ECF NOTES We are pleased to share the first edition of the Episcopal Church Foundation Newsletter, ECF Notes. We look forward to telling stories of our work with Episcopal congregations and dioceses, keeping you up-to-date on our activities and new projects, and providing a fuller picture of what we do and why we do it. You can download a copy of ECF notes here, or stay on line and read the articles below. If you are interested in learning more, please call us at 800-697-2858 or email all@EpiscopalFoundation.org.
	Lay Ministry is at the Heart of Church Matters by Donald V. Romanik I've been involved in lay leadership for over twenty-five years. I started in a vacation bible school, taught Sunday school, served on a Vestry and Finance Committee, and was senior warden in both a family size parish and a cathedral. I have also been on diocesan committees and served as delegate to diocesan convention. I always felt the need to get involved but it took years of service before I apprecitated the importance of lay leadership. More than another community activity, my involvement has become a true ministry. As lay people, we all need to celebrate our important role in the life of the church.>>>>>Read more
	A New Creation:  The ECF Fellowship Partners Program by Kelly Mistick For more than 40 years the Episcopal Church Foundation has provided financial support to scholars planning teaching careers in theological education.  Building upon that tradition, ECF has expanded the former Doctoral Fellows Program to include academic and transformational ministry grants.  Renamed to reflect the idea of collaboration, the ECF Fellowship Partners Program has awarded its first three grants.  While diverse in the type of ministry each is called to, all three of the 2007 ECF fellows share their commitment to effect positive change in their own communities and beyond.>>>>>Read more
	Bottom Line Ministry by Ken Quigley Several months ago the Stewardship Committee Chair of a northeastern parish called. "We've been having trouble with our endowment," he explained. "We've been spending down our principal and it needs to stop. Can you help?">>>>>Read more
	The New Vestry Resource Guide by Rebecca McDonald Newly expanded, updated and redesigned, Vestry Resource Guide is for both first time vestry members as well as seasoned members who feel they need to review the responsibilities of vestry members.>>>>>Read more

Lay Ministry is at the Heart of Church Matters
by Donald V. Romanik
I've been involved in lay leadership for over twenty-five years. I started in a vacation bible school, taught Sunday school, served on a Vestry and Finance Committee, and was senior warden in both a family size parish and a cathedral. I have also been on diocesan committees and served as delegate to diocesan convention. I always felt the need to get involved but it took years of service before I apprecitated the importance of lay leadership. More than another community activity, my involvement has become a true ministry. As lay people, we all need to celebrate our important role in the life of the church.

The 1979 Book of Common Prayer was revolutionary in its reaffirmation of the ministry of the baptized.  In the baptismal covenant, all the people of God promise to "proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ".  With bishops, priests, and deacons, the laity is one of the four orders of ministry.  Furthermore, lay people have an equal role with clergy in managing the affairs of the Episcopal Church.

Because of our baptism and authority granted under the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church, lay people have tremendous responsibility to assume leadership.  The ability of the Episcopal Church needs to recognize that we are the ones responsible for ensuring that our church grows, thrives, and continues to make a difference.  In partnership with our clergy, we must be engaged in the mission oand ministry of our church.

At ECF our mission is to strengthen the leadership and financial capabilities of Episcopal congregations, dioceses, and related organizations.  We are lay led and committed to ensuring that our leaders have tools and resources they need.  We also realize that old models may not work.  As we move to situations with part-time rectors, cluster ministries, or other non-traditional parish settings, we provide practical information, training, and resources to help our lay leaders and empower their congregations.

We all need to reconnect with who we are as Christians, Episcopalians, and Anglicans.  We need to develop new and effective ways of dealing with those who differ from us.  And, notwithstanding differences, we need to engage with each other in dialogue and most importantly in mission.

Despite challenges, this is an exciting time to be a lay person in the Episcopal Church.  As we participate in debates about matters of authority, biblical interpretation, and even human sexuality, we are also called to be true to our baptismal covenant to strive for justice and peace.

We at the Episcopal Church Foundation are here to strengthen and support you and your congregations in your journeys of faith, service, and mission.  Together, we can and will make a difference in our parishes, our communities, and the world.

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A New Creation:  The ECF Fellowship Partners Program
by Kelly Mistick
For more than 40 years the Episcopal Church Foundation has provided financial support to scholars planning teaching careers in theological education.  Building upon that tradition, ECF has expanded the former Doctoral Fellows Program to include academic and transformational ministry grants.  Renamed to reflect the idea of collaboration, the ECF Fellowship Partners Program has awarded its first three grants.  While diverse in the type of ministry each is called to, all three of the 2007 ECF fellows share their commitment to effect positive change in their own communities and beyond.

