The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church is pleased to announce its 2017 grant awards. Applications received were reviewed by a committee, with recipients determined by the Board of Directors at their meeting in June in Sewanee, Tennessee. Over $12,000 in grants were awarded. The Rev. Robert Tobin, chair of the Grants Committee, announced recipients from the 10 applications received. Grants support scholars in significant research and publications related to the history of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Recipients are encouraged to publish, when appropriate, in “Anglican and Episcopal History,” the quarterly academic journal of the society.

• Ryan Butler, a Ph.D. candidate in history at Baylor University, towards a monthlong trip to visit archives in London, Birmingham and Canterbury as part of his dissertation on the trans-Atlantic connections and influence of the Clapham Sect.
• Thomas Ferguson, rector of St John’s Episcopal Church, Sandwich, Massachusetts, to undertake a 10-day research trip to the Russian Federation as part of a book project on the past 25 years of Anglican ecumenical relationships with churches in the former Soviet bloc.
• Karl Hele, associate professor and director of First Peoples studies, School of Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University, Montreal, to do archival research at the Library and Archives of Canada in Ottawa, as part of a book project on Hannah Foulkes Chance, mid-C19 Anglican missionary among the First Nations communities in Canada.
• Simon Lewis, a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Oxford, towards travel to archives across the United Kingdom to pursue his post-doctoral research on lay participation in theological controversies in England and colonial America during the first half of C18.
• Ross Newton, a recent recipient of a Ph.D. in history from Northeastern University, to undertake a weeklong archival trip to Boston as part of his post-doctoral research into the experience and condition of African-Americans in the Anglican churches of Boston during the revolution and early years of the republic.
• Zachary Stone, a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Virginia, to consult archives in Oxford and Cambridge as part of completing his inter-disciplinary dissertation on medieval depictions of the English Church in late C14/early C15.
• Gregory Wiker, a Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Rochester, for a three-week research trip to Bermuda, where he will consult parish vestry records as part of his investigation into the shifting political and religious sensibilities of this colony, that after the American Revolution became pivotal to British imperial policy.

Thomas Ferguson was awarded the inaugural Robert W. Prichard Prize for the best application received. The award comes with a cash prize and was established in 2016 to honor Prichard’s decades of service and commitment to the Society.

Additional granting details may be found at hsec.us/grants.