The Pathways to Vitality program, which provided financial resources and education to clergy and lay leaders throughout the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis for six years, wrapped up operations at the end of May and was celebrated with a closing evensong at Christ Church Cathedral.
Funded by a generous grant from Lilly Endowment, the Pathways initiative not only helped diocesan clergy and lay leaders strengthen financial management skills and meet personal financial challenges, but also funded innovative Pathways Priest positions for newly ordained clergy.
But while the program is gone, diocesan leaders say its influence and some of its programming will live on.
Pathways evolved “as we designed strategies to integrate the principles, practices, learnings, and activities into new and existing diocesan and parish programs,” Melissa Hickman, who directed the program for the entirety of its six-year run, wrote in a February report to Lilly Endowment.
“We believe this is the most appropriate way to ensure the long-term sustainability and legacy of Pathways for our clergy and our congregations,” she wrote. “[W]e have strived to be faithful to Pathways’ aims and purposes while acknowledging our responsibility to sustain it as we prepare to take our leave.”
The Ministerial Excellence Fund (MEF), designed to provide relief to clergy and their families who are experiencing financial emergencies or distress, was perhaps the best-known feature of the program among diocesan clergy. Financial literacy education for clergy and lay leaders, in both the parish and personal context, was another essential component. Seminary loan repayment programs for those in active ministry and seminary scholarships were a third.
Hickman’s February report gave ample evidence of the life-changing effects of the Ministerial Excellent Fund.
“After I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018, I had no idea how my family was going to pay for my surgery and treatment,” one recipient wrote in a testimonial submitted to Lilly Endowment. “The diocese reached out to me to let me know about a grant available from the … fund which paid for all of my cancer-related treatment that year. That took a very real stressor off of my and my family’s shoulders in the midst of a scary time.”
Personal financial counseling and advising from Lisa Brown, a local CPA, was available to clergy and their spouses or partners for one year through the Pathways program.
“Receiving two grants from the Ministerial Excellence Fund along with the financial coaching for my family budget and our investments calmed and relieved the anxiety of living with financial mystery,” another beneficiary wrote in a testimonial. “The impact of this relief was like throwing a small pebble into the middle of a still pond. The circles expand and widen.”
Although the Pathways program has ended, the fund is still open and accepting donations and requests.
Perhaps the initiative’s most visible legacy is the Pilot Parishes Initiative, in which recently ordained Pathways Priests completed three eight-month mentored rotations at congregations participating in the Pathways program. The Rev. Joanna Benskin, Ph. D., the last serving Pathways Priest, concludes her curacy next summer.
“The trainings and congregational development work have been helpful for me and also, a great place to uplift emerging lay leaders from congregations,” Benskin wrote in her testimonial to Lilly Foundation. “It feels good that my presence as Pathways Priest gets to be a catalyst for trying new things and drawing on the unique charisms of these communities.”
The pilot parishes in the program can now serve as resources to the diocese, adapting lessons learned as models for other parishes. “Pathways’ learnings propelled congregational development,” wrote a rector whose parish benefitted from the presence of a Pathways priest. “What would have taken me as rector, our lay leaders, and the congregation multiple years of learning and developing took only two years. It lengthened the revitalizing congregational roots into deep rich soil.”
Brendan O’Sullivan-Hale, canon to the ordinary for administration and evangelism, said the diocese has made two changes as a result of the initiative. “The first was a rethinking of the diocese’s health insurance offerings, beginning in 2020,” he said. “Even though the insurance we were offering was generous by a lot of metrics, it was clear it wasn’t generous enough. Our plan designs now emphasize predictability of financial outcomes in the event of serious illness.
“The second was that we observed that the Pathways Priest program…was providing a positive start to priests’ ministry through mentorship and exposure to a variety of ministry contexts, and was boosting the energy of congregations, too,” he said. “Expanding on that program …. the diocese is funding an additional two curates –with costs shared with the congregations they’re assigned to – starting this July.”
O’Sullivan-Hale said the Pathways program helped the diocese identify needs that it is working to meet in sustainable ways. “In preparation work for the grant, we learned that a quarter of our clergy reported they couldn’t afford to take a vacation,” he said. “In a profession prone to burnout even before the pandemic, that’s a huge deal. The funding from Lilly Endowment, Inc. made it possible for us to address those challenges in ways we couldn’t have otherwise. But large-scale funding isn’t the only solution. If not all clergy can afford to take a vacation, dioceses need to be thinking about creative ways to help make rest possible. There are also low-cost things a diocese can do that to have a big impact.
“For instance, we have engaged a financial planner whose services any priest or deacon can retain for a year at diocesan expense. Our office never needs to know if the motivation is a retirement checkup, mounting debts, or any of the other multitudes of things that come up in life. We’re just trying to make checking in on your finances as normal as getting a physical. The end goal of all of this is a refreshed and healthy clericus.”
