The Virginia Synod is excited to receive a $50,000 grant through The CaSTLE Project: The Country and Small Town Lived Ecclesiology Project, a five-year initiative led by Wartburg Theological Seminary to support renewal in small town and rural congregations.
With this grant, the Virginia Synod will receive funding to strengthen the work of the Lay Ministry Academy and to support lay leaders in the synod serving as synod authorized ministers and lay preachers. Planning is already underway for a retreat for synod authorized ministers and the rostered ministers who support them.
The CaSTLE Project, funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc., is part of the Thriving Congregations Initiative and aims to renew a baptismal ecclesiology for the long-term flourishing of rural congregational life. Through the ministry of Wartburg Seminary and partners like the Virginia Synod, the CaSTLE project aims to deepen baptismal identity and cultivate thriving, Spirit-led communities of faith in rural contexts.
