Seeking to support creative and long-term eco-ministries, The Episcopal Church’s Task Force on the Care of Creation and Environmental Racism has selected 10 new grant recipients, approved by the church’s Executive Council during its June meeting.

“This year’s applicant pool was the strongest yet in terms of projects that can lead the church to mitigate environmental degradation, support fragile ecosystems, and ensure right relationships between the most resourced and most vulnerable in God’s creation and our communities,” said the Rev. Melanie Mullen, director of the church’s reconciliation, justice, and creation care programs. “We celebrate all the applicants as part of a growing network of leaders creating faithful responses to ecology and theological reflection.”

In 2018, The Episcopal Church’s General Convention allocated funds to the task force to support local and regional eco-ministry efforts, charging it with expanding the church’s loving, liberating, life-giving relationships with God, each other, and creation. Led by the Rev. Stephanie Johnson, chair, and Bishop David Rice, vice-chair, the task force conducted two grant cycles during the past three years. Twenty-six Creation Care and Environmental Racism grants were awarded during the first round in 2020.

“In awarding these grants the task force was able to support organizations that are faithfully acting on environmental racism and climate resiliency,” Johnson said. “These projects illustrate the church’s and its partners’ continued commitment to responding to historic and current environmental injustices.”

This year’s funded projects, totaling $185,300, are as follows:

The Healing Pod: Resilience and Resurrection through Education, Spiritual Formation and Healing
Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church, Raleigh, NC, Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina
Three-part project with a podcast on environmental racism, installation of a labyrinth, and a horticulture project. $24,000

BODY and LAND
Church of The Holy Trinity, Middletown, CT, Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut
Collaboration between church and Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet on dance and dialogue events on climate change and ecojustice. $22,000

Abenaki Ancestral Foodways Project
Mission Farm, Killington, VT, Episcopal Diocese of Vermont
Mission Farm in partnership with local organizations will learn and teach Indigenous food techniques and provide meals using traditional ingredients to the Abenaki community. $23,750

River Cane Planting: Saving our Waterways and Revitalizing Cherokee Culture
Lake Logan Conference Center/Camp Henry, Canton, NC, Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina
Project to restore culturally and ecologically important river cane riparian buffers and develop a conservation curriculum for use in outdoor programs. $23,000

Building a Robust Diocesan Creation Care Ministry
Creation Care Community in the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, Garden City, NY, Episcopal Diocese of Long Island
Project to build a network of green teams and partnerships to reduce carbon emissions, implement renewable energy, and conduct eco-justice education. $15,000

On Sacred Ground – Wyoming Service Corps Inaugural Program Year 2021-2022
Wyoming Service Corps (a Ministry of Christ Episcopal Church), Cody, WY, Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming
Young adult fellowship with eco-pilgrimages, educational curriculums on ecology, place, and race, and internship placements with environmental and faith-based non-profits. $22,550

Creating Climate Resilience in Harlem Park
St. James Episcopal Church, Baltimore, MD, Episcopal Diocese of Maryland 
The St. James Development Corporation will develop a natural park, engaging neighborhood stakeholders to build green space, access to shade, and collaborative management. $15,000

Standing As Stone
St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Camp, Solen, ND, Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota 
St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Camp is 20 miles from the Dakota Access Pipeline and part of the Standing Rock Episcopal Community. Grant would support St. Gabriel’s to host groups to learn about treaty rights and care for creation. $11,000

Locally-led Stewardship through International Fellowship – Just Transition & Mangrove Conservation in Haiti
Locally Haiti (formerly the Colorado Haiti Project), Louisville, CO, Episcopal Diocese of Colorado
Locally Haiti will work to conserve a 106-hectare mangrove forest through community-led efforts and long-term monitoring and evaluation. $19,000

Shade Equity and Youth Leadership Project
Imago Dei Middle School, Tucson AZ, Episcopal Diocese of Arizona
Project to engage middle school students in the planting of hundreds of native trees in neighborhoods in Tuscon, working with community groups and local plant and tree nurseries. $10,000