Church Divinity School of the Pacific: Same-sex Rites Draw $400,000 Grant

The Living Church
July 16, 2010

The Church Divinity School of the Pacific has received a $404,000 grant to help the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music gather and develop rites for blessing same-sex couples. The grant is just over 16 times the $25,000 approved by General Convention for developing such blessing rites.

The money has been granted by the Arcus Foundation, which is based in Kalamazoo, Mich. Arcus describes its mission as achieving “social justice that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and race, and to ensure conservation and respect of the great apes.”

The grant will help pay for a national gathering in March. The SCLM will invite each diocese of the Episcopal Church to send two representatives (one clergy, one laity) who will offer responses to the SCLM’s developing work on the liturgies.

The Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers, who chairs the SCLM, expressed gratitude for the grant in a statement from CDSP, where she is Hodges–Haynes Professor of Liturgics.

“Developing liturgical resources for blessing same-sex unions is a once-in-a-generation charge, and we want to do it well,” she said. “However, the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music has fourteen projects during this triennium and a budget of just $25,000 for this project. This generous support to CDSP from the Arcus Foundation provides financial, logistical and intellectual resources that wouldn’t otherwise be available. As a result, we will be able to involve many more people and more perspectives in our work.” the rest