VTS awarded $1.25 million to develop child-centered worship practices

ALEXANDRIA, Va., September 20, 2024 – Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) has received a $1.25 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to launch an initiative to research and develop child-centered practices in worship.

The program is funded by 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 shared worship and prayer practices.

The VTS initiative Roots & Wings – Intergenerational Formation Collaborative (R&W) is a five-year action research project to promote child-centered practices and creativity to strengthen Christian faith in children and renew communities. The project, which will draw on Anglican theological anthropology, liturgical theology and rigorous scholarship, will challenge the status quo in most congregations where worship practices are adult-oriented and faith transmission relies on outdated teaching and learning models.

Instead, R&W will address how to strengthen worship and prayer practices that focus on how children experience God and express their faith

Disabilities. The initiative will also draw on the arts such as music, visual arts and theater to enhance children’s worship and prayer experiences.

As part of the project, R&W will conduct research to understand why and how intergenerational worship shapes faith and create culturally contextual resources on worship and prayer practices for children, with the goal of inspiring intergenerational practices that shape children’s faith and strengthen Episcopal communities.

Sarah Allred, R&W project director, said: “The project aims to transform the culture of worship and faith formation in Episcopal communities by recognizing the inherent value and giftedness of all children.” Roots & Wings will hold our denomination to account for the gap between what we claim to believe about children and the way we all too often live as a church.”

The inspiration for R&W arose from requests from small congregations and diocesan leaders who hoped that VTS would function as a denominational center to promote and sustain research-based and culturally contextual intergenerational worship and prayer practices that shape children’s faith. It builds on the work that Lifelong Learning has already done at VTS to activate baptism by connecting, nurturing and highlighting communities of faith practice.

VTS is one of 91 organizations receiving funding under the latest round of the initiative. They represent and serve congregations in a wide range of Christian traditions, including Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Orthodox, Anabaptist and Pentecostal denominations. Several organizations have roots in the Black Church as well as Hispanic and Asian American Christian traditions.

“Congregational worship and prayer play a critical role in children’s spiritual development, providing children with opportunities to learn the language of faith, learn about their faith traditions and experience the love of God as part of a supportive community,” said Christopher L. Coble , vice president for Religion at Lilly Endowment. “These programs will help congregations pay more attention to children and more specifically nurture the faith of children and adults through worship and prayer.”