THE MONEY WILL BE USED TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH OUR INDIGENOUS NEIGHBORS AND WORK ON PRESSING EARTH CARE ISSUES
The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a $28,500 grant from United Thank Offering, a ministry of The Episcopal Church, for a project focused on strengthening relationships with our Indigenous neighbors.
The project is called Walking Together: Protecting Our Common Ground. Through it, the Diocese will strengthen relationships by working with our Indigenous neighbors to address the most pressing Earth care issues as identified by the five Tribal communities located throughout the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
The Diocese will partner with the Great Lakes Peace Center to implement and maintain the project goals. One of those goals is to create and sustain a network of leaders from the Tribal communities and church congregations. Another is to develop methods of communication within the Diocese, the Indigenous communities, and other academic and faith communities. To this end, the team will develop, utilize, and distribute formation materials.
United Thank Offering, which awarded the grant, is a ministry of The Episcopal Church. Through it, people are invited to focus on the discipline of gratitude. UTO encourages people to notice the good things in life and give thanks for those blessings. It also encourages people to make a small offering for each blessing using one of the UTO Blue Boxes.
UTO distributes 100% of what is collected from the boxes and those small offerings add up. This year, there was $1,051,154.14 available. It was distributed to 22 projects supporting new approaches to ministry throughout The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
This year’s focus is Creation Care and protecting those who are most vulnerable to the environmental problems related to climate change. The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan is thankful for this grant and proud to follow the lead of the Five Tribes of Upper Michigan in caring for this beautiful world and helping those who have been negatively impacted by human activity.
