The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council approved 11 Becoming Beloved Community grants—totaling $125,000—during its October meeting to support projects seeking to respond to social and racial injustice and grow a vision of healing and reconciliation.
Projects include renewal of a multicultural center impacted by Hurricane Helene; curriculum and educational programs highlighting race history; health screenings in migrant farm communities; and a youth program partnership that focuses on addressing food insecurity; among many more. Read summaries of all the grant programs.
Grant funds were first allocated in 2018 by the 79th General Convention to catalyze the church’s work of racial healing, reconciliation, and justice. Since 2019, more than $1 million has been granted for more than 130 projects.
This year’s grant review process involved a committee of clergy, lay leaders, a bishop, and Episcopal Church staff. A wider group of independent reviewers read and scored each application to help ensure that funded projects align with churchwide priorities and represent a diverse cross-section of communities.
“Becoming Beloved Community keeps calling us back to the heart of who we are—a people reconciled and sent for the sake of the Gospel,” said the Rev. Lester Mackenzie, chief of mission program. “These grants, leaders, and holy projects remind us that love must take form: in truth-telling, in repairing what is broken, and in creating systems that heal and uplift. By including a focus on policy, systems, and environmental change, we deepen that work, ensuring that our love not only transforms hearts but also reshapes structures, creating lasting and impactful change in the life of our church and communities.”
Awards include seed grants up to $7,500 and impact grants up to $15,000. Seed grants are geared toward groups launching new projects or growing existing projects. Impact grants are aimed primarily at increasing the capacity, impact, and reach of communities and institutions already working to advance racial justice, healing, reconciliation, and creation care.
Grants were awarded for the projects listed below:
Seed grants
- Multicultural Center: $7,500
Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Newton, North Carolina
- The Holy Nativity Pauli Murray Episcopal Learning Center: $7,500
Church of the Holy Nativity, Baltimore, Maryland
- NOURISH and the Sunny Day Fridge: $7,500
The Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew and Matthew, Wilmington, Delaware
- Interfaith Emotional and Spiritual Care Center: $7,500
Mother of the Savior Church, Dearborn, Michigan
Impact grants
- Sacred Stories: $15,000
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, Georgia, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta
- The Africatown Truth and Repair Initiative: $15,000
Episcopal Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast
- Iowa Freedom School: $15,000
Episcopal Diocese of Iowa
- Migrant Farmworker Health Initiative: $15,000
Grace Episcopal Church Massies Mill, Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia - Interfaith Center: $10,000
Holy Companion Episcopal Church, The Episcopal Church in Colorado
- Growing Common Ground Farm: $15,000
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Lebanon, Indiana, Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis
- Culinary Futures: $10,000
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Kansas City, The Episcopal Church in West Missouri
Read past press releases about Becoming Beloved Community grants.
