The Church Divinity School of the Pacific has received a $404,000 grant to help the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music gather and develop rites for blessing same-sex couples. The grant is just over 16 times the $25,000 approved by General Convention for developing such blessing rites.

The money has been granted by the Arcus Foundation, which is based in Kalamazoo, Mich. Arcus describes its mission as achieving “social justice that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and race, and to ensure conservation and respect of the great apes.”

The grant will help pay for a national gathering in March. The SCLM will invite each diocese of the Episcopal Church to send two representatives (one clergy, one laity) who will offer responses to the SCLM’s developing work on the liturgies.

The Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers, who chairs the SCLM, expressed gratitude for the grant in a statement from CDSP, where she is Hodges–Haynes Professor of Liturgics.

“Developing liturgical resources for blessing same-sex unions is a once-in-a-generation charge, and we want to do it well,” she said. “However, the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music has fourteen projects during this triennium and a budget of just $25,000 for this project. This generous support to CDSP from the Arcus Foundation provides financial, logistical and intellectual resources that wouldn’t otherwise be available. As a result, we will be able to involve many more people and more perspectives in our work.”

“CDSP has a tradition of first-rate, innovative liturgical education,” said the Rev. Dr. W. Mark Richardson, president and dean of CDSP. “Through this generous grant, we can offer that expertise and experience in service to the wider church. We are proud that our outstanding faculty will lead the way in developing liturgical resources to provide pastoral care and response to gay and lesbian Episcopalians.”

Kalamazoo native Jon L. Stryker, an heir to his family’s medical-equipment business and an architect, founded Arcus in 2000. The foundation’s name is Latin for arc or arch, and suggests the concepts of bridging a gap or offering shelter, Stryker told The Chronicle of Philanthropy in 2008.  The name also alludes to the arc of a rainbow, a popular symbol within the gay-rights movement.

Arcus has made several grants to pro-GLBT groups within the Episcopal Church since 2006:

2009

  • $18,500 to Oasis Transgender/Bisexual/Lesbian/Gay Outreach Ministry, Ann Arbor, Mich.
  • $105,790 to Integrity, to monitor implementation of resolutions from General Convention.

2008

  • $177,251 to the Cathedral Church of St. James, Chicago, to support the Chicago Consultation.
  • $60,000 to Integrity for two half-time field organizers.
  • $132,162 to Seabury–Western Theological Seminary, to support the Chicago Consultation.

2007

  • $30,000 to Integrity, to support Claiming the Blessing.
  • $100,000 to Integrity, to support Claiming the Blessing for two years.
  • $25,000 to Seabury–Western Theological Seminary, to support the Full Inclusion in the Anglican Communion Consultation (which became the Chicago Consultation).

The ties between gay rights and preserving great apes run deeper than Stryker’s longtime interest in both causes.

Stryker told The Chronicle of Philanthropy that the foundation’s experience has made it more advanced in supporting gay rights across the world, and Arcus has “refused to support AIDS research that might involve chimpanzees.”

The 2006 annual report for Arcus included full-page black-and-white photos that alternated between human and ape faces. Each page emphasized the foundation’s core values: “Diversity, Justice, Compassion, Pluralism and Freedom.”

Douglas LeBlanc