Grants will fund conclusion of work on same-gender blessings

[Episcopal News Service] Church Divinity School of the Pacific has been awarded a $90,000 grant from the Arcus Foundation and a $75,000 grant from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation to support the completion of work on proposed rites for the blessing of same-gender relationships in the Episcopal Church, according to a release from the school, located in Berkeley, California.
The grants will make it possible for CDSP to continue its support of the church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, which was authorized by the church’s 2009 General Convention to “collect and develop theological and liturgical resources” for the blessing of same-gender relationships, in consultation with the church’s House of Bishops, the release said.

“We are grateful for the support of the Arcus and Carpenter Foundations as we enter the final phases of our work,” the Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers, chair of the Standing Commission, and Hodges-Haynes professor of liturgics at CDSP, said in the release. “This money makes possible continued support from a staff person at CDSP, and the opportunity to meet face-to-face with Anglican colleagues who are eager to discuss our work. We would have been hard-pressed to fulfill our obligations to the General Convention without it.”

Since beginning its work in 2009, the Standing Commission has conducted extensive consultations throughout the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. At its largest meeting, held in Atlanta in March 2011, 184 clergy and lay people, representing 96 of the church’s 110 dioceses, gathered to discuss the commission’s work on liturgical and theological resources, and to be equipped to facilitate further reflection in their dioceses.

The Standing Commission will report on its work to the General Convention, which next meets in Indianapolis in July 2012.

The Arcus Foundation, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, works in global human rights and conservation. Within those areas, its work is focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and preservation of the world's great apes and their habitat. The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, headquartered in Philadelphia, supports graduate theological education, among other causes.