Faith Friday: Choristers Guild Receives $1.5M Grant
Dallas-based Choristers Guild received a $1.5 million grant from Lily Endowment Inc. to help create and edit curricula that will assist choral leaders for preschool, elementary, and junior high children.
The program is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative.
The grant term will last from March 1, 2023, through December 31, 2028. Some highlights of the project include creating curriculums for the volunteer or paid staff for both Sunday schools and children’s programs.
“For this purpose, we have gathered strong educational and choral leaders to create different levels of curriculum that can focus on creating and organizing children’s choirs, reinvigorating choirs, and providing a strong foundation for teaching children to use their musical skills as worship leaders,” said Dawn Jantsch, Choristers Guild’s executive director.
Lilly Endowment is making nearly $32 million in grants through this invitational round of the Nurturing Children initiative. The grants are funding efforts to help organizations develop new and/or enhance existing programs that support congregations as they design worship services and prayer practices in hopes of increasing children’s engagement.
Choristers Guild is one of 26 organizations taking part in the initiative. They represent and serve congregations in a broad spectrum of Christian traditions, including mainline Protestant, evangelical, Catholic, Pentecostal, Black church, Hispanic and Asian traditions. Many organizations also serve churches that describe themselves as nondenominational, ecumenical, and multi-denominational.
Lilly Endowment launched the Nurturing Children initiative in 2022.
