January 7, 2025
The Grantmaking Cooperative of the Virginia Annual Conference (VAUMC), made up of the Common Table for Church Vitality, Church Development Team, and Virginia United Methodist Foundation are excited to award over $100,000 in total funding to the 2024 grant award winners. The four recipients, and some detail about their ministries, are below:
- Franconia-Kingstowne ‘Love Your Neighbor Cooperative LYNC),’ Northern Virginia District
- The primary objective of the Franconia-Kingstowne LYNC is to acknowledge and address the root causes of community loneliness and disconnection in the Alexandria, Va. area by implementing a collaborative, multi-tiered network of neighborliness in the community that reaches their core demographics.
- ‘Bridge Builders’, Northern Virginia District
- The mission of Bridge Builders is to transform lives by building bridges between youth from different faith backgrounds as they serve together, develop interpersonal skills, and seek to model peace and civility across diversity.
- Open Table, Multiple Districts in VAUMC
- Working with congregations on the Living Waters, Three Notch’d, and Shenandoah River Districts, this initiative will facilitate a process which encourages churches to think theologically about mission and re-establish their outward focus of mutuality and reciprocity by defining a shared purpose with the community.
- Virginia Wesleyan University Campus Ministries, Coastal Virginia District
- This initiative is led by three United Methodist college campus ministries (Virginia Wesleyan University, Old Dominion University, and Norfolk State University) and aims to nurture relationships between youth and college students, promote discipleship, and develop future servant leaders.
“It has been a thrill to participate in the receiving of applications and discernment of award recipients for this initial round of funding for the Grantmaking Cooperative,” Rev. Dr. Jonathan Page, Conference Director of Innovation and Creativity said. “I believe each of these recipients will be using funding to collaborate toward community transforming initiatives that have the potential to shape the direction of neighborhoods and churches in the Virginia Annual Conference. I am appreciative for the generosity of the Common Table for Church Vitality, the Church Development Team, the Virginia United Methodist Foundation, and the entire Virginia Annual Conference for enabling these great opportunities for transformation to unfold.
During spring 2025, the VAUMC Communications Office will share more information from these ministry recipients.
The VAUMC Grantmaking Cooperative formed in 2024 in an effort to model collaboration and connection toward large scale community transformation in the VAUMC.