September 1, 2000

Institute for Ministry receives grant

The Institute for Ministry (LIM) was awarded a grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., for $336,202 to support the dissemination of LIM's research on small Christian communities in Catholic churches across the United States.

The research, funded by a previous Lilly grant, looks at developments within the Catholic Church and the church's relationship with society and is part of a worldwide study of small Christian communities or base communities. These communities are formed from groups of lay people, most of which are active in their church parishes, who discuss the connection between the biblical scriptures and their own life experiences. The research found that there are 37,000 of these communities in the United States.

This second grant will be used to create educational modules for people who are unable to come to the soon-to-be-established designated locations for strategy discussions. Three meetings will be held concerning the issues of small communities. The first meeting will be held in August for a planning group of small communities, the second meeting will be held for people from the church, and the third meeting will be held for the national congress in 2002.

Loyola Professor Bernard Lee was named project manager for both grants and Reynolds R. Ekstrom, associate director of LIM and coordinator of the Loyola Pastoral Life Center, was selected grant administrator for both grants. Professor Michael Cowan is the consultant responsible for planning several national meetings in response to this new grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.