PNNOnline.org

Trinity Wall Street, lower Manhattan’s 300-year old Episcopal parish, has awarded more than $1.4 million in funding during the second quarter of 2010, through its Trinity Grants Program.

The focus for this grant-making cycle reflects Trinity’s continuing support of micro-lending, job development and telecommunications in Africa; its commitment to young adult leadership programs in America; its advocacy of education initiatives in metropolitan New York; and strengthening the bonds of the Anglican Communion.

“These grants represent the people of a parish in lower Manhattan working in mutual partnership with people near and far, for a world of good,” said the Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, Rector of Trinity Wall Street. “The world is a better place when the presence of the Church is felt in deep and lasting ways.”

In Africa, Trinity continues its support of microfinance initiatives to encourage economic growth in Angola and Ghana with grants totaling more than $210,000. In Zambia, a grant of $65,500 supports and expands vocational training. A telecommunications grant in the Sudan also provides $331,000 to be used to connect ten dioceses to the Internet and support the provincial infrastructure, including the development of an Episcopal Church of the Sudan website. This funding builds on previous support, which has already connected the provincial office and nine other dioceses to the Internet.

“We are privileged to be partnering with faithful leaders in Africa,” said the Rev. Canon James G. Callaway, deputy for Anglican partnership and faith formation at Trinity Wall Street. “We are learning from their efforts to sustain their ministries.”

Trinity is supporting programs in the United States to help raise the next generation of leaders, with more than $250,000 grants across the country — from Connecticut to California — for young adult service programs that foster civic engagement, community, and spiritual growth.

This quarter, Trinity Grants is providing $245,000 in grants to organizations in metropolitan New York that support education advocacy and student engagement in connection with the All Our Children education initiative. All Our Children is sponsored by the diocese and Trinity Wall Street in response to a resolution passed at the 2007 Diocesan Convention that encouraged Episcopal parishes to connect with public schools. Trinity is also allocating $15,000 to churches in Monroe, Nyack and the Lower East Side that are partnering with their local public schools to strengthen public education.

“Trinity and the wider Church have a long history of helping public schools in ways that work when help is needed. This most recent round of grants is a new chapter in that history,” said the Rev. Canon Anne Mallonee, vicar of Trinity Church.

The Trinity Grants Program is part of Trinity Wall Street’s Faith in Action Ministries, which support congregation, staff, and partners around the world in living their faith as a way of life for the transformation or reconciliation of the world. The Grants Program provides funding within five key areas: supporting spiritual formation and development in the Episcopal Church in the United States; strengthening the Anglican Communion in Africa; connecting the Anglican Communion in developing countries through telecommunications; raising a generation of leaders in Metropolitan New York; and strengthening Anglican global partnerships. Other Faith in Action ministries include a twice-weekly brown bag lunch feeding program for people in need in Lower Manhattan, mission relationships with New Orleans and Panama, and support for a growing network of churches in the seven New York City communities that send most inmates to New York State prisons.

Located at the head of Wall Street, Trinity Church has been part of New York City’s and our nation’s history since its charter in 1697. Today, the organization has grown to include many important areas of focus and is collectively known as Trinity Wall Street. Most importantly, Trinity Wall Street is an Episcopal parish offering daily worship services and faith formation programs at Trinity Church, St. Paul’s Chapel, and online at trinitywallstreet.org. In addition, Trinity Wall Street includes Trinity Grants, providing $80 million in funding to 85 countries since 1972; Trinity Preschool; Trinity Institute, an annual theological conference; an extensive arts program presenting more than 100 concerts each year through Concerts @ One, the Trinity Choir, and the Trinity Choristers; and Trinity Real Estate, which manages the parish’s six million square feet of commercial real estate in lower Manhattan.