$5,000

The Bridge Board churches in downtown Des Moines, which includes St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, have been providing free lunches to the homeless and needy for 20 years. The current demand is over 40,000 meals each year. But the only spiritual offering along with the meal is a group prayer before lunch is served. Our volunteers have found that some guests value having someone to pray with them, and this is an under-served population because poverty is a deterrent to normal church participation for many. Offering spiritual ministry at a church-supported food ministry is the gap we hope to fill by making ecumenical volunteer chaplains available for personal prayers, blessings or conversations for most of the days meals are served. St Paul’s will work with the Bridge Board to set credential requirements, mindful that suitable training and qualifications are needed. Grant funds will pay for staff time to recruit and organize clergy or lay ministers to be available to guests. Funds will also go to purchase printed materials for marketing, to fund training needs, and to implement evaluation methods.

St. Paul’s Website

St. Paul’s Facebook

$7,250

Episco-PRIDE ministry was launched in our diocese last year with an Evangelism Grant from The Episcopal Church. Through this ministry, we seek to serve Christ in others by loving our LGBTQ+ neighbors and standing against the hatred that has become all too common to hear and has been solidified using laws in our state. This ministry is about being present, naming God’s love where we see it, and letting people know that they are beloved exactly as they are. We work with congregational teams from around the diocese to offer training opportunities (including Safe Zone Training, endorsed by The Episcopal Church), participate in community events, share learnings with each other, and build a community of evangelists that can lean on each other and show up together to spread God’s love in our communities. Over the past year and a half, we have helped over a third of our congregations become involved in Episco-PRIDE ministry, and we anticipate this number will continue to grow. Grant funds will be used for evangelism materials for congregations taking part in Episco-PRIDE, trainings, event fees and materials for the diocesan team, and scholarships for youth to attend the Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ+ youth. We would also like to add at least one more shared kit (tent, table, chairs, banner, etc.) into the mix as the number of participating congregations has increased, and consider upgrading/adding items to the shared kits as we receive team feedback on what else would be helpful to include in the kit.

Website

$7,200

We piloted the St. Luke's Community Home School Hub last year by serving 17 students during the 2024-2025 school year, and found it had a powerful impact on both the church and the surrounding communities. The Home School Hub offers home-schooled students the opportunity to experience socialization, sports, music, and study time in a structured, safe, and mentally and physically healthy environment. Parents register for their child/ren to participate in the hub and we sponsor the time and space(s) used, including recruiting volunteers and coordinating local activities. The main location for the hub’s study hours, band/instrumental, and home economics activities has been our local YMCA test kitchen, and then we have supplemental activities (e.g. field trips) at various locations in the community, including St. Luke’s. The hub has helped these kids improve themselves academically and it has opened them up to many experiences that they would not otherwise have. The local economy has improved as local businesses and institutions have gained new patrons as a result of welcoming our kids, and the elderly of our church are also getting opportunities to socialize the kids and share their knowledge. We plan to build upon the lessons learned to strengthen and expand our services as we project the number of students will increase. Grant funds will be largely used to help cover facility and operational costs, along with unforeseen expenses including those associate with fundraising initiatives and additional extracurricular activities.

St. Luke’s Website

St. Luke’s Facebook

In the News:

“Rotarians get home-schooled on the hub” in the Ft. Madison Daily Democrat

“St. Luke's gets behind home-school students” in the Pen City Current

“Homeschool hub guides experiences for kids” in the Ft. Madison Daily Democrat

$3,000

Laundry Love is a national non-profit organization that partners with local groups and laundromats to help those in need with the cost of laundry. Grace Church participated in Laundry Love before COVID but during COVID it was put on hold, and we recently started up again in January of 2025. This ministry responds to a human need, as having clean clothes is more than just being clean, it’s a way to restore human dignity. We have been holding Laundry Love once a month for three hours in the evening, and between January and May of this year served between 6 to 25 people each time. This ministry pays for up to three loads of laundry per person and supplies them with laundry soap and dryer sheets. We also try to provide some friendly conversation and an environment of acceptance. A grant will help us strengthen this ministry and expand to serve more people, as we’ve seen the number of people grow from when we started in January. Grant funds will be used to pay for individuals to wash and dry their clothes, and to purchase dryer sheets (the laundry soap is provided by Earth Breeze who has partnered with the national Laundry Love program).

