Loyola University New Orleans has received a $1.25 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support a project with the Loyola Institute for Ministry (LIM), in partnership with the National Community of Catechetical Leadership (NCCL) entitled “Becoming a Missionary Synodal Parish Community.”

The project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. The aim of the initiative is to encourage the flourishing of congregations by helping them deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other, and contribute to the vitality of their communities and the world.

This project is informed by the Catholic Church’s three-year process entitled “For a Synodal Church” whose three themes are “communion, participation, and mission.” (Read the Synthesis Report: A Synodal Church In Mission). Synodality, in the Catholic Church, is about journeying alongside one another, listening to one another to discern how God might be speaking to us. This project seeks to develop lay leadership teams in 400 Catholic parishes in 50 dioceses that are equipped, resourced, and supported to implement the priorities of “For a Synodal Church” in the life of their parish communities. 

“This is an exciting project that will help lay leaders across the country engage in a process of learning, listening, and discernment that has the capacity to revitalize their parishes and the Church as a whole,” said Project Director Dr. Tracey Lamont.

Loyola University New Orleans is among the 105 organizations that have received grants through a competitive round of the Thriving Congregations Initiative. Reflecting a wide variety of Christian traditions, the organizations represent mainline Protestant, evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, peace church and Pentecostal faith communities.