South Dakota Synod Awarded $1.2 Million Grant from Lilly Endowment
October 7, 2024 – Sioux Falls, South Dakota – The South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) announced today that it has been awarded a new grant of $1,224,172 from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish its “Holy Playground” Initiative.
The program is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative, a national initiative designed to help Christian congregations more fully and intentionally engage children in intergenerational corporate worship and prayer practices.
The “Holy Playground” Initiative will use funding from Lilly Endowment to invest in structured support for participating congregations, including coaching, multi-modal training opportunities, and targeted grants to implement research-based, developmentally informed programs and practices in their congregations and worshiping communities – including the Synod’s thriving, multi-cultural worshiping communities, our “Neighbors in Solidarity” – to strengthen their ministries to engage children in worship and prayer.
“Receiving a second grant from Lilly Endowment is a witness to the strong vision of intentionally journeying together in Christ, as the South Dakota Synod has been doing these past five years,” said Rev. Constanze Hagmaier, Bishop of the South Dakota Synod. “The grant we were awarded last year focused on bridging the rural-urban divide. This second grant emerged from intentionally listening to our congregations’ need to concentrate on children’s ministries. We are grateful to Lilly Endowment for these funds, which will help the congregations in our Synod to vitalize and strengthen their children’s ministries, ensuring that our doors are open to people of all ages.”
The South Dakota Synod is one of 91 organizations awarded funding through the latest round of the initiative. They 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.”
About the South Dakota Synod
The South Dakota Synod is one of 65 synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), representing almost 200 congregations and worshiping communities and over 93,000 members. For more information, visit www.sdsynod.org.
About Lilly Endowment Inc
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.