Grace’s Website

Grace’s Facebook

$6,760

Our QC Episco-PRIDE ministry began in 2024 when we participated as a team in the diocesan Episco-PRIDE ministry. The purpose of our ministry is to create safe and welcoming spaces in our churches and community for LGBTQIA+ people and bearing authentic public witness to the loving, liberating, life-giving God that we follow. Our LGBTQ+ ministry is primarily designed to support and serve the LGBTQIA+ community in the Quad Cities through education/allyship, and demonstrations of love, and it unites the Episcopal congregations in the Iowa Quad Cities with a common mission and supports/sustains being safe and affirming places of worship. Unfortunately, LGBTQIA+ folks have been harmed by faith communities in their past; our ministry addresses gaps in recognition and reconciliation in that our aim is to be present witnesses, to act with love, and to give away small gifts with “no strings attached.” This is meaningful to many, and part of a healing journey for some. One of the biggest parts of this ministry is providing intergenerational-appropriate education for members of our congregations (and friends) who want to be better allies or have a better understanding of why supporting the LGBTQIA+ community is vital, so we aim to increase opportunities for learning about being a welcoming and inclusive church, including by inviting an engaging speaker to the Quad Cities. We hope to grow this ministry, which attracts the most volunteers from Trinity Cathedral than any other outreach ministry, and have plans to expand over the course of the next two years, which includes developing/growing partnerships with St. Alban’s Davenport and St. Peter’s Bettendorf. Grant funds will be used to support an extended presence at QC Pridefest (entry fees, giveaways, display items, etc.), and for educational and training opportunities, including an honorarium/travel for a guest speaker.

Trinity’s Website

Trinity’s Facebook

St. Peter’s Website

St. Peter’s Facebook

St. Alban’s Website

St. Alban’s Facebook

$3,400

St. Luke's has prepared and served meals at CISS (Central Iowa Shelter & Services, a homeless shelter located in Des Moines) for many years. Our familiarity with the staff and clients sparked the idea of seeking a choir from the clients to provide an opportunity to experience Jesus via song, filling a gap in clients' spiritual component. CISS reports that they have sponsored interest groups for their clients in such things as art, books and other areas, but they have never had a choir made up of the shelter’s clients; they are very excited about this project. St. Luke's music director Paul Cort will recruit, rehearse, and perform two recitals of CISS clients in the fall, 2025. Each recital will involve 3 rehearsals over a month's time. As a challenge with transient populations is consistent attendance, this shortened timeframe hopes to account for this challenge. CISS staff will assist with the recruitment process and provide space for the rehearsals and recitals, and the recruitment and rehearsals are anticipated to take place around the shelter’s evening meal. Grant funds will be used to provide a stipend for Paul Cort as this project will fall outside his usual duties as music director at St. Luke's. Funds will also be used to acquire sheet music for the choir members; and shirts and trousers for the client choir (estimating 30 participants), which they’ll be able to keep after the performances.

St. Luke’s Website

St. Luke’s Facebook

$7,250

This grant request stems from my experiences of many of our worshipping community’s efforts to more effectively engage with their neighbors, especially through their participation in the Regional Mission Initiative. As our congregations increasingly seek to reach into the community through participation in Pride festivals and other events, it’s become clear that many lack even basic tools to enhance their visibility and attractiveness. Having access to quality custom materials furthers our congregation’s ability to position themselves in an active outward facing posture in their community. Participation in public events encourages the congregation to “get out there” and be with the people of our parish (parish as in a geography, not merely a congregation). It also furthers our work of being present to wide groups of people and it is a public demonstration of our commitment to respect, welcome, and inclusion. Attention grabbing outdoor banners and signage draw eyes to our church buildings and is a visible sign of the life and vitality of the worship community. Quality custom printing further enhances our organizational image. Grant funds will be used to supply multiple congregations with high quality customized marketing materials that they can use to increase their visibility to, and connection with, their neighbors. Materials will include professionally printed supplies such as custom branded portable flags, banners, signage, and handouts, as well as other tools that individual congregations will keep and use at events such as Pride celebrations, farmer’s markets, and with other community events. They can also be used to draw attention to their buildings during worship and other internal events, and congregations will retain these materials for ongoing use.

