UPSem Receives $1.25 Million Lilly Endowment Grant Supporting Font & Faith

Charlotte, NC  (October 18, 2024)—Union Presbyterian Seminary is grateful for Lilly Endowment Inc.’s grant of $1,250,000 for the Center for Excellence in Christian Education to establish Font & Faith, a new initiative to help the church live into the promises made in baptism.

The program is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative, a national initiative designed to help ecumenical congregations more fully and intentionally engage children in intergenerational corporate worship and prayer practices.

Research, practice, and leadership are the three platforms of the Center for Excellence in Christian Education located at UPSem’s Charlotte campus. Designed to foster new ways of teaching with leading-edge thinking, CECE opened in 2023 and recently launched a new website at https://cece.upsem.edu

“Lilly Endowment’s support, for which Union Presbyterian Seminary is deeply thankful, will help the Center for Excellence in Christian Education strengthen faith communities for children of diverse religious traditions,” said Union Presbyterian Seminary’s President Jacq Lapsley.

“We’re excited about the three phases planned over the next five years. We will engage children, parents, and grandparents as they nurture faith at home. We will strengthen pastors, educators, and volunteer leaders as they create welcoming communities for children and families. Seminary professors and students will also have the opportunity to participate as leaders are shaped for ministry,” added CECE Director Rev. Dr. Rebecca Davis.

The Center for Excellence in Christian Education at Union Presbyterian Seminary is one of 91 organizations receiving funding through the latest round of the initiative. Grant recipients represent and serve congregations in a broad spectrum of Christian traditions, including Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, Orthodox, Anabaptist and Pentecostal faith communities. Several organizations are rooted in Black Church and Hispanic and Asian American Christian traditions.

“Congregational worship and prayer play a critical role in the spiritual growth of children and offer settings for children to acquire the language of faith, learn their faith traditions and experience the love of God as part of a supportive community,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “These programs will help congregations give greater attention to children and how they can more intentionally nurture the faith of children, as well as adults, through worship and prayer.”

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location.

In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. The principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.

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Contact: Barb Dodd, Director of Communications
Union Presbyterian Seminary
(804) 278-4279 • bdodd@upsem.edu