Hoping to help realize the enormous potential of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Rev. Devon Anderson, former Associate Rector at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, MN, will work to equip people in the Diocese of Minnesota and beyond to implement global mission projects in their congregations.  As chairperson of the diocesan MDG committee Ms. Anderson recognized the gap between congregations' enthsiastic response towards working on the MDGs and their ability to put that enthusiasm into action.  Beginning with Minnesota congregations Ms. Anderson will develop training models, resources, and spiritual leadership for the implementation of mission projects.  Ultimately, the codel developed in Minnesota will be offered as a template to others throughout the church seeking to engage the MDGs ministry.

A doctoral student in Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, Ms. Rima Vesley-Flad is the founder and director of the Interfaith Coalition of Advocates for Reentry and Employment (ICARE), and hopes to educate communities of faith about the criminal justice system.  Through ICARE Ms. Vesley-Flad raises awareness in the faith community about the need to support men and women returning from prison and engages these communities in advocating for systemic change in the prison system.  Her approach has been effective -- in its first year ICARE influenced the change of three corrections and penal laws.  In addition to continuing the ministry of ICARE, Ms. Vesley-Flad intends to teach Christian Ethics in both a prison and seminary upon completion of her coursework.

Abuelas, Madres y Más (Grandmothers, Mothers and More), co-created by the Rev. Daniel Velez-Rivera, is a lay ministry working with Latinas utilizing a popular storytelling tradition. The program is a multigenerational spirituality and support group offered to Latinas raising children. Using their familiar oral tradition, women are invited to share with one another the challenges they face raising children in a marginalized urban setting. The ECF Fellowship enables Mr. Velez-Rivera to expand the program so that current participants can receive mentoring training, eventually facilitating their own groups. In empowering these women to mentor others they will reach out to the broader community and adolescent mothers in particular. In addition to expanding the reach of this ministry Mr. Velez-Rivera will also use this opportunity to develop curricula for the training of mentors which can serve as a template for other curricula in underserved communities.

The new fellows will attend next meeting of ECF’s Board of Directors, October 26-28, 2007, in New York. At that time the fellows will have the opportunity to meet with the directors and share their visions for undertaking these ministries and sharing their knowledge and best practices with the wider church. The deadline for the next ECF Fellowship Partners Program awards is set for March 15, 2008.

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Bottom Line Ministry
by Ken Quigley
Several months ago the Stewardship Committee Chair of a northeastern parish called. "We've been having trouble with our endowment," he explained. "We've been spending down our principal and it needs to stop. Can you help?"

The value of their endowment had grown to about $8 million in the late 1990s, but its value had fallen to under $4 million.

Structure
The crux of the problem stemmed from their endowment structure. To guard the principal from free-spending vestries of the future and protect assets, the church had formed a separate 501(c)(3) organization to manage their endowment funds. Unfortunately, the independent board disagreed with the priorities of the vestry, invested poorly, and overspent. As a result, the value of the endowment declined by half within seven years.

We began by discussing how the vestry could regain control of its endowment. Using a well-tested set of sample endowment policies and guidelines, ECF helped them develop a plan and a way out of their predicament. Difficult vestry votes and a congregational meeting were in the future, but the church committee chair began to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Vision and Purpose
We also talked about the importance of having a clearly defined vision for endowment funds. Congregations that use the returns on their endowment for operating expenses only, often experience the corrosive power of endowment – a decline in annual stewardship, few new gifts to the endowment, and a general lethargy. When endowments are used for outreach ministries, new ministries, and special projects, excitement grows and people get engaged. The more mission-oriented the endowment, the more it will grow.

Investments
Finally we discussed how to get the money well-invested. ECF, working with State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) as custodian, administrator and investment advisor, offers diversified, consistently performing, reasonably- priced investment options. With the support of SSgA, we prepared a proposed, individually-managed portfolio that included performance data and fees against which they could compare their current investments.

Service
Over a period of four months we helped this parish address some of the issues related to their endowment.

ECF’s Endowment Management Services works with congregations, dioceses, and related organizations of all sizes to help them organize their endowments, invest them, and then grow them through planned giving. From January 2005 through January 2007 the funds invested through the Foundation have grown from about $30 million to over $60 million are expected to grow to over $100 million by year’s end.

Through EMS, we are meeting a critical need. While on the surface it may appear that endowments are all about money, in the end, endowments reflect how we use our resources to advance the mission and ministry of the church. That’s where ECF’s endowment management service becomes ministry.

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The New Vestry Resource Guide
by Rebecca McDonald

Newly expanded, updated, and redesigned, Vestry Resource Guide is for both first time vestry members as well as seasoned members who feel they need to review the responsibilities of vestry members. It is a collaboration of contributors and advisors from all around the Episcopal Church. The new edition combines the three previous volumes and examines topics such as the ministry of the vestry, leading in a community of faith, origins of conflict, stewardship and navigating transitions in clergy leadership.

If you are interested in learning more about Vestry Resource Guide, please visit our website at EpiscopalFoundation.org.  To order a copy (or copies) please call Forward Movement Publications at 800-543-1813.  Or just pick up a copy at Catalyst Café and Bookstore at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City.

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