Facebook

$7,250

The mission of Trinity Church is Making Christ Known with Love and Compassion. We see that ministry extending beyond the walls of our community, and inviting others in. This includes our Jubilee Committee, which helps many initiatives in our community (Laundry Love, the homeless shelter, a hygiene and food cupboard, and local school donations to kids in need), and that’s important. We believe we need to go further to welcome in three particular groups of individuals: people disenfranchised from Sunday mornings due to full schedules (and/or who can’t get to church easily), those who have deconstructed (who don’t feel comfortable in church for some reason), and those who are religiously unaffiliated with a church but still could benefit from contemplative practices in their life. To reach these groups, we are focused on 3 ways of expanding ministry: a mobile approach to youth-centered religious education, online faith-based circle groups, and designated monthly opportunities to provide spiritual tools to the community. The background of our research and discernment for these strategies includes replicating successful initiatives that combine contemplative tools and new ways of sharing faith that have been tried at Prairiewoods, featured as experiments at TryTank (Virginia Theological Seminary) or Faith+Lead at Luther Seminary, as well as the Diocese of Iowa Youth Missioner efforts during COVID, which sent mail packets to teens around the Diocese. Grant funds will be used to purchase religious education materials, for a religious educator coordinator stipend, stipends for outside presenters, advertising, faith circle, and other associated expenses.

Trinity Website

Trinity Facebook

$4,000

St. John's plans to expand on the technology upgrades previously done with the help of GILEAD grants in previous years. We upgraded our sound system to allow for livestreaming of services and we also improved our streaming and sound set up. Part of these upgrades included having wireless microphones in the sanctuary that could also be broadcast in the parish hall, nursery, and chapel with in-ceiling speakers. In using the microphones and broadcasting in that way we realized that the current speakers could not provide appropriate sound levels. We have been using the parish hall more for announcements, special services, and parish meetings so we would like to upgrade the 12 speakers for better use of those spaces with our improved sound system. These improvements will better serve our congregation members and guests during meetings and special services; it will also better serve our members who are hearing challenged and allow us to communicate with them effectively. Grant funds will be used to hire a contractor and to purchase and install the new speakers.

St. John’s Website

St. John’s Facebook

$7,250

We plan to upgrade our sound and video technology, along with revamping our website, to directly advance our mission of “Growing in Christ’s Love and sharing it with all” and improve the worship experience for both in-person and online worshippers. By making our worship services more accessible to those who cannot attend in person, whether due to distance, mobility, or other barriers, we are extending Christ’s welcome beyond our physical walls. Enhanced audio and visual capabilities ensure that everyone, whether present in the sanctuary or joining online, can fully experience the richness of our worship, music, and fellowship. Our current systems are inadequate and inaccessible. Our camera has a limited range and needs manual adjustments, which falls to our music director due to proximity but is very challenging as he is often occupied with playing and singing. We have been using a cell phone as a microphone as we do not have one compatible with the camera, but it doesn’t work with the space/movement so our Zoom viewers can’t hear the service well. Our website is outdated, difficult to navigate, and not mobile-friendly; we know that many people go to a website before visiting a church in-person, so this is a barrier to attending services and ministry opportunities. Grant funds will be used to purchase video and sound equipment, and develop a modern, accessible, and engaging website. Any remaining funds would go toward the purchase of a membership database program that integrates with our new website and existing accounting system.

St. Anne’s Website

St. Anne’s Facebook

$3,790

We would like to complete our first aid safety plan for our church by purchasing a portable AED (Automated External Defibrillator )and mounting it in a wall mounted cabinet in the hallway/stairwell situated between the sanctuary and the education wing. This plan started because it had been brought to our attention that we did not have any first aid resources at the church, aside from an old small first aid kit with a few remaining bandages. We consulted  resources for church First-Aid recommendations and discerned that we needed to implement a First-Aid safety program, especially considering the significant number of elderly members and our location in a lower income neighborhood with a community refrigerator and community garden on-site. We have purchased the other Medical First-Aid equipment and supplies recommended for a church of our size, and the portable AED with wall-mounted cabinet is the final item needed. Grant funds will be used to purchase the portable AED and wall cabinet to house it, and funds will cover Red Cross volunteer training for First Aid (which includes AED training) fees for at least 10 people across the tri-church community (St. Andrew’s, Trinity Cush, & the Darfur Community of Iowa all share space in the building, and all 3 have expressed interest in having several of their members trained).

