Media Release
Newman Theological College Awarded $1 Million Grant
December 8, 2021
Newman Theological College has received a grant of $986,510 USD from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish the Pathway to Ministry Project.
The project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative. It is a three-phase initiative designed to help theological schools across the United States and Canada as they prioritize and respond to the most pressing challenges they face as they prepare pastoral leaders for Christian congregations both now and into the future.
The award will give NTC a significant boost in the recruitment efforts, infrastructure, and overall sustainability for the college and local Catholic community. With its Pathways initiative, Lilly Endowment invited all 263 schools accredited by Association of Theological Schools to apply for grants.
The grant to NTC will help facilitate the three-year launch of an ongoing, self-sustaining initiative that will tangibly increase the number of candidates for ordination and professional lay ecclesial ministry.
The continued decline in seminary enrollment, and in-turn, qualified candidates for vocational ministry, will be effectively addressed through a strategy that includes resourcing those individuals and organizations that contribute to Catholic youth's spiritual formation and vocational guidance. These strategies will require NTC to build infrastructure to expand its scope of activities and to partner with other Catholic organizations and their leaders.
“Everyone knows that for decades the Catholic Church has had too few clergy and lay people ready for leadership in our parishes. Up until now the only answer to this has been to consolidate local parishes and replace them with megachurches. Newman Theological College’s Pathways to Ministry project offers a new direction: we have analyzed the root causes of the crisis in ministry and with this generous grant from the Lilly Endowment we are empowered to implement a practical and common sense set of solutions to increase the number of people studying for ministry.”
- Dr. Jason West, President, Newman Theological College
NTC is one of 84 theological schools that are receiving a total of more than $82 million in grants through the second phase of the Pathways initiative. Together, the schools represent evangelical, mainline Protestant, nondenominational, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic and Black church and historic peace church traditions (e.g., Church of the Brethren, Mennonite, Quakers). Many schools also serve students and pastors from Black, Latino, Korean American, Chinese American and recent immigrant Christian communities.
"Theological schools have long played a pivotal role in preparing pastoral leaders for churches," said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment's vice president for religion. "Today, these schools find themselves in a period of rapid and profound change. Through the Pathways Initiative, theological schools will take deliberate steps to address the challenges they have identified in ways that make the most sense to them. We believe that their efforts are critical to ensuring that Christian congregations continue to have a steady stream of pastoral leaders who are well-prepared to lead the churches of tomorrow."
Lilly Endowment launched the Pathways initiative in January 2021 because of its longstanding interest in supporting efforts to enhance and sustain the vitality of Christian congregations by strengthening the leadership capacities of pastors and congregational lay leaders.
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders' wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its founders' hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. The primary aim of its grantmaking in religion, which is national in scope, focuses on strengthening the leadership and vitality of Christian congregations in the United States. The Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding about religion and lift up in fair, accurate and balanced ways the contributions that people of all faiths and religious communities make to our greater civic well-being.
Contact: Jason West, Ph.D.
Email: jason.west@newman.edu