of Milwaukee in 1886. In 1928, the Diocese of Eau Claire was formed from parts of the Diocese of Fond du Lac and parts of the Diocese of Milwaukee. Gunter is recognized as the 12th bishop of Wisconsin, taking his place in the succession of bishops in the diocese’s former iteration.

The new Diocese of Wisconsin, which today includes over 100 congregations and more than 11,500 baptized members, is bolstered by a recent infusion of funding. In the spring, shortly before the three dioceses voted to reunite, the Diocese of Fond du Lac announced it had received a $7.9 million donation from the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity, an Anglican religious order established in Fond du Lac during Bishop Charles Chapman Grafton’s episcopacy in the late 1800s.

Gunter has said the lion’s share of the funding, $6.9 million, will be dedicated to congregational development. So far, $500,000 has been dispersed to 34 congregations as rebated assessments. The remaining $1 million was earmarked by the order for theological education.

Wisconsin is one of two recent mergers among Episcopal dioceses. Also at this year’s General Convention, the Diocese of Eastern Michigan and Diocese of Western Michigan received approval for their juncture into the newly named Diocese of the Great Lakes. The inaugural convention of the newly joined diocese will meet on October 18-19 in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.

Iker, a native of Cincinnati, served as rector of Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota, Florida, before his election as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Forth Worth.

Iker was consecrated bishop coadjutor in 1993 and became the diocese’s third bishop in January 1995. Iker was beloved among conservatives, and some called him “the lion of Forth Worth.” Among those who remained loyal to the Episcopal Church, he was often depicted in a villainous light, and became the subject of lawsuits involving church property.

After the majority left the Episcopal Church in 2008, what remained of the Diocese of Fort Worth first renamed itself the Episcopal Church in North Texas and later became the North Region of the Diocese of Texas.

“I am the most sued Anglican bishop in all of North America,” Iker told journalist Mary Ann Mueller in 2010.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of Iker’s diocese in December 2019. The case involved $100 million in church properties. Five churches loyal to the Episcopal Church appealed to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.

“Throughout that whole period of what looked at the time, in 2018 and 2019, to be a terminal battle of cancer, he never stopped being a leader and a guide,” the Rev. Canon Joel Hampton told Marissa Greene of the Fort Worth Report. “For a lot of us, he was the embodiment of what it means to be courageous and steadfast.”

Iker formed a close friendship with Bishop Fanuel Magangani of Northern Malawi, who mourned for him in a Facebook post.

“I first met Bishop Iker in July 1996 when he visited the Diocese of Northern Malawi alongside 13 dedicated members. That time I was a youth member aspiring to become a priest. That visit marked the dawn of a transformative partnership between our Diocese and the Diocese of Fort Worth. It was not merely a connection across vast distances; it was the beginning of a journey that would strengthen our ministry and enhance our collective mission,” Bishop Magangani wrote.

“His unwavering dedication to Christ and his fellow believers exemplified true leadership and servanthood. As we mourn the loss of an incredible leader, let us remember the incredible gift of community he bestowed upon us. We are forever grateful for the spiritual and pastoral foundations he laid. Bishop Iker will remain in our hearts, a guiding light leading us to continue the work he so passionately championed.”