St. Andrew’s Website

St. Andrew’s Facebook

$7,250

The Episcopal Diocese of Iowa and The Benedictine Way, a Christian community of Benedictine monks, oblates, and young adults in the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska, have been partnering together in young adult ministry for over a year. We have held day-long retreats in both Iowa and Nebraska, and would like to continue developing our partnership and growing this community of young adults by expanding our offerings. Building community within a population (i.e. young adults) that moves around, is experiencing a variety of and often multiple life transitions simultaneously, and has many demands on their schedule is challenging, to say the least. And yet we’re seeing a hunger from young adults for connection both with each other and with their faith. To help meet these needs, we plan to offer a variety of opportunities for engagement - retreats, social gatherings, formation opportunities – throughout the year that will build community, help young adults deepen their faith and relationship with God, and be adaptable and flexible based on feedback from young adults. For example, if young adults are craving respite time, we may center a retreat around the importance and biblical tradition of sabbath; if most cannot commit to a weekend-long retreat but could do a day or overnight, we can switch our events to those time frames. Grant funds will be used to offset the cost of retreats (or other gatherings/events), including food, mileage, scholarships, and retreat leaders/speaker honorariums. Funds may also be used for mailing items to participants, curriculum fees, book/movie fees (if folks want to do a guided discussion of some kind), or other miscellaneous items related to this grant’s goals.

Episcopal Diocese of Iowa Young Adult Webpage

The Benedictine Way

$7,000

The Simpson College Youth Academy is a year-long, ecumenical program for Iowan high school youth grounded in the conviction that young people have gifts and power that are essential for the healing of the world now. Through college-level intellectual engagement, training in worship and prayer leadership, and reflective service around community issues, we help youth step into mature young adult Christian faith as they discern their particular callings as agents of peace and justice in their churches and the world. The Academy requests a GILEAD grant that would be used in 2 main ways: tuition scholarships for new students, and stipends for alumni to serve as staff. Scholarships would be given to students from these populations that are especially falling through the cracks: Episcopal youth (due to declining church attendance), LGBTQ+ youth (due to pervasive bigotry in American churches), and BIPOC and economically impoverished youth; scholarships for these populations address critical needs in our communities. Additionally, SYA alumni continue to report that they wish that they had additional opportunities to stay involved in SYA beyond the one-year curriculum we currently offer; by providing stipends to hire additional alumni on staff, we will lengthen these youth’s exposure to the SYA community and curriculum, further their leadership development through increased ministry involvement beyond their first SYA year, and deepen and sustain their formation as Christian leaders. Grant funds will be used for scholarships for 4 new SYA participants (who are Episcopal and/or racial minority group of financially in need), and for stipends to hire new SYA alumni as staff to assist primarily with the summer alumni retreat.

SYA Facebook page

SYA Website

$7,250

St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church intends to organize a week-long youth pilgrimage to occur early summer of 2026 within the United States, and all Episcopal diocesan churches will be invited to attend. The primary purpose of this pilgrimage is to enrich youths’ spiritual formation, provide education, develop leadership skills and to foster community-building. Grounded in our church’s mission “We are Christ’s hands, feet, and

voice in this world,” we will invite youth to become active participants in the planning process of the pilgrimage including determining the location, daily activities, service opportunities, and worship. By facilitating this collaborative process amongst the youth and the adult volunteers, we hope to encourage more meaningful engagement during the pilgrimage and to nurture leadership skills in a faith-centered context. On this pilgrimage, youth will deepen their connections with Christ, the Episcopal Church, and each other. By incorporating service projects and reflection throughout the pilgrimage, youth will be able to practice living out their faith in the world. This pilgrimage is intended to be a spiritual journey that equips our youth to be active disciples and leaders within The Episcopal Church and the broader world around them. Grant funds will be utilized to provide financial scholarships to families in need and to lower the overall cost for all attendees by offsetting other expenses (lodging, transportation, food, etc.).

St. Timothy’s Website

St. Timothy’s Facebook

$4,750

The Diocese of Iowa is one of six sponsoring dioceses (Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Western Missouri and Western Kansas) of the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry. BKSM has a well-developed presbyter and diaconate tract, as well as a lay certification program of 6-10 classes each (Catechist, Evangelist, Preacher and Pastoral Leader), all of which are currently being used by Iowa students. Anyone is encouraged to enroll in any of the classes held August through May for personal enrichment or continuing education. A lay person exploring the possibility of

ordination to the presbyter or diaconate would benefit from this option. The more students who are served at BKSM, the stronger the institution and lay leadership development, which will lead to strengthening local congregations. It will provide a cost effective, unique opportunity for laity in their personal journeys to learn and become strong and effective witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We plan to develop lay leadership in the Diocese of Iowa by the promotion of Bishop Kemper School for Ministry and by subsidizing tuition +books for Iowa lay leaders in the diocese. Grant funds will be used to develop promotional materials that could be shared with the other dioceses and the laity throughout Iowa. Funds would also be used reimburse tuition on a sliding scale, and books needed for the course, on a first come first serve basis.

BKSM Website