Lilly Endowment awards millions to Episcopal storytelling initiatives in latest round of grants

[Episcopal News Service] Virginia Theological Seminary, the dioceses of Colorado and West Virginia and an Episcopal church in the Diocese of Michigan have each been awarded multimillion-dollar grants from the Lilly Endowment to launch initiatives aimed at sharing stories of Christian vitality in their faith communities.

The seminary, based in Alexandria, Virginia, is launching its new Stories of Hope and Renewal through a partnership with The Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church. VTS received the maximum $5 million in this round of 48 Lilly grants, as did Christ Church Cranbrook, a Michigan church that is leading a joint Faith in Detroit project with Detroit PBS, Oakland University, Detroit Opera and other partners.

“All of our partners bring important skills to the table that are going to allow us to build this story-telling ecosystem,” the Rev. William Danaher, rector of Christ Church Cranbrook, told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview this week.

The Episcopal Church in Colorado was awarded $3 million in support of Show & Tell: Stories for the Nones, Dones and Disconnected, which will promote an inclusive and contemporary vision of mainline Christianity. And the Diocese of West Virginia will use $3.9 million from the Lilly Endowment to launch Seeds of Hope, a storytelling ministry rooted in the Appalachian Christian experience.

Each of these grant-supported initiatives is expected to span at least four or five years and was chosen to fulfill the Lilly Endowment’s stated goals for its National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life: “To unlock and tell compelling stories that portray the vibrancy and hope of Christian faith and life and to inspire and help people from a wide variety of backgrounds to come to know and love God.”

“Appalachians are natural storytellers,” West Virginia Bishop Matthew Cowden said in a diocesan news release announcing its grant. “Through this storytelling initiative, we seek to shift the impressions and misconceptions West Virginians have about Christian faith and open the door to encountering the love of God and the love of community.”

Seeds of Hope will train local storytellers and organize live story-sharing events. The stories shared there will be recorded and then produced in high-quality multimedia formats for wider dissemination, including as documentary-style short films and at an annual storytelling festival.

“By honoring the dignity of both storyteller and listener, Seeds of Hope will create spaces where hearts soften, faith awakens, and communities are knit together,” Cowden said.

In Colorado, the diocese’s Office of Communications is designing its storytelling project to engage with Millennials, Gen Z and that state’s Latino communities. The diocese plans to work with 90 congregations in the state to produce several digital media pieces each, sharing compelling local stories. The project also intends to produce 150 short-form videos and 22 documentary podcasts in English and Spanish “offering inviting glimpses into faith, justice, and belonging within the mainline, positing a compelling alternative vision of Christianity amid clamorous online voices,” according to the diocese’s news release.

A separate narrative podcast, structured across two seasons, will follow young adults navigating “faith, doubt and identity in uncertain times.”

“Storytelling is at the heart of Christian life,” Colorado Bishop Kym Lucas said in the news release. “Jesus taught in parables; the church has witnessed through testimony. Today, the digital commons is where many first encounter those stories. Show & Tell equips leaders with hands-on training, mentorship and ready-to-use resources so their stories ring clear and reach those seeking connection, meaning, and hope.”

The four Episcopal-led projects were funded in the second round of the Lilly Endowment’s National Storytelling Initiative, after an initial round of 12 grants in 2024. The grants support a wide range of approaches to Christian storytelling, from the printed word to photography to live events.

“For many years, leaders of Christian communities have shared with the Endowment powerful stories about how faith animates the lives of individuals with meaning and hope, giving them a deep sense of God’s love for themselves and others,” Christopher Coble, the Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion, said when the foundation first unveiled the initiative in December 2024.

“These leaders have also shared their concerns that these powerful stories are often overshadowed by accounts of the closing of churches and the weakening of religious life. … We hope this initiative will help make known the vibrant ways that Christians practice their faith through acts of love and compassion in their everyday lives.”

To that end, Virginia Theological Seminary is developing its project, Stories of Hope and Renewal, to “collect narratives about how people have come to know and love God through local faith communities.” Those stories will be shared at local festivals and will be made available more broadly through a collection of multimedia products. The Rev. Kyle Oliver was hired as project director.

“Stories change us. They help us see ourselves reflected in someone else’s struggles, hopes, and encounters with grace,” Oliver said in a VTS news release. “Faith leaders from every tradition need to listen and speak in new ways. Now is an ideal time for the church to focus on how ordinary people and communities describe their encounters with God in Christ.”

And in the Diocese of Michigan, Faith in Detroit aims to empower local residents to share their faith stories widely, countering common narratives of decline and ruin in the city.

“My experience shows that the real story of Detroit is one of resurrection and resilience, told each day by word and action by the faithful people in our city,” Danaher, the Christ Church Cranbrook rector, said in a news release. “These storytellers must be empowered and their stories shared because they tell a more compelling story that has been hidden in plain sight.”

Danaher’s church is located in Bloomfield Hills, a norther suburb of Detroit. Danaher will serve as executive director of Faith in Detroit, coordinating the contributions of numerous local partners. Detroit PBS will provide video expertise. Detroit Opera will turn some of the stories collected into an opera. A local artist plans to organize stories geographically into a GPS-based app.

Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit also has signed on and will offer storytelling as part of all its degree programs.

“Faith in Detroit offer us an opportunity to be part of something special – something with the potential to transform not only the stories we tell about Detroit, but Detroit itself,” said the Rev. Theodore Turman, the seminary’s president.

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.