IPS Receives Planning Grant from the Lilly Endowment

Lilly Endowment Inc, has awarded the Institute of Pastoral Studies a planning grant as part of Called to Lives of Meaning and Purpose, a new initiative. Dr. Dan Rhodes, IPS Faculty Coordinator of Contextual Education, and Mark Bersano, IPS Coordinator of Continuing Education, will lead the planning process. The grant will fund the planning of an “innovation hub” at Loyola’s IPS, which will seek to help congregations learn more about their calling and purpose within their parish communities. 

The goal of the planning process is to listen to members of congregations in the Chicagoland area to distill the challenges they are facing and to learn how their communities may be able to work together to engage their faith and God’s call more deeply. The planning process will have three parts. The first step will include individual meetings with clergy and staff from the congregations. The second step will include regional meetings, discussions and listening sessions for the clergy and lay ministers in congregations. The final step will be a large central assembly on July 19 where all of the above participants will come together. 

The planning period will be devoted to gathering perspectives, insights and other information that will help IPS create an “innovation hub” for congregations. The hub will seek to offer resources and opportunities for collaboration to help faith communities strengthen their role as places where people at every stage of life – including youth – find ways to discern and live lives of calling and purpose more deeply.