The Diocese of Los Angeles has received a $100,000 grant from New York’s Trinity Church, Wall Street, to fund Renaissance or Requiem, a program engaging congregations in exploring the viability and sustainability of their mission.
The grant was secured under the leadership of the Rev. Canon Melissa McCarthy, diocesan canon to the ordinary, who oversees the program.
“We are so grateful to Trinity Church, Wall Street, for their generous funding of this program and for their ongoing support of the diocese in many ways,” McCarthy said. “Trinity is such a great partner in ministry, and we look forward to continuing collaboration.
“Requiem or Renaissance is a great opportunity for our diocese,” McCarthy said. “The support that it will give our congregations is going to be transformative for them, and it’s something our whole diocese can benefit from. While we’ve been focusing on congregations that are the most financially challenged right now, it’s a program any congregation can participate in.”
McCarthy commended the work of the Rev. Canon Whitney Rice of the Diocese of Missouri, who designed the program and is working with the Rev. John Watson, diocesan missioner for new models of ministry, in implementing Requiem or Renaissance in the diocese. “Canon Whitney has been wonderful in helping us to adapt the program to the unique circumstances of the Diocese of Los Angeles. With her ongoing support, along with the Rev. John Watson’s leadership, I think we will see the benefits from this for years to come, and we look forward to more and more congregations being part of it as we are able to expand into additional cohorts.”
The 16-month program, which began Sept. 27, currently has six congregations in the diocese participating in its first cohort. A second cohort, expected to include seven more congregations, is scheduled to begin in January. Funding from the Trinity grant will be used to cover the costs of operating the program.
The program model, adapted from the original Requiem or Renaissance program in the Diocese of Missouri, was brought to the diocese as a resource to support congregational vitality, to help those congregations struggling with funding, attendance, or other challenges, to discern their futures and next steps with the support of the diocese and other congregations.
“This is the first time that model has been applied to a diocese outside of Missouri,” Watson said. “There’s hope that from by running it within this diocese, we may be able to replicate it elsewhere, and that’s the that’s an exciting part of it too.”
Trinity Church has a focus on mission-aligned use of real estate and supporting congregations to create vibrant ministries. Watson said that people he worked with at Trinity were hopeful that Renaissance or Requiem, or at least its core concept, of a church honestly examining its situation and finding adaptive solutions, could be implemented on a larger scale and in more regions of the church.
Watson emphasized the path a congregation ultimately chooses, is up to that congregation. “It’s around encouraging a movement towards a sustainable approach to mission and ministry,” Watson said. Churches will come out of the program with a plan for their next steps, either to reinvigorate their current ministry, or continue in a different way, sometimes closing actual church doors.
Once a congregation has finished the program, they will be with a plan of action to bring to the Bishop so they can work together to bring about a new vision for their ministry.