wfn.org | The Episcopal Church Foundation turns 50

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

99-030
The Episcopal Church Foundation celebrates 50 years of creative 
ministry

by Kathryn McCormick
(ENS) The Episcopal Church Foundation is celebrating its 
50th anniversary this year with a minimum of partying and a lot 
of planning for the future.

Founded in 1949 as an entity separate from the Episcopal 
Church but able to lend crucial support to programs and 
initiatives important to the church's life and mission, the 
foundation has concentrated on leadership development, religious 
philanthropy and education.

In fact, the foundation decided to celebrate its birthday by 
continuing this tradition with a special gift to the Episcopal 
Church. The gift is a year-long research effort, "The Zaccheus 
Project," exploring what it means to be an Episcopalian and 
exploring the extent to which religion, and particularly the 
Episcopal faith, makes a difference in the lives of participants.

The same study will examine emerging trends and patterns of 
leadership as well as issues and challenges faced by our diverse 
ministries.

According to the foundation's executive director, William G. 
Andersen Jr., "Zaccheus" could help the church become "better 
disciples and apostles" as it examines what Episcopalians first 
describe then reflect on what they see as their identity, vocation 
and mission. "The themes are old," he said, "but we're looking 
at new ways to actualize them, and right now, I can't tell you 
where the sizzle is."

All of the information resulting from the project will be a 
focal point of the annual Trinity Institute Teleconference in late 
September, co-sponsored by Trinity Wall Street and the Episcopal 
Church Foundation, and is expected to inform many decisions 
affecting the church's planning for the next millennium.

Another event will be hosted by the foundation's Fellows' 
Program under the leadership of Dr. Ian Douglas of Episcopal 
Divinity School in Massachusetts, and will explore the theological 
issues facing the church in the 21st century. 

A different world
The world into which the Episcopal Church Foundation was 
born in 1949 was far different from today's. In the wake of World 
War II the country, and the church, were entering a period of 
optimism and growth. Presiding Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill, 
installed two years earlier, saw the work that the national church 
could be doing-and the lack of money available to the church for 
those large projects.

He created the foundation to secure support for the work. He 
also directed that the new organization be run by laity, who not 
only would raise money but be responsible for deciding how it was 
spent in supporting the ministry of all Episcopalians. The 1949 
General Convention endorsed the idea, and the foundation was 
launched.

Its first official act, in 1952, responded to the pressures 
of increasing membership as interest in religion grew and young 
parents brought their children to church. To meet the urgent need 
for new and expanded church space, the foundation started a 
Revolving Loan Fund, underwritten by an anonymous gift of $1 
million. Congregations that received loans were expected to pay 
them back within 10 years, so money would quickly be available for 
new loans. 

^From the start of the program to its end in 1991, the foundation 
granted 475 loans totaling $10.8 million. Every loan was repaid 
in full; no congregation or diocese defaulted on a loan.

Widening its focus
With the loan program in place, the foundation began looking 
at theological education, which it saw as crucial to sustaining 
parish growth and vitality. It sponsored an intensive study of the 
church's facilities for theological education and later persuaded 
the 1967 General Convention to establish a Board for Theological 
Education. The foundation contributed almost $2 million to the 
board's growth over the next 14 years.

The foundation then expanded its look at theological 
education to include all Episcopalians. It studied inner city 
problems and the relation of Christian ethics to the world of 
science and industry, and it provided seed money to establish the 
continuing education program of Virginia Theological Seminary.

In 1964 the foundation launched the Graduate Fellowship 
Program to support gifted scholars as they pursue their doctoral 
degrees. This support also assures seminaries of a pool from which 
they can draw new faculty. Through the years, more than 150 
scholars have received support. Foundation Fellows serve the 
church as professor, chaplains, seminary deans, parish rectors and 
authors.

Throughout the 1960s and `70s the foundation continued to 
work on a "ministry of encouragement," sowing seeds of money to 
help start new efforts, a number of which continue to thrive, 
including the Alban Institute and the Church Deployment Office.

Help for clergy
While the Graduate Fellowship Program and the Grants Program 
continued to flourish during the 1980s, there were changes ahead 
among the foundation's priorities. The foundation turned 
responsibility for church building loans over to the Episcopal 
Church Building Fund and focused on a new area-overwhelmed and 
burned-out clergy. It launched Excellence in Ministry, a clergy 
health and wholeness program that later became The Cornerstone 
Project.

Later, as the `90s progressed, Cornerstone expanded to 
include congregational health, so that clergy and congregations 
could be studied and helped together in a wider-than-ever vision 
of ministry.

The foundation's view of its work grew, too. "We have moved 
from being simply a grant-giver to being an operating foundation,"
Andersen said. "We've moved from the `greenhouse' idea, where 
people brought us ideas and we supplied support, to an 
operation in which we grow our own plants and invite people to 
help us."

In recent years, the foundation has turned its attention to 
philanthropy and how it can be encouraged. It also has sharpened 
its focus and clarified its priorities so that needs-and the 
results-of philanthropy could more easily be seen.

Although it had developed many ways to give funds to support 
church programs, the foundation took on new tasks after the 1993 
demise of the church's Office of Planned Giving. Realizing that 
millions of dollars in potential contributions were jeopardized, 
the foundation committed itself to reminding Episcopalians not 
only of their responsibilities to be wise stewards but that the 
means to be such stewards are available through the foundation's 

Gift Planning Services.
In only four years, almost $20 million in charitable assets 
have been given over to the foundation's management for the future 
work of parishes, dioceses, schools and other church institutions.

"My predecessor as presiding bishop, Henry Knox Sherrill, 
knew that great gifts arise in response to great vision," 
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold said recently. "The Episcopal 
Church Foundation's fifty-year ministry of intentional 
philanthropy and generosity has worked to open the hearts of many 
in our church to the wider possibilities of our faith, and to 
broaden the vision of us all.."

--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Office of News 
and Information of the Episcopal Church.