The diocese of Alabama has received a grant for a new initiative, “Be the Change Alabama,” a partnership between the diocese of Alabama, the School of Theology, and the Leadership Development Initiative (LDI).
The grant was awarded by the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church. LDI is a hands-on, six-month learning lab based in Boston that aims to develop spiritual leaders for the church.
“This initiative demonstrates how a lay training center located in a seminary can forge the partnerships necessary at the church-wide, diocesan and parish levels for our church to ‘be the change,’” said the Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander, dean of the School of Theology.
The purpose of the grant is to shape faith into action by training faith-based leadership teams for local community action in upper Alabama, creating mission enterprise zones.
“We’re excited about this expansion of ministry in the ‘Northern Kingdom,’ as we lovingly refer to the northern part of the Diocese of Alabama,” said the Rt. Rev. Kee Sloan, bishop of the Diocese of Alabama, “and excited to set off on a cooperative venture between the diocese, the School of Theology and the larger church. All of these parishes have identified the needs, and it is energizing to be looking for how we can address them together on a deeper level.”
The emphasis of the initiative is leadership education and development. While an outcome of the ministry will be projects that improve the lives of people who are economically disadvantaged, the goal is to prepare seminarians as well as lay leaders to be leaders of social change in ways that are effective and sustainable.
“It is rewarding to see how much energy and enthusiasm the seminarians are bringing to this new initiative,” said the Rev. Kammy Young, director of contextual education and lecturer in contextual theology. “It represents another dimension to their formation that more clearly connects with their sense of calling to be leaders that help change the world.”
As a parish team (consisting of one to three lay leaders, a clergy member and a seminarian “coach”) goes out into the community, it will listen and discern the parish’s role in local mission and development.
“The partnership with Alabama is phase one of a pilot the programs center plans to extend to other dioceses, much in the same way that Education for Ministry (EfM) was launched in Alabama and then spread,” said Courtney Cowart, associate dean and director of the School of Theology’s programs center. “I encourage interested clergy and bishops to come to Sewanee April 8–11, when the programs center will offer a preview of this training to those interested in joining phase two.”
“The diocese of Massachusetts has been doing this type of training with Episcopal Service Corps interns as coaches in congregations,” said Ella Auchincloss, executive director of LDI. “Now we are adapting this model for seminarians and asking ‘Will what worked in Boston work in Alabama and beyond?’